Next month Homewood High School will host several standardized tests for all grade levels while some students will have E-Days.
The dates of testing will be Oct. 4 and 18 for PSATs, Pre-ACTs and senior WorkKeys. On Oct. 4, 10th and 11th graders will take the PSAT while freshmen and seniors have an E-Day. Senior WorkKeys and sophomore Pre-ACTs will be held Oct. 18.
E-Days are held to maximize the amount of student productivity who are not receiving a test. Because most teachers have to administer the tests to students, they cannot provide their full attention to students in class. By having assignments on Schoology for the day students can complete the work they otherwise would have in class without any distractions from the school.
Kristen Clark, Homewood’s technology specialist, elaborated on why E-Days are beneficial during testing days.
“E-Days allow us to not use as many days of school where we have bells turned off, teachers pulled from classes, and students not in class. It lessens the amount of instructional days interrupted by testing,” Clark said.
Many students enjoy the E-Days provided by the school. They feel as if is beneficial to have a day where they can complete their work at home at their own pace. Ella Serotsky, a junior at HHS, is one of these students.
“People enjoy doing their work in the comfort of their own home,” Serotsky said. “It is easier to get stuff done, especially on long days like testing days.”
These testing days are crucial to mark the progress of students and have a better understanding of where they are academically at this point in the year. The PSAT and Pre-ACT help students prepare for the actual CollegeBoard ACT and SAT.
WorkKeys testing for seniors are career readiness tests. It includes three portions: graphic literacy, mathematics, and workplace documents.
“It is a credential test where if students earn a 4 or above on every section they earn a certificate,” Clark said. Different levels of achievement come with different rewards.
“It gives students another college and career readiness indicator that the state department looks for. They want to have all our students graduating with some sort of credential.”
WorkKeys allows an opportunity for students to credential in if they are not in AP classes or dual enrollment.
Junior Izzy Knudsen is appreciative of the opportunity Homewood gives to take these tests free of cost.
“I appreciate that Homewood has testing days because at some schools you have to pay to be able to take the tests,” she said. “I am thankful for the opportunity Homewood gives us to be able to take the tests.”
PSAT are college board tests. It is given to every 10th and 11th grader for the NMSQT, or National Merit Qualifier Test. 9th graders take the PSAT 8 and 9 which is a practice test for the NMSQT.
Clark explained some of the benefits that come with taking the PSATs.
“Homewood is an open-enrollment school, so anyone who wants to be in an AP class can be in an AP class. They don’t have to have a certain score to get into an AP class,” Clark said.
“We give the PSAT to everyone so that if there is a student that we believe will qualify for national merit or should be in an AP, it gives us an AP placement report so we can identify students who did really well and help guide them to courses that would best be for them.”
