ISM wants to hear YOU! Coming out of December’s ubiquitous assessments, many students began to ask the question: is enough enough? And what is enough? Speaking with Ms. Tudge, ISM’s curriculum coordinator, clarifies that ISM is diligently striving to implement various initiatives to alleviate student stress. As many students are still unsatisfied, Ms. Tudge would like to ask students for their input on ISM’s current policies — what is working and what is not?
Ms. Tudge emphasizes that ISM is deeply invested in optimizing assessment scheduling to mitigate the stress it imposes on students. This is why they have recently refreshed their assessment policy for high school and the entire K-12. As Ms. Tudge says, “the pedagogy around assessments is where we’re working.” She explained that they are rolling out a new system that allows teachers to see how many assessments each student has in a single day. In doing so, teachers will no longer need to depend solely on student initiative to ensure compliance with the policy limiting assessments to two per day. When a student has more than two assessments in a day, the screen will flash red in Google Classroom, so teachers plan assessments according to the student’s schedule.
Furthermore, ISM is currently discussing assessment structuring. They wonder if having a bottleneck exam week at the end of quarters or semesters will be more effective than keeping assessments in regular class times. One argument is that these bottleneck exam weeks will allow students to have short study leaves and effectively prepare students for the end-of-year exams and IB exams. On the contrary, a designated exam week might concentrate nearly all assessments into a single week, potentially leading to two exams on the same day. As a result, this has raised questions about its efficacy in alleviating the broader issue of student stress. ISM has not yet come to a conclusion on this discussion.
Moreover, Ms. Tudge also points out that many issues arise when discussing assessments. For example, assessments are not allowed when there is IASAS or the first few days back from a long weekend. We also have to consider that assessments can only come until after a unit ends, leading to many teachers testing around the same period, given that most units are around the same length. This is why it is nearly impossible for assessments to be equally spaced out. Regardless Ms. Tudge would still love to hear your input!
As we enter the second semester, students should focus on two things. Firstly, students should always make their voices heard. “Teachers are incredibly flexible,” as Ms. Tudge says. If you have more than two assessments in a day, speak to your teachers or Mr. Hillman to arrange a solution. Secondly, if you have any concerns with the current state of ISM’s assessment schedule or would like to propose a solution, Ms. Tudge wants to hear from you! Arrange a meeting or simply approach her in the hallways—she’s always eager to listen! Speak up and get the change you want. Speak up and get the change you need.
