BY LAUREN BARNHARDT
Special to the Clarkston News
With the new M-STEP completed, both students and teachers were less than impressed with the experience.
‘To be honest I thought the test was a waste of time,? revealed Clarkston High School junior Joey Verhelle.
This seemed to be the reaction for most CHS juniors who were introduced to the mandatory test this year. It wasn’t only the integration of the new standardized test that caused student distaste.
‘All of the concepts were things we learned years ago and couldn’t remember. And on top of that, we had to make up all the classwork we missed while taking the test, it wasn’t worth it,? stated junior Alex Baranyai.
Missed class appeared to be the biggest issue when it came to enforcing the M-STEP, Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress.
‘We wasted so much learning time because half the class was absent taking the M-STEP, the teacher couldn’t teach,? explained junior Jon Giolitti.
Both teachers and students agree on one thing, missed class time shouldn’t have been an issue.
However, AP Language Arts teacher Lori Yegge sees the upside of the test, too.
‘Of course the missed class time was unfortunate, but I thought it was good to see a new type of digital testing,? she explained. ‘I only wished students would have taken it more seriously.?
Though the test spanned over the entire month of April and was strongly embraced throughout the school, many students had trouble doing so.
Junior Amanda Casetti added, ‘I just don’t see the point of another standardized test, don’t we have enough of those already??
Despite varying opinions on the M-STEP, Clarkston administration did the best they could with the time they were given to prepare.
‘When the state urges for a new standardized test there’s not much you can do about it. The school did the best they could trying to organize in the time they were given,? said teacher Michael Comos.