This year, from Dec. 11 to Dec. 18, teachers will be giving finals to students. Teachers were given the choice between a project based final, a traditional exam final, a unit test or no final at all. 

Associate Principal Iris Dominguez identified the most significant challenge of giving finals this year is considering the stress students are under because of the pandemic. 

“I think that’s the main concern is ‘How do we assess student learning without it affecting students’ mental health more?’” Dominguez said. “Also, how do we just ensure that teachers feel like … they’re being provided some autonomy over assessing the students considering that they’re also going under going through a lot of changes [because of the pandemic].” 

Another factor that has been needed to be considered is the integrity of the assessment of student knowledge. Dominguez understands that students will have access to online resources while completing the final which means that a traditional exam will be more difficult to use for the final this year. 

According to a survey Dominguez send out to teachers, 105 teachers reported by Monday that 17.1% will be giving a traditional exam based, cumulative final, 29.5% will be giving only an exam with content of the most recent unit, 27.6% will be giving a project based final, and 25.7% will be giving no final this semester. 

Dominguez emphasizes the fact that this does not mean that students are not being assessed, but that students are being assessed on their knowledge of the subject in smaller benchmarks this year instead of a cumulative exam. Dominguez expects teachers to share their plans for finals week to students sometime this week.