Staff Editorial
High school juniors across California took the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium Exam from May 23 to May 26. Although the SBAC testing schedule is a large improvement from last year, it still put students at a disadvantage due to the lack of zero period during testing days.
To account for the exam, the administration altered Costa’s bell schedule for the test days. Juniors who did not opt out of the assessment tested from 8-10 a.m.. Zero period did not meet during these days, and first period began at 10:41 a.m. for all students. The purpose of the SBAC exam was to test students’ knowledge of nationwide content as well as their proficiency in skills adhering to California’s Common Core standards through an Adaptive Testing model, in which the test’s questions differ for each student based upon his or her performance on previous questions.
Unlike this year’s SBAC schedule, last year’s schedule did not have an efficient, built-in schedule which was unfair and unorganized for students. Last year’s schedule entailed juniors taking the SBAC test from 8 a.m. to 12:40 p.m., in three groups. This resulted in many students missing class, Vice Principal Kristin Wolberg said.
Therefore, although there is still room for improvement, this year’s schedule was better because it provided an organized time structure, while also giving students a much-needed break between testing and classes.
Despite the vast benefits of the new schedule, a lack of zero period for four days should be adjusted for the betterment of student performance. This year’s schedule adjustment caused students enrolled in zero period academic classes to unfairly receive 55 minutes of instructional time for that class as opposed to the usual 275 minutes received in a regular week, according to the SBAC schedule.
By allocating only a fifth of normal class time to zero period with finals week approaching, students enrolled in zero period did not receive the time and attention that they deserve.
According to Wolberg, the administration let teachers know about the lack of zero period at the start of the year, so teachers should have had plenty of time to plan accordingly. Despite teachers being aware of the lost time, their zero period classes still lost valuable time that teachers could have used to effectively prepare their students for finals.
Instead of banning zero period entirely during SBAC testing, which, according to Wolberg, was decided by the administration, it should be the decision of the respective teachers’ regarding whether or not to hold zero period during the week of testing to benefit students as much as possible as finals approach.
The SBAC testing schedule is much more efficient than previous years; however, the lack of zero period puts students at a large disadvantage.
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