As the first half of River Dell’s 2024′-2025′ school year finishes, the state testing for students is slowly beginning to approach. Students in Grade 9 and Grade 11 will be testing starting on March 10th and ending on May 20th.
The ninth grade is going to proceed in the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment calling for both ELA and Math. ELA day 1 and 2 for the freshmen will take place on April 28th, and April 29th. As for the Math portion of the assessment, freshmen will complete their testing on May 19th, and May 20th.
The eleventh grade, on the other hand, will be taking two different tests, New Jersey Graduation Proficiency Assessment which involves the Math and ELA portion, and they will also participate in the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment involving Science.
Unlike the freshmen, the junior class will begin their testing a few months earlier and their first exam, NJGPA, will take place on March 10th, and it will later end on March 14th.
Just like taking a traditional test, there are always rules permitted along with it. Especially some that the students need to follow like, “Every Junior needs to take the NJGPA, otherwise it is hard to get the graduation requirement. Only the juniors come in at 8 am so they will have the whole school to themselves, and then at 9:50 everyone else in the other grades come in to follow a delayed opening schedule,” Mr. Pepe mentioned.
“There are some benefits of testing, and it is helpful to see where we need to target students’ learning so we can provide them support to help them improve on a subject they might not be up to grade level on,” emphasized Mr. Pepe.
After asking two RDHS students about their opinions on state testing, their answers were similar. Daniella Woods, a freshman at RDHS exclaimed, “I dislike the state testing because it is very time consuming and a lot of people in my grade believe that there is no point in taking these tests.” Madeline Krieger, a junior at RDHS announced, “I don’t have many feelings about it especially because it is a mandatory thing and because juniors have a lot going on in this time period, I think is a lot but there is really nothing we can do about it.”
Their opinions were almost identical, presenting the general outlook of these assessments. Woods noted, “Some of the material that is put onto the test is particularly something we haven’t learned yet, so it is tough to answer those questions.” Krieger also declared, “It is so long considering it takes forever to complete and there are already so many standardized tests as a junior so it becomes too much to manage, and it can be very overwhelming.”
As testing evolves throughout the years, it becomes harder and more difficult to accomplish, and students like Daniella Woods and Madeline Krieger expressed related feelings about testing being unnecessary.
When asked if testing was needed, Daniella stated, “No, because we already have access to most of our class grades and I don’t think it is essential for an extra test to be taken.” Like Woods, Krieger said, “No, because I would be better without it, and it would not be something I would have to be so miserable about and have look forward to.
Even though these exams can be tricky and problematic occasionally, Woods and Krieger mentioned that they still have a favorite part in the end. “My favorite thing about testing is having the time to ourselves after we take the test because it gives us students time to catch up on our assignments for our classes and have some free time,” stated Woods. Krieger commented, “It is nice to get it over with and it isn’t too stressful because it isn’t as important to me as an S.A.T. so I don’t have to stress about it too much.”
