The Staples High School assessment makeup center is open after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning at 3 p.m., allowing students without the required availability during the school day the opportunity to make up or finish exams. The school moved to keep the assessment center open beyond school hours following an Inklings editorial published last April that criticized the noise, crowdedness and all-around ineffectiveness of the center.
Library Paraprofessional Cathy Carlson monitors the assessment center after school hours. Students do not need to make an appointment with her, but can simply “walk-in.”
“On average, we have about seven-to-eight students per day,” she said. “The most I had one day was 21, which was a bit crazy. It is always helpful if a teacher knows that there are many students from their class going to make up a test to let me know in advance.”
The assessment center stays open as long as a student needs to complete an exam in full. Sometimes, students take multiple tests in one afternoon, Carlson explains. For students without free periods, this is particularly beneficial.
“I don’t have a free [period] this year, and I sometimes have to miss class for sports, so it’s really nice that the assessment center is open after school now,” Sam Zwick-Lavinsky ’25 said. “It just minimizes a lot of the stress of having to figure out alternate times to make up tests without missing class.”
This change aims to benefit both students and teachers in the assessment center. With fewer students requiring the whole period to take assessments, teachers are less rushed in facilitating exams. However, not all teachers have noticed a significant difference in the use of the center during school hours.
“So far, I haven’t noticed the assessment center is any less busy than it was in previous years, especially not during the lunch period,” German teacher Liuba Ulianova said. “But I think that’s because not a lot of students know that the center is even open after school. I hope that in time we will see a decline in the number of students who use the assessment center each period.”
