There are numerous changes happening at Providence this year. There is construction and the difficulties in parking due to it, the building of the new college counseling offices in the Upper School library, and many other new rules. Among these changes is that there are no longer quarters.
“There are many reasons for not having quarters,” said Mr. Tiffany, Dean of Academics. “One is that the quarter system added unnecessary stress. Artificial halfway points in the semester had teachers divide the semester into equal halves. It unbalanced the semester so that if there was one test in the first quarter and three in the second then it makes the grading unbalanced.”
Brendon Boldt ‘13 says the fact that there are no more quarters makes much more sense.
“It’s a lot more practical, because colleges don’t look at your quarter grades, they look at your semester grade,” said Boldt. “Also there is no pressure of the quarter ending.”
Colleges look at the high school transcript that doesn’t have quarter grades on it but has the semester grades on it.
“They [colleges] look at the transcript that has the semester grades on it and not the quarter grades,” said Mr. Tiffany.
Although some of the structure of the school year is gone, not having quarters may help relieve the stress of finishing the quarter with good grades. Also, the teachers will no longer have have to turn in all the grades, print them, publish them, and send the grades out. It eliminates unnecessary work and also saves money.
Man, it’s like they waited for my class to leave and then changed everything. This is crazy! All good changes, though.