The Fort Lee Board of Education has decided to administer final exams for the students of Fort Lee High School. Given that the 2020-2021 school year has been anything but conventional, with factors outside of anyone’s control significantly affecting the learning ability of the students, it would be harmful to resume the practice of final exams for a myriad of reasons.

1. Due to isolation and stress, the mental health of students has been deteriorating at an unprecedented rate. Imposing high-risk exams that determine 10% of the final average of a course does exceedingly more harm than good as stress, anxiety, and depression will skyrocket both during the preparation and aftermath of the tests.

2. During these concerning times in which the lives of minorities are constantly at risk due to hate crimes and police brutality, it is insensitive and unreasonable to expect that students in marginalized communities should be able to devote all of their time and energy to solely school-related matters. To require these students to take exams just as they would have in a normal year would be overlooking everything that has occurred in recent times and only add to the already-high levels of stress and anxiety students are facing.

3. Regardless of matters pertaining to mental health and current events, administering the exam itself poses too many technical issues that will contribute to an inaccurate reflection of the intelligence and capabilities of the student body. Given that the exams will be taken remotely by the majority of students, technological difficulties will be a significant hindrance, especially for those with school-issued chromebooks and unstable Wi-Fi. 

4. For an exam that counts for a substantial percentage of a student’s final grade for a class, there are too many issues with test security. Teachers and faculty have no way to definitively prevent cheating and this has shown to be an issue throughout the course of this year as many teachers have faced an exponential increase in cheating. Not only is there a high possibility that the final exam grades will inaccurately reflect the performance of students, but honest students will also be put at a significant disadvantage.  

5. Throughout the school year, neither students nor teachers were given any information regarding the standing of finals, and were left to assume that final exams would not be administered, considering that midterms were cancelled. An announcement at such short notice essentially makes it so that both students and teachers will not have adequate time to prepare—especially high-achieving students taking AP exams, the SAT, the ACT, or any other standardized exam, whose studying schedules will be severely compromised.  

The Fort Lee Board of Education’s inconsiderate decision to implement final exams indicates a lack of transparency and understanding with the students of Fort Lee, especially considering that its actions directly affect the students’ transcripts, and therefore, futures. We invite you, students and parents alike, to sign and share this petition to take action against a choice that will only have negative ramifications for students in an already difficult school year. 

*Edit: Thank you to everyone for signing, continue to share!! One more thing--there is a board meeting this Monday, April 26 on Zoom at 7:30 PM (go to flboe.com for more details on how to join). We will be raising our concerns there, and the more people who come and speak against having finals, the more effective this will be. So to any student or parent who would be willing, please attend. Thank you!! - Tiffany E. Kim, Minsun Kang, & Jenny Ye (the students who wrote this petition)

** Hi there! This is Tiffany. While the team is grateful for the donations, please note that the money does NOT go to the students/ the cause. It goes to the change.org website algorithm. Thank you for all the support!