With the semester coming to an end and poor work ethic kicking in, chronic absenteeism rates have increased 11.68% since 2019. However, not being in class has a huge effect on students’ grades. PLTW teacher Scott Parker explained how a student can make sure they can stay on top of their assignments when returning to school.

“First off, they should check their teacher’s calendar and Google Classroom to see what they are missing. When they come back to class they should talk to classmates and then check in with their teacher to see if they’re still on track with the class,” Parker said.

While missing school isn’t ideal, sometimes something comes up and a student has an excused absence, but the Z4 still goes into the gradebook. Junior Jillian Hubert finds this difficult because she already missed school and then has her grade drop due to the Z4.

“It puts a lot of stress and pressure on me after already missing a day of school…it frustrates me when I miss a test and they put in a Z4 even after I told them I wouldn’t be in class,” Hubert said.

While Parker understands Hubert’s frustration, he explained how without the Z4 placeholder students won’t want to make up their assignments due to their grade not being affected.

“I just put a Z4 as a placeholder, if I didn’t put in any grade for that assignment then when Dec. 18 came around and I started to put in Z4 for the assignments a student missed due to absences then they go from a 95% and with three or four missing assignments drop to a F. But with the knowledge of a Z4 you can replace that by turning in the assignment once you return,” Parker said.

Now with the new retake policy if a student has an unexcused absence the day of an assessment, they are unable to have a retake. On top of that students are only able to get an 80%. Parker explains that this stops students from being able to gain the system like last year.

“With the policy last year some students maybe played the system a little bit…but now the idea of the 80% is that you have to not only make corrections so you’re learning what you missed the first time, you can only earn 80%,” Parker said.

Hubert agreed with Parker that because of the new policy students can’t ditch class on the day of a test. This makes it an even chance for all students.

“Last year I had classes where students would not show up the day of the test and then would ask people what was on the test so they would get extra days to study, this isn’t fair to the students who were there for the test, but now if students don’t show up this affects their chances of retaking which is so much better,” Hubert said.