In the 2024-25 school year, having many tests pile up in one week was certainly an issue. These “crunch weeks” would cause a
full week of intense stress for my peers as it seemed every subject decided to give a test on the same few days.
While the administration had a great intention in mind to minimize the number of “crunch weeks,” and therefore, mitigate the stress felt by students, I do not believe the program enacted is very beneficial.
First, the assessment calendar generally does not minimize the number of tests on any given day. Especially for upperclassmen who double up on classes in certain subjects, the calendar forces the assessments of that subject to appear within the same rotation. For instance, AP Statistics and AP Calculus BC, a common combination among seniors, are encouraged to have a test within the same rotation, causing students taking both to study double the amount of mathematics in the nights leading up to that day. Alexa ’26 commented on this fact, as her schedule causes her to have multiple tests for the same subject on the same day.
“When people are taking more than one class in a specific subject, for example this year I’m taking two math classes and last year I took two science classes, having those two tests the same day every single time is very stressful especially because oftentimes
those classes have very similar aspects to them in terms of studying,” she said.
Furthermore, each department does not get a rotation to assess students alone. Rather, two departments are assigned each rotation. The policy last year was that no student should have three major assessments on any given day. If this occurred, they were permitted to extend one. While the new assessment calendar may minimize the frequency of which this scenario occurs, any student could have three assessments in a day. A few weeks ago, I had an English essay due on the same day as an AP Statistics exam. I could have also had a minor assessment in any subject in the same rotation, causing the exact same feeling of “crunch weeks” that I had last year.
Additionally, the biggest qualm I have with the new assessment calendar is how No Assignments Due or Assessments (NADA) days have been implemented. Last year, NADA days applied to every student, so we continued curricula together after the NADA day. I understand that keeping NADA days as they existed last year would significantly disrupt the assessment calendar, for two departments would have to wait for the next time the rotation allowed them to assess to do so. However, the “opt-in” style NADA days seemingly penalize students who take a NADA day to celebrate a holiday that is important to them because they consequently fall a step behind those that didn’t.
After taking a NADA day because of a holiday, students are required to make up the homework before the next class, consequently giving them twice the amount of homework to complete before the next rotation. Also, students must find time to reschedule an assessment if one was scheduled for that day. Lastly, students feel behind in classes, as many classes are a “flipped classroom” format, meaning learning is done at home. Then, you practice the skills or talk about the material in class, so not completing the homework because you had a holiday leaves you behind and lost in class.
Another disadvantage of the calendar is that teachers have to shape their curriculum to fit the assessment calendar. This creates confusion for students when a particular unit does not take a full rotation to cover, thus forcing classes to begin the following unit before being assessed on the former one.
“It’s important for teachers to not just schedule something when they’re supposed to because often I’ve been having classes
where I’ve been learning half of the new unit before I even take the test for the other unit,” she said. “That is really confusing for both me and my classmates.”
– Lara and Mattea contributed to this opinion piece.
