Reply to Time Limit for Map-M Testing

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "Time Limit for Map-M Testing"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We should push back as parents.

This is another example of how MCPS is penalizing high-achieving students. And for what?  If this comes from Central Office, where they know very well what type of test this is, I bet it's to reduce the achievement gap!!!

Scandalous.
[/quote]

Before you go all nuclear, you might want to clarify in what way MCPS is "penalizing" your student by not giving the test correctly.  If they are trying to not use up endless class time with individual test-taking, that has some value.  If they are using those MAP scores as a significant factor in magnet selection/cohort analysis, then whether they are doing it correctly may matter.  It may not "penalize" any students, it may lead to a needless data imperfection in the selection of 3rd and 5th graders for programs, it may still give the teacher the information they need that the student has mastered the content the teacher has been teaching.  Anyway, I think anyone who is going to follow up on this with their school, should know what they mean by "penalizing high-achieving students."  Because while it may result in inaccurate data, it's not entirely clear how that inaccurate data would "penalize" anyone.[/quote]

What are you babbling about?  MAP scores are predicated on the assumption that the students are being provided the tests untimed.  If other students are taking the test without limits, and MCPS students have limits, they are being penalized relative to their peers.[/quote]

What are they losing out on?[/quote]
So it's ok to systematically penalize one population of students by providing them suboptimal test conditions that their peers are not subject to, because you think the test doesn't matter?  The fact that MCPS takes the time out of the school day to test the kids means the test results are considered important.[/quote]

I think it depends what the tests are used for.  If the tests are used by the classroom teachers to assess concept mastery, then the ultimate score does not necessarily matter, and whether the child could have shown mastery of additional concepts that the teacher is not teaching/assessing at that time is kind of irrelevant.  In other words, my child's first grade teacher does not really care if my child can do basic multiplication because she is not going to teach her multiplication.  Once my child demonstrates mastery of the addition and subtraction problems on the MAP, it's not clear how showing she can also do multiplication makes any difference whatsoever to her classroom teacher or to the instruction she's provided.  (I'm not saying I think this is great, but it's pretty clearly how MCPS operates).

On the other hand, if the test scores are being used to identify "top performers" or "outliers" or students not being adequately served by the standard curriculum because they have already mastered material well beyond their grade level, then it would certainly be relevant that they be allowed to finish the test.  I don't think it's entirely clear how MCPS is using the tests.  It's also possible that the tests are used for multiple purposes.  Individuals who use the test for one purpose may not realize that other parts of the system are using the test for a different purpose, and that allowing students the time they need is important to the second purpose, even if not to the first.

I am simply saying that going in with questions - how are you using this? why are you doing it this way? doesn't the place that creates the test say it's supposed to be unlimited time?  I understand you don't want to lose classroom time, but what about...? is generally a better strategy for obtaining a change in policy than "YOU ARE PENALIZING MY CHILD!"  No, I can't really explain how it matters at all, or why a 5 point score difference is more important than 30 minutes of class time.  But YOU ARE DOING YOUR JOB WRONG.[/quote]

The test scores are used to identify top performers and to test mastery and to compare performance across classroom units and schools and districts.  As such, conditions for test taking need to be uniform. It is NOT ok to penalize some kids by giving them only an hour while others can take far longer.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics