It’s that time of the year again, not Christmas…state testing. The most controversial time of the school year.
The state testing includes English, math, and science. The state tests include 2 English tests and 2 Math tests that all grades take. The science test requires every 8th grader to take it.
The state testing took place from 4/29 to 5/10 for the CAST testing. The I-Ready testing took place from 5/20 to 5/24.
Unexpected Event
We asked for Mr. Vargas and Ms. Dunn’s thoughts on a few different topics related to testing.
During the testing weeks, lunch was combined, and both SEMS and DREAMS of all grades had lunch at the same time. But during one of these lunch periods, there was a fight. Due to this fight lunch was cut shot 10 minutes and the schedule had to be changed to two lunches.
Mr. Vargas responded, “I loved it because I think this should’ve been the schedule from the very beginning. A lot of our students were sharing that they couldn’t eat, or that they didn’t have enough time to get their food, and they were all very nervous to be out there with everyone since there are always fights or something that happens that causes fights. And that’s what happened, they ended up having a fight having to come in, and as a teacher, it took away 10 minutes of our lunch that day so that was very frustrating in itself. But I like this schedule I think going forward they should use this schedule for testing.”
Ms. Dunn responded, “I was a little nervous because I didn’t understand why, but when I heard I felt that it needed to be done.”
Teacher Interviews:
When asked how they felt about testing Mr Vargas responded saying, “It’s a good indicator of like whether what we did throughout the year helped our students. It can be fatiguing because the way they planned it this year is two weeks and it can be a lot, and I feel like everyone is tired at this point.”
When asked Ms.Dunn the same question she answered, “I’m glad that we almost threw it. I’m proud of my students for trying and doing their best and I think it’s important to see what they’ve learned for the year.”
Student Interviews:
We decided to ask some of the students here, about their feelings on testing.
When asked how they felt about testing, Martin B, an 8th Grader, David M a 7th grader, and Grace G an 8th grader all responded by saying that testing was horrible.
We also asked how they thought they would do on the test Grace G, Ceaser O, David M, Aiden F, and Emma V all responded hopeful they did well on the tests.
Grace G and Martin B said that testing affected badly their mental health as it caused them to be depressed and anxious.
When asked how they felt about testing Cesar O a 7th grader responded, “I don’t like it but it’s okay.”
Lastly, we asked the 7th graders how testing affects their mental health, to which Cesar responded by saying, “It was alright.” David M responded with, “It didn’t affect me.”
Aiden F and Emma V both said that testing was alright and that their mental health after testing was alright as well.
We also asked how the 8th graders felt about their test scores determining their classes for high school, Grace G. answered, “ I feel it’s a little unfair that they are gonna determine my whole high school begging on test scores because for example today I’m not having a good day and me having a good day is gonna determine how I do on the scores which are gonna affect me in high school.”
When asked Martin the same question he answered, “Really bad.”
Overall these interviews show all the mixed feelings people have about state testing.