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URLINGAME B Issue 7 Vol. 130
Burlingame High School, 1 Mangini Way, Burlingame, CA 94010
May 22, 2020
@TheBurlingameB
THEBURLINGAMEB.ORG
THE SENIOR ISSUE CLASS OF 2020 GOES DOWN IN HISTORY.
Students or guinea pigs: The College Board and online AP testing
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CLASS OF 2020 DRIVES THROUGH IN STYLE
Managing Editor
Arbizu to serve as principal at Aragon BY AMELIA HARRIS
Copy Editor
After serving as an assistant principal at Burlingame for the past six years, Valerie Arbizu plans to transition to Aragon High School next year to serve as principal there. Arbizu has been in the San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) as an administrator for the past eight years but has never worked as a principal before. In her time at Burlingame, Arbizu has worked with the teachers and counselors to improve the student support systems. Based on her work, Burlingame is now one of the leaders in the SMUHSD for helping students with needs varying from academic help to wellness counseling. Junior Elisabeth Weimar recalls Arbizu always being supportive, offering to let Weimar come into her office if she felt anxious or needed someone to talk to. In par-
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ticular, Weimar noticed how easy Arbizu is to talk to, noting that she is easily intimidated by adults but she felt that she could come to Arbizu for help without feeling intimidated. “She’s such a compassionate person and she feels for all of the students. So I think we’re losing someone who is the best at relating to how people — how the students — feel,” Weimar said. Arbizu feels that after working as an assistant principal for the past few years she is ready for a different experience, but emphasized that she cares about Burlingame. “After you’ve been someplace for a while you start to look out over the hedge and go… ‘What’s next? What’s the next challenge?’ For me, I feel like I’ve been an assistant principal,” Arbizu said. Arbizu is looking forward to the new challenges that Aragon will bring but says she will miss interacting with the people at Burlingame and getting to know stu-
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PHOTO BY AMELIA HARRIS
Online Advanced Placement (AP) testing began on May 11, and students have mixed reviews about the College Board’s solution to standardized testing in the age of COVID-19. While over 90% of respondents on a College Board poll following school shutdowns said they wished to participate in online AP testing, student opinions have widely shifted when faced by the reality of online AP tests. “It’s definitely stressful having to do everything in an hour and make sure everything uploads in time,” senior Cecilia Lunaparra said. “It’s a big change from before, so teachers that have been doing this for years don’t know what to expect either.” Students who went into testing with low expectations were not surprised by the College Board’s improvised set-up. “It went as well as I could’ve hoped,” senior Brendan Creeks said. “It was stressful airdropping pictures of my answers to submit for the physics test because it failed the first time, but then it eventually worked.” For some students, however, the online AP tests are more than a source of testing stress. Many students experienced glitches and errors with the uploading process that yielded their tests as invalid. These students must then apply to retake the test in June, an unpopular decision among many. “It wouldn’t let me attach my
file in the format it was in so I spent a bunch of time converting it,” senior Lucas Gilmour said. “After that, when I went to submit it, it said ‘submission processing’ for multiple minutes up until time ran out and they told me I would have to sign up for a makeup since one of my responses were not recorded.” This experience is not uncommon among the pioneers of online AP test takers, as the College Board reported that about 1 percent of the 2.2 million tests taken during the first week experienced technical glitches that resulted in an inability to submit. “I heard about many students having submission issues. I felt really bad for those students; they did all the work and it went to waste because of no fault of their own. I was really disappointed when the College Board announced on May 18, the first day of the second week of testing, that students were able to email responses that had submissions issues as a backup option. While I do think it is good that the College Board came out with this change, this option came out a week too late,” senior Zoe Keeley said. The backlash from students taking the College Board’s online AP tests is high; a class-action lawsuit has even been filed in federal court. The suit, which calls for over $500 million in compensation and damages, claims that the College Board knowingly went forward with the site, even though they knew there were glitches in the system.
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BY CLAIRE HUNT
PH O ES TO IG S N BY BY A RA ME CH LI A EL H YA AR P RIS
nline Advanced Placement (AP) testing began on May 11 and students have mixed reviews about the College Board’s solution to mass testing in the age of COVID-19.
Arbizu leading a student council meeting in March of 2019. dents and their families. “I have loved my six years at Burlingame… I’ve really enjoyed being part of the community and really welcomed by the community,” Arbizu said. “It’s hard to say goodbye.”
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