Worried about MISA testing (Biology, 9th) and cant find any prep materials

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to PP for posting that snippet.

I'm still wondering if the l 4 will transfer to a A, 3 will transfer to a B, level 2 will be a C, etc. If so, that sounds like a lot of C's and a fair amount of D's, considering how kids have performed on these MCAP tests in the past... [/quote

Would have loved to share with you data from last year, but STILL have not received our HS's science MCAP Bio/Science taken in Spring of 2023. The school probably doesn't care as last year's students did not have the MCAP score factored for their final semester grade, but come on, the test was taken 1 YEAR ago, show the results!

[Anonymous]

^ somehow PP message got posted with prior message:

Would have loved to share with you data from last year, but STILL have not received our HS's science MCAP Bio/Science taken in Spring of 2023. The school probably doesn't care as last year's students did not have the MCAP score factored for their final semester grade, but come on, the test was taken 1 YEAR ago, show the results!

[Anonymous]

My 9th grader at a "W" school is panicking while preparing. She has a strong A average in her honors biology class but only got a 69 on the MISA practice test.

Some of what is on the test is physics -- material they haven't even learned (perhaps because she is taking bio this year!).

How can they make the score on this test count for 20 percent of the second semester grade in the course. It seems really unfair. She's done "A" work in class all year and may see her average dragged down to a "B" or even a "C" if she has a bad day on a test that the teacher has ill-prepared them for.

[Anonymous]

Are people saying MISA when they mean MCAP?

What is a MISA practice test?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are people saying MISA when they mean MCAP?

What is a MISA practice test?

MISA is part of MCAP

https://www.marylandpublicschools.org/about/Pages/DAAIT/Assessment/MISA/index.aspx

MSDE works hard to keep this information incomprehensible.

[Anonymous]

Yes, parents on my kid's high school listserve are panicking about this.

Do the practice, review the material, and above all, teach your child to close-read those short scientific problems. Usually the answer is in the text. They just have to learn to pay attention and read the data. It's the same principle on the science portion of the ACT.

[Anonymous]

Wow,.the first question on the practice MISA is about intentionay introducing virus into the wild as a population control method!

https://lsmisagovpracticetest.cognia.org/student/testcontent

[Anonymous]

Those questions are extremely tricky. Some have nearly identical answer choices, and convoluted logic.

Pass rates are going to be abysmal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, parents on my kid's high school listserve are panicking about this.

Do the practice, review the material, and above all, teach your child to close-read those short scientific problems. Usually the answer is in the text. They just have to learn to pay attention and read the data. It's the same principle on the science portion of the ACT.

The answers to some of the sample question aren't in the text. The test is clues to material that is not in the text (presumably was in the curriculum, like the details of the photosynthesis chemical reaction), which is required to answer the question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader at a "W" school is panicking while preparing. She has a strong A average in her honors biology class but only got a 69 on the MISA practice test.

Some of what is on the test is physics -- material they haven't even learned (perhaps because she is taking bio this year!).

How can they make the score on this test count for 20 percent of the second semester grade in the course. It seems really unfair. She's done "A" work in class all year and may see her average dragged down to a "B" or even a "C" if she has a bad day on a test that the teacher has ill-prepared them for.

This is no different than taken a final exam or AP exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 9th grader at a "W" school is panicking while preparing. She has a strong A average in her honors biology class but only got a 69 on the MISA practice test.

Some of what is on the test is physics -- material they haven't even learned (perhaps because she is taking bio this year!).

How can they make the score on this test count for 20 percent of the second semester grade in the course. It seems really unfair. She's done "A" work in class all year and may see her average dragged down to a "B" or even a "C" if she has a bad day on a test that the teacher has ill-prepared them for.

This is no different than taken a final exam or AP exam.

AP exams don't affect GPA, and have well documented curriculum.
Final exams don't exist anymore, and when they did, they were part of the class, not imposed by some uncoordinated third-party .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does the score on the test translate to the class grade? Eg is a 4 an A, 3 B, 2C?

“The Semester B final grade for these aligned courses will be made up of the marking period 3 grade (40%), the marking period 4 grade (40%) and the MCAP End of Course (EOC) exam grade (20%). ”
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/curriculum/eoc/mcps_eoc_studentflyerwfaqs.pdf

It’s not clear yet how the county will roll in the data (% or letter grade), or if they will do a true averaging on percentages or on letter grade quality points (which is how they used to do semester exams.

So this is an end-of-course exam that they are going to take in early May, more than a month before the end of school (and the end of their current science course)?

If lots of kids bomb this test, it is going to be a sh!tshow.

[Anonymous]

I’m worried it will be a sh-t show this year and then they’ll fix the test to make it easier next year. So this year’s class will all end up with bad grades in Bio and the colleges won’t know that it wasn’t the kids’ fault.

Given past experiences with mcap, I just don’t trust those tests at all. I’m hoping I’m pleasantly surprised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does the score on the test translate to the class grade? Eg is a 4 an A, 3 B, 2C?

“The Semester B final grade for these aligned courses will be made up of the marking period 3 grade (40%), the marking period 4 grade (40%) and the MCAP End of Course (EOC) exam grade (20%). ”
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/district/curriculum/eoc/mcps_eoc_studentflyerwfaqs.pdf

It’s not clear yet how the county will roll in the data (% or letter grade), or if they will do a true averaging on percentages or on letter grade quality points (which is how they used to do semester exams.

So this is an end-of-course exam that they are going to take in early May, more than a month before the end of school (and the end of their current science course)?

If lots of kids bomb this test, it is going to be a sh!tshow.

Yep.

[Anonymous]

Too bad for class of '27. So, 60% of Sem2 grade coming from performancnce in Q4+test? equity - giving AlL 9th students same test - mcap instead of a final exam.