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Students tell board benchmarks feel low-stakes; trustees and staff promise better communication
Summary
Student trustees said benchmark testing often feels last-minute and not taken seriously; administrators discussed incentives, campusside interventions, and using ParentSquare to share results with families.
Student trustees told the board that benchmark tests are often announced at the last minute and that students and families do not always treat benchmarks with the importance they warrant, causing inconsistent results and test-day issues. One student said, "sometimes we don't know until the last minute... I didn't know that until today," and another noted noisy testing environments can affect performance.
Trustees and administrators responded with examples of campus incentives and targeted practices ("star kickbacks," boot-camp style sessions) intended to improve attendance and effort for benchmarks and STAR tests. District leaders said they plan to expand communications to families and use ParentSquare to push benchmark and progress-report data to parents to increase transparency and engagement.
Trustees said they want campuses to further clarify test schedules and for district staff to support consistent parent notification. No formal policy was adopted during the meeting; presenters encouraged continued parent and student outreach to improve testing conditions and preparation.
