In our public HS, all class tests are returned to students only in the classroom to see their results and go over needed question/section. After that review, each test is returned to the test center and the student has to schedule a time to look at it in more detail in the test center if additional time to review is necessary or if there are specific questions about the results. Tests are not allowed to be sent home. I believe parents who want to see the tests have to go through a formal process; a legitimate reason is required and it cannot be requested regularly. I have never seen a test of my children’s. I have one in college and two in HS currently. This format has always irked me a bit so I’m wondering how other HSs handle it. Is this a fairly normal practice these days? I don’t remember this practice when I was in HS. Thanks.
I do think it is fairly common. i’ve never actually asked to see anything of my daughter’s, so not sure if there’s a form al process. But she doesn’t bring home tests for the most part. I just assumed it was to keep kids from passing down tests to younger students but I never really questioned it.
It seemed to be on a teacher-by-teacher (or maybe a department-by-department) basis at our HS. Some teachers handed the exams back, others did not. As far as I know there was no formal policy.
No idea what my kids’ school policy is. I have no idea why I as a parent would need to review one of their tests so it hasn’t been an issue.
If one of them had come home and told me that they felt a grade was unfair or there was an error, I’d view my job as helping them to navigate the process to discuss and resolve this issue themselves, not reviewing the actual test to insert my judgment on whether there was an error. There have been a few of those and we developed scenarios to practice what they could say and potential ways to resolve the problem.
OP this was the policy in our grade school, middle school, and high school. Tests were never sent home.
It was teacher by teacher at my daughter’s school but mostly tests were not sent home. Teachers would show parents though at parent-teacher conferences.
It’s pretty much the standard now as others have noted, to prevent cheating, not just for the younger students but for students in the current class. e.g. you can make a reason to get out of the test, take the makeup and have the actual test in hand from a classmate. It does I think hurt students who legitimately want to review the tests outside of school when they have more time, maybe with their parents. High school cheating is rampant though, even in the “good” schools.
In the good ole days, I got all my tests back, except the multiple choice, where I only got the answer key. In college I think you keep the tests.
I don’t recall ever seeing any of my kids tests in middle or high school. I’m not sure they had big tests in elementary school…well we saw weekly spelling tests fo a while…but that is it.
Kids did get other new work back…written work, English assignments, science labs, etc.
But tests…nope.
And you know…I never would have wanted to see them anyway.
I don’t know about the rest of you.but if I showed a HS test to skimom or skidad, the only thing they would have recognized on the page would have been my name. =))
I am in agreement with many of the responses. Yes, I suspect the policy is in place to deter cheating. No, I really don’t want to see the completed tests and I have not requested to see any in the past or presently. But I think they can be a learning resource at times so mistakes can be better understood. My children don’t have issues with the policy. I was just curious how other schools handle the issue.
But didn’t you say your kids could have access to these tests?
This is a huge pet peeve of mine. Some classes they get their tests back, sometimes they are gone over. Some classes they are never seen again- even when my kids have requested it. We’ve actually had to fight just to get our kids to see their tests. There were so many mistakes in grading on the tests, it was ridiculous. Every math test my D2 took last year was graded wrong. If kids never get their tests back and they never go over them, how do they learn what they don’t know?
School loves to say it is because of cheating- my response is make a new test. Kids can tell each other lots of things on a test right after they walk out of class and we have A/B days, so half the kids take the test on the first day could tell the kids who take it the second day. It has nothing to do with cheating.
Seems like the teachers are cheating by reusing the same tests every year or semester.
Maybe they use the SAT and ACT as examples to follow (the SAT and ACT have reused entire tests before, sometimes resulting in cheating scandals because they were leaked before the second use). Not a good thing.
Most of the teachers in my son’s school do pretty much what the OP describes, let the kids see the tests in class, but then collect them and don’t let the kids keep them. (I have no idea what a test center is.)
Frankly, I chalk it up to laziness, pure and simple. This generation didn’t invent cheating. When I was in high school, teachers gave us back our tests. They could be useful for studying for the final. In college and law school, many professors would put previous years’ tests and exams with sample answers on reserve as a study aide before exams. But my son’s teachers can’t be bothered to write a new test each year. In case you’re wondering, I jump to the explanation that is highly critical of the teachers because this is just one one of many examples of laziness from the teachers in my son’s school. #notallteachers
My daughter is in 9th grade. I know she has a Spanish quiz which she showed me and I think gets to keep. Today she brought home a math test. She either had to or wanted to fix her mistake. I don’t think it changes her grade any. For this test it sounds like she has the option to retake the test (different paper) and hope she improves but will get the lower grade if that happens. I think she can only retake the test if she shows the teacher the corrections.
I have no clue though if she gets to keep either the original test or the retake (if she take it). I guess she could make a photo copy if she wanted to. I also have no idea what a test center is.
I remember when my oldest was in 3rd grade. She had to write spelling sentences every week. She never once got back any of her spelling sentence papers. I have no idea why the teacher would want to keep those.
@cag60093 What do your kids use to review for a midterm or final? We get study guides!!! If colleges want to know why kids don’t know how to study or take notes, study guides would be why! There were so many kids who never took notes in class with my D1, they didn’t need to- you always got a study guide.
The problem of not seeing your test or your test being graded incorrectly is going up as we no longer have text books or paper tests and teachers are relying more on the internet. Who is actually vetting these tests? On numerous occasions my D1 would tell me tests were “keyed” in wrong and grades were being changed. The kids rarely saw these tests again, so how do we know that there aren’t more mistakes- or points being added that weren’t earned??
D2 showed me a test last night that was on her Google Classroom- the test was pulled from the wrong unit, a unit they haven’t covered yet! D1, in college now, has all of her tests online. Most can be taken from the comfort of her dorm room! She has already had a test not graded right! I’m pretty sure this one came from the textbook company- again is the professor even vetting this stuff?
With that being said, I am noticing a bit of a change with D2- more things being given back and reviewed, making kids take notes, so maybe she will have a better experience than D1.
My daughter doesn’t have a single physical textbook. There are some online textbooks. I found a cheap physical copy of her Spanish textbook (under $10 from amazon) that I purchased for home so she can look something up quickly or study without needing the computer. Many papers do end up on google classroom. For one math homework my daughter asked my husband to look at one problem. It seemed crazy to him too. There was a negative number that made no sense but when it was used as a positive number it was simple. It turned out that it was indeed supposed to be a positive number. It was surprising the teacher mention that ahead of time.
Math I just don’t really understand the lack of textbooks. I think the last time my 9th grader had any type of math book was in 2nd grade. I don’t even think she has an online math book. For kids (esp young grades) who benefit from parental help it can be hard to help when you don’t know how things are being taught today.
@thumper1 “But didn’t you say your kids could have access to these tests?”
The quizzes and tests are returned to the students, after grading, in class. Then, the teachers collect them and file them some where. If a student want to have a longer time to review, he/she has to ask the teacher, and the student’s test is then placed in a test center room for a limited time to review it. Parents who want to see it if there are concerns, etc, they also has to make a request and review it in the test center room as well. I heard tests are rarely sent home; in those cases, parents have to sign lots of forms.
At times, my oldest found errors in teacher’s correction at times and asked for review and correction. He’s definitely comfortable with self-advocacy. My middle is not comfortable with it so I could imagine her just accepting tests grades. I am not implying that teachers made mistakes on grading her tests. I do think having longer time to review privately to process everything, including her errors, would have been helpful for her to learn. My youngest is a freshman so all this new to him. He’s learning how to self-advocate.
As I stated in a previous post, I do not want to see my children’s exams; they are not my work and it’s just another paper item I don’t have to recycle. My children do their homework and study independently; their tests are their work. I do think past tests can be a study guide for final exams though. This issue is just a minor quibble of mine.
Some textbook publishers also write the tests for the book. If the district wants to buy that textbook, then they also have to buy and use the publishers tests, which is usually in the contract. Teachers that write their own tests may have 3-5 different versions of the test. By not allowing the actual test to go home, the teachers can then rotate the tests that they use that year and not have to constantly be writing new tests. Since the tests don’t go home, if a student is absent for the test and needs to make it up, the teacher can use the same test without the possibility of the student knowing the questions or use an older test. The only tests that my kids got to bring home were the scantron portion of their PE tests.
Except that test questions and tests can leak even under these conditions, so that some future students may have advance knowledge of the test. Just ask the SAT and ACT companies.