WOODBURY- As the second semester of the year begins at Nonnewaug High School, there are numerous tests that take place. On February 4th, NHS seniors are taking the English and Math NWEA, while the rest of the school will be taking the PSATs and the science NWEA.
The NWEA (Northwest Evaluation Association) is an adaptive assessment for English and Math, taken by schools nationwide. At NHS, the test is taken in the fall, winter and spring. It’s intended to measure students’ reading and math skills by adapting to the questions you get right and wrong, and it can predict how students will do on other tests like the SAT.
This 40-question long test has been completed by seniors for four years now, and this upcoming test date won’t be the last of the year. With the expectation of taking it again in the spring, NHS seniors are doing their best to maintain focus for the assessment.
“We shouldn’t have to do the test now as seniors after doing them 3 times a year for 4 years,” NHS Senior Eloise Morse says. “It’s our last year; we shouldn’t have to do more testing when most of us have already gotten into colleges, especially when these tests just aren’t important for us.”
Many seniors are beginning to figure out where life after high school is going, and a test meant to predict an SAT score won’t be relevant if they’ve already taken it. NWEA scores don’t get sent to any schools, and they’re mostly used to help place students into courses right for them. However, seniors are graduating, so the scores won’t be useful in any way.
“They can’t do anything with our data because we’re graduating, so they’re better off working with the underclassmen mostly,” Senior Addison Neilson says. “Our scores won’t be good compared to the juniors and other underclassmen whose scores actually matter.”
Seniors also feel like the test just adds more stress on their shoulders. With college applications, scholarships, and tests for classes, another standardized test puts a lot of pressure on students.
“As seniors, we’ve already been through so much standardized testing for colleges,” Senior Mum Alam says. “We’ve already applied to colleges and got in, taking tests for the state when most seniors have already committed to a place feels so irrelevant.”
