WEST ORANGE, NJ — West Orange High School (WOHS) sophomores and juniors will be required to take a class based on the SAT starting in the 2018-19 school year.

The goal of the SAT class will be to improve SAT scores, and to increase students’ opportunity to attend college and receive scholarships. It will act as an abbreviated version of SAT Bootcamp, an after school program already offered to students trying to improve their SAT performance. The required course will only be one semester. While this course may sound new, it is not totally different. There is an SAT class previously offered at WOHS as an elective.

The required SAT class was presented to the Board at a public meeting on Dec. 18. The board of education approved the course to start next year. While this required class may affect the Sophomores’ and Juniors’ ability to choose electives, Mr. Moore stated to The Pioneer, “With the removal of Freshman seminar as a requirement our thoughts are that students will have the same ability to choose electives as they do now.”

In modern day education, numerous colleges and universities are beginning to turn away from the SAT, such as American University, Connecticut College, Emerson and others.

“I understand the point that more universities may be turning away however, the SAT course will help students with general standardized test taking strategies that can be applicable in a variety of ways,” stated Mr. Moore. Moore.

Moore referenced other tests such as the LSAT, MCATs, and State Board exams, which are needed to have licenses/certificates for trade and technical occupations. Moore hopes that this course will help better the chances of students getting accepted into colleges and trade schools.

Moore continued, “We understand that the choice to pursue college is personal,  however, our goal is to expose and teach our students test taking strategies and skills that they may be able to translate to other post secondary educational opportunities.”

As of press time, English supervisor, Ms. Veneziano, and Mathematics Supervisor, Mr. AbuHakmeh, are working closely with Mr. Moore to train teachers to teach this course. They are planning on training chosen teachers in the spring with a 3 day training session.

The teachers selected would continue to teach their english and math classes, however will have one less period to teach those classes. With each selected teacher losing a period to teach their class, class sizes would have to increase. Ms. Veneziano and Mr. AbuHakmeh have already addressed this issue and are planning to hire additional teachers to teach English and Math courses.