s/o Teachers-how are you surviving the wacky new test re-take policy in high schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have no issues with it. I actually did it myself for years until they capped us at 80% for a retake. I dropped it to that for a few years, and now have brought it back up to 100%. It's a learning curve, for sure, but I strongly feel it's the right thing to do.

This is the craziest part. Every year in September I'd have half my students ask to retake the first test. In October for test 2 it was down to 20%, and by the time test 3 rolls around it will only be the A students who got a C+ or the B students who got a D. The ones who always get Bs or Cs have no interest in retaking, and the kids who have low As realize it's not worth the stress. The novelty wears off and the reality of the amount of work involved limits participants.

Remediation has to be streamlined. I either print out a second "study guide" and make them do it again, or assign them khan academy reviews to watch/practice. The individual "conference" looks like me checking in with them for 1-2 minutes to validate all missing work is completed and answer any questions they have. The kids who got an 88 but want 100 have very direct questions that take 20 seconds to answer, or have spent the time to review and teach themselves the material. The kids who failed by and large did nothing the first time around, so they finally learned the material and I'm just checking that they have completed the work.

Retakes are almost all done during the intervention block, so it's no extra time from me. The remainder are done on my after school day (I'm already required to stay after one day a week for free tutoring, so I just set up kids with their test while I work with other kids).

The only issue is grading them, but after the first test it's truly not that many.

We aren't allowed to do retakes during that block because it is set aside for interventions, remediation, and working with students who are MLL or behind in reading skills. It isn't designed as a testing block.

Well then that's silly. That block needs to adapt to fit the needs of kids.

DP
Intervention and remediation is meeting the needs of the kids. The retake can be done after school.

My kid needs to do retakes during school. He can’t stay after all the time. The block isn’t meeting his needs at all.

“All the time”? How often does he need a retake?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's awful.

For students who requested to retake a test, we are required by our administration to give a reteaching assignment, then meet with each student individually to review the assignment, and then to administer the reassessment.

On the test my students took last week, the class averages were between 85% and 92%. I had 46 students request to re-take the test, which is almost 1/3 of my students! Several of those students earned a 92% or higher.

So I now have to meet individually with 46 students (if they all do the reteaching assignment) and then grade 46 additional tests. For students who already earned an A on the test, the possible increase in their grade is miniscule.

Oh no having to help students

Help the students, save the frustration for the policy makers. You can never fault a student for taking advantage to do a better job. Taking advantage of opportunities do improve a situation is a trait of very successful humans. Don't ever discourage that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they go to college or get a job?

At work things are reviewed and sent back for revision 100% of the time so now they will be trained that they don't just do it once and get a grade and move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they go to college or get a job?

Some college professors, not all, allow rewrites and retakes. And most difficult college classes have curves. HS doesn't but should. Also at jobs you ask your boss for an extension if you're not ready on the date set to make sure you are ready. Never had a job where that couldn't happen. Now I supervise junior attorneys and grant extensions all the time, as do the Courts

Not at decent schools. Maybe at lowly state schools.

I went to Stanford for undergrad and law school, but go off!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Remediation assignment is online.
*Retake is online
*Retakes can be taken during advisory period or after school, but if they have remediation during advisory they have to take it after school.

This is such BS! If this is your schools/team policy it should be every schools policy. It is completely all over the board as to what each school or even team is doing for retakes. Totaaly unfair to teachers AND to kids in different schools. The policy needs to go back to up to 80% at the very least.

?
What here seems so super special to you?
And what is with some posters' need to have all schools everywhere in FCPS be in 100% lock step?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Remediation assignment is online.
*Retake is online
*Retakes can be taken during advisory period or after school, but if they have remediation during advisory they have to take it after school.

This is such BS! If this is your schools/team policy it should be every schools policy. It is completely all over the board as to what each school or even team is doing for retakes. Totaaly unfair to teachers AND to kids in different schools. The policy needs to go back to up to 80% at the very least.

Everyone has to offer retake opportunities, but the parameters that have to be met don’t have to be the same.

That is why it is unfair to teachers and to kids. You have some that allow remediation for points to be added to a test. Others that you need to do remediation(no points) in order to re take a test. You have other teachers that make multiple retake tests because kids sign up to re take tests on different days and have to grade them(many I am seeing are much harder than the original test). Some departments are doing 1 re take for all two-three unit tests combined in a quarter. There should be an across the board policy and plan. Zero consistency for teachers or for kids. At the HS level, where this all matters,you have kids who barely try who are just getting points back for filling out a few questions, then at other schools kids who really need the extra retake or time to study get a worse grade on an impossible re take because the teacher made it impossible. There are many times kids have to prioritize one subject over others. Example: kids who have 2 tests, a quiz and a paper due all on the same day. It happens a lot.They can start out preparing for all of them a bit each day but in the end its very hard to get good grades on that many things all on one day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they go to college or get a job?

They like their Gen Z counterparts will just get fired - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bosses-firing-gen-z-grads-111719818.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens when they go to college or get a job?

They like their Gen Z counterparts will just get fired - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bosses-firing-gen-z-grads-111719818.html

genx boomers bosses are the worse, you don't want to work for them anyways

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's awful.

For students who requested to retake a test, we are required by our administration to give a reteaching assignment, then meet with each student individually to review the assignment, and then to administer the reassessment.

On the test my students took last week, the class averages were between 85% and 92%. I had 46 students request to re-take the test, which is almost 1/3 of my students! Several of those students earned a 92% or higher.

So I now have to meet individually with 46 students (if they all do the reteaching assignment) and then grade 46 additional tests. For students who already earned an A on the test, the possible increase in their grade is miniscule.

Oh no having to help students

You are an absolute moron, pp. It’s obviously waaaaaay too much work for the teacher. It will absolutely chase good people out of the classroom.

What? Who are you to say way too much

The Teachers say it is too much and many are making the proces as painful as possible to stop kids from using it because it is too much. And the number of Teachers who leave at the end of the year if this policy stays in place will tell you it is too much.

Get your kids to study for the freaking test. If they don't and they do poorly, then there is a natural consequence for their lack of effort. If they do study and they don't do well then they should be working with the Teacher to understand the material better. It might even be that there are classes that they just are not great in and they earn a C or a B, it is not the end of the world. If anything, it helps them to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Or they are in the wrong level and need to drop down.

teachers say showing up is too much, teachers will say anything when you make up unsourced information

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's awful.

For students who requested to retake a test, we are required by our administration to give a reteaching assignment, then meet with each student individually to review the assignment, and then to administer the reassessment.

On the test my students took last week, the class averages were between 85% and 92%. I had 46 students request to re-take the test, which is almost 1/3 of my students! Several of those students earned a 92% or higher.

So I now have to meet individually with 46 students (if they all do the reteaching assignment) and then grade 46 additional tests. For students who already earned an A on the test, the possible increase in their grade is miniscule.

Oh no having to help students

NP and a parent here: students with Bs or above should not be allowed to re-take a test. That is insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My oldest has a class where they are doing on cumulative retake test a quarter. It will have sections covering each unit and a higher score in any unit can replace the prior one.

I hate the new policy as I think it is way too much work for teachers - retake level should be up to 85-90%.

My kid’s math class is doing this. The retake day will be at the end of October.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:*Remediation assignment is online.
*Retake is online
*Retakes can be taken during advisory period or after school, but if they have remediation during advisory they have to take it after school.

This is such BS! If this is your schools/team policy it should be every schools policy. It is completely all over the board as to what each school or even team is doing for retakes. Totaaly unfair to teachers AND to kids in different schools. The policy needs to go back to up to 80% at the very least.

Everyone has to offer retake opportunities, but the parameters that have to be met don’t have to be the same.

That is why it is unfair to teachers and to kids. You have some that allow remediation for points to be added to a test. Others that you need to do remediation(no points) in order to re take a test. You have other teachers that make multiple retake tests because kids sign up to re take tests on different days and have to grade them(many I am seeing are much harder than the original test). Some departments are doing 1 re take for all two-three unit tests combined in a quarter. There should be an across the board policy and plan. Zero consistency for teachers or for kids. At the HS level, where this all matters,you have kids who barely try who are just getting points back for filling out a few questions, then at other schools kids who really need the extra retake or time to study get a worse grade on an impossible re take because the teacher made it impossible. There are many times kids have to prioritize one subject over others. Example: kids who have 2 tests, a quiz and a paper due all on the same day. It happens a lot.They can start out preparing for all of them a bit each day but in the end its very hard to get good grades on that many things all on one day.

It is never going to be all 100% consistent school to school. I do not understand people obsessed with trying to push this.

Yes within a given school’s teaching of a certain subject (so McLean for APUSH) it should be standardized. Beyond that let teachers decide what works best for them.