Testing, Testing, 1 2 3, Testing

Ashley Ferencsik, Staff Writer|April 16, 2021

Source: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File

As testing season approaches, so many uncertainties are made apparent especially with this crazy COVID year. A lot of news regarding testing isn’t necessarily made clear because of all the changes and accommodations made to support both LaunchED and Face-to-Face students. To limit confusion that may occur, The Blue and White has put together news regarding school/state and AP testing to limit any confusion among AHS’s students.

Regarding state testing, our testing coordinator, Ms. Pickles, stresses that all of it is being required on campus this year. All LaunchED students are required to come to school to take state exams, with no digital options for completion. District assessments, however, can still be completed at home but students are required to turn on their cameras when test-taking. For students unable to come onto campus (due to health or any other reasons), Ms. Pickels states that “They will have to participate in a make-up session as most of the state assessments (ELA and ALG EOC) are graduation requirements. Other EOCs like geometry, biology, and U.S. history are required for their final grade in their classes.” Nicholas Ramdeen, a senior, expressed his weariness of returning to campus due to its COVID regulations, saying “The times I had to go on campus, it felt like normal school as it was crowded full of kids.”

Unlike the state exams, AP exams have multiple test-taking options and are broken up into three different administrations. Each administration contains differing ways to test, with only in-school paper tests contained in administration one. Some exams, like Physics and Statistics, however, are solely offered as paper tests in both administrations one and two. Some courses, particularly language courses and music theory, are only offered as paper exams. Ms. Gruman, one of our AP exam organizers, stresses that she believes “that is in the best interest if the student takes the paper test during administration 1. This opinion is based on past experiences (BACE Exam) where if you give students flexibility in the testing platform you increase the rate of students forgetting to test or having issues.” More information regarding the specifics of these exams can be found at the bottom of this page.

It should also be noted that both AP exams and state exams are also most likely to take place in bigger testing locations, such as the North Campus cafeteria, media center, etc. LaunchED students also have varying opinions when it comes to going back to school. Some students, like Senior Jasmin Sanchez, believe that “It’s fine to go back to campus for testing, as long as everyone wears a mask,” whereas some students disagree with this. Nicholas Ramdeen expressed his dislike of the idea, saying “Why would you even give the option to learn from home if you’re just going to make them go back to school to test anyways.” Ramdeen, among others, believes that if you choose to stay online to avoid contracting COVID throughout the school year, returning to school for testing would be contradictory. Opinions like theirs may deter other students from returning to campus anytime soon for exams, even with our school’s restrictions put in place, as many feel it’s still unsafe.