[mercedez]

I want to know why teachers dont give back the test papers that the school kids do at school?

My year 6 son, just did a test two weeks ago and has been allocated to maths groups today. The teacher wont give any test papers back? We saw the teacher today and asked about test papers and she says, no they wont give back test papers.

This has been happening for so many years that we never get to see the test the kids do. I would like to see what maths problems he has so we can address it. I did tell the teacher that i would like to know if he has any weakness and she keeps saying he is fine.

So do you get to see your childrens test papers?

This post has been edited by mercedez: 19/02/2013, 11:30 PM

[SeaPrincess]

They don't give them back because they use the same one each year. Wouldn't want anyone to have an advantage by studying up on big bro/sis test from a previous year.

[Niamh23]

I assume they are giving the papers back in class, then collecting them once the kids have had a look?

[kpingitquiet]

My schools always required a parent to sign off on graded tests and return them, via the student, to the teacher. I thought that was pretty sensible.

[Bacongirl]

Depends on the test and what the school is using it for.

At our school they have a number of different tests. Some are returned, some are not.

Assesment tests are usually not returned as they really have no bearing on the day-to-day work. They are simply a tool that the teacher uses to see where your child sits in that subject. Your child is not expected to know and get every question correct. They usually do a few of these at the beginning of each year.

Tests during the year are often reviewd and marked by the children during class time, so they can see where they had issues and they can be discussed. These are often sent home in the school bags.

Final tests are not usually returned and are marked by the teacher. They are then kept on file for end of year reporting.

[Matthias' mum]

Generally I would have kept all tests until all children (some children may have been away the day it was done) had completed the test, and all of them had been marked. Exam papers are kept to use as practice papers, but answer sheets would be returned.
The only reason I can think of that they wouldn't be returned is that they reuse the tests in following years. For something like a maths test, this would seem quite likely, as each year they would learn the same things.

[~kitteh.hoardere...]

If schools are reusing tests, then giving them back isn't possible. The lengths that some tutors will go to get copies of tests is astounding (giving students free tutoring if they use their phones to take photos.)

I work in a year 11 and 12 school and we go keep assessment items for two reasons. 1, for moderation to use the work to compare when grading happens. 2, because tutors keep copies of all the assessments that we do allow home it means we can never use those questions again given it would advantage students with the unscrupulous tutors.

While not all primary schools would be the same, there definintely would be some primary schools where this goes on as well.

However, even as a year 11 and 12 school if a parent requested to view the paper we would allow this. They might not be able to take it home, but they could view it in our presence. For us, given the students are older, we always given the papers to the students to review, check the marking, ask any questions and then return to us in the same lesson.

[mercedez]

ok now i understand. I just wish i could see his results which they wont even mention.

Back in my days the schools always gave every single test results back.

[~kitteh.hoardere...]

For tests this early in the year it is probably for diagnostic reasons and not assessment reasons. In which case it might just be simpler for them if parents don't know the results.

[elizabethany]

I know for older kids (senior school and up), it is also so they have a record if the marks get contested.

At University level, we are required to keep marked assessments until 2 years after that student has graduated. Considering that people do part time or defer, we often keep them for between 7 and 10 years from the test date.