PAGE 10 · OPINION
EYEOFTHETIGERNEWS.COM · SEPTEMBER 11, 2017
Extra credit sets dangerous precedent
BY NICOLE KHUDYAKOV
n.khudyakov@eyeofthetigernews.com
In my combined one and a quarter years of high school, and the infinite wisdom that I’ve come to inherit in spades as a result, I’ve come to learn this: extra credit is exactly like Tinder. Now, allow me a chance to explain myself. If you were to encounter extra credit on Tinder, it would be an almost automatic swipe right for most students suffering from a fatal case of the chronic overachiever or failing-grade-itis. The nature of extra credit lends itself towards a low risk, high reward situation. If a student completes the assignment, they see a marked increase in their grade. If not, there is nothing to lose. However, the issue with extra credit is this: in many classes, earning extra credit has little to nothing to do with the class itself. Instead, it’s an easy-going boost that allows students to lift themselves up to that unreachable, Mt. Everest-
level A grade while barely lifting a finger. Options for extra credit, such as collecting soup cans or bringing tissues have both come up in the search for alternatives to doing work and actually learning from it. And while I - as one of said desperate students with a grade average to maintain - can’t claim that I don’t love basic, effortless work in exchange for a higher grade as much as the next person, I cannot in good conscience say that extra credit should continue to have little to do with the class in which it’s being earned. Extra credit done with little relation to the class it’s being worked for seems to be a double-edged sword. On one side, there is a chance of redemption in the aftermath of low test scores and missed assignments. On the other side, there is an ultimately useless bunch of busy work that’s maybe half the difficulty of real assignments. Either way, both of these options do little to prove a student has learned much of anything - in fact, I’d say they’re more likely to increase dependance upon extra credit than make any sort of meaningful difference. Thus the dilemma manifests itself and we are forced to figure out whether
VIKTORIA BARR EYE OF THE TIGER
or not it’s worth keeping extra credit around in the first place, if it has such a discernable impact on our grades, without leaving any on our minds. Luckily, it’s not up to me to make that decision. Instead, it falls on the shoulders of the school board. And, indeed, they’ve decided to do just that. According to a new district policy set to, hopefully, be implemented this year, the
assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction Jess Borjon hopes to terminate teachers’ ability to offer extra credit as part of a revised grading policy. While I applaud Borjon for his decision and for his bravery in the face of what will likely lead to a small uprising of upset parents and students, I’d like to make an educated guess and assume that the likelihood of this mandate being
broken, even after its official passing, will increase the closer it gets to either midterms or finals. The decision may leave many students muttering about the unfairness of it all - while, at the same time, many may find themselves not impacted in the least. However, despite the obligatory complaints I may harbor at having my busy work taken away from me to make room for some-
thing that requires more than 15% of my brain, the decision to take away extra credit work entirely leaves more room to prove ourselves using our own merits and the knowledge we take away from the classroom. At the very least, I will now have more of an incentive to study, instead of relying on the next canned drive to serve as the catalyst to bounce me back from a failing grade.
Time limits unrealistic
BY DANIELLE BENNETT d.bennett@eyeofthetigernews.com
From district assessments and performance tasks to AP exams and the SAT, in high school there is no escaping the claws of assessments with time constraints. These ticking timebombs test our mathematical reasoning, reading comprehension, writing ability, and a multitude of other facets of our educational curriculum. To prepare students to take these exams, classes simulate the horrifying experience and provide tips to success that soon fly out the window when anxietyridden students are faced with the actual task. Such tips include not checking your math work, guessing on questions that take too long to answer, and even
answering a text-based question without reading the text. Essentially, in order to help students pass exams that are supposed to be designed to test our knowledge of the material, the classes gear their curriculum to aid students in cheating their way through them instead. In english, you learn how to rely on cliches to write an essay as fast as humanly possible, while math teaches you how to get an answer you hope is somewhere in the realm of correct. The problem does not lie in the classes, but in the assessments themselves, and the way they are implemented. If I want a good score on the SAT, I need to learn how to scramble to choose which answer best analyzes the text I just barely skimmed over. The exams value speed over accuracy and quality, teaching students that it is better complete the job quickly than well. While this might work as a lazy attempt to chal-
JASMINE LUNAR EYE OF THE TIGER
lenge students in a high school environment, it is entirely useless in preparing them for the real world. In the majority of fields, no one will care if you completed the job in an hour if the quality of the work is poor. Trying to complete tasks using a formula for guaranteed mediocrity is not valuable outside of the classroom environment. And yet we continue to test it with every major exam, and continue to train for it each coming year. When will people begin to realize that it does not matter how quickly someone can analyze a passage, but rather how thoughtful that analysis is? If you are trying to assess someone’s ability, does it really matter if they complete the task in one minute or five? If they accidentally plugged the wrong number into the calculator for math and had to restart, do they really need to be penalized? The people who design these tests seem to confuse the word ‘speed’ with the word ‘skill’, as if being able to regurgitate facts quickly for your history exam means you know them significantly better than your slower counterparts. Worst of all, any high schooler with college aspirations has no choice but to subject themselves to these exams and develop the useless skills, while those who fail stand to lose everything they have worked for, even if they are well-equipped for a work environment. With the everyday stresses we face on a regular basis, timed exams serve as another ordeal on a longer list. I only hope my fellow students do not fall into the trap of valuing speed over quality, or they will be vastly unprepared for the real world.
VIKTORIA BARR EYE OF THE TIGER
Seniors deserve parking spots BY KARLI DUGGER
k.dugger@eyeofthetigernews.com
If you are a Roseville High student, you can agree that the parking options for students at Roseville High School are far and few between. Berry street, the senior lot, and the small dirt lot are the only few close options for the hundreds of students who drive to school every day. Unlike teachers, students aren’t allowed to park on campus between the 900s buildings and the portables, or in front of the school in the teacher parking lot, limiting our options even more. In addition, teachers can take spots in the stu-
dent lots, exacerbating an already poor situation. The parking is limited enough, and having extra cars take up spots when teachers have a multitude of other options available is unfair to our students. To cope with this issue, each student has to get to school unnecessarily early just to secure a spot and avoid being late for class while driving around desperately searching for parking. And if you are ever running late, which typically happens to me on a daily basis, you end up rushing around, flustered, hoping you can still snag a spot. If it’s already full, you’ll wind up even later than before, since you have to park further away and walk through the neighborhood and alley just to get to the campus. Other than getting up even earlier, the only way to avoid this is to acquire a parking pass. While some programs have started raffling off these passes as a
fundraising strategy, they are not available to every student, which is unfair to the rest of us who don’t have that option. Passes should be accessible for all students. If students and parents are willing to pay for a set spot, why not? At almost every other school in the district, administrators allows their seniors to paint their set spot in a specific lot. This has become a tradition that all other students can look forward to and celebrate, as it has surely saved them from being late multiple times. It’s also a chance to allow the students to come together and create something both unique and useful to them, while raising more money for their school. As a senior, I’m familiar with the difficulty of finding a parking spot each morning, so I would pay to have that spot for the whole year – and I know many other students would agree.