Kari Iocolano

New daily testing calendar debuts, leading to a petition and reports of “multiple tests every day”

This year, students returned to school to find a new daily testing schedule, shifting away from last year’s weekly one. The schedule allows teachers in separate subject areas to test on either A days, B days, or C days, but no teacher can test on D days. Students and teachers received a calendar from the school administration identifying which days throughout the year are A, B, C, or D days. 


According to Assistant Principal of Organization Ellen Fee, science teachers Joel Heitman and Katherine Cooper created and proposed the schedule last year after raising concerns about the previous weekly testing schedule. 

Mr. Heitman told The Classic that “long periods of time in between exams” due to the weekly schedule led to “large amounts of material” being covered in between exams. He said that this made it difficult “for students to prepare for exams and for teachers to prepare and assess students in a way that is most effective,” which prompted him to propose the change. The school administration accepted the proposal and implemented the new schedule this fall.

Interim Acting Assistant Principal of STEM and mathematics teacher Abid Choudhury also said that it was a “lack of flexibility in the previous schedule” that prompted the change, noting special schedules with shortened bands such as the ones put into place for last month’s Banned Books “read-in” created interferences with teachers’ already limited opportunities to assess students during testing weeks. 

Mr. Heitman said that both students and teachers had “identified reasons to explore other options” and said that with the new schedule he expected students would feel less stress with fewer quizzes from every subject. Under the previous policy, teachers could give quizzes any week, but the new policy says that teachers can only quiz or test on their subject’s designated day.

“As lifelong learners, we should have an open mind,” Mr. Heitman said. “[We should] have a willingness to experiment and think about how these changes will affect both teacher and student. This is an effort to allow for more flexibility for both teachers and students.” 

The Classic spoke to a group of eight students, two from each grade, to gauge the reaction to the new schedule and determine the extent to which the new testing schedule is affecting the concentration of assessments. Out of the six students who were in the building for the weekly testing schedule, all of them said they had a higher concentration of exams when compared to last year. 

One freshman said they have received the most assessments in their World Languages class. The other freshman and both sophomores said they have received the most assessments in science. One junior said they have received the most assessments in history, and both seniors said they have received the most assessments in math. The two freshman students also said that the amount of tests they are having is contributing to their stress as they transition into high school.

“I’ve had loads of tests in just the first month of school, and it’s pretty difficult because I have to cram multiple subjects at once,” said freshman Quin McGeveren. 

The increased concentration of assessments stemming from the new schedule has led to a shift in students’ school-home balance as they may need to study more frequently to keep up with the material. 

“[Assessments] felt super back-to-back rather than having a reasonable amount of time to study between each one,” said senior Madison Donenfeld. 

Sophomore Rebecca Castrillon said, “I found myself staying up hours later than usual cramming for tests. We don’t always get too much notice, and there are multiple tests every day.”  

“Studying has a big impact on the way I spend my after school time,” said junior Dylan Sugrim, saying that the new testing schedule forces him to spend more time studying instead of playing basketball and working out. 

The effects of the new schedule have prompted students to take action, primarily over social media. Over the past couple weeks, a petition has been circulating around Instagram, and an account by the username of “thhstestingcalandarforchange” has dedicated itself to changing the testing schedule back to the old one by December 1.

Petition organizer and sophomore Emmie Krikheli said that the petition is about halfway to reaching the goal of 600-700 signatures. At that point, she plans to present it to the administration. 

“I have gotten support from teachers,” Emmie said. “They believe that I should keep going and set an example for how student voices should be amplified. I also heard that the [Student Union] has been talking about my petition, and they’re waiting to see what happens with it.” 

“Something I’ve always heard is that teachers feel somehow pressured to give more tests. I feel like pressure is external, and I don’t know where the external pressure is coming from to give more tests,” said English teacher and United Federation of Teachers Representative Kevin McDonaugh. 

Mathematics teacher Magda Frankowski said that because of the new testing schedule she has been giving shorter assessments with less material more frequently. She said if she were to wait to give assessments at a later date, too much material would have been covered for a band-long test. 

“What’s really hard is that [testing days] are only two days per week because different bands are at different stages of learning and they need to catch up to each other in order to take the test on the same topics, so teachers are really only given one day to test the students,” she said. 

While teachers can now only administer quizzes on their respective subject’s day, there are no limitations on when written assessments that require no studying can be given. 

​​“The assessments in my English and Writing Process classes are usually written, and there are no limits on essays and written work as assessments,” said English teacher Katherine Yan. “It will be easier to modify my schedule to fit the testing calendar, but that might not be the case for every teacher.”

New students are considering how the presence of a testing schedule might affect their transition into Townsend Harris, noting that teachers at their old school had discretion on when they could schedule assessments. 

Sophomore transfer student Zareefa Islam said that in her previous school, teachers could schedule an exam for whatever day they wanted. “You could have four tests on the same day and you’d have to deal with it,” noting that the presence of a testing schedule in some form could lead to students being more organized when preparing for tests. 

“Sometimes, [not having a testing schedule] would be good, because some teachers give [the test] to you based on when they are going to finish the unit, and it could be fair,” said freshman Kanishka Ezhilarasan. 

“[Responses over the testing schedule from teachers] have been mixed. Some positive responses have been over more opportunities to test, while the negative stems from different logistical problems like being able to test on the same day and stress on the students,” said Mr. Choudhury. 

Rebecca said, “Since we do stay up later having to study for these exams, I do see a lot of my classmates having lower energy levels, and just overall aren’t in the best shape.” 

“There’s a lot of pressure to do very well, and I think there is pressure to maybe be perfect and get everything right,” said Mr. McDonaugh. If there is in fact an increase in the amount of tests students are having, there will be “an adverse effect on students because of the amount of pressure that there is to do very, very well on not just some things, but on everything.”

“Things have been mixed in terms of how everyone feels,” said Mr. Heitman. He said it’s too early to determine the impact of the policy. “When we’ve been doing something for so long and we have habits, we have to allow for an adjustment period before any conclusions are made, and finding a way to work within the new framework is important.