A lot has changed in CRLS since 1978, but one theme that has played a colossal role in education throughout those 40 years is the standardized test. From MCAS to SATs, standardized testing looms over students in their high school years.

In the March 1980 edition of The High School Times, a collection of articles written by students from all over Massachusetts, Meaghan E. B. Barrett from Ursuline Academy wrote “Open Testing Opens Doors”—an article about an open testing bill that would provide information about standardized tests to better enable parents, students, and teachers to “use the standardized test to their advantage.”

Although that bill is no longer a topic of discussion today, many of her points remain applicable to the pressure students still feel from standardized tests.

Barrett opens with the question: “How much do you really know about the one or two-hour exams you take four, maybe more, times in your life?” Barrett questions the presence standardized tests have in our academic lives—a point she goes back to later on in her article.

Testing takes up a lot of our time as CRLS students, and Barrett believed that we should all be more informed about that aspect of our education, especially what happens with the money that we spend on the test, and how much that money is actually goes towards develop. Not everyone has equal access to study materials, but we are all expected to do exceedingly well.

The issues that Meaghan Barrett was addressing don’t translate exactly to the issues we face today—we now have more transparency in testing than we did in 1980—but her point is still clear. Students should know what they’re getting into when they take a standardized test, and everyone should have the same resources while studying, especially since we test so much now, with Subject Tests, APs, ACTs, MCAS, Placement Exams, and more.

Barrett ends passionately, saying that “with the implementation of this [open testing] bill, students will be made fully aware of the severity, or lack thereof, of the standardized test.”

We often have such high expectations for ourselves and our test results, but it is important to take a step back and remind ourselves that it’s going to be OK.

This piece also appears in our October 2018 print edition.