"Everything now has to be called a test"

[Anonymous]

DC is in 8th and came home this week saying teachers have told them everything has to be called a test. I wasn't sure what that meant or why it mattered from a policy or grading perspective and DC couldn't explain but seemed to indicate teachers were annoyed.

Before I bug a teacher with what is probably a weird county policy thing I figured I'd ask here to see if anyone else had heard this and what's behind it.

[Anonymous]

Ignore it. If it means anything you'll get an email.

Maybe get an English/Communications tutor for your kid

[Anonymous]

If you look in the online grading system, are there "tests" that have very small value that you would have expected to be "quiz"?

[Anonymous]

I’m doing the opposite and trying to avoid calling things quizzes because they seem to cause so much anxiety (and emails) from students and parents. Graded classwork seems to not have the same effect. There are still tests. Not everything can be a test.

[Anonymous]

It’s the focus on standards based grading. It’s supposed to come down to summarize assessments, which count for more. (I’m not a huge fan.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s the focus on standards based grading. It’s supposed to come down to summarize assessments, which count for more. (I’m not a huge fan.)

Summative!

[Anonymous]

at our kids school I think kids have to be able to retake anything that is not called a test (I forget what the more minor non-test assessments are called now). So that might be why this teacher calls everything a test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m doing the opposite and trying to avoid calling things quizzes because they seem to cause so much anxiety (and emails) from students and parents. Graded classwork seems to not have the same effect. There are still tests. Not everything can be a test.

What do you call things?
And are you coordinating with English teachers to prevent your students from learning what synonyms are?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism#Euphemism_treadmill Euphemism Treadmill

[Anonymous]

Loudoun uses “Major Summative” - test or large project

“Minor Summative” - quiz or graded classwork, no redos

“Formative” - work that you should do but isn’t graded

It’s stupid.

[Anonymous]

Test, quiz, exam, it's the same thing, OP. What matters for your child is how each one is weighted for the final grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loudoun uses “Major Summative” - test or large project

“Minor Summative” - quiz or graded classwork, no redos

“Formative” - work that you should do but isn’t graded

It’s stupid.

Loudoun elementary teacher here. Only the secondary schools use major and minor summatives.

Elem has summatives (you’ve learned all the material and I need to assess how much you learned) or formatives (I’m still in the process of teaching you the material and this is just a quick check of what you know so far.)

[Anonymous]

Our APS school calls formative assessments “check-ins.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loudoun uses “Major Summative” - test or large project

“Minor Summative” - quiz or graded classwork, no redos

“Formative” - work that you should do but isn’t graded

It’s stupid.

Loudoun elementary teacher here. Only the secondary schools use major and minor summatives.

Elem has summatives (you’ve learned all the material and I need to assess how much you learned) or formatives (I’m still in the process of teaching you the material and this is just a quick check of what you know so far.)

That’s nice. The OP was asking about an 8th grader. Did you even read the OP?

[Anonymous]

OP. I also didn't specify but was talking about APS.