Last year, we were encouraged to think differently about our midyear exams. In the past, at the upper school, we had the students file into gyms and auditoriums and we simulated standard university level paper and pencil exams. Even in AP Computer Science A, we did this. It made sense. In May, the students would take their AP exam, so practicing that experience seemed to be a practical part of their learning process and our measurement of their progress. The change this year was initiated by a change in the schedule. Our midyear occurs in mid-January. In the past, we administered midyear exams in around the third week of January, spent a few days grading them and calculated grades. In the math department, this exam was often scheduled at the very end of the testing period. The rationale passed through the ages was that our exams were objective and could be quickly graded, as opposed to exams in the humanities. We all knew that the exam grade reflected more about student exhaustion than their knowledge of the material, due to this timing. However, we continued to weight it as 10 – 20% of their midyear grade report. As a team, we were excited with the new timing. We knew that we would actually be about measuring progress at about a point 40% of the way through the year. We are 16 teachers and over 20 teams strong. Each team found its own way to do several things: Celebrate the chance to assessment students’ progress in our course in a more natural environment: with their class, in their classroom, during their natural class period.

• Take advantage of a 90 minute class period (rather than the 2 hour testing session) to gather concrete data to measure student progress, but also allow a chance to experiment with new measures of student success, such as their ability to apply what they learned in a creative setting, their ability to work in collaborative teams and work toward a common goal, or their excitement and interest in the subject.
• Calibrate our data and find ways to test it to maintain consistent measures year-over-year.
• Use this time to motivate students to engage in subjects and deepen their understanding of the material without using the threat of a catastrophic effect on their course grade as a motivator.

My former memories of testing were of long rows of table filled with students, quietly working. This memory was peppered with other issues, such as extreme student anxiety and fear in the 11th hour, and all that that entails. This year, I had class after class full of students planning, thinking, discussing and creating solutions to problems. Success!