This year, McIntosh changed from Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) to Student Progress Measures (SPMs) to measure how much a student has learned throughout the year. The test is given in the beginning of the year as a pretest, and then the same test is given during March. This year, the SPMs occurred during the week of March 20.

Assistant principal Mr. Keith Haber said, “The purpose of the SPMs is to rate a teacher’s effectiveness based on the growth of their students. It also provides students with an ability to see how much they have grown and lets them know what areas they need to study.”

Math teacher Ms. Laura Chaffin said, “As a teacher I feel like the test has more implication on my score in my evaluation than it does for the students.  I feel like 2 percent is not heavily weighted enough for students to really take them seriously, so it isn’t a true representation of what they have learned.  I think they should allow teachers to count the SPM as a test grade or at least give it more weight.”

Sophomore Anna Muh said, “I don’t think that we should have to take the SPMs because they restrict a teacher’s curriculum. It forces them to teach to the test rather than to teach in a way that allows students to actually engage and learn.”