Hershey High School is making new changes to its makeup testing program.

At the beginning of this school year, the HHS administration announced that the makeup test center will be relocated to the guidance office. With both benefits and drawbacks, the move has raised questions amongst both the students and faculty as to what exactly this move will change.

The test center is a place for students to makeup tests that they missed during an absence. The teacher will put the test in the test center for students to complete on their own time. Before the test center was in place, students would have to find times that worked for both the teacher and their schedule. The test center eliminated that issue for many busy students and teachers.

During the 2017-18 school year, the library test center was open before, during, and after school. The before school hours lasted from 7 am until 7:38am. The after school hours were from 2:33 pm until 3:30 pm. During the school day, students could complete their tests over their lunch or their study hall periods.

For this upcoming school year, the new Guidance test center will be open from 7:10 am-3:00 pm. According to HHS principal, Mr. Smith, the test center is be going to run exactly the same way as last year, the only change being the location.

Smith explained that the reason behind the location switch was the concern about the testing environment due to the more collaborative atmosphere the space allows for.

“I love that the library is social point in our building, and we would like to keep it that way, so the guidance office is a smaller, quieter environment for students,” said Smith.

The relocation of the test center will allow students to collaborate in the library without disrupting students taking tests. As the library shifts from a testing environment, it will begin to offer a variety of spaces and resources for collaboration.

“There are comfortable areas for individual study, reading and group work. There are two collaboration tables with large screen TVs for small group work,” said Mackley.

While there are many benefits to the location change, there are some issues as well. The secretaries in the guidance office will have to adapt to the extra task during the day, as well as maintaining the integrity of the exams during the test center process. Furthermore, the testing center hours will not go until as late as previous years, so students with little time to make up exams during their day will be forced to workout a solution. Therefore, some teachers will opt out of using the test center, and they will instead proceed to have students come to their room for tests.

The test center opened on September 10 for student use. As time goes on, the administration will be evaluating and looking for feedback from students and faculty.