Question: What happens when you make all 11th grade students statewide take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) on a Saturday instead of week-long Maine Educational Assessment (MEA) testing?
(a) Success. More kids apply to college than ever before and schools get a shining report card.
(b) Failure. Nobody shows up and schools are forced to test them again.
(c) A perfectly good Saturday goes to waste, leaving thousands of parents to bear the wrath of their grumpy teenagers.
Local educators are hoping for answer (a); a success story as Maine breaks new ground this year becoming the first New England state to require mandatory SAT testing of all high school juniors.
The goal is to replace MEA testing with the SAT so students can use their test scores to get into college, and schools can measure their success according to national and state standards.
Since the decision to make the SATs mandatory last fall, schools in the Lakes Region have been preparing their juniors in and out of the classroom for the big test.
In English classes, students reviewed vocabulary lists of words that might be on the SAT and practiced writing the five-paragraph essay since those pesky SAT analogies have been replaced by 25-minute “writing tests.”
In math courses, teachers have focused on Algebra and Geometry concepts, using sample SAT questions. Outside the classroom, students were enrolled in SAT prep programs online, like “Testgear,” that teach test-taking strategies and feature sample SAT tests.
In the Windham High School auditorium on Tuesday morning, Principal Deborah McAfee gave her juniors some last minute advice before Saturday’s test.
Study, get a good night’s sleep and “don’t miss being here at any cost,” she told them.
Breakfast will be served before the test – minus coffee – and students are expected to be in their seats at 7:45 a.m. sharp, number-two pencils ready in hand for the four-hour test.
“It will be interesting to see how the kids do,” McAfee said. “We’ve never been a SAT test site before.”
Seventy-five percent of Windham students already take the test each year, she says. The added benefit this year, beyond extra in-class preparation, is that parents won’t have to pay the typical $45 fee for their teenagers to take the SAT. All costs are being covered by the Department of Education.
But for this educational experiment to work, 95 percent of juniors must be tested in order for their SAT scores to reflect how well schools are meeting the Maine Learning Results as is commonly assessed through MEA testing.
“If this is going to become the 11th grade test, then we should take it with purpose,” McAfee said. “It’s not only telling the kids how they are doing; it’s also giving us feedback.”
In exchange for the students’ precious Saturday, Windham High School juniors are granted a “free day” to be used whenever they want. Other schools are letting their students take Monday off.
Travis Cook, a junior from Raymond, believes he’s as prepared as he can be for the test after online study and in-class preparation. And he’s also glad for the change.
“The SATs actually count,” Cook said. “The MEAs are just more standardized testing.”
His friend Chad Beckwith says after so much preparation for the SAT “you either know it or you don’t” by now.
Both students plan to go to college after high school. They say their parents have also pressured them to study for the SAT, telling them “not to joke off because the testing is free.”
Meanwhile at Bonny Eagle High School, the original anxiety of getting students prepared for the test has subsided and Principal Sheila Jepson is now excited to see how her juniors fare on the SATs.
“The initial feelings of ‘how are we going to get this accomplished?’ have passed,” she said. “I think it’s a good thing for our students. Kids didn’t always take the MEAs seriously and I think they’ll take the SAT testing more seriously now.”
Lake Region High School Principal Roger Lowell is skeptical about the mandatory SATs, though the school has rigorously been preparing its student for the Saturday testing. Lake Region High School also made it a graduation requirement for all students to take the SAT.
“The biggest problem so far was that the decision was made after the school year started,” Roger Lowell said. “I also have some questions as to whether it’s an appropriate test for many students.”
The woman behind this SAT experiment is state Commissioner of Education Susan Gendron.
Understanding that not all Maine students are afforded the same opportunities, Gendron felt it important that all students take the SATs and realize that there is “a college for everyone.” So she had a research team study how well the SATs could integrate with the Maine Learning Results.
“Times have change and we have to ensure that we graduate kids that are college and career ready,” Gendron said.
If all goes well, the test will serve its “dual purpose” and perhaps more accurately reflect how local schools are doing statewide and nationally since some juniors didn’t take the MEA testing seriously in past years, she said.
But time will tell whether this educational experiment makes the mark as all high school juniors test the mandatory SAT this Saturday.
High school juniors took sample SAT tests like this one, taken from an online course, in preparation for the mandatory SAT testing on Saturday. Send questions/comments to the editors.
