Newtown high school held the annual school wide testing day on Wednesday October eleventh. All freshmen, sophomores and juniors took a variation of a practice exam. The freshman took the PSAT eight-nine, the sophomores took the Pre-ACT and the juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT, the National Merit Scholar Qualifying Test means that if students did very well they could potentially receive a scholarship.
These exams are for students to gauge what the actual ACT or SAT exams will look like.
The PSAT eight-nine along with the PSAT/NMSQT are computerized tests taken through the college board program. The Pre-ACT is a pencil to paper test.
The freshman and sophomore exams were computerized for the first time this year. College Board, a program used to provide students with a successful transition to college, became overwhelmed with hundreds of students taking these exams online for the first time.
This caused the country to have trouble accessing the exam. For the first hour of the exam adjustments were made in an attempt to begin the computerized tests.
“The sophomore test went off without a hitch, they were off and running,” NHS Counseling Department Chair, Bret Nichols said.
The tests began at eight am and ran until 11:45 am, the remainder of the day was to run as a “regular” D day with classes seven and eight. Students did have scheduled breaks during the four hour testing period. During this period seniors did not have to come to school, but did need to return for the last two classes.
“I don't believe that school wide testing is necessary and I don't think it shows an accurate representation of the student,” NHS Sophomore Kayla Sinapi said.
Bret Nichols Newtown High Schools counseling department chair had to communicate with the proctors of the exams to inform them of the status of College Board and the programs ability to be used online.
All teachers and staff acted as proctors for all three grade levels, this included classrooms with students who have modifications such as extended time, and separate settings. Additional support was provided to each classroom conducting an exam.
“I think it's important, it’s good practice for students so they can see how the test goes before they take the real test. It also gives the math teachers feedback on areas of strengths and weaknesses so we can work on them, before the spring test,” NHS Math teacher Deborah Holt said.
Accommodations were met for the students who had them in place and approved through the consent progress.This was organized by groups of students with accommodations being placed in a room with peers having the same. If a student had the “one on one” accommodation they were placed by themselves in a teachers office.
With the PSAT eight-nine and the PSAT/NMSQT being online it allowed some accommodation to be in the classroom.
“For example the four- function calculator which is an accommodation is built into the program, the magnifying zoom accommodation is built into the program. There's a lot of built in features in this digital platform which was a benefit to our school,”Bret Nichols said.
Students were organized alphabetically based on last name and room location intentionally so administrative staff could easily and efficiently check in on the progress of the exams. This was new to this year's testing day, in previous years students took their exams in advisory groups.
“I believe it is not necessary for all. The juniors should take these tests to get ready for their SAT they take later in the year. However, having freshmen take the PSAT is very much unnecessary,” NHS Sophomore Isabella Walder said.