Duncan Middle School students are preparing for the OCCT test, which is the state testing they’ve spent most of the year preparing for.
The testing window opens April 6, and this year, testing will start with virtual students during the first week of the testing window.
The OCCT tests is designed to let students know how they compare to other students across the state, while showing them as advanced, proficient or limited knowledge. The tests cover the standards classes were set to teach this year.
Some students decided to go virtual this year, which means those students may be at a disadvantage becuase they were not present in class and may never have heard more in-depth explanations from teachers.
Kasy Clauson, an eighth-grade math teacher, records her classes and puts them on Google Classroom to give virtual and quarantine students an opportunity to get the full less. But it is up to those students to watch those videos.
Principal Rodney Strutton said a testing plan has been underway for months at DMS to ensure virtual students and in-person students get a chance to test.
“The students who are virtual will have to come into the building to take the test,” Strutton said.
Eighth-graders are under more stress this year than any other year because they have to take a writing test and pass it in order to receive their learner’s permit and eventually their driver’s license. It is also their last year in the middle school before they move onto high school.
Sixth and seventh-grade students will be testing in reading and math. Eighth-grade students will test in reading, writing, math and science.
