Every Staples student knows about the assessment center. When some of us think of it, we think of a cold room, creaking chairs, timers going off, long lines of students, frazzled teachers, missing tests, flying papers and a terrible environment to take an assessment. 

This was obviously never the administration’s intention.

The assessment center was put in place for students to be able to effectively make up tests during their free time at school. 

“I absolutely think that [the assessment center] is a huge resource that we have that we cannot do without,” math teacher Rasha Tarek said.

In theory, it is an idea that works well; however, the reality is that there are issues that need to be addressed to make test taking more convenient and efficient.

“It’s distracting having people coming in and out during the period,” Annabelle Luo ’24 said. “Teachers handing out tests have to talk to students while others are taking a test, [making] assessment makeups a stressful experience.” 

Teachers in the assessment center are also sympathetic towards students since they are not given a quiet environment to work in.

“When kids come in, there are a lot of them for us to get set with the timer and test, so other students [who are already taking tests] can sometimes lose focus because of the commotion,” world language teacher Priscilla Wentworth said.  

While some students may be taking a small quiz, others are taking finals and tests that could have a large impact on their grade. 

“Students should try to go to the assessment learning center first thing in the period to avoid being a distraction to other students by walking in in the middle of the period,” Luo said. 

Beyond the distractions, there are other issues related to the test make-up process. The increasing number of students in the assessment center has been reducing its efficiency and efficacy.

“There are not always enough timers or desks, so if you’re not guaranteed to be able to take your test because of the lack of materials,” Luo said.

Additionally, the high number of students taking tests results in long lines at the start of the period, meaning some students can’t get immediately started, and therefore don’t finish when the bell rings. This brings up questions related to test security.

“I do think that for academic integrity,” art teacher Stacey Phelan said, “students should be required to finish tests in one session.”