WHITEHOUSE, OHIO School to drop final exams

The school will replace the exams with quarterly evaluations.
WHITEHOUSE, Ohio (AP) -- A northwest Ohio high school has decided to drop its semester final exams and look for other ways to determine how students are performing.
Beginning next school year, the 1,300 students at Anthony Wayne High School near Toledo will have quarterly evaluations through tests, projects or portfolios. These evaluations will replace cumulative exams based on a semester of work.
"This is something that's going to be very new, and it's going to be very difficult for people to not think in terms of a semester-end final exam," Principal Jim Conner said. "We've done a lot of planning. We know there are going to be kinks, we know there will be things we have to work out."
Part of the problem with the current system is that students with high grades or good attendance and disciplinary records are able to avoid taking some exams.
Three-quarters of seniors waived more than two exams in December, said Susan Cross, communications director for Anthony Wayne Schools.
"Most of our seniors weren't even taking final exams," though many are headed to universities where they will not be able to avoid them, Conner said.
Concerns
Some students do worry that the assessments will not prepare them for college like the semester exams.
"I guess I am a little concerned. I've talked to people who've already graduated. They say a lot of their grades are based on exams," said junior Dan VanHorn, 17.
The exams also can cause scheduling problems since each exam period is 90 minutes.
"The scheduling was just rough," VanHorn said.
He said he has had trouble getting to school on exam days when he had no morning finals and also has had to deal with periods of downtime.
Jan Kilbride, assistant superintendent for Toledo Public Schools, which gives final exams each semester, said the quarterly assessments could give high school students other ways to show what they have learned.
"It'll certainly be interesting watching the progress they make," she said.