By Alexander Serratelli ’12 and Jake Wieseneck ’14, News Editors

At the end of the 2009-2010 school year Newark Academy students felt relieved. In addition to the emotional release at the end of any academic year, students knew that NA would no longer administer the “two-hour final exam.” Upperclassmen left campus knowing that they would have more time to study for AP and IB assessments, and underclassmen would enjoy the absence of exams for its own sake. The student body felt communal delight that exams would be a learning instrument of the past — or so they thought.

Upon return, these students were duly frustrated to discover that exams would continue to be a part of a Newark Academy education. Why the flip-flop? With no formal announcement of the return of exams, The Minuteman News Staff attempted to uncover the truth in December of 2010. To say the least, the full resources of The Minuteman failed to publish any further developments on the subject —  all we knew was that exams were here to stay. Fortunately, four months later new information has surfaced.

The following facts and opinions were compiled from interviews with NA administrators including Head of School Don Austin, Dean of Faculty Von Rollenhagen, Upper School Principal Richard DiBianca, Director of Admissions Willy Taylor, and Math Department Head Derek Kanarek.

Beginning in the fall of academic year 2011-2012, a new exam structure will be implemented: two, two-hour exams will take place on one day at the end of the fall semester. Of these two exams, one will always be an assessment of Mathematics while the other will vary year to year. Of the four remaining NA academic disciplines (History, Science, Foreign Language, and English), a foreign language final exam will be exempt from the rotation. Starting last year, all languages have given final oral examinations in place of a written exam, with the exception of the nearly defunct Latin program.

Now that we have established the structure of future exams, we will now address our first question: Why? Mr. Austin responds that although “there was…a movement to do away with exams altogether…there is a strong consensus that there is…a significant educational value in exams.” Interestingly, he – along with each of the other five administrators – did not take ownership of the so-called “movement.”

A unifying theme among all the interviews was the focus on college assessments. Mr. Rollenhagen and Mr. Austin both expressed that as long as colleges are giving exams, NA will too. Mr. Austin recalled that NA Alumni feel that current students need exam preparation, as exams are just about universally administered at the college level. Though exams will continue, Mr. Rollenhagen (who also serves as NA’s AP coordinator) recognizes that the “worth” of a student does not boil down to “one morning, one sitting, and how you do in that time.” He appears to agree with the new arrangement of exams, telling The Minuteman that fifteen years ago there were five full days of exams. He feels that exams are in a “nice, manageable place” now, stating that “it is a nod to the realities we face.” It seems as though the administration’s commitment to this structure is steadfast, but as the students learned last year, we will only know the truth when the next school year begins.