During these unprecedented times, students, staff and families have been craving information regarding assignments, grading and testing. On April 15th, East’s Administration sent out an email outlining all of the above.

The plan explained in the email continues to follow the original guidelines of two assignments and two hours of work per class each week. Additionally, feedback from teachers is still highly encouraged.

Up until April 20th, completed assignments will be counted as 100%, but after this date assignments will be graded based on accuracy. For instance, an assignment with 86-100 percent in accuracy will receive 100 points, an assignment with 71-85 percent in accuracy will receive 85 points and an assignment with 51-70 percent in accuracy will receive 70 points.

All assignments will count towards the minor assessment section in Genesis, therefore they will all weigh the same amount.

Although all of the 4th marking period assignments marked as missing can be made up before May 29th, they will default to a zero in Genesis if not completed by this deadline. For assignments after May 29th, students can also earn credit if they are completed prior to June 10th.

An additional announcement included in the email desribed the time originally scheduled for final exams will now be used for extended learning. Regardless of the return date, final exams will not be taking place for this school year.

“Myself and, I’m sure, the rest of the school are very happy to hear we don’t have to take finals. It adds a lot of unnecessary stress and hurts a lot of people’s grades, so not having to worry about them this June will be great,” said Dylan Hagan (‘22).

Remote school day office hours were also listed at the bottom of the email. Periods A (every Tuesday) and C (every Wednesday) will have an instructional period between 10:00am and 11:00am, Periods B (every Tuesday) and D (every Wednesday) will have an instructional period between 11:05am and 12:05pm, Periods E (every Tuesday) and G (every Wednesday) will have an instructional period between 12:40pm and 1:40pm, and Periods F (every Tuesday) and H (every Wednesday) will have an instructional period between 1:45pm and 2:45pm.

In hopes of going back to school, a plan was also created in the case of virtual learning no longer being necessary. The above plan will make up a percentage of grades based on the number of days spent on virtual learning in comparison to those remaining which will be held in school. This would be calculated by dividing the days of the virtual plan by the total days in the marking period. For example, if we went back to school on May 1st, the assignments completed in the virtual learning plan over the course of the 4th marking period would weigh 39% in Genesis (19 days in virtual learning divided by 49 total days of marking period 4).

“I think this new system is a great way for students to learn from their mistakes by getting feedback from teachers, especially through asking questions during office hours,” said Sophomore class president, Devyn Levyn.

Although most students and staff would prefer to go back to school, there have not been many complaints regarding remote learning under the circumstances of social distancing and quarantine.