When will FCPS teachers quit prepping / scamming the SOLs?

[Anonymous]

Then why are they practicising test questions with the kids? ...the exact form of the test questions?

We practice the exact form of the AAP test questions because some of my students have difficulty with thwe process to communicate their answers. I guess this is fine by your definition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize that the OP is just trying to be funny here, but one needs to realize that preparing for the SOLs is also known as teaching the curriculum.

All the SOLs do is test how well the students have learned the subjects they've been studying all year long. Studying and practicing for a subject matter test is an appropriate use of class time and is very different from practicing in advance for a test like the CogAT.

Comparing SOLs to the CogAT is like comparing apples to potatoes: they're in completely different categories.

Yes, no different than studying for any subject matter test. It is not really that difficult to understand.

[Anonymous]

I agree with this assessment. A test is a test. An exam is an exam. Preparation for a test or an exam is the physiological and psychological training associated with the improved performance demonstrated in both animals, primates and human beings. It does not matter whether the test is GoCAT, CoGAT, WPSSI, WPPSI, WISC, SAT, ACT, AP exam, Mandarin exam, violin concerto, NFL combine, IQ test, high Q test or strength test. Physiology is not a difficult concept to grasp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I realize that the OP is just trying to be funny here, but one needs to realize that preparing for the SOLs is also known as teaching the curriculum.

All the SOLs do is test how well the students have learned the subjects they've been studying all year long. Studying and practicing for a subject matter test is an appropriate use of class time and is very different from practicing in advance for a test like the CogAT.

Comparing SOLs to the CogAT is like comparing apples to potatoes: they're in completely different categories.

Yes, no different than studying for any subject matter test. It is not really that difficult to understand.

A subject matter test is different than an ability test. There is a reason you can only take the WISC once in any 12 month period. The test's results will be unreliable if the test taker has been exposed to the types of questions on the test within that time.

On the other hand, subject matter tests should be practiced for since they are testing knowledge, not ability.

There is an agenda here to make practice for the SOL appear to be the same as practice for the CogAT, but it leaves out the crucial point that they are not the same kind of test.

[Anonymous]

There is an agenda here to make practice for the SOL appear to be the same as practice for the CogAT, but it leaves out the crucial point that they are not the same kind of test.

Wow. Brilliant. The SOL and CogAT are not the same type of test. Whoever said that they were?

[Anonymous]

The point of studying for weeks at a time for the SOLs is to boost the school and teachers rankings. Teachers now spend hours and days teaching to the test instead of engaging in general learning. Giving students the actual writing prompts to the reading SOL in advance of the test and then spending hours of class time practicing as many of them as possible is an exercise in score boosting not learning. Regarding AAP test prep, pot meet kettle.

This is great: The Superintendent, the schools and the teachers can "system prep" to boost rankings and make the cut, but students are not allowed to prep to booast their rankings and make the cut (e.g., AAP). Where is Ms Carol Horn? Aren't these rankings therefore fake and gained immorally and unethically? Where can students go to report the teachers doing this so there will be repercussions? The students need a union (like the teachers) to protect their interests. Afterall, it's their family taxes paying for all this foolishness.

Oh, come, on you are being unfair. The hours and days of SOL test prep done at school is for the students. The students! It solely for the students benefit and has nothing to do with making the teachers and school look better.

[Anonymous]

A subject matter test is different than an ability test. There is a reason you can only take the WISC once in any 12 month period. The test's results will be unreliable if the test taker has been exposed to the types of questions on the test within that time.

On the other hand, subject matter tests should be practiced for since they are testing knowledge, not ability.

There is an agenda here to make practice for the SOL appear to be the same as practice for the CogAT, but it leaves out the crucial point that they are not the same kind of test.

You are brain washed by the marketing materials of the billion dollar testing industry and their hired psychologists. There is no difference. One could also institute the rule you can only take a subject test once in any 12 month period. The rules a made for the convenience and motivation of some entity -- schools, test makers and hired guns and messengers.

"Ability tests" indeed test subject matter; but the clever marketers have you entralled with the notion the subject matter tested by CoGAT is somehow biblical and related to ability. I submit the subject matter tested by any test SAT, AP exam is related to your ability. If you are unable to will flunk the test (it doesn't matter what you want to call it -- or what the flavor de jour is). And one can train for the test (again, no matter what you want to call it).

[Anonymous]

Ability vs. Unability

If you are able you will pass, if you are unable you will flunk. It does not matter whether the test is labelled subject or ability. If you are not familiar (it is foreign to you) with the "subject" or "ability" test you will flunk. If you are familiar with the "subject" or "ability" test you will pass. This explains why exposure, prep, and practice begets familiarity and enhances performance in apes, monkeys, and children.

[Anonymous]

There is an agenda here to make practice for the SOL appear to be the same as practice for the CogAT, but it leaves out the crucial point that they are not the same kind of test.

Wow. Brilliant. The SOL and CogAT are not the same type of test. Whoever said that they were?

Is a Calculus test the same type of test as an English test?

Is a geometry proof test the same type of test as an Art test?

Is WISC the same type of test as the Raven test?

Is ACT the same type of test as AP Latin?

Duh

Of course GoCAT is not the same type of test as CoGAT or SAT or AAP or ERB?

The all have one thing is common?

Drum roll.... they are all tests. for which some prepare for and others don't. None are more holier than the other.

[Anonymous]

Oh, come, on you are being unfair. The hours and days of SOL test prep done at school is for the students. The students! It solely for the students benefit and has nothing to do with making the teachers and school look better.

Not so for AAP prep?

[Anonymous]

Not so for AAP prep?

... are some teachers now also spending hours of class time forcing students to prep for the AAP tests using questions in the exact form of the test (or more precisely in the case of the writing SOL, the exact questions)?

Nope. Not that I have heard of. Not at my child's school anyway. Perhaps this will change if AAP scores start being used to evaluated teacher and school rankings.