Zebra Tales
Give It Your AllMonday, April 25, 2005 By Shanae Elzea
When students think of STAR testing, thoughts of sitting in classrooms for hours on end and bubbling in hundreds of circles envelope the minds of those involved in such a tedious effort. The administration wants us to do our best because of the pride that we should take in our results. Let’s relate the same idea to another instance. Imagine being at a sporting event and you are competing against the rest of the state. Do you really want to make a fool of yourself by not trying at all while everyone’s scores are much better than yours? Yes, you may get nothing out of this, but you should at least try for your own self-pride. When people look at your scores they are going to immediately think that you are as good or as bad as your scores. In reality, you could be much more than just your score. Students think that the STAR test is just a way to boost the school’s reputation and to receive money from the state and so they don’t try. Some may wonder why the administration wastes their breath telling the student body to do well because the outcome does affect the individual. Ms. Allen reiterates, “Students don’t realize how important it (STAR tests) is to them.” Surprisingly, this test affects you more than you think. Freshmen and sophomores if you don’t try you best than you can say good-bye to choosing your own classes. If you decide to bomb and make designs with your answers, your English class can easily be taken away. By flunking the STAR testing you show the school that you don’t comprehend what you read like others in your class and aren’t at the same grammatical level as your peers. This can get you a spot in a reading and comprehension class that you can’t get out of. Even if you say that you didn’t try on the tests the school cannot let you into a regular English class. Juniors are also affected by the results of their efforts. You may not have known, but the colleges can decide what classes you can take. If you feel like flunking the STAR test you may be stuck in a college class that doesn’t even count towards graduating units. So you would be paying for classes that aren’t going to go toward anything in college. You may want to put the effort forth now in this test than pay for classes that don’t count for anything. For all high school students, colleges are thinking of taking parts of the STAR tests to help them decide for entrance applications. Colleges could use the test to decide between two applicants that have all the same grades and pick the one that has the better test results. This affects all students that want to go to college. Doing well on these tests you, “know where you are compared in your own school and the state,” Mr. Butler. Putting forth effort in the STAR tests will help you more than you think. Doing well on this test helps you in years to come, but also just helps your self-pride. Don’t sell yourself short because you feel like being lazy and bubbling in circles for whatever reasons. Do well because you have self-pride and you want to be able to compare your score to others in the state and know that the score you got illustrates your intellectual ability. The school has saved some money for a school picnic the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend if we, as a school, do well. So there is some motivation to do well on the STAR testing for everyone no matter who you are. Please, for the pride of the school and for yourself, do well so that you can size up yourself next to others and have a nice school picnic at the end of the year. |