By Naomi Nguyen
On May 20-21, juniors took part in the EAP, or Early Assessment Program. The program results are used by The California State University system and participating California Community Colleges for placement. The program is meant to allow students to transition more easily into their first year of college.
Earlier in the year, students also took another part of the EAP that included writing an essay that would later be scored. Recently juniors also took the CST with 15 questions specific to EAP testing added in. This shift in the testing placement has frustrated students.
“It seemed pretty pointless to go through the whole CST testing just so they can score just the EAP portion,” Elizabeth Huang (‘15) stated. “ It seems like it was just an extra state testing that juniors had to go through for the sake of college preparedness.”
Christian Warloe (’15) said, “I think its nice that you get a chance to test out of some classes for college, but I thought it was a bit pointless that we had to take the whole CST if all the questions aren’t for the EAP anyway.”
This was the last time the CST would be used as part of the EAP, and beginning next year, the EAP will include the Smarter Balanced computer adaptive assessments for ELA and mathematics rather than the augmented CST.
If students do not score high enough, they will be placed either in remedial classes during the summer or their first year of college, which puts on pressure for students to do well on the test.
“It’s kind of scary thinking you might have to take remedial classes, but I’m hoping for the best,” said Calvin Chau (‘15).
