State testing is coming up in the next two weeks for Lewis-Palmer High School, starting April 12 going through April 20. Ever since states have their students tested every year, there has been a big controversy of whether or not the state tests for worth all the work for both students and teachers. Many people, like Logan Verrie, 9, think that schools should not have to have their students take the tests.

“It’s the school’s business not the governments on what to teach and how the students are doing. Schools should be able to set their own standards and their own rules for their students not the government,” Verrie said.

Sometimes students can opt out of state tests by getting their parent to sign a refusal sheet. Some parents will sign their kids out of the tests, others do not care if their child takes it or not, and some will not let their student skip the state tests.

“I think that I should be able to get opted out because it won’t affect my grade at all. I also just do it fast to get it over with. A lot of the questions on the tests are stuff I don’t know and don’t have any idea how to do, so I end up guessing,” Olivia Findley, 9, said.

These state tests give the school an idea of where their instruction is. The tests are effective and make standards for all schools according to Erika Nash, sophomore class counselor at Lewis-Palmer High School. The tests help gather data on each school and each student and how they learn best and how much they learn. The state tests make sure that a student is learning what he or she needs to learn within a year period.

“The tests are more for the school that way we can get funding for more education for the students. It is our students vs. state averages. The tests help us to find out how we can use instruction differently and how we can do a better job teaching everyone. It’s actually really effective and really helps every school make sure their students are where they need to be,” Nash said.
These tests can also help with getting into colleges as colleges can look into students past tests to see if the college would be a good fit. Students are studying hard for a test so that they can get a good score. Students and teachers are getting prepared for the longer schedules that are coming up in the next couple of weeks.