After coming back from Spring Break, students were shocked to hear that they would have to take the English STAAR test in two weeks. The freshmen taking it on April 6th and the sophomores taking it on April 8th in which this test will be five hours long, meaning that students would begin at 9 AM and dismissed at around 2 PM.

Many sophomores feel as if they haven’t learned enough through virtual school for them to have to take the STAAR test due to their sense of unpreparedness and lack of complete knowledge to take the state exam entirely. So I’ve asked, Citlally Ortega, a sophomore here at Westside on her opinion with this subject and she responded with, “To put it simply, I feel like we shouldn’t be taking this test, there are better things we could be using this time for, such as helping online kids settle and learn more. Rather than taking a test that doesn’t mean much and won’t do much for our future.” Now that we’ve heard this insight from a student, it is safe to say that they aren’t happy with these unexpected news or rather they hoped that they would be exempt from the STAAR once again.

Overall, students feel that they can’t possibly grasp the same amount of knowledge that they would through a virtual setting and could be utilized for greater purposes. It is very stressful to take a five-hour test on something that they haven’t had much practice on or have had the best learning experience this school year.

At this point I would rather get it over with but it is still quite stressful. Texas schools should prioritize the health and education atmosphere of their students instead of adding standardized exams to their plates of concerns.