Un’stella’r Night SBAC test will be administered to juniors during early to mid-April

MEREL TAN NEWS EDITOR

Nyctophobia

Phobias arise from the deprivations of clairvoyance and overactive imaginations. It’s a branch of fear, a byproduct of an apprehensive irrationality and our survival instinct. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been timid in the dark, despite growing up in the opaque shroud. But I never thought how my fear of the dark could have been anything else but fear.

When the subject of China’s cities comes to mind, many think of its bustling metropolises. Cities like Shanghai and Beijing have incandescent streets and buildings. Lights envelope everything in its warm, artificial glow and cacophonies of cars and dialects fill the silence. Rural China is the opposite. The leaving of dusk means a blanket of pure black. Living there, nyctophobia sunk its fangs into my head. It’s the deprivation of my sight that I hate. Anything could happen in the dark, and I wouldn’t even see it coming.

Childishly, I’d hoped it would fade away when I immigrated to the United States because I’d have a house with stable electricity. It didn’t.

The first time I slept alone with all the lights off, I stayed awake for hours, uselessly straining my eyes because I’d been afraid of things in the dark that are there when they’re not supposed to be. My overactive imagination worsens it all. The darker shape of my closet warps into silhouettes of two cloaked sadists. The creaks and slight dips of the bed from my own movement somehow meant that something – or someone – was right beside me, awaiting for the moment when curiosity won over fear so its hideous face and intent could be revealed. I could never open the lights to any dark room or go anywhere near that obscurity.

I’m still afraid of the dark. I’m reminded whenever I open the door to the lightless garage or when I round the corner to the stairs, fearing for a monster that’s never there. Nyctophobia never released its teeth from my head, though time and flashlights diluted it. Darkness no longer has as much control over my life as it once did. It remains as an eccentric bridge between my old home and my current one; it’s a reminder of how far I’ve gone and yet, at the same time, how I’m still myself from ten years ago.

During the second and third week of April, juniors will take the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), a test whose purpose is to measure students’ skills in English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics. The results of the students’ standards for both subjects will be “not met,” “nearly met,” “met,” or “exceeded.”

After conducting a poll in which 30 juniors were asked if they knew what the SBAC test is and how seriously they take the test (either “not seriously at all,” “somewhat seriously,” and “extremely seriously”), 24 said that they knew what the SBAC test is, nine said that they take the test “extremely seriously,” and five said that they take the test “not seriously at all.”

“[I don’t take the SBAC test seriously at all.] I don’t have enough time to prepare for the SBAC test because managing other classes is challenging sometimes,” said junior Dylan Vo.

Furthermore, the poll revealed that out of the 30 juniors, 16 said that they take the test “somewhat seriously.”

“I take the SBAC test somewhat seriously because I understand that the test scores will reflect the grades and academic status of our school,” said junior Jing Tran. “However, I don’t particularly study for it or prepare for it so I don’t take it extremely seriously.”

According to the California Assessment of Student

Performance and Progress (CAASPP) website, during the 2021-22 school year, the percentages of Californian juniors whose standards were either “not met,” “nearly met,” “met,” or “exceeded” in the ELA section were roughly the same (ranging from 21.61% to 29.19%). However, in the same year, the percentage of Californian juniors whose standards were “not met” in mathematics was 51.76%, with only 26.97% of

Californian juniors meeting or exceeding the standard for mathematics.

“I prepare my students for the SBAC by giving them packets, teaching them the curriculum that I know will be on the SBAC, and by using M.E. time to answer any questions on the SBAC,” said math teacher Huong Tran.