Senior Victoria Thor lays in bed on a morning of school.

On this exact day, three years

ago she was a freshman student at RHS, taking an exam. Now, she is able to be exempt from
her exams because of the attendance policy within Rochester Community Schools.
The exam policy has positives and negatives, except most students agree that it works.
“People feel less stressed because if they are exempt, they can choose to take their
exams to raise their grades,” Thor said.” “It won’t affect them if they get a bad grade.”
The attendance incentive offers students the option to take their exams if they have
missed three days of school or less. They must also have a semester grade of at least 77
percent, or 65 percent with no missing assignments and no suspensions. Students who qualify
for the incentive have the choice to take their exams, and if they choose to it can only help their
grades.
“I like it because it makes many students come to school more,” freshman Bella
Weiss said. “It makes them get better grades and turn in their work.”
Having this incentive in place encourages students to go to class every day.
“It makes you go to school more even though you might not want to because it’s really
easy to skip,” sophomore Hannah Yoon said. ”The no exams motivates you to go to school
every day.”
Even though there will be many students who have to take the exam, math teacher Mr.
Rob Byrd wants students to understand that it’s not a punishment.
“Students and some of the community don’t understand that’s it’s not a penalty, it’s just
assumed it’s a penalty right away,” Mr. Byrd said. “Changing that mindset has been extremely
difficult, but we’re working on it.”
Thor was required to take her exams freshman year, but she doesn’t remember them
being too difficult to prepare for.
“Exams weren’t too bad since teachers gave us a study guide,” Thor said. “This was my
freshman year so I’m not sure if this affects the level of difficulty.”
Freshman Evie Ansari believes that everyone should take at least some of their exams,
even if they aren’t required to take them.
“I think it’s great to encourage school attendance, but maybe students should all take
their exams,” Ansari said. “If they have good attendance then the grade won’t count if they do
bad, and they will get experience with exams before college, where they do matter for your final
grade.”
According to Thibideau, taking the exams will help prepare students for college, where
they won’t have an attendance policy and are required to take exams in all classes.
“Even if people take half of their exams, when they’re in college they will have to take all
of them,” Thibideau said. “They won’t be prepared to study for all six exams.”
Having the exam policy has shown to decrease the number of absences, along with
raising the average GPA.
“Basically, across all four high schools we’ve seen 25 percent fewer absences than
we’ve had in the previous years,” Mr. Byrd said. “Our GPA has also gone up. I don’t how much
exactly, but it’s been noticeable, and that’s across all the buildings as well, which is great.”
Yoon doesn’t think the policy is difficult to achieve.
“I think it’s pretty easy because you just show up every day, and keep your grades up,”
Yoon said.
 This policy is not going away any time in the near future. Mr. Byrd shares his thoughts
on how long he thinks the policy will stay in place.
“Forever is a weird word to say, but we really like the program and we really think it’s
going to stay in our immediate future, but we’re always trying to improve and make it better,” Mr.
Byrd said. “No program will ever be perfect, but we’re just trying to make it the best we possibly
can.”
Although it comes with many positives, the attendance policy also comes with its
negatives.
“You can’t be absent for more than three days otherwise your exams count and you
have to take them,” Ansari said. “So if someone gets sick, they will probably go to school to
avoid taking their exams.”
If students had the opportunity to share their input on the attendance policy, some
students would change a few things.
“I would make it so you can take fewer exams, but not have to take none,” Thibideau
said. “If you miss four days in one class, you would only have to take them in that class.”
Some students who are newer to high school may not know the history of how the policy
works and why it was formed. Mr. Byrd explains the issues with the district’s previous policy and
what they are currently working on to change it.
“Our old attendance policy was problematic because it tied attendance to grades, and
that’s something we couldn’t keep in the future. So we had to change it,” Mr. Byrd said. “We
figured attendance, if we wanted a policy, it had to be tied to something that applies to all
students, not just subsections. We are looking at other incentives. We like the policy in play, but
we want to see if we can wind it a little bit.”
Mr. Byrd also explains some changes to the program that he thinks might take place in
the future. The district Grading and Attendance Committees are looking into changing the
incentives.
“We’re not 100 percent sure how to motivate students. We have ideas, but some are
expensive, and some we don’t think are feasible,” Mr. Byrd said. “If you miss that 4th day,
people are like ‘whatever’ and miss 100 days. We’re trying to reign that in so if you miss five
days, so if there’s an incentive between three and five days. We don't know what the exact
number would be, or incentive, but something like that.”
Thibideau knows that the attendance incentive is very motivating to students who may
not have had the opportunity to be exempt from previous exams.
“Overall, I like it because it encourages good attendance and grades for kids who may
not normally try as hard,” Thibideau said.
Ansari has a very positive outlook on the policy, and although she’s only a freshman she
understands the importance of exams.
“I plan on taking my exams this year even though I am exempt because if I take it it’s a
win-win situation,” Ansari said. “If I take the exams it’s great practice for college and if I do good
then it could boost my grade, and if I do bad it doesn’t count. The only hard part will be getting
out of bed.”