SBAC testing hits seniors

April 16, 2018 Milagros Aquino

For the first time this year, seniors will need to take the SBAC test. Many seniors are upset as the test is during the week before AP testing, from April 16-26.

The SBAC test was made for monitoring how students are doing at school and to help improve education in the school system. There will be a designated date and time, but if a student is unable to attend for any reason there will be make-up dates.

There will be rewards for those who take it and do not opt out which students can do as long they have parental permission. The prizes will be two Trojan tickets which could be exchanged for prizes — one is for attending while the other depends on if the teacher thinks the student had good work ethic while taking the test.

This year is the first time the students would be taking the 12th grade pilot science test. Although Trojans can opt out, the school recommends everyone take it.

Not all students think that it is necessary to take the test because for seniors, the tests will not affect them in the future.

“I don’t think there’s a point in seniors taking it because the information they get from the test won’t help them improve their knowledge. Maybe if they made all freshmen take that test to assess where they are at the terms of learning level, and then use that information to tune the classes to the students’ level, that would be useful,” said senior Abraham Esparza.

Students and staff may not think the same things when it comes to the usefulness of the test but the testing itself should not be the problem even if it is before the AP tests.

“I believe good test-taking strategies are taught to students in all of their classes; this is information that they know and they’ve learned in classes. They have known and learned in the classes they have taken, so I ultimately don’t see any issue before the AP test since it is not necessarily the same content being covered and it’s not any additional studying since it is common knowledge that students should know,” said Assistant Principal Yvonna Rogers.