On Tuesday, April 24th, Fair Grove Schools put on an assembly to help motivate the students to perform well for the exams that fall on April 25th, 26th, 27th. The assembly was put together by the Fair Grove Administration to show the students and the teachers that it’s okay to have fun, even during the stressful times of testing season. The classes with end of course exams include algebra I or II, English II, biology, and government. Those who failed the algebra one end of course exam their freshman year will have to take the algebra II end of course exam at the end of either their sophomore year or junior year depending on when the class is taken. If a student took algebra their 8th grade year, they will have to take the algebra II EOC.

High School principal Chris Stallings feels that standardized testing can create stressful or apprehensive feelings for both students and teachers towards tests. “I want our students and staff to know that we want them to give their best effort but ultimately their importance lies much more than in an EOC score or Map score or ACT score.” In order to help lift some of the stress of the upcoming tests, Stallings and the administration put together an assembly that included all of Fair Grove Schools together, that being the elementary, the middle school, and the high school. Everyone gathered in the high school gym an hour past noon and upon entering the gym, everyone’s eyes were drawn towards the set of drums, microphones, and guitars that were set up. The theme of “rock the EOCs” that Fair Grove had been using lead up to an actual rock concert within the school the day prior to testing.

Stallings stated, “The idea behind the assembly was to build some positive energy going into EOC and MAP testing. We don’t want our students and teachers identity to be in just a standardized test score.” The band “Members Only” performed many songs over the course of an hour for all of Fair Grove Schools. The band played many classic songs such as Eye of the Tiger, We are the Champions, Uptown Funk, Footloose, and much more. Stallings commented, “After presenting the idea of #rocktheeoc and wearing classic rock band t-shirts to our staff and students, Mrs. Thornton and I started discussing how awesome it would be to tie in Members Only to our theme.”

Upon confirmation that the band was coming to perform for the students, Fair Grove changed the theme of rock the EOCs to rock the tests to include all of the schools. “This was the best decision we made because the ELE and MS students and teachers were awesome in contributing to the positive energy.” Stallings claimed. “We are especially grateful for Members Only donating so much of their time. It was a great day to be an Eagle!”