Easing Up Pressures for Alberta’s Grade 12 Students

A student’s senior year of high school can be both very exciting and very stressful. Even before the first day of grade 12, students go through an orientation where it is explained thoroughly the fact that diploma exams make up 50% of their grade. These mandatory tests in Grade 12 subjects such as math, English, social studies and sciences which they must write if they want to graduate. All the rest of the work, assignments, projects and tests are currently held at the same weight as one exam, typically taken in a tense, large group setting. Doesn’t really seem fair that one exam and everything else students accomplish in a subject are worth the same percentage of their grade.
Voices from all aspects of the situation including parents, teachers and school division Trustees, began expressing their concerns with a single test having so much power to define a student’s academic path after high school. School trustees from Alberta’s public, Catholic and francophone school boards spoke on Monday November 17th, taking a formal position to lobby the provincial government to adjust the weight of diploma exams so they are worth 30 per cent of a student’s final grade. The Alberta Teachers’ Association thinks the Grade 12 exams should be worth 20 per cent of a final grade….but whether it be revised to 30% or 20%… it makes more sense than the current 50% that these exams hold.
Speaking to school trustees Tuesday November 18th, Education Minister Gordon Dirks acknowledged what the group was bringing to the table. But before making any change to the Grade 12 tests, Dirks said he wants to “ensure we have the appropriate research at hand.”
This may be the perfect test for the new Minster – to make a switch in the focus of grade 12 education. Of course, these exams should remain, however, it’s time for the rest of the students’ academic work to be showcased.