In order to graduate school, the freshmen all gathered in the nest on April 6, 2021 to take the English I STAAR test, however this wasn’t like any other. The STAAR test had several problems and in fact had to be rescheduled for a week after on the April 13.
The test went wrong when students kept getting kicked out of it. It wouldn’t take their usernames or password. Technical difficulties got to apparent and the test wasn’t able to work.
“At first, not getting to take the test wasn’t very stressful. It was the opposite actually. I was glad that I wouldn’t need to take a ridiculously long test especially with being distance learning all year, but after a while I realised that this test will have to be pushed back and might intervene with other school exams. I didn’t panic too much, however it wasn’t exactly a comforting feeling.” -Freshmen Emma Flores said,
One significant advancement this year has been the use of technology by students and faculty alike. Even though the ability to complete work remotely was available to all, the 2021 STAAR tests were mandatory to take in person. However freshmen ended up sitting in a classroom for for five hours not taking the test due to technical difficulties.
“It was pretty fun to be honest [waiting in the classroom], my teachers were pretty funny, and the students were actually really nice to hang around. We also got to watch movies as well so that was a good way to pass time.” Freshmen Victoria Castro said,
As mentioned before, the test had to be rescheduled. This not only forced online students to come into school for that day, but another day a week after,
“It was terrible. It’s one thing having to come out of distance learning to take a reading, writing, and revise and editing test once, but having to do that again was not very enjoyable. It was nice getting to see my friends, but it doesn’t outweigh having to sit in a room for 5 hours” Flores said,
Finally when they took the test a second time it worked and they were able to complete it. No further rescheduling was needed for the freshmen STAAR test.
“it felt more like just another assignment getting done. The STAAR to me isn’t really like this big thing, it’s just something I have to do every year, I’ve done it so many times that it became a habit,” Castro said,
“ I personally didn’t enjoy taking the STAAR on the computer because I like to annotate and write all over the text, so I feel I would’ve done better had I been able to write on the text,” Castro said.
THE NEST’s sophomores took the test as scheduled two days after the original test taking date of the freshmen, on April 8, 2021, and were able to take it on paper.