Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making sure your kids take the test, as long as they do reasonably well, helps your school. PARCC/CAPE scores are used for a lot of things including rankings.

This argument makes no sense to me. There is no educational benefit to the actual students being subjected to the test. I'm not trying to harm my kid's school, but I also don't want to harm my kid by forcing him to sit for hours upon hours of testing knowing that nobody is going to look at his individual scores and use them to help him.

My school can’t keep teachers in testing grades because the scores bring down their rating. I moved out of a test scores included position years ago because kids were just submitting and now there’s a mediocre teacher in that role.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making sure your kids take the test, as long as they do reasonably well, helps your school. PARCC/CAPE scores are used for a lot of things including rankings.

This argument makes no sense to me. There is no educational benefit to the actual students being subjected to the test. I'm not trying to harm my kid's school, but I also don't want to harm my kid by forcing him to sit for hours upon hours of testing knowing that nobody is going to look at his individual scores and use them to help him.

You don’t want to know how your kid compares to other kids, if your kid is at or above grade level, and how your kid’s school compares to other schools?

Your kid is being “harmed” by taking a standardized test? Really?

Smh

Anonymous wrote:Making sure your kids take the test, as long as they do reasonably well, helps your school. PARCC/CAPE scores are used for a lot of things including rankings.

This argument makes no sense to me. There is no educational benefit to the actual students being subjected to the test. I'm not trying to harm my kid's school, but I also don't want to harm my kid by forcing him to sit for hours upon hours of testing knowing that nobody is going to look at his individual scores and use them to help him.

Anonymous wrote:You could fix the MS/HS problem by making DC CAPE count towards kids grades. That's what they do with Regents in NYS and it works.

Very interesting take. I grew up in a working class area of NY state, and we did have a divide of Regents vs. Non regents kids -- about half the kids who knew from the start that they were not college bound.

Anonymous wrote:You could fix the MS/HS problem by making DC CAPE count towards kids grades. That's what they do with Regents in NYS and it works.

It’d be great if you could make it required to pass on kids to the next grade in elementary school. I’m so tired of telling 5th grade parents their behavior and attendance problem kid is still on a kindergarten level all year then getting a panicked text the week before promotion asking if they are being promoted. It’s literally all some parents seem to care about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whole set-up is just wrong.

The tests are way too long, and the fact that they are high-stakes for teachers but not for the students who take them just creates all sorts of weird dynamics.

+1000

It is completely ridiculous. Choose a test that matters to kids (PSAT, SAT) for HS. For elementary do a one hour test in English, math, science. Keep it moving. You can’t tell me these results are meaningful given how many kids get bored, just click through, lose motivation.

My kids school is currently also without AC. Taking 90 minute tests in 90 degree rooms is not a reasonable measure of anything

Anonymous wrote:Talk to your school's testing coordinator.

About which part?

Anonymous wrote:You could fix the MS/HS problem by making DC CAPE count towards kids grades. That's what they do with Regents in NYS and it works.

Could also emulate NYS and offer a better DC CAPE diploma that you have to pass X number of DC CAPE tests to pass. Then medium-ish students would take it seriously and scores would be more reflective of actual knowledge at schools like J-R where huge numbers of college bound kids blow it off.

You could fix the MS/HS problem by making DC CAPE count towards kids grades. That's what they do with Regents in NYS and it works.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Making sure your kids take the test, as long as they do reasonably well, helps your school. PARCC/CAPE scores are used for a lot of things including rankings.

+1

Yes, I get it, but you know how teenagers can become oppositional when they perceive having to waste a lot of time? And not motivation to do something for the school, when the school is not able to accommodate them appropriately. (I get why: resources, logistics. But it's not obvious to a teenager who is fed up.)

Anonymous wrote:The whole set-up is just wrong.

The tests are way too long, and the fact that they are high-stakes for teachers but not for the students who take them just creates all sorts of weird dynamics.

+1000

It is completely ridiculous. Choose a test that matters to kids (PSAT, SAT) for HS. For elementary do a one hour test in English, math, science. Keep it moving. You can’t tell me these results are meaningful given how many kids get bored, just click through, lose motivation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The testing for my 8th grader has been a shitshow. She is absolutely not making any effort, and she's one of the "good" kids.

I'm hearing some issues with kids being kicked out every few minutes and other platform issues.

This usually happens when another program tries to open. It could be hitting a key that’s a short cut key or when Teams automatically starts when a computer is started up. Ours are so slow that kids can get logged into the test before Teams opens up.

Talk to your school's testing coordinator.

Anonymous wrote:The whole set-up is just wrong.

The tests are way too long, and the fact that they are high-stakes for teachers but not for the students who take them just creates all sorts of weird dynamics.

DC should scrap the HS CAPE and go with PSAT 8/9 or SAT. A gazillion school districts around the country do this.

Anonymous wrote:Making sure your kids take the test, as long as they do reasonably well, helps your school. PARCC/CAPE scores are used for a lot of things including rankings.

+1