by Sydney Hansen @_sydneyhansen
Despite long term use of the ACT to test high school students’ preparedness for college, the state of Illinois has voiced incentive to switch to the recently redesigned SAT. Although the switch is not official, the lower cost and alignment to the Common Core curriculum are positive aspects that are likely to contribute to the transition. Even though the testing situation in Illinois remains unconfirmed, LT has decided to provide an in-school ACT to juniors on April 19, despite having to fund the cost of administering the test, Coordinator of Assessment and Research Katie Smith said. “We have a one-year [contract],” Smith said. “We’ll have to make decisions [about testing] based on what the state decides or what the state can pay for moving forward.” For nearly 15 years, the ACT has reigned supreme in Illinois as a mandatory test for high school graduation. As a result, the amount of SAT test-takers has declined 46 percent over the past seven years in Illinois, according to the Washington Post.
“[The ACT] format is formulaic enough to really study for PSAT during eighth through 10th grades would exist, efficiently,” Cristian Gonzalez ’16 said. “The SAT, in my thereby allowing students to predict their SAT score prior opinion, is very difficult. Many of the questions were written to their junior year,” Smith said. complexly and, especially in regards to the English section, Alike to the SAT, the PSAT/NMSQT administered in used a ton of jargon.” the fall of 2015 reflected changes that coincided with those According to the College Board, the organization that made to the SAT, according to the test prep company Ivy administers the SAT, and The WashGlobal. This specific test is given the ington Post, the newly reformatted NMSQT acronym to delineate its usage I think if Illinois SAT will return to a 1600-point scale as the National Merit Scholarship Qualswitched to the SAT, that was previously employed up unifying Test, which gives students the til 2005, when the exam switched to opportunity to qualify as National Merit [it] would pose some a 2400-point scale. The new SAT will Scholars and earn scholarship awards. issues. A lot of students exclude the infamous, obscure vocab“I took a PSAT prep class during the have committed to pre- summer so I figured I should probably ulary that had been a component of the test; instead, it will test words fretake the test,” Lucy Meehan ’17 said. “It paring for and taking quently used in real life and will no was not the [testing] format I was used the ACT.” longer include a 1/4-point guessing to since I spent a good chunk of time in penalty. the summer preparing for the ACT.” -Lucy Meehan ‘17 “I like that the SAT has taken these Since the redesigned SAT will not be steps to make the test a tad more fair,” Gonzalez said. “Hope- administered until March 2016, the LT community is less fully in the long run this’ll prove to help the students do bet- experienced with the formatting of that specific standardter.” ized test when compared to the ACT. Fewer than 80 LT Although questions remain over what will ultimate- students took the SAT during the 2014-2015 school year, ly happen with standardized testing in Illinois, the College according to Smith. Board offers a PSAT in eighth through 11th grades, as well as “I think if Illinois switched to the SAT [it] would pose the SAT, Smith said. some considerable issues,” Meehan said. “A lot of students “If the state did switch, the possibility to administer a have committed to preparing for and taking the ACT.”
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Budget issues, contract halts final decision on SAT test
LION staff would like to empower a greater number of students. Starting next issue, LION will incorporate a new section called “The LION’s Ears.” The idea behind the section is to gather information on what the student body believes needs to change at LT to make our school a better and more productive place for all. Submissions will be taken through LION’s Twitter page and webpage. The concerns submitted can range from smaller issues, such as a problem with cafeteria food, to large issues such as timeliness of grading assignments. All students with any school related issues are welcome to submit their concern with an explanation and a possible solution, if they have one. Each month, the staff will choose the three most significant issues to print in the paper accompanied with background information and possible solutions for each issue. Once the staff has investigated an issue, a short summary will be published explaining the outcome. At times, it seems as though there is a lack of communication between students and faculty regarding what students would like to experience. “The LION’s Ears” will serve as a way to capture and quantify what the student body is thinking. After all, the LION Newspaper has been “the voice of Lyons Township students for more than 100 years.”
Physics I introduces new policy No harm finals become possibility for future math, science courses by Garrett Ariana @garrettariana3
In past years, AP Physics I courses have normally had around 30 to 40 percent of its students exempt the final exam. For the first semester of the 2015-2016 school year, not a single student exempted. For the first time ever, these students were offered a chance to take the final with no harm to their grade if they completed a review packet with AP-level content to the point of mastery: a 70 percent. “The Physics AP and Physics prep teachers all said the same thing: students really paid attention going into the final,” the Math and Science Division Chair Ismael Zamora said. “They paid attention in class, they were really engaged and involved and they had really great questions.” This new concept was designed for students who would have exempted the first semester physics final and then been caught off guard by the AP test in May as they had no clue what the exam would be like, AP Physics I teacher Jim Mshar said.
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“[This policy] is intended to prepare [students] for getting ready for final exams, to understand the process of studying and to master a concept,” Zamora said. Despite it being a no-harm final, only about less than 10 people actually had their grade benefit with it being bumped up a letter grade, AP Physics I and Astronomy teacher Kevin Murphy said. As far as first semester goes, teachers were incredibly pleased with the results and the data that backs it up, yet changes will most likely be made to yield a better reflection of students’ understanding of the material, Zamora said. “My colleagues and I felt that the review this year didn’t necessarily hold individual students as accountable as we hoped.” Murphy said. What will most likely be done second semester, according to Murphy, is that a review guide will be given out to students with suggested material to look at and helpful problems to know; however, that packet itself will not be looked at or graded by teachers whatsoever. Then, in the week preceding finals, five daily quizzes will be given where students will be required to get an aggregate number of points
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