Schedule Changes Shift Stress Fall Term Exams Return and Community Lunch on Friday
By Suril Kantaria '09
News Staff Reporter
The Headmaster’s Council settled on revitalizing fall term exams and modifying community lunch days to Tuesday and Friday this summer during its annual two day summer retreat.
The Headmaster’s Council consists of Headmaster Ed Shanahan, Administrative Assistant and Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trustees Rosa Holava, Dean of Students John Ford, Dean of Academic Affairs Kathleen Wallace, Dean of Faculty Stephen Farrell, Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications Mary Verselli, Director of Admissions Ray Diffley, Director of Development and Alumni Relations Daniel Courcey, Chief Financial Officer Richard Saltz and Chief Investment Officer John Burditt. Besides its weekly Monday morning meetings during the school year, the council attends two annual summer retreats in order to discuss and formulate necessary logistical changes for the school in preparation for the forthcoming school year.
Community Lunch
During the council’s first summer retreat in June, Mr. Ford proposed to change the days when community lunch occurs. Such a change was requested last spring by a committee of students and faculty asked to evaluate community lunches and suggest improvements. The committee advocated numerous changes including a new menu, different activities during lunches, and a schedule shift from Thursdays to Fridays. Ms. Wallace said that students contend that they “have one less free period to meet with their teachers, complete assignments, and prepare for tests on community lunch days, and this makes their day a little more full and scheduled, but having Friday community lunch imposes fewer constraints on students’ schedules.” The Council reviewed the community lunch committee’s suggestion and decided to implement the change in days, to Tuesday and Friday.
Student Reaction
Students displayed mixed feelings on the change in community lunch days. Wes Marcik ’09 agreed with the community lunch committee: “Sit down lunches on Fridays are more convenient because I have time to do my homework for Monday over the weekend, but last year when they were on Thursdays my free period was consumed and I had less time to complete my homework for Friday.”
Others believe that the new change will have a harmful impact on their weekends. Mari Taylor Troutman ’09 said, “Having an awkward sit down lunch on Friday is not a good way to welcome the weekend.”
Even after the change in sit down lunch days, some students remained devoted to sit down dinners. Nathaniel Moore ’08 explained, “I think we should go back to sit down dinners, maybe a couple times a term. Students would much prefer it to losing their free periods.”
Ms. Wallace indicated that the administration had contemplated the idea of community dinners, but “dinners are problematic because they automatically end up excluding day students.” The administration felt that “it’s hard to mandate that day students stay for dinner.”
Community lunch wasn’t the only item on the agenda during the Council’s retreat in June. The Council also discussed the possibility of reviving fall term exams.
Fall Term Exams
There were no fall term exams last year as a result of much faculty dissatisfaction with the timing of fall term exams in previous years. Ms. Wallace explained, “I and others were so frustrated with how the exam periods ended up unfolding so I made the recommendation that we hold no exams the next year so that we could take the opportunity to study exams and summative assessments and find ways that we can alter the schedule.”
In the past when classes were forty minutes each, students had fall term exams during the week preceding Thanksgiving. Classes would ideally end on Wednesday and exams would run from Thursday through Tuesday, giving students enough time in after each exam to prepare for the next one. When classes were extended from forty minutes to fifty minutes, classes did not meet everyday as a result of the blocked scheduling. Ms. Wallace said, “We realized that it would be hard to go into the last week of classes and take class days away for exams.…we tried it but the faculty didn’t like it because they wanted a full last week.”
Because Thanksgiving is on a Thursday, having a full last week posed a problem for the administration. In the fall of 2005 classes lasted all five days—a full week—during the week before Thanksgiving. There were so many exams scheduled that exams started on Saturday and continued through Tuesday. Ms. Wallace stated, “Students were stuck with five days of classes at the end of the term, which is stressful, and then four days of exams in a row with no break. That was the year when I said ‘this is crazy’ and ‘we are running our kids into the ground. They are going home for Thanksgiving gasping for breath.’”
In order to assess fall term exams and create a suitable schedule, Ms. Wallace worked with the department heads last year. The main problem was that “there were too many teachers and too many courses that wanted to give exams in the fall,” explained Ms. Wallace. She continued, “There is absolutely no way to please everyone here [at Choate] with exams…. It’s only reasonable to give kids some sort of break between when classes end and exams begin and it’s just impossible to fit 2400 exams into too small a time period.”
The department heads committee decided to have exams in all classes that prepare students for AP exams, in addition to some introductory classes for new freshmen and sophomores. The committee felt that new students—meaning new 3rd and 4th formers—should have some exams in the fall so that they can be “introduced to what exams are about at Choate during a reasonable exam period,” according to Ms. Wallace. When resolving the fall term exam crisis, the committee tried to be reasonable to the students so they aren’t exhausted at terms end, but also tried to meet the needs of teachers and courses.
Re-evaluation
The new fall term exam schedule will be re-evaluated later in the year in order to assess whether it suits the needs of the faculty and students. The administration may ask students and faculty to complete a survey in order to voice their concerns. The administration organized a similar survey last year. As to the results, Ms. Wallace stated, “There were mixed feelings…more students liked not having exams but most teachers preferred having exams.”
Judicial Committee member Paul Gaffney ’09 expressed his support for fall term exams: “From a school rules perspective, I think fewer students will have incentives to break academic integrity rules if there were fall term exams because of the numerous preparation days given to students, as opposed to the stressful final days of the term when teachers replace examinations with final projects and presentations.”
Last year’s survey did impact the decisions of the department heads in creating the fall term exam schedule. According to Ms. Wallace, “part of the reason that we are having exams this fall is because teachers wanted them and there were enough students who felt exams were useful and beneficial too.
