April, the month that every student on campus dreads. The month where tension is at its pinnacle. Stress is high, patience is low, all around school these feelings can be felt. The hallways are clustered with chatter of uncertainty; some students have their heads buried deep in a text book, hoping to collect as much info as they need. Finally, some students have just mentally surrendered and are awaiting the approaching maelstrom, as one would await the apocalypse

With the election of Governor Doug Ducey, some considerable changes have been made to the already fragile education system. Along with budget cuts masqueraded as “education reforms;” there was a pivotal choice to do-away with AIMS standardized testing and initiate the new and still-in-the-works AzMerit test.

Much to the dismay and vexation of the Junior class, they had to participate in the human clinical trials for AzMerit, despite having already taken the phased-out AIMS testing the previous year. After being promised half-days for passing AIMS on the testing days, the dreams of having to go to school for only a small fraction of the day are mercilessly dashed when the government figuratively said “Hey guys, we’re going to force you into this test which will have absolutely no impact on your education at this point!”

The AzMerit test has as much merit as bowl of cereal on fire. It did not have any effect on graduation in any way, shape, and/or form. Supposedly, the only credit that these are actually worth are points in the respective classes. It makes sense, seeing as how the wording of the Reading section questions are butchered to death and back. They would often times present a paragraph from an article/story and ask you to, and I quote, “bubble the letter before one/two sentence/s.” Better yet, there was the rather irrelevant question about a portrait of Nikolai Tesla in a passage about him. Who honestly cares about the portrait?

Testing, regardless of its credibility, can be a major annoyance. At the moment, it is important for Juniors to realize that this test has almost no effect on their graduation eligibility, and to prepare for the more important SAT/ACT testing.