Anonymous wrote:Why is there even a need for county-wide tests? Isn't the whole point of all the standardized testing to give a baseline comparison to the rest of the world? Once you have that, why can't a local teacher create tests based on what she actually taught and what she wants her students to know? There's no risk of some renegade teacher not teaching Algebra, for example, and no one ever finding out, because students will be tested with the PARCC tests.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP. It is totally different in the small towns. Where I grew up there was no standardization at all. My teacher could give really easy tests and the guy across the hall could be really challenging. The women next to him might write very confusing questions. There are some perks to that too like less worry about kids getting the test ahead of time.

But yet MCPS kids fail their final exams. So what is the point? I think teachers should test to what THEY teach. Much better policy than having finals. Watching the scores plummet thru the years. Not offer any answers to parents and instead just get rid of exams all together.

And the teachers know the test. Some can teach just to the test, others can tip toe around it a little more vague while teaching other things more interesting. Having the same test but different teachers means the same as what you are saying above. Different outcomes. Not giving tests back is lazy and absolutely does not help with communication at home.

Remember when the Maryland PTA mom lashed out about doing more at home to help the failing final exams. How can we if we don't see any tests? It is so ass-backwards.

How is not giving back tests "lazy"?

Are teachers too tired after grading for four or five hours a night to bring them back to school?

Are teachers too exhausted from filing out 272s with two work samples that they can't rise from their desks to hand the tests to students?

You know the issue isn't lazy.

The issue is cheap. As in no one wants to spend the money to write new tests each year for every unit of every course.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP. It is totally different in the small towns. Where I grew up there was no standardization at all. My teacher could give really easy tests and the guy across the hall could be really challenging. The women next to him might write very confusing questions. There are some perks to that too like less worry about kids getting the test ahead of time.

But yet MCPS kids fail their final exams. So what is the point? I think teachers should test to what THEY teach. Much better policy than having finals. Watching the scores plummet thru the years. Not offer any answers to parents and instead just get rid of exams all together.

And the teachers know the test. Some can teach just to the test, others can tip toe around it a little more vague while teaching other things more interesting. Having the same test but different teachers means the same as what you are saying above. Different outcomes. Not giving tests back is lazy and absolutely does not help with communication at home.

Remember when the Maryland PTA mom lashed out about doing more at home to help the failing final exams. How can we if we don't see any tests? It is so ass-backwards.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This really is a screwed up system. Are there any other local counties that do this? I know both Anne Arundel gives you back all the tests and at least as of a few years ago Howard Co did too.

I can maybe understand not returning final exams and reusing them across the school district, but every unit is absolutely ridiculous.

We moved from NJ last years do this was brand new to us. Ey made it seem like it is common but it is not. Final exams, maybe. But not all tests.

+1
This really isn't a normal practice and I'm not sure why parents accept it as such.
For all the hoopla about MoCo being such a great school system and people paying way more for housing because of the schools, I'm not very impressed by most of what I hear about it. Policies like this are just lazy and damaging to kids.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP. It is totally different in the small towns. Where I grew up there was no standardization at all. My teacher could give really easy tests and the guy across the hall could be really challenging. The women next to him might write very confusing questions. There are some perks to that too like less worry about kids getting the test ahead of time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This really is a screwed up system. Are there any other local counties that do this? I know both Anne Arundel gives you back all the tests and at least as of a few years ago Howard Co did too.

I can maybe understand not returning final exams and reusing them across the school district, but every unit is absolutely ridiculous.

We moved from NJ last years do this was brand new to us. Ey made it seem like it is common but it is not. Final exams, maybe. But not all tests.

+1
This really isn't a normal practice and I'm not sure why parents accept it as such.
For all the hoopla about MoCo being such a great school system and people paying way more for housing because of the schools, I'm not very impressed by most of what I hear about it. Policies like this are just lazy and damaging to kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This really is a screwed up system. Are there any other local counties that do this? I know both Anne Arundel gives you back all the tests and at least as of a few years ago Howard Co did too.

I can maybe understand not returning final exams and reusing them across the school district, but every unit is absolutely ridiculous.

We moved from NJ last years do this was brand new to us. Ey made it seem like it is common but it is not. Final exams, maybe. But not all tests.

Anonymous wrote:This really is a screwed up system. Are there any other local counties that do this? I know both Anne Arundel gives you back all the tests and at least as of a few years ago Howard Co did too.

I can maybe understand not returning final exams and reusing them across the school district, but every unit is absolutely ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:I'm another parent who has spent a significant amount of money with tutors so that my child learns the material they missed in class. Tests are useless if no one is going to help the children learn the material they had trouble with on a test. Sorry, but I've got two children in MCPS (one of them is going to graduate this year, YEAH!!) and the other one has to suffer through a few more years of the mediocrity of MCPS. Wish we could afford private, but it's not an option if we also want to send our kids to college. It's a teachers job to teach even if it means re-teaching students who had difficulty with concepts assessed on a test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is just a lazy policy because MCPS doesn't want to change the tests each year. They rather keep them stale and parents not informed. But if you want to leave your job early multiple times a month so the teacher can show you the test you can. Don't they make that convenient?? Oh and the teachers get REALLY annoyed if you ask to come in for every test you can't see. Like we should just be okay with a little sheet that shows how many my child got right. Oh, and make sure you don't try to write a math problem down so your child can redo it at home to help them learn. It is not allowed. And make sure to ask if the teacher has the kids redo the problems in the class before moving onto the next section so they can understand what they did wrong. Most don't. Once the test is returned for 5-10 minutes to the child, they wipe the slate clean.

I teach for MCPS. I never get annoyed that parents want to see the County tests. I try to make it both painless and useful. I make appointments before school (as early as 6:30 AM), during my lunch period, and after school for parent's convenience. I prefer that the studen attend with the parent and I walk through each test item as well as the study guide that was provided and any related classwork, HW, or prior assessments.

I do get annoyed if parents blame me for the County policy, try to get me to violate the policy by sending the test home with the kid or scanned in an email, or attempt to violate the security of the test by taking notes or cell phone pics.

Luckily, most parents understand there is no value in shooting the messenger. But I get 3-4 parents a year who try to bully me because they know they can't bully Central office.

By the way, before I became a PS teacher, I worked for an educational testing and software company. I was trained to write good test questions. It took a long time to learn. It takes a long time to craft and field test each item. It's expensive to pay the test writers and run the field tests. MoCo parents already complain about the salaries of Central Office staff. Imagine how much more it would cost to write a new county test for each unit every year for 5-7 years to build up a sufficiently varied pool of high quality items. Or picture the outcry on DCUM if high-performing teachers were paid each summer to write hundreds of new test items.

Teacher, thank you for your wonderful response. You sound like the kind of teacher any student would be lucky to have. Like another pp, we have one student in MCPS and one in private. Although it is possible to see the tests, it took us years to realize that this was an option & it took years to understand that there is not always a thorough review of missed work. After 6 years in MCPS, we are still paying for our earlier oversights - our child was passed up in "honors" classes with no attention to the basics of grammar. We've spent thousands trying to remediate this, and sadly we see the same issues with our younger child. It is very hard to "remediate" at home if both parents work.