If you noticed a strange reduction in the number of juniors in your classes from Mar. 1 to Mar. 3, you, surprisingly, do not need to catch up on those lost hours of sleep because your intuition is correct. At Arcadia High School (AHS), juniors were participating in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Math and English Language Arts (ELA) testing. Juniors also partook in the California Science Test (CAST) on Mar. 2, along with seniors, further explaining why they were absent from most classes during this time period.  

The SBAC is a system of assessments drafted, designed, and distributed by a group of educators from across America. Students begin SBAC testing anywhere between third to fifth grade, continue testing from sixth to eighth grade, and completely finish in high school with the 11th grade SBAC. 

These tests are separated into three categories: formative, interim, and summative. Formative and interim assessments are meant to align with the Common Core Curriculum, which tracks how students are progressing over the years. Summative assessments are used to gauge student readiness for higher levels of education. Ultimately, SBAC tests are utilized with the purpose of assessing academic progress on the individual level, as well as evaluating students’ readiness for college and career goals. 

More easily understood by students, the SBAC consists simply of a math portion and an ELA section. The Math performance task requires students to solve multi-step, real-world problems and takes around an hour and a half to complete. On the computer adaptive test (CAT), students are tasked with answering multiple math problems that cover a variety of material based on grade level, and it is untimed. The CAT’s unique feature is that it is adaptive, so the question difficulty does adjust based on student responses. As for the SBAC ELA performance task, students are instructed to write an essay, within two hours, that could be argumentative, explanatory, informational, narrative, or opinion-based. The ELA CAT test is untimed and has a range of question formats, such as multiple-choice, checkboxes, true or false, and short answers. 

The CAST is an online assessment based on the California Next Generation Science Standards (CA NGSS). Eligible students in grades five, eight, ten, eleven, and twelve must participate in the CAST. This test assesses students based on different science courses and their respective materials, such as biology, chemistry, and physics. 

Although AHS seniors were tested on Mar. 2 by the CAST, AHS juniors bore the brunt of the testing with a three-day-long testing period. Juniors from AHS detail their experience with both the SBAC and the CAST. 

Junior An Duong stated, “My experience with the SBAC was that it was a good break from my normal schedule. I felt like answering the CAST questions was much easier than questions I get tested on in AP Chemistry.” 

“Personally, the materials on the SBAC test weren’t too complicated, and I had an abundance of time left over,” commented junior Jason Wu. “But I have to say, taking 2-hour tests 3 days in a row is quite exhausting and with current juniors’ workloads, the test probably wasn’t the best experience for everyone. But overall, I feel pretty neutral about the SBAC, which brings back memories of when we had to take it every year during middle school.”

“Taking back-to-back state tests wasn’t the easiest, but the breaks in between testing periods definitely helped. I struggled with focusing on the task at hand because it felt rather monotonous, but I thought that the actual content wasn’t too bad,” remarked junior Navya Kannan. 

Junior Adam Wu said, “The SBAC is a good way to measure the quality of education at each school. My personal experience is quite mixed since it varies with each test. The math exam wasn’t too challenging. The science test covered basic materials from each subject but a few of the questions/concepts proved themselves to be troubling because they were never introduced to me. Lastly, with all honesty, I had a tendency to fall asleep during the English test section since there were too many readings, and I am definitely not a good reader. Nonetheless, the testing week flew by, and I personally found it to be a relaxing week, with time to reorganize my thoughts and life.” 

“I didn’t feel as stressed as I thought I would be when taking the SBAC; the material covered in the test was kind of difficult but manageable. I personally found English to be the hardest part for me and science seemed to be relatively easy,” junior Harry Deng claimed.

A round of applause to those who participated in testing!

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