MCPS policy on not returning quizzes, tests and exams to students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WHen I was in HS, exams were returned. I had a friend with a sibling 1 year older. He had many of the exams we were taking since it was a smallish school. Trust me returning exams is not really a great idea...and that was before the error of standardization. Unless the county is going to rewrite the exams every year.

Yes, you rewrite exams every year. It is that simple. And I also knew someone that did similar to what your friend did and it was a multiple choice test. All the kids that cheated got zeros because they changed the answers around and all the kids were caught. It seriously is not a lot parents are asking for. Like another poster said, it is not rocket science here.

[Anonymous]

Teachers use the same quizzes, tests etc. year after year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHen I was in HS, exams were returned. I had a friend with a sibling 1 year older. He had many of the exams we were taking since it was a smallish school. Trust me returning exams is not really a great idea...and that was before the error of standardization. Unless the county is going to rewrite the exams every year.

Yes, you rewrite exams every year. It is that simple. And I also knew someone that did similar to what your friend did and it was a multiple choice test. All the kids that cheated got zeros because they changed the answers around and all the kids were caught. It seriously is not a lot parents are asking for. Like another poster said, it is not rocket science here.

"Simple" is not the word I would use to describe rewriting county-wide exams every year so that they are comprehensive, comparable to previous years, and cheat-proof.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHen I was in HS, exams were returned. I had a friend with a sibling 1 year older. He had many of the exams we were taking since it was a smallish school. Trust me returning exams is not really a great idea...and that was before the error of standardization. Unless the county is going to rewrite the exams every year.

Yes, you rewrite exams every year. It is that simple. And I also knew someone that did similar to what your friend did and it was a multiple choice test. All the kids that cheated got zeros because they changed the answers around and all the kids were caught. It seriously is not a lot parents are asking for. Like another poster said, it is not rocket science here.

"Simple" is not the word I would use to describe rewriting county-wide exams every year so that they are comprehensive, comparable to previous years, and cheat-proof.

+100. Do people know how much it costs to create, vet, and get approved even simple survey questions for a company? Where there are no wrong answers? People here complain all the time about poorly-phrased questions on tests. It is not easy to construct unambiguous and clear questions (and answer keys) every year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHen I was in HS, exams were returned. I had a friend with a sibling 1 year older. He had many of the exams we were taking since it was a smallish school. Trust me returning exams is not really a great idea...and that was before the error of standardization. Unless the county is going to rewrite the exams every year.

Yes, you rewrite exams every year. It is that simple. And I also knew someone that did similar to what your friend did and it was a multiple choice test. All the kids that cheated got zeros because they changed the answers around and all the kids were caught. It seriously is not a lot parents are asking for. Like another poster said, it is not rocket science here.

"Simple" is not the word I would use to describe rewriting county-wide exams every year so that they are comprehensive, comparable to previous years, and cheat-proof.

+100. Do people know how much it costs to create, vet, and get approved even simple survey questions for a company? Where there are no wrong answers? People here complain all the time about poorly-phrased questions on tests. It is not easy to construct unambiguous and clear questions (and answer keys) every year.

Hi Board Member!!

[Anonymous]

Going by the fact that 70% failed their Algebra I final, I am thinking it may be a little more important to keep parents in the know and send home the tests for review and return.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Hi Board Member!!

You're being facetious, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHen I was in HS, exams were returned. I had a friend with a sibling 1 year older. He had many of the exams we were taking since it was a smallish school. Trust me returning exams is not really a great idea...and that was before the error of standardization. Unless the county is going to rewrite the exams every year.

Yes, you rewrite exams every year. It is that simple. And I also knew someone that did similar to what your friend did and it was a multiple choice test. All the kids that cheated got zeros because they changed the answers around and all the kids were caught. It seriously is not a lot parents are asking for. Like another poster said, it is not rocket science here.

"Simple" is not the word I would use to describe rewriting county-wide exams every year so that they are comprehensive, comparable to previous years, and cheat-proof.

+100. Do people know how much it costs to create, vet, and get approved even simple survey questions for a company? Where there are no wrong answers? People here complain all the time about poorly-phrased questions on tests. It is not easy to construct unambiguous and clear questions (and answer keys) every year.

Hi Board Member!!

Good god, give it a rest. Not connected in any way with the BOE or MCPS except that I have kids in MCPS schools. But through my work I know something about survey construction and costs of consultants for that purpose. So tired of people assuming anyone referring to facts must be working for the schools or the board. Get a life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going by the fact that 70% failed their Algebra I final, I am thinking it may be a little more important to keep parents in the know and send home the tests for review and return.

So can I assume you took the time to go over all the formative quizzes that preceded your child's summatives? Because those options exist but somehow y'all keep ignoring that and continue to focus on whether parents can take the county tests home for study. Frankly, I think understanding errors are more important on the formative assessments, BEFORE the final exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHen I was in HS, exams were returned. I had a friend with a sibling 1 year older. He had many of the exams we were taking since it was a smallish school. Trust me returning exams is not really a great idea...and that was before the error of standardization. Unless the county is going to rewrite the exams every year.

Yes, you rewrite exams every year. It is that simple. And I also knew someone that did similar to what your friend did and it was a multiple choice test. All the kids that cheated got zeros because they changed the answers around and all the kids were caught. It seriously is not a lot parents are asking for. Like another poster said, it is not rocket science here.

"Simple" is not the word I would use to describe rewriting county-wide exams every year so that they are comprehensive, comparable to previous years, and cheat-proof.

+100. Do people know how much it costs to create, vet, and get approved even simple survey questions for a company? Where there are no wrong answers? People here complain all the time about poorly-phrased questions on tests. It is not easy to construct unambiguous and clear questions (and answer keys) every year.

That's such a pathetic argument. It is not that hard. You just take the old one, change the numbers/variables, change the order in which the questions are asked, and voila, you've done it.
Somehow, my Podunk school managed to do this every year in the 1980s. But MCPS is so much more sophisticated that it can't send tests home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going by the fact that 70% failed their Algebra I final, I am thinking it may be a little more important to keep parents in the know and send home the tests for review and return.

So can I assume you took the time to go over all the formative quizzes that preceded your child's summatives? Because those options exist but somehow y'all keep ignoring that and continue to focus on whether parents can take the county tests home for study. Frankly, I think understanding errors are more important on the formative assessments, BEFORE the final exam.

We're not just talking about one final exam, though, are we. We're talking about every county wide test, which are so frequent that some have already happened and it's not even October.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHen I was in HS, exams were returned. I had a friend with a sibling 1 year older. He had many of the exams we were taking since it was a smallish school. Trust me returning exams is not really a great idea...and that was before the error of standardization. Unless the county is going to rewrite the exams every year.

Yes, you rewrite exams every year. It is that simple. And I also knew someone that did similar to what your friend did and it was a multiple choice test. All the kids that cheated got zeros because they changed the answers around and all the kids were caught. It seriously is not a lot parents are asking for. Like another poster said, it is not rocket science here.

"Simple" is not the word I would use to describe rewriting county-wide exams every year so that they are comprehensive, comparable to previous years, and cheat-proof.

+100. Do people know how much it costs to create, vet, and get approved even simple survey questions for a company? Where there are no wrong answers? People here complain all the time about poorly-phrased questions on tests. It is not easy to construct unambiguous and clear questions (and answer keys) every year.

Hi Board Member!!

Good god, give it a rest. Not connected in any way with the BOE or MCPS except that I have kids in MCPS schools. But through my work I know something about survey construction and costs of consultants for that purpose. So tired of people assuming anyone referring to facts must be working for the schools or the board. Get a life.

Um, what "facts" do you think you were referring to? Because I didn't see any.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHen I was in HS, exams were returned. I had a friend with a sibling 1 year older. He had many of the exams we were taking since it was a smallish school. Trust me returning exams is not really a great idea...and that was before the error of standardization. Unless the county is going to rewrite the exams every year.

Yes, you rewrite exams every year. It is that simple. And I also knew someone that did similar to what your friend did and it was a multiple choice test. All the kids that cheated got zeros because they changed the answers around and all the kids were caught. It seriously is not a lot parents are asking for. Like another poster said, it is not rocket science here.

"Simple" is not the word I would use to describe rewriting county-wide exams every year so that they are comprehensive, comparable to previous years, and cheat-proof.

+100. Do people know how much it costs to create, vet, and get approved even simple survey questions for a company? Where there are no wrong answers? People here complain all the time about poorly-phrased questions on tests. It is not easy to construct unambiguous and clear questions (and answer keys) every year.

That's such a pathetic argument. It is not that hard. You just take the old one, change the numbers/variables, change the order in which the questions are asked, and voila, you've done it.
Somehow, my Podunk school managed to do this every year in the 1980s. But MCPS is so much more sophisticated that it can't send tests home.

+1. And if the students study the old tests so that they can do the new one with these changes, that is good enough for me. That is called learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

+1. And if the students study the old tests so that they can do the new one with these changes, that is good enough for me. That is called learning.

I call it cheating, unless MCPS makes all of the old tests available to everybody. And if MCPS does make all of the old tests available to everybody, I call it memorizing what's on the test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We're not just talking about one final exam, though, are we. We're talking about every county wide test, which are so frequent that some have already happened and it's not even October.

In what classes have there already been county-wide tests?