In the past, there has been a standardized testing day on the Wednesday before the end of the first quarter. This year, the district changed this testing day to be Oct. 10, a non-school day, where sophomores and juniors have the opportunity to take the PSAT. Counselor Shari Schaake said the change will be beneficial for both students and staff.

“Usually we lose a whole day for everybody to test,” Schaake said. “Now, since they’re just taking this one test – the PSAT – it frees up all of our teachers to be able to meet and do their professional learning.”

The new schedule requires students who signed up to take the test to attend school the day after the quarter ends. Junior Ava Middleton, who took the test as a sophomore and is planning to take it again, said she didn’t like having the testing day in the middle of the school week.

“I like it being on a Friday far more because it leads into the weekend and I don’t … have to go to school the next day after taking a long test,” Middleton said.

Students signed up to take the PSAT won’t have Friday off like the rest of the student body.

“It might affect how the test goes because it will be after a long week of school and some students might not be ready to take a test after a full week of school,” Middleton said. 

Schaake said she thinks moving the test day will end up being more advantageous to students because they will have more time to learn before they take the entire set of standardized tests in the spring.

“I think overall for the students it’s a positive move because it allows us to focus on that one test for [one] group of students,” Schaake said. “In the spring, when they’ve learned all of the things, they’ll perform better on those tests.”