Staff Editorial
Each year, Costa students take Advanced Placement (AP) exams in the first two weeks of May
to demonstrate their knowledge on various topics. The exam scores, which students will receive
in July, can count for college credit and bolster students’ college applications. However, students
taking AP exams should be given the option to be excused from all classes the day(s) of their
exam(s) to improve their mental health, achieve higher test scores, and utilize their time more
productively.
AP exams can span from three to five hours each and take place in a morning session, for
which check-in begins at 7:30 a.m., and afternoon session, for which check-in begins at 11:30
a.m. According to Principal Dr. Karina Gerger, Costa students are only granted excused
absences for the periods during which they take their exams and are expected to attend
morning or afternoon classes based on when their exam takes place.
Other high schools, such as Calabasas High School in Calabasas and Laguna Blanca High
School in Santa Barbara have instituted policies in which students’ parents can fill out a form
excusing students from class on the days they have AP exams. If Costa were to implement a
similar policy, students could leave campus when their exams are taking place without breaking
Costa’s attendance policy, allowing them more time to relax and study and, thus, benefiting their
mental health and focus.
The benefits to students’ concentration that are derived from this extra time could also provide
an unfair advantage to schools that have a more lenient absence policy in place regarding AP
exams. To prevent this discrepancy in test scores, Costa should allow students the option to be
excused from all of their classes on days when they have AP exams.
According to a study performed by Gottfried Spangler, Reinhard Pekrun, Klaudia Kramer and Hubert Hofmann, Psychology Department members at various universities, students’ attention spans are likely significantly decreased after their morning AP exams, as is their motivation to complete classwork and take notes.
According to the study, exams directly correlate to increased cortisol levels in students.
Cortisol, a stress hormone, increases human susceptibility “fight or flight” response, which
decreases attention span and causes restlessness and anxiety. Under this stress, students
cannot be expected to return to class for further academic stimulation. Therefore, it would pose
significant benefits to students’ mental health if Costa’s attendance policy for AP exams were
flexible.
According to Gerger, Costa’s current absence policy regarding AP exams is in place because
of the large number of test-takers that Costa hosts each year; with approximately 1,500
students taking exams and 2,900 total exams taken annually, it would be disruptive to students’
learning if Costa were to excuse absences from class for entire days at once.
However, some students choose to attend class before or after their exam in order to prepare
for a future assessment or complete classwork. If Costa were to excuse the absences of those
who choose to leave school before or after their exams, students could attend school one day
earlier and leave one day later to make up for lost time, allowing the district to surpass the
minimum number of instructional minutes required by the State of California.
A revision of Costa’s attendance policy regarding AP exams would benefit students’ mental
health, test scores, and focus. For these reasons, Costa’s administration should revise the
school’s attendance policy during AP exams to make students’ attendance in class excused on
days they have exams.
The administration was unable to respond before publication.
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