On December 23^rd, 2015, juniors across the state of Colorado were sent into a state of panic upon hearing the news that the Colorado state-mandated testing would be switching from the ACT to the SAT. At AHS, many juniors had been tutoring for months, and even more had already had a semester of prep for the ACT test, barely even touching on the SAT. Upon the return to school after Winter break, there was outrage among the class of 2017, many of whom wondered how this could possibly be remedied.

Although after backlash from students, teachers, and counselors alike the Colorado Department of Education later made the decisions to allow current juniors to only take the ACT spring, seeing as students in this year’s junior class would have only had about 4 months to prepare for a different test than the one they had been expecting and preparing for some time. However, the state mandated testing will change the SAT for future classes. An email sent out to junior students from Melissa Lustig confirmed although juniors are exempt from the ACT, “this year’s 10^th graders [will] take the take the PSAT in preparation for Colorado’s full transition to the SAT in spring 2017.”

“At first, I was so mad because I felt like I had already put in so much money into an ACT tutor, but once juniors were exempt from taking the SAT in April, I was fine with the decision,” junior Jordana Rothberg said. Rothberg also added that after adjusting to the idea, she was contemplating switching her focus to the SAT because she thought that the format of the test worked better for her.

AHS college counselor Kathy Klug does not foresee the transition from the ACT to the SAT as a particularly difficult one, but does anticipate that state test scores for Aspen could potentially drop within the next few years.

“I think that [the SAT] has the potential to put us behind for a little while, but not for long, and I also think that our kids are smart. Math is math, no matter what test,” Klug said.

Klug also added that although state mandated testing has been switched to the SAT, students in future classes can continue to tutor in and take the ACT, depending on which test they feel more comfortable with.

So far, it does not appear that the change to the SAT has caused great worry or discontent with the class of 2018, however students are a bit worried about being the first class to take the SAT as their state mandated test since 2004 (according to Klug).

“It’s a bit abrupt, and I feel like we’re kind of the guinea pigs, so it makes me a little nervous,” sophomore Simone Lamont said.

Although the change was certainly abrupt, Klug stresses that there is nothing for students and parents worry about.

“Although it is a different test, there is much of the same material. Sure, there are some small changes. The ACT has trigonometry and the SAT doesn’t, but it’s little things. We appealed to the CDE this year and won, so we have over a year to prepare,” said Klug. “There is no need for stress.”