By Candace Kelley
Correspondent

Roxbury Township High School freshman Carl Scimeca is happy with the new way standardized tests will be administered — online.

“Our generation has a lot to do with technology so we were able to relate a lot to the test and use all the tools on it very efficiently,” the Roxbury High School freshman said.

Teresa Rehman managed the testing trials at Roxbury High School and says that it took a little more than telling students to fill out circles on a grid.

Students had to learn how to navigate the test. There was plenty of prep work.

“Training is big. Training is going to be huge in terms of the teachers or the test administrator prepared for administrating the test,” explained Roxbury School District Supervisor of Technology Rehman.

“It was certainly different because I’m used to taking the tests on paper. It was almost like a little bit easier on the computer,” said freshman Allison Abney.

2015 is when all New Jersey schools have to be ready to administer the tests online. But this new way of seeing what students have learned has been met with some concern. The NJEA argues that schools won’t have enough computers to administer the test or enough bandwidth.

“I think they had about a 70 percent success rate to actually get through it. So those are the first things,” said NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer. “Some districts have decided we are going to lease the computers for the testing. Well these kids need to practice on the computer for the entire year, not just the window of time they’re going to be on these computers. There are disadvantaged kids, there are special kids that need time to get the computer skills.”

And then there’s the cost to bring all of the schools up to speed technically. It hasn’t been assessed yet, but there’s $30 million in the state budget to get it moving.

“In Montclair alone last year they cut the tutoring program and they’ve cut their teachers’ assistants by 60 percent. So what’s the point here of giving the test if you are taking away the resources the kids need?” asked Steinhauer.

The students we spoke to were glad to see that the test will finally be online and they had some advice for future test takers.

“Pay attention in your classes because this is exactly like a NJ ASK on paper but on the computer,” Scimeca said.

Meanwhile, the NJEA says the online tests shouldn’t be rushed.