On February 16, Upper School Administration announced a change to extensions on missed work due to absence, religious observances, and family emergencies. Previously, extensions on missed work were solely up to the teacher’s discretion. The question is, will these guidelines benefit students?
In addition to the new extension policy, Administration announced multiple changes to policies surrounding the academic life of students, including changes to AP/Honors course selections and moving major assessments if three or more appear on the same day.
In an email sent to the Upper School student body Upper School Director Noah Rachlin summarized three new policies, one being a change to the rules for making up work following absences due to illnesses, religious observances, and family emergencies. He stated that he wants to share these immediate changes in the spirit of improving a student’s academic life.
According to Landon Sullivan ’23, who returned to school on the day from an illness that the missed work policy update came into effect, the language of the policy “still does need revision.” Sullivan also notes that the timing of his return “worked out really well because [the policy] does seem like it has a lot of individualized faculty involvement.”
Rachlin later commented that feedback for policies such as this is welcomed by administration: “When we roll out a new policy, I think we’re always going into it with an open mind and welcome opportunity for feedback. We review our policies and procedures regularly… and if there are opportunities to improve it, I think we should do so.”
Rachlin stressed that the goal of the policy was to provide “clarity and consistency” for teachers’ expectations for making up work, and to have “universal” guidelines for teachers to have, and to have a policy “that creates clear understanding and hopefully allows the time and space to focus on what [students] might need to focus on,” referring to illnesses, religious observances, and family emergencies.
The focus of the policy on unavoidable or personal circumstances, such as illnesses, religious observances, and family emergencies, is valued by Upper School English Teacher Clare MacKenzie, too. MacKenzie stated that she tries to “make it clear that if [a student is] out sick, or for any of those reasons, their first job is to prioritize their health or their family or their religious obligations, and when they come back to school, we meet to find times for them to make up assessments that they missed or go over material that they missed.”
MacKenzie said she hopes that the policy will encourage students to ask their advisors for help: “My hope is that the change will be that students are working with their advisors to coordinate and have some support in figuring out all of the things that they need to do.”
Sullivan, even though he will graduate in a few months, said he hopes that the policy will advise students “on who or how to reach out to somebody [for help].”
