There are mixed emotions felt for the monthly online benchmark assessments by both students and staff members. These assessments were newly introduced this school year.

  The Evaluate Assessment from Catapult Learning is a monthly test that was implemented to better prepare students for standardized testing, such as the EOC test. Immediately after students take the test it gives the teacher a response on how the students did on the test. It gives the teachers a further understanding of  what they need to focus on when teaching the students and preparing them for their standardized tests towards the end of the year.

    With the format of the tests being the exact same with every test students find the test to be really repetitive in its content and format.

  “I think it’s a waste of time because no matter how much the teachers push the plus sides of it, it is too repetitive and so we just give up,” sophomore Taylor Bunch said.

“It’s pointless it’s too repetitive and no one really tries on the tests,” sophomore Deric Flores said.

  Evaluate is designed to help students and teachers find out what they need to teach and reteach.       

  The testing is also designed to show students what the state tests look like including the EOC and the ACT or MAP tests.

Sophomore Taylor Bunch finds the test to be a great idea but the layout of the test is too repetitive. “I think the idea of it is good but I don’t agree with the format and layout of the test” Bunch said.

  However, teachers and administrators see the benefits in the testing.

   “The tests are only one hour per month, so that is not a big sacrifice considering everything that goes with Evaluate,” superintendent Shawn Poyser said.  

  English teacher Shanda Miller likes the effect of the test for the way that it guides her curriculum and helps her be able to focus on what they need to teach farther and more in detail.

  “Using Evaluate as a curriculum guide allows us, as teachers, to shift our focus to areas of student need, rather than teaching mastered concepts as new concepts.  I will not focus on teaching the concept with the assumption that they are unfamiliar with the term.  Instead, I will go over the term and we will identify uses of it within texts, but I will not teach it as a new concept.” Miller said

  Some teachers find drawbacks in the test like math teacher Jowell Roellig. She thinks for the math department that the math test doesn’t help first semester. “The first semester of evaluate for math scares the kids and they get into the habit of not trying on the tests. It becomes kind of frustrating when students keep getting seven and ten percent on the tests.” Roellig said.