Once again, it is about that time of year where Central partakes in EOC testing. EOC stands for End Of Course testing and is required for many states in the U.S.  In Tennessee, several subjects are required to complete the standardized testing: English 9, English 10, Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Biology, and U.S. History. English testing was held December 1-3, math testing will be held December 7-8, U.S. History and Biology testing will be held December 9.  Students who are absent for one of these tests will complete make-up tests December 10, 13.

The testing is taking place over the course of two weeks, and during testing days, the schedule is revised to allow for enough time for the standardized tests. Students who are testing report to their testing room for the first period of the day.  First period will continue until the day’s test is complete, and then students will rotate to their next classes as normal.  In order to allow for a full class time for the remainder of the day, the activity or third period of the day was removed, and classes will go to lunch during second period.

“I don’t like it. I feel like the classes are very uneven, disproportional. I feel like there wasn’t much thought process for that,” voiced Amoy Small, a junior at Central.

The order of classes will also be changed for the testing days: Dec 1-2 will be regular order for blocks, 1,2,4,5. Friday Dec 3 and Dec 7-9 will be in the order 2,1,4,5. The revised schedule may throw many off, as the complexity of it is different than what students are used to.

Brielle Farrow, an instructional coach at Central, explains why the schedule was flipped in the first place: “We flipped [the testing schedule] because different teachers are on their planning period, and we need teachers to administer the test.”]

For example, teachers who have a planning period first block administered the day’s test on Dec 1-2.  Teachers who have a planning period second block will give tests on Dec 3, 7-9.  This allows for teachers to have a planning period for part of the time during the two weeks of EOC testing.

It takes a team of several teachers to administer the exams.  Test Proctors give the test to students and monitor the testing room, Test Administrators support several Test Proctors, and Test Coordinator, Brielle Farrow, organizes material and supports Test Administrators.

Class location and teacher availability may vary throughout the testing period to help complete testing in an orderly fashion. Some students are allowed longer time to complete their EOC to accommodate their educational needs.  Teachers who continue to proctor the EOC test

The grade a students gets on the EOC test is incorporated into their course performance grade that earns credits that meets state expectations. How EOC’s are graded, is quite different that the uniform grading system everyone is used to. While students will receive a grade on a scale of 100 for their EOC, the test is graded on a different scale.  The test seeks to find whether a student’s depth of knowledge in the material covered. Students score report will show them as mastered, on-track, approaching or below.

The staff and students may not enjoy the revised schedule.  Teachers need a planning period to always come up with new, fresh lessons for students; however, staying in a single classroom for the extended time during testing is not ideal for students or staff.  At the end of the day, if the schedule stayed the same, students would not have enough time to complete the test, which would reflect poorly on students’ ability and teachers’ accomplishments.