By Heidy Ornelas

This November, 12th graders across Colorado took the first of these next-generation Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) science and social studies assessments. Each year starting this November, seniors will continue taking the social studies and the science new CMAS assessments.

All seniors are required to take CMAS. The new tests are supposed to measure what students have learned since 9th grade, and this is the first year the exam has been given. The CMAS test is a difficult test because not all questions are multiple choice, and the test is taken online.

When asked what the test was like, senior Marco Hakim’s response was, “Twenty four questions with around 25% requiring typed answers.” Hakim also said that the test was not so hard, but there was a lot of writing, which took time.

The day of the scheduled test many students from Cherry Creek and Boulder high school’s protested on Nov. 12-13, refusing to take the standardized test. They all protested because they thought this test is nothing but a distraction, a waste of time and money. Seniors are already stressed about college applications, ACT’s and SAT’s. The CMAS doesn’t align with their high school curriculum; some of the test questions include subjects  like biology, which most students have not taken in several years. The most worrisome part is that the teachers and  the schools’ evaluations are tied to this new standardized test. Considering that students might be tired of taking tests, they might have not taken their time through this exam, which could have left the evaluation failing.

 Despite all the protest contradicting on this new idea of having a new test senior year, most Wheat Ridge High seniors stuck through it and got the test over with. The way Hakim saw it, “It’s just another test and we got half days at school, so it wasn’t really that bad.”