To ease strain on students, TVDSB won't hold exams this school year

In a move to ease the strain on staff and students as they struggle with online learning and other COVID-19 challenges, the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) will not hold exams for secondary students for the rest of the school year. 

Paul Sydor, the board's superintendent of student achievement, said the change will take place when the second "quadmester" starts on Nov. 17.

"We are in absolutely unprecedented times in education right now and one of our chief goals is to support student mental health and well being," he said. 

Sydor said the change will maximize instructional time for students and allow teachers to "teach wire to wire" rather than spend the last week of each quadmester preparing students for exams. 

The decision will also avoid the logistical challenge of trying to find a fair way to supervise examinations with more than 3,000 of the board's secondary students fully learning online from home, Sydor added.

Final student marks will be based on work that has been completed during the term.

Other Ontario school boards, including the Toronto District School Board, have decided to jettison exams this year. The province gave boards the option of removing exams from the school schedule as they see fit. Sydor said the TVDSB has not yet heard from the province if EQAO spring exams will go ahead or will also be cancelled.

The London District Catholic School Board has not announced if their schools are making similar changes.

The TVDSB's announcement about exams comes on the same day the board announced it was shifting around weekly class schedules, moving high school students to in-class instruction on alternating days. During the first quadmester, students were in class three days one week, and two days the next.

Sydor said the change will eliminate gaps — sometimes as long as five days — between times when students connect with their teachers. 

Daily schedule also changes

There will also be changes to the daily schedule. In quadmester one, students had two hours of in-class learning in the morning, followed by another two hours after lunch. 

In quadmester two, learning will be "front-loaded" with 240 minutes of instruction — with breaks — before lunch. In the afternoon students can attend an optional study hall or head home.

Sydor said the new daily schedule is intended to eliminate contact between students in different cohorts over the lunch hour, something the board has flagged as a problem.