Lower diploma exam weighting brings student relief, but could affect motivation, teachers say

Keelin Clarke was relieved and ecstatic when they saw a text message from a friend on Monday saying the weighting of diploma exams was dropping.

Clarke has three diploma exams to write this school year — math first, then social studies and English next semester.

The Grade 12 student at Victoria School of the Arts wants to do a science degree, and is worried that one bad day on a high-stakes exam could affect their ability to get into post-secondary programs.

"It's not that I'm bad at the subjects," Clarke said Tuesday. "It's just that the test is so stressful, when I'm sitting there for six-plus hours doing 30-plus questions, I just panic. In my seat. It's awful."

On Monday, the Alberta government announced the exams will be worth 20 per cent of a student's final grade for the 2022-23 school year.

Although the exams had been worth 30 per cent of a final mark since 2015, the COVID-19 pandemic threw diploma exams into chaos. Spring 2020 exams were cancelled. The exams were optional during the 2020-21 school year.

Last year, the Omicron wave cancelled January exams, and spring 2022 exams were worth 10 per cent of students' final mark.

Fellow Victoria Grade 12 student Elliot Taylor said the news of lower-stakes exams would bring relief to many of his classmates.

"I think 20 per cent is reasonable to compromise," he said. "And I think it should stay that way for a while, because there are a lot of really stunted classes because of the pandemic."

The government's plan is to bring the tests back to their usual 30 per cent weighting during the 2023-24 school year.

Also relieved is Mavis Averill, superintendent of the Boyle Street Education Centre – a charter high school in downtown Edmonton that caters to youth who have struggled in the conventional school system.

The pandemic has been exceptionally disruptive for Boyle Street students, many of who were already vulnerable and living in uncertain conditions, Averill said.

Nudging the value of those exams down will help students who are balancing stressful lives, and sometimes parenthood, with getting a diploma.