With nearly three months down in the school year, classes are beginning to wrap up units and topics, which only means one thing: tests, tests, tests.

With hybrid learning still happening in Township High School District 214, tests and assessments have been hard to come by this year due to numerous concerns, including academic integrity and logistics. Due to the current situation, formative assessments have been a lot more common. 

“It’s a tricky business, and thus far, I’ve only done formative ones [assessments],” Elk Grove sophomore English teacher Lisa Martineau said via email. 

Martineau said she does have an idea of what she will be giving writing and other quizzes on in a way that is best for her and her students. 

Apps like Schoology, Notability, Classkick and Socrative have all been options thus far. However, Classkick is one of the few apps in which a teacher can monitor students and see when students are and aren’t doing what they are supposed to in the app. 

To prevent cheating, Andrea Kopkowski, an Elk Grove math teacher, has her students get on two devices during quizzes and unit tests. One device to stay on the Zoom call and another to take the quiz on Classkick. Students must have their camera on so that she can see both the students’ faces and their iPad screens. This way of testing has been extremely successful for Kopkowski so far, she says, and she plans on to keep doing it as long as EGHS is doing hybrid learning.

World language teachers like EGHS Spanish teacher Diana Cappelen are having students do video assessments, in which they speak on a topic in a short video. She is also doing some of her quizzes on Schoology. 

“Our team is trying to be flexible, give student choice and avoid cheating,” Capplen said via email. 

And with the likelihood of hybrid learning still happening in the foreseeable future, different departments and their teams of teachers are coming up with creative ways to test students. Doing video assessments, group projects in breakout rooms, and individual assessments have all been options that have been successful so far this school year. 

However, assessment isn’t as much of a concern as the hope that the Covid-19 Pandemic ends sooner rather than later. Teachers have been eager to get back to normal and see all their students at once.

“It is hard, but we are thinking outside of the box,” Cappelen said via email.