We, the parents and students of Carrboro High School demand that the school immediately rescind the recent policy change that requires all courses to administer a final exam or other assessment that accounts of 20% of the final grade. While we understand that this policy may have been in place prior to the pandemic, it is inherently unfair to implement this change so late in the year and shows a profound lack of respect for Carrboro’s students and teaching staff. Poor planning on the part of the administration should not negatively impact the students. 

 Students have shared that this recent announcement has caused many of them much stress and anxiety. Carrboro’s students are hard-working and high achieving. They play sports, appear in plays, do volunteer work, and take many Advanced Placement classes. Many of them also have part-time jobs to save money for college. It will be extremely challenging for many of them to fit in the time to study for these final assessments. In addition, if they had been informed of these exams in their original course syllabi, many students would have saved their first semester notes and would have begun to study much earlier in the school year. 

While we recognize that course syllabi are not legal documents, we argue that late changes to syllabi that are punitive to students go against the concept of a syllabus as a “good faith” agreement. This change also goes against the stated grading policy listed in the 2023-2024 school handbook. Courts have ruled in some cases that student handbooks are legally binding agreements between students and the school.

By enacting this change, Carrboro High is essentially breaking trust with its students. This change may make students distrust their teachers, the administration and in the school in general. We are currently living in an era in which faith in our public institutions is at all-time lows. Now is not that time to enact misguided polices that cause our young people to lose faith in our beloved Carrboro High School. 

 This arbitrary testing requirement is also presenting an undue hardship on our hard-working teachers who are now required to create final assessments for their classes. Our teachers deserve better.

While we understand the administration’s desire for increased academic accountability, enacting a final exam policy so late in the year is the wrong way to accomplish this goal. Have some consideration for our students and teachers and remove this requirement in all courses that don’t have EOCs as required by state law.