SAT Instruction Takes the Scenic Route in Reaching Students
New history ethnic studies will be offered as an option for students for the 2024-25 school year.
By Lucia Valdovinos
New history ethnic studies will be offered as an option for students for the 2024-25 school year.
By Lucia Valdovinos
The weeks leading up to this year’s SAT can be described as one big game of telephone, with much of the information given to staff and students being lost in translation.
The SAT took place over the course of two days, March 7 and 8, as a result of the testing format being moved from paper to digital. This change affected coordination between teachers and administrators very minimally, as teachers were given the SAT testing dates in January. However, this information reached students as late as a week before testing.
Some, like junior Ila Jay, said their ability to study was hampered by only learning about the test a week before they took it, a sentiment shared by some staff members who felt they were not about to prepare their students for the test.
Assistant Principal of Student Services Erin Cahill and other administrators sent out information to teachers on how to operate the testing app the week before the SAT.
“The College Board offers practice through the Bluebook, which is the digital platform for the SAT, and the sign in tickets were sent out the week before break to students in their history classes so they can have access to taking a practice test,” said Cahill
Teachers could argue that preparing the junior class for the SAT should not be their main focus, given that Sign-In Tickets were sent out weeks prior informing students of the upcoming testing.
Regardless, most students did not receive them until much later.
“Honestly I received it a couple of days before, maybe a week,” said Jocelyn Garcia, 11.
Social studies teacher Alan Smart was able to learn how to use and proctor the online testing resource the week before testing.
“It would be nice to get the information a little bit earlier so that way we can prepare the students over the course of a couple months instead of a week or so,” said Smart. “But it looked like the SATs didn't actually send out that information until a couple weeks ago so we're kind of limited on that aspect.”
Although, teacher’s who did not proctor the SAT were not given the same briefing, some AP English teachers still took the time to review the concepts juniors would be tested on. AP English Language teachers, Alan Tracey and Kathleen Quint held lessons on how to answer multiple choice questions and reviewed SAT questions used in the past to prepare their students.
“We've done different instruction over the years but our classrooms are designed to be test prep and college prep anyway. We use Springboard, we are using College Board materials, and so students should be getting used to responding to the kind of questions that would be on the SAT,” said Quint.
For the most part the curriculum taught in junior classes align with what is on the SAT, and has done so for the last couple of years. This has made the transition from paper to digital fairly unproblematic as the English section of the exam remained almost entirely unchanged, although the same cannot be said for the math section. Math teacher Whitney Goodman has struggled to ensure her students have all the information regarding the online SAT.
“As the math department I feel like we should have a better plan,” said Goodman. “I told my students today that they’re going to have their formulas on the SAT, some of them didn’t know that. So they asked me ‘how do I access the formula sheet on the computer’ and I was like ‘Oh I don't know,’ because I’ve never seen it on a computer.”
Now that the SAT has run successfully, teachers have a better idea of what the online SAT looks like for students, leaving little to be confused about for the next few years of testing. There is still the underlying issue of how upcoming testing, as well as other things are being communicated to students. Information recently sent to parents in ParentSquare include the drama spring musical, the PHS news, tutors needed, library information, student services and athletic information.
Goodman said she asked her students if they had seen the SAT messages on ParentSquare, but many had not because their parents had access to the app but they did not.
“I don’t know how we better communicate with students about things that are coming up but there needs to be a better way,” said Goodman.
The SAT took place over the course of two days, March 7 and 8, as a result of the testing format being moved from paper to digital. This change affected coordination between teachers and administrators very minimally, as teachers were given the SAT testing dates in January. However, this information reached students as late as a week before testing.
Some, like junior Ila Jay, said their ability to study was hampered by only learning about the test a week before they took it, a sentiment shared by some staff members who felt they were not about to prepare their students for the test.
Assistant Principal of Student Services Erin Cahill and other administrators sent out information to teachers on how to operate the testing app the week before the SAT.
“The College Board offers practice through the Bluebook, which is the digital platform for the SAT, and the sign in tickets were sent out the week before break to students in their history classes so they can have access to taking a practice test,” said Cahill
Teachers could argue that preparing the junior class for the SAT should not be their main focus, given that Sign-In Tickets were sent out weeks prior informing students of the upcoming testing.
Regardless, most students did not receive them until much later.
“Honestly I received it a couple of days before, maybe a week,” said Jocelyn Garcia, 11.
Social studies teacher Alan Smart was able to learn how to use and proctor the online testing resource the week before testing.
“It would be nice to get the information a little bit earlier so that way we can prepare the students over the course of a couple months instead of a week or so,” said Smart. “But it looked like the SATs didn't actually send out that information until a couple weeks ago so we're kind of limited on that aspect.”
Although, teacher’s who did not proctor the SAT were not given the same briefing, some AP English teachers still took the time to review the concepts juniors would be tested on. AP English Language teachers, Alan Tracey and Kathleen Quint held lessons on how to answer multiple choice questions and reviewed SAT questions used in the past to prepare their students.
“We've done different instruction over the years but our classrooms are designed to be test prep and college prep anyway. We use Springboard, we are using College Board materials, and so students should be getting used to responding to the kind of questions that would be on the SAT,” said Quint.
For the most part the curriculum taught in junior classes align with what is on the SAT, and has done so for the last couple of years. This has made the transition from paper to digital fairly unproblematic as the English section of the exam remained almost entirely unchanged, although the same cannot be said for the math section. Math teacher Whitney Goodman has struggled to ensure her students have all the information regarding the online SAT.
“As the math department I feel like we should have a better plan,” said Goodman. “I told my students today that they’re going to have their formulas on the SAT, some of them didn’t know that. So they asked me ‘how do I access the formula sheet on the computer’ and I was like ‘Oh I don't know,’ because I’ve never seen it on a computer.”
Now that the SAT has run successfully, teachers have a better idea of what the online SAT looks like for students, leaving little to be confused about for the next few years of testing. There is still the underlying issue of how upcoming testing, as well as other things are being communicated to students. Information recently sent to parents in ParentSquare include the drama spring musical, the PHS news, tutors needed, library information, student services and athletic information.
Goodman said she asked her students if they had seen the SAT messages on ParentSquare, but many had not because their parents had access to the app but they did not.
“I don’t know how we better communicate with students about things that are coming up but there needs to be a better way,” said Goodman.