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Four December days that had been scheduled as early release days for Henrico County high school students will now be full school days.
The four days – Dec. 17-20 – had been designated for midterm exams at Henrico’s nine high schools, with students being dismissed after they take exams. After receiving feedback from families and staff members, Henrico Schools decided to restructure traditional midterm exams in order to restore more classroom instructional time. High school teachers still will be able to use other assessments that aren’t in a traditional midterm format.
The change won’t affect middle and elementary schools, because they were already scheduled for full school days. Henrico Schools’ Division Leadership Team recommended this change after hearing from an HCPS committee studying ways to improve how the school division approaches testing. That committee – composed of teachers, administrators and central office instructional staff members – reported that midterm exams had been canceled in five of the past six years because of inclement weather. Feedback the committee received from high school teachers also suggested that when exams were administered, they resulted in the loss of key instructional time.
In the months ahead, students and families should expect further details about assessments and grading to come from their schools, according to HCPS officials.
The fresh look at testing was one of the recommendations made by Superintendent Amy Cashwell in her "Amy’s Passport,” a booklet and blog through which she is documenting her travels throughout the school system and county and plans for the system. To view it, visit henricoschools.us/amyspassport/.
To view updated HCPS calendars, visit henricoschools.us/calendars.
