After two years of on and of learning, standardized tests have finally come back in Arizona schools in the school year from 2021-2022. 

This spring, students are preparing to take their standardized testing which includes the AZ Academic Standards Assessment for grades 3 through 8 and ACT testing for high school students. Chandler Unified School District is expecting the scores to be low because of the gap that there has been in learning due to COVID-19. “When we look at the testing data like this, it gives us a reflection of where we are as a whole and the community. And the drops that we saw from last year were definitely a reflection of how we’ve been doing in this once in a 100 year event, the pandemic, that none of us have ever experienced before,” Erin Hart, senior vice president and chief of policy and community impact at Education Forward Arizona told “azcentral.” Hart is saying that the results of the test show us how well we are dealing with the pandemic in terms of school. 

There was a study that showed that 81 percent of teachers think that the nature of testing makes students stressed. Teachers think that there should be a different approach to tests which may help to increase scores. Testing also affects school funding because these tests determine the letter grade of the school which then determines the funding that the school receives. If the grades on the standardized tests come out low, then the school receives a low grade and the funding becomes decreased.