Stamford Public Schools hasn’t administered midterms or finals following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Stress and students’ mental health was a deciding factor in the cancellation of standardized testing for the foreseeable future. However, as our community has begun to return to normalcy, communities and school districts like Darien, Greenwich, and Fairfield have brought them back, making them a vital part of students’ final grades.

Newly elected Board of Education member Lisa Butler made a statement voicing her support for the return of testing to Stamford Public Schools students. She agreed with halting midterms and finals for 2020 and 2021 because of the difficulties that came with remote and hybrid learning. However, for the 2022-23 school year, she has voiced her desire for the return of midterms and finals. Butler said, “Students need to learn how to study and take cumulative tests, especially college-bound students. This also serves as a benchmark to see what a student knows for the first half of the year and the second half of the year”. She added that no other school district in Fairfield County has eliminated midterms and finals.

Stamford High School economics teacher Jeremy White has a similar opinion, saying that he believes, “It is doing students a disservice by not giving them cumulative tests. You have them in college, [so] you should have them in high school.”

Stamford High senior Bella Teasdale said she believes midterms and finals are necessary and should be a part of the curriculum for all four years of high school. She believes it will help students learn important study skills as well as understand and experience the pressures of an important exam. She added that she would have appreciated being familiar with midterm and final exams as she prepares for college.

The opinions of the Board of Education, the teachers, and the students all seem to have one thing in common, and that maintaining the well-being of students. Midterms and final exams were halted under unfamiliar circumstances, but as we experience a return to normal society, the return of testing should be strongly encouraged.