Does anyone have a full list of tests that K-3 graders take in MCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez. Rising K'er here. Can't believe someone is going to test my kid on a computer this coming year. All it's going to tell them is that this kid's parents decided not to train her on computers until she's older.
How incredibly stupid.

Maybe you'd like to hold off on deciding how incredibly stupid this is until your child has actually started kindergarten?

Right. Because I really need to see how it goes before I can conclude that testing a K'er doesn't tell you much anyway (already more than proven that these sorts of tests are meaningless until 8 years old) and that testing a kid on a computer who doesn't use computer is going to have results that are questionable at best. Nope, I think I got it.

Your kid will have been taught how to use a computer by the time they test him/her.

Maybe that will work, maybe not. But nonetheless, I haven't heard any reasonable justification for why we need a standardized, computer-based test of Kindergarteners.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez. Rising K'er here. Can't believe someone is going to test my kid on a computer this coming year. All it's going to tell them is that this kid's parents decided not to train her on computers until she's older.
How incredibly stupid.

Maybe you'd like to hold off on deciding how incredibly stupid this is until your child has actually started kindergarten?

Right. Because I really need to see how it goes before I can conclude that testing a K'er doesn't tell you much anyway (already more than proven that these sorts of tests are meaningless until 8 years old) and that testing a kid on a computer who doesn't use computer is going to have results that are questionable at best. Nope, I think I got it.

Your kid will have been taught how to use a computer by the time they test him/her.

Maybe that will work, maybe not. But nonetheless, I haven't heard any reasonable justification for why we need a standardized, computer-based test of Kindergarteners.

This test is actually informative for parents- unlike the MSAs, etc. You can find out if your child has a problem with math or reading and it also identifies if your child is off the charts. I am not sure why you are so resistant. The kids think it's fun- they get to be on a computer. The school spends no time prepping for it so I can't understand what your objection is unless you don't want your child to learn to use a computer, read, and do math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez. Rising K'er here. Can't believe someone is going to test my kid on a computer this coming year. All it's going to tell them is that this kid's parents decided not to train her on computers until she's older.
How incredibly stupid.

Maybe you'd like to hold off on deciding how incredibly stupid this is until your child has actually started kindergarten?

Right. Because I really need to see how it goes before I can conclude that testing a K'er doesn't tell you much anyway (already more than proven that these sorts of tests are meaningless until 8 years old) and that testing a kid on a computer who doesn't use computer is going to have results that are questionable at best. Nope, I think I got it.

Your kid will have been taught how to use a computer by the time they test him/her.

Maybe that will work, maybe not. But nonetheless, I haven't heard any reasonable justification for why we need a standardized, computer-based test of Kindergarteners.

This test is actually informative for parents- unlike the MSAs, etc. You can find out if your child has a problem with math or reading and it also identifies if your child is off the charts. I am not sure why you are so resistant. The kids think it's fun- they get to be on a computer. The school spends no time prepping for it so I can't understand what your objection is unless you don't want your child to learn to use a computer, read, and do math.

Obviously not resistant to reading and math. I do think that learning to use a computer is fine, though K is as early as I'd want that, at the earliest. But I think *evaluating* them based on a computer test introduces another variable into it that's not necessary and skews the results. You're essentially testing a combination of proficiency in reading/math *as interpreted by how they perform on the computer test*. So if the kid has trouble with the computer, it obviously isn't going to give you as accurate a result as if they didn't. And why do we need to do it on a computer? Any reason? Certainly you're not arguing that taking the test on the computer is a way of teaching them to use computers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Geez. Rising K'er here. Can't believe someone is going to test my kid on a computer this coming year. All it's going to tell them is that this kid's parents decided not to train her on computers until she's older.
How incredibly stupid.

Maybe you'd like to hold off on deciding how incredibly stupid this is until your child has actually started kindergarten?

Right. Because I really need to see how it goes before I can conclude that testing a K'er doesn't tell you much anyway (already more than proven that these sorts of tests are meaningless until 8 years old) and that testing a kid on a computer who doesn't use computer is going to have results that are questionable at best. Nope, I think I got it.

Your kid will have been taught how to use a computer by the time they test him/her.

Maybe that will work, maybe not. But nonetheless, I haven't heard any reasonable justification for why we need a standardized, computer-based test of Kindergarteners.

This test is actually informative for parents- unlike the MSAs, etc. You can find out if your child has a problem with math or reading and it also identifies if your child is off the charts. I am not sure why you are so resistant. The kids think it's fun- they get to be on a computer. The school spends no time prepping for it so I can't understand what your objection is unless you don't want your child to learn to use a computer, read, and do math.

Obviously not resistant to reading and math. I do think that learning to use a computer is fine, though K is as early as I'd want that, at the earliest. But I think *evaluating* them based on a computer test introduces another variable into it that's not necessary and skews the results. You're essentially testing a combination of proficiency in reading/math *as interpreted by how they perform on the computer test*. So if the kid has trouble with the computer, it obviously isn't going to give you as accurate a result as if they didn't. And why do we need to do it on a computer? Any reason? Certainly you're not arguing that taking the test on the computer is a way of teaching them to use computers.

Same PP -- imagine the following: your kid does badly on this test in K. But your kid reads and writes fine in class and otherwise. What's your conclusion? That the kid had trouble with the computer-based test, right? So, we agree that there is some subset of kids for whom the computer itself throws off the results. I would argue that that is the case for MOST kids, it's just that for most kids, it only skews it a little bit.
I don't care too much, because I wouldn't give the test any credence anyway, so I don't care how my kid does on it. But it does seem like a waste of time that offers little useful information. And it could be useful if the test were done without the computer. So why do it this way?

[Anonymous]

Go back to the Stone Age, PP. Sheesh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go back to the Stone Age, PP. Sheesh.

Right. Go back to your kid being glued to your Ipad. I think I'd rather mine read and write.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go back to the Stone Age, PP. Sheesh.

SO you have no actual argument, right? Just like technology being used to test Kindergarteners because, hey, we live in the age of technology so why not. Right? Ok. Honest question: has anyone tested the test? Like done a comparison of results of young kids on the computer test versus the same test done verbally or in writing? If so, I'm interested to see those results.
I suspect not, at least not in any large numbers. I wonder why we do it, then, since it seems like it's not going to give reliable results. Just test for the sake of test? What a great educational approach.

[Anonymous]

It has to be on a computer. The computer gives the students harder questions as they answer questions correctly in order to get an accurate picture.

[Anonymous]

I think at the K level the computer skill needed to do it is just pointing and clicking. Not a hard skill to learn even coming in to K with no computer experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so parents aren't given results for any of these tests?

You have a right to see all of the test results.

How do you get the results? No one even told us these tests were happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so parents aren't given results for any of these tests?

You have a right to see all of the test results.

How do you get the results? No one even told us these tests were happening.

You write a letter to the principal (or send an e-mail) asking to see the test results.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go back to the Stone Age, PP. Sheesh.

Right. Go back to your kid being glued to your Ipad. I think I'd rather mine read and write.

I'm not big into Kindergarteners on Ipads either - but my K kid can use a mouse or touchpad with no difficulty (after seeing it done once). I really don't see how your kid is going to fail because they've not used a computer before. Trust me - they will pick it up easily at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think at the K level the computer skill needed to do it is just pointing and clicking. Not a hard skill to learn even coming in to K with no computer experience.

exactly