![Walking through the tunnel created by the cheerleaders and Celebrities, senior Frances Tran smiles as the soccer team is sent off during DEN for their playoff game against Rouse tonight. Tran said the wins against Smithson Valley and Alamo Heights gave the team a morale boost to take on the Raiders tonight. “I know we were not 100% confident in those games,” Tran said. “But, Rouse is a big opponent for sure. We’re definitely going into tonight with a lot of morale [because of the previous wins].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/frances-tran.jpg)
![Holding a bucket of materials in one hand and a roll of tape in another, anatomy and biology teacher Tyler Terry prepares for a lab. Terry said his proudest moments are when his students are happy to see him. “When I take my wife to a football game or something and a bunch of students want to say hi to me or they like to smile and wave and it just makes me feel good that the students are really kind and supportive of me,” Terry said. “[I’m also] proud when I see students perform really well in their extracurriculars because I can see how hard they’re working in my classes, [so] when I see that they’re also working so hard in other things. Like they’re winning band competitions or they’re getting awards for their theater productions, or I see them put on their choir shows, that’s like, wow, you guys are incredible.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rags-6.png)
![Catching a ball, junior Alivia Robinson plays at the Cedar Park vs Glenn game. Having played since she was 5 years old, she is dedicated to softball and has committed to UTPB for softball. “When I got my offer it took me a very long time to decide where,” Robinson said. “Softball has always been my dream for college, and UTPB is my fit. When [I committed] I knew I was going to be loved and supported.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Lilly-Adams-3.13aliviaedit-901.jpg)
STAAR-Gazing
High School Students Prepare for the English STAAR Test
A sample essay prompt for the English II STAAR exam is shown. English Teacher Lauren Madrid said believes that her students are prepared to take the exam. “I will give my students all the material they need to succeed – grammar assessments, opportunities to read essays from the past, poetry analysis and more,” Madrid said. “To me, it’s realistic that some of my classes can all score above 80, even if the district isn’t graded by results this year.”
April 21, 2021
Tomorrow, high school students will take the English II STAAR test. All eyes are on the Texas Education Agency as they plan to administer the STAAR digitally at monitored test sites. Even though many students across Texas are stuck learning remotely, the agency went forward with its plans.
Some critics of the test, like the Association of Texas Professional Educators, are citing how transmission rates of COVID-19 will potentially rise if kids are required to take it physically. Students like sophomore Kai Gray are also questioning the decision.
“I think it’s a sensible decision to take the STAAR test,” Gray said. “But why are we meeting physically, while the test is still taken on computers? The administrators of the test should have planned this better, especially with reports of how their site is working.”
Statewide reports are coming in that the website students from elementary to high school are using is running slowly, or not allowing users to log in. Although it seems the TEA will take steps to improve the situation from April 6, the technical issues and transmission risk have been a major point of contention for many. Should students miss this test, their only other opportunity is next December. The day before the test, students are also required to load the STAAR Online Testing Platform on a district-owned computer.
“Yesterday was the first time in months I used my district-owned laptop,” sophomore Caleb Taylor said. “The TEA should allow an at-home option, but since this is the format they decided I can only hope it runs smoothly.”
![Holding her dog, Nova, senior Ariana Balakrishnan poses for her senior pictures while Nova wears a bandana with her college decision. Balakrishnan applied to 18 colleges in total, but she decided on Columbia in the end. “Right before I clicked the button to open Columbia’s letter, I literally looked at the camera and go ‘This is just gonna really suck because I wanted it so bad,’ and I clicked it and all of a sudden you hear trumpets,” Balakrishnan said. “There’s a video that plays when you open it and I actually didn’t watch the video, I just watched the screen go black, because every day of December before ED [Early Decision] I would go on YouTube and watch the acceptance video to manifest it, so immediately when the screen went black, I started screaming and jumping up and down. And my parents in the video are like ‘What are you doing, where’s the letter,’ and I was just screaming ‘I got in, I got in.” I just started crying, and it just felt like everything in the world came together.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ariana-2-300x217.jpg)
![Catching a ball, junior Alivia Robinson plays at the Cedar Park vs Glenn game. Having played since she was 5 years old, she is dedicated to softball and has committed to UTPB for softball. “When I got my offer it took me a very long time to decide where,” Robinson said. “Softball has always been my dream for college, and UTPB is my fit. When [I committed] I knew I was going to be loved and supported.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Lilly-Adams-3.13aliviaedit-901-600x400.jpg)
