By Bailey Kelley and Alyssa Martin

This spring, students across 21 different states throughout the U.S. were given a new graduation requirement: taking the new standardized test called the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, or for short, the SBAC.

In Washington State, there were mixed results on how it went. In some places it went well, considering it is a new test, while at some schools many students opted out and didn’t take the test.

Sedro-Woolley High School Assistant principal Jennifer Harlan, said, “I think overall it worked pretty well for our building because we planned it very well and teachers worked really hard to make sure that it was completed.”

The HSPE was the previous test used for state testing; it was pencil and paper. The SBAC is taken on the computer.

The SBAC is supposed to show high school and college level learning. A lot of people don’t like the idea of the SBAC, but some people like it or don’t mind the new test.

“A harder HSPE would have been a better solution,” said Junior Aidyn Hull.   “Everything on the test was like the HSPE.”

The HSPE was a test with lower standards compared to the SBAC, according to the people who made the SBAC, and was only taken in high school.

Junior Jared Bowman said, “It was a solution to a problem implemented in the wrong way. The problem was test scores were low and they just made a harder test.”

Many people do not like state tests, especially ones that are new and have never before been used by schools.

“It was not smart to make a test  and spend a bunch of money on something that just confused people,” said sophomore Alysa Stewart. “The confusion was about the requirements of the test.”

Sophomore Ben Workman Smith, who was recently elected Junior Class President, put it more bluntly. “When I am president I shall abolish it.”

Not everybody can agree on what is best for standardized testing, but a lot of people can agree that having a new test gets kind of confusing, especially when you have already taken different standardized tests. Like Workman Smith, some people just do not agree with having any standardized tests at all.

Sophomore Madison Queen said, “I believe that they shouldn’t make special needs kids do it because it isn’t fair to them.”

According to King 5 News, 60-70 percent of public students are expected to fail. Over 200 juniors opted out of the SBAC at Garfield High School.  Juniors also did not show up to take the test at Nathan Hale High School.

Many parents and teachers do not like the SBAC; the expected failing rate is a lot higher than the expected passing rate. Some parents don’t want their kids taking the test because they feel like it’s unfair.

Members of the Sedro-Woolley High School staff were divided on their opinion as to whether the SBAC worked well or not.

Math teacher Barbara Goebel said, ”I think that the goal of where it is going is in the right direction, but I’m not sure the test in itself actually accomplishes as much as setting our standards to be based on being mathematicians.”

Another math teacher Chris Jensen said, “the test is not in the best interest for the student…  I think so many students didn’t opt out because students didn’t know they had the option to opt out.”None of the legislators would have passed the test.”

Assistant principal Jennifer Harlan says she thinks the SBAC is a good form of  assessing students knowledge.

“I think students didn’t opt out because our teachers were really good about helping the students understand that it was about assessing their knowledge and that we really wanted to see how well they were doing.”

The problem is there is always going to be people who do not like standardized tests, so the question will always be, what test works best no matter personal opinion?