It was a brisk October morning, approximately 7:00 a.m., as I pulled into the East Brunswick High School parking lot. Going into the ACT, I really had the weight of the world on my shoulders. 

I had started preparing for the exam in December of 2019, with the goal of testing in either April or June of 2020. After the many push-backs and cancellations due to the pandemic, I finally got a test date in October of 2020. This was likely the only test I was going to be able to take, and if I didn’t get a great score, I was screwed. Colleges would see my less than stellar grades and thin resume and wouldn’t even think about admitting me into their school. 

Luckily for me, I got the score I wanted and got into my number one school a few months later. But between the anxiety about the uncertainty of the test, physically entering the building and the brutal three-plus hours spent taking the test in a mask, taking a standardized test in the time of COVID-19 wouldn’t be something I would wish on my worst enemy.

In the aftermath of my test, though, more and more schools and recreational centers across the country have begun opening their doors to host both state and national standardized tests.

 This is especially likely to increase, as the Biden administration had announced Feb. 22 that states must conduct standardized tests.

However, on April 6, the federal government granted New Jersey an exemption from most of the testing requirements usually reserved for the Spring. Only English language learners and disabled students will be required to participate in standardized testing this spring. 

Instead, the state is requesting that all schools send data for English, math and science performance for high school students in ninth and tenth grade, as well as for all middle school and some elementary school students. 

This data is meant to help understand how student learning has been affected by COVID-19 and what changes might be needed to support students next year. The state has also decided that they will be conducting standardized testing in the fall to replace the usual spring testing.

These changes align with the desires of many members of the WHS community. “All of the different organizations that support education in our district [recommended] that standardized testing be waived for this year,” said WHS State Standardized Testing Coordinator and Assistant Principal Warren Hynes.

Although this school year’s state standardized testing has been canceled, WHS has already experienced other standardized testing operations since the beginning of the school year with the SAT.

WHS has served as a PSAT/SAT testing center since October of 2020 (the ACT is not offered at WHS) and has made some adjustments to create a safer environment for students, staff and proctors on testing day. 

“We’ve cut the number of students down by a large margin in order to maintain proper spacing in the classrooms,” said PSAT/SAT Coordinator for WHS and Math Teacher Martin Maruschak. 

Maruschak also noted that more classrooms have been used in order to properly space out students safely. However, he did note that these changes are not ideal, especially during break times in which only two students are allowed in the bathroom.

 “We’ve had to use different parts of the science wing, which we’ve never used before,” he said, referring to the extra bathrooms and rooms that needed to be open on test day to meet COVID-19 protocol.

Even without the pandemic and struggles to get testing done, in the past few years, an increasing number of colleges and universities have become test-optional. Now, with forced test cancellations due to COVID-19, the SAT and ACT have been placed under a microscope yet again, which has left people wondering: Are these tests really necessary?

In order to understand this shift, one must examine the evolution of the SAT test, which was created nearly a century ago. “SAT [stood] for scholastic aptitude test,” said Maureen Mazzarese, Director of Counseling for Westfield Public Schools. “The test originally was used as a predictor of success in college based on natural aptitude, not test preparation.” 

With the common use of tutors and test preparation books in 2021, it is evident that the way students take the test has changed drastically. Over the years, standardized tests have become increasingly important in the eyes of some colleges. 

“[The SAT] became more and more of a piece of the equation and a point of comparison,” said Mazzarese, discussing the weight of standardized test scores in the college admissions processes. “There became much more impetus to prepare for the test in two ways: in terms of test-taking strategy and also subject matter in particular areas.”  

Clearly, the way that students have taken and prepared for the test has changed drastically over time. The increasing pressure to prepare, take multiple tests and increase test scores, however, puts a great deal of strain on students’ mental health.

According to Mazzarese, COVID-19 has only added to these worries for students. As tests were canceled and rescheduled, students felt deep concerns about not taking the SAT or ACT due to the stressed importance of these tests when it comes to applying to colleges that still require test scores.

Another factor that the pandemic has highlighted is how socioeconomically privileged students have a tremendous advantage over other students when it comes to taking these tests. Students in the upper classes can afford to pay for tutors and multiple chances at the test. For many students from low-income families, these are luxuries that come with too high a price tag.

In fact, all forms of standardized testing may be doing low-income communities more harm than good and seem to be hindering the goals they were meant to achieve.