SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

Keystone Exams

Column: I Hate Keystones

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By Dalena Bui

Staff Writer 

The Keystone Exams are end-of-course assessments designed to assess proficiency in various subjects. The Keystones show the school district how well students are assessed and it reflects on the school and how well they teach the students.

Keystones. That name alone makes the juniors at SLA stomachs drop. The juniors at SLA have never heard of Keystones until this year. The reason why is because the Keystones were made to replace the PSSA. The only thing I heard was that it is a test that lasted for 3 hours. That made my heart drop. Taking a test is hard alone, but taking a 3 hour test sounded horrible. The juniors were tested in 3 major subject, English, Math, and Science.

I am not allowed to write about things I saw in the Keystone but I can give an overall evaluation of what I felt. The math and english section I felt confident in. But when I heard about science I wasn’t too sure of myself. I felt like I couldn’t recall anything I learned over the past 2 years in science. The test confirmed my worst fear. There were things I have never seen in the subject of science. I knew I was not going to do well and so did the rest of my classmates . We all agreed when we all looked at each other and said “See all of you in May, because we’re not passing this.”

The worst part about testing was sitting in a room for hours on end with nothing to do. Since my cell phone and every other juniors phone was taken away. We all had to sit there and do nothing until the time ran out. That was honestly, to me, the worst part of the Keystone week. But, when I finished the last question on each test I felt a sense of accomplishment.

Overall, it was a good experience. It really showed me that I have learned a lot over the years. My teachers all helped us prepare for the test and it did help for the most part. This test brought out the worst and the best in me.

Juniors Begin Keystone Exams

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By Heather Campbell

Staff Writer

Science Leadership Juniors will begin testing for the Keystone Exams starting on Tuesday, January 15th. This is the first time the Keystone Exams are being introduced to the Philadelphia School District, replacing the previous PSSA exam.

The Keystone Exams are the new state mandated end-of-course test designed to determine the status of high schools and their students proficiency in core subjects. The exam will test the students’ understanding of Literature, Algebra I, and Biology.

As a part of the national No Child Left Behind laws, each year the school has to hit certain percentages in testing to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress.

“This year it’s important because it’s how SLA is measured against other schools in Philly,” stated Testing Coordinator and Math Teacher Mark Miles.

Right now, the tests are only used to assess the school. Starting for the class of 2017, however, the Keystone Exams will become a graduation requirement for all students.
According to the Philadelphia School District, the state plans to introduce more exams as part of the graduation requirements. A Composition exam is expected to commence in 2019 and a Civics and Government exam in 2020. A Geometry, U.S. History, Algebra II, Chemistry, and World History exam may be implemented for voluntary use.

For the past couple of months, juniors have been preparing for the exams. “In English and Math class, we’ve had review packets and quizzes,” commented Junior Jhonas Dunakin, “It’s kind of like a refresher from what you learnt from before.”

With all of the review, Juniors are both feeling the pressure to perform and starting to get burned out on the practice.

“I want it to be finished. It’s taking away from what we usually do,” stated Junior Victoria Yarbrough, “We put on hold our trigonometry, which I really need to know, for something I already know.”

The juniors are not the only ones preparing for the exams. Mr. Miles has been running training sessions for proctoring during professional development. Being a school that does not hold much value in testing, the faculty and staff have a tradition to make the experience more bearable.

“It started with Mr. Chase, who didn’t like the whole testing coordinator thing, so he gave himself a different nickname.” commented Mr. Miles. This tradition has allowed the testing coordinators to give themselves a different persona to separate themselves from the position.

“There is the educator, who we are normally,” said Mr. Miles, “and then there is the testing coordinator.”

This year the juniors’ Keystone Exams are run by Marky Mark and his helpers, the Funky Bunch.