The three- week testing season is upon us here at Central. However, students and teachers are questioning the effectiveness of these tests.

The time it takes to complete the tests is one factor that brings the tests down. The testing period takes over three weeks to complete. Each student will test for roughly 15 hours. This large amount of testing time increases stress in students.

“For example, the ACT is done within four hours, while the EOCs take over two weeks with students testing for over 15 hours. It is just not effective at all,” explained English teacher Mr. Kevin Parsons.

During these few weeks, education is slowed down due to the testing schedule and limited access to resources throughout the school. Students will either miss classes due to testing or due to the schedule for the certain day.

Another flaw of standardized tests is the tests themselves. Tests for English exams are sometimes poorly chosen for the corresponding grade level, making it harder for some of the students taking the test. The questions of the test are another issue. Test questions are asked poorly or are often difficult to understand. 

”The wording of test questions are terrible, sometimes you can not even understand the question,” stated Freshman Collin Matthews.

However, standardized tests are not all terrible. The tests are all-in-all a great way of testing the student’s knowledge of everything they have learned from the current school year. The tests challenge the students’ abilities to apply knowledge they have learned throughout the year.

Standardized tests may have many flaws, but they do their job most of time. Their purpose is often fulfilled even though the tests are not perfect in any way.