♦ Staff Editorial ♦

Here are the options presented on a college final: A, B, C, D.

There’s no option to dress up like Abraham Lincoln and give a verbatim account of the Gettysburg Address.  There is no option to write a personal reflection of your growth over the semester.

The option is to show up at 10:30 in lecture hall 4B and take a 200 question multiple-choice test. Don’t bring a diorama; bring a number two pencil.

NNHS, as a community high school that sends 98% of its graduating class off to college each year, should be doing everything it can to prepare students for the experiences they will have once they get there.

Almost all college bound students will be assessed via final exams when they arrive at their select university.  Students should be given opportunities to practice in a high-stakes testing situation when the environment fostered by NNHS is slightly more forgiving.

Final exams require a command and mastery of all course material. However, project based assessment promotes mastery in a very select area of coursework.  This allows students to neglect other topics discussed throughout the semester – topics that otherwise would have been tested.

Because of this, students can emphasize what they do know and hide what they don’t. Colleges don’t allow this kind of wiggle room.

In college, they don’t care about individual growth.  They care about performance, and they ask for demonstration of mastery of all course topics.

Though both projects and final exams demand sizable student preparation time outside of the classroom, projects often ask students to artfully present their knowledge rather than demonstrate a true, well-rounded mastery of the material.

Right now, in this critical time before college, students should be developing self-directed study habits.  The overload of projects often means students are pushing studying to the side in order to complete what is often essentially busywork.

And no, no student wants to take a final exam. No student is interested in bubbling in 100 little green and white dots.

But statistics show that 98% of NNHS student are interested in attending a college.

And if that’s the case, a formal final exam in high school may be the difference when it comes to collegiate success.