Last year exams like FSA, EOC, and any other big exam needed to pass the grade were canceled due to covid. This year Miami Dade County School have said that testing will not be canceled and will continue.

There is a lot of controversy about this issue. A lot of parents and teachers disagree with having student testing. Some parents have even said that they will not be taking their kid to school to take the exam because it could put them at risk of getting Covid-19.

The Florida Department of Education has said that school testing will continue this year, but it is not mandatory and there will be no consequences for not taking the tests.

Miami High freshman Emily Lacy’s mother said, “My daughter is currently doing school online. Sending her to school to take the exam puts her at risk of getting Covid. If she becomes ill, she may put her grandmother’s life in danger. Not only that, but this year’s students will not perform as well as in past years. With everything that’s been going on, kids are under a lot of stress, so they won’t be themselves while taking the exam.”

While many people think testing should be canceled, there are some who think it should continue.  Mr. Eden Nash, a teacher at Coral Gables, said,  “I personally think kids should take tests this year. Schools have been really careful dealing with the whole Covid situation. All the kids are mandated to wear masks. The tests will only last up to a few hours, and all the computers and equipment will be disinfected before and after any students use them. If we don’t have tests and let the kids pass grades regardless, the kids struggling now will have an even harder time next year.”

Some parents and students believe that the kids taking the test should be limited to only middle and high school. They also agree that special education kids shouldn’t go to school to take the tests.

David Brown, an  11^th grader, said,  “Elementary school is not as important as high school, so I feel like it’s stupid for them to take a test. As long as they know the basic stuff like adding and subtracting, they should be fine.”

Rosa Martines, also an 11^th grader, says, “My older brother has autism and is in the special ed program. He can’t really comprehend the effects of covid and has severe sensory overloads so it’s impossible to keep a mask on him.”

Yanada, a mother of two kids–one a senior and another in 3rd grade–said that taking kids to school to test could sometimes be hard. Her son in 3 grade has ADHD and could be harder to get him to listen sometimes. She’s scared that he might take his mask of during school or that he won’t be as careful about Covid as he should therefore, she will not be sending him to school to test. On the other hand, her daughter is 18 in 12^th  grade. She’s older and understands better how deadly Covid is. She’s more mature than her brother and is in a higher grade so she will be going to school to take the tests.