Should Avon Students Be Allowed to Take All Graded Tests Home?

When Lori and Ken Leopold's son told them he did poorly on a math test at Pine Grove School in April, they asked him to bring it home so they could go over it together.

But he told them he wasn’t allowed to take his test home.

"He is generally an excellent math student, so we were concerned that there was a topic that he did not understand," the Leopolds wrote in an email to Patch. "We were told by administration that he could not bring the test home and that we would need to come into Pine Grove in order to review his test."

Both Avon Superintendent Gary Mala and Board of Education Chairwoman Peggy Roell wrote in emails to Patch that there is no written district-wide school board policy restricting students from bringing tests home.

Pine Grove School Principal Gail Dahling-Hench said that the elementary school's practice is not a policy, but confirmed that it is an unwritten practice at the school for select tests. It has existed for about 12 years, pre-dating her time as principal at the school. 

Roaring Brook School follows a similar practice, not sending home "district assessments," according to Roaring Brook School Principal Crisanne Colgan.

The district assessments give Pine Grove data to evaluate its "instruction" and inform administrators about the "impact of the curriculum over time," according Dahling-Hench.

“Those kind of tests are considered secure tests. They’re common assessments between both schools," Dahling-Hench said in April, adding that "for validity and fidelity purposes," school officials do not send those tests home with the students. “There’s many smaller assessments in between that we send home."

For end of unit math assessments, for instance, teachers send students home with a breakdown of their scores in the different categories.

"It tells the parents where the child is secure, where the child is developing," Dahling-Hench said.

Roaring Brook does not send home "writing prompts, Common Formative Assessments (CFA's) in reading/language arts, EveryDay Mathematics tests, Universal screenings in reading/language arts and mathematics," Colgan said. 

"Teachers share all assessment scores with parents, and meet with parents if necessary to show and discuss the actual test results," Colgan said. "All other tests are sent home, including spelling tests and teacher-made quizzes and tests.

Pine Grove administrators and teachers are also willing to meet with parents to review their child's performance on the tests, Dahling-Hench said. Dahling-Hench said that the standardized tests not sent home require an educator to interpret the results. 

“Parents have the right to the information and we want them to be well informed about the progress of their child and any area that they need further work on," Dahling-Hench said. “We also make ourselves available to review any of those assessments both at conference times and at other times that parents have interest to do so."

The Leopolds said they "were eventually were able to review the test and were able to identify a concept that our son had not grasped" and went over it with him further at home. 

The practice of not bringing home certain tests is not limited to the elementary schools. Several parents with kids in various Avon public schools contacted Patch with concerns about their children not being able to bring tests home.

"The bottom line is that Avon has very challenging curriculums and there are huge benefits to students in bringing tests home to study and learn from and because of this I believe the unwritten policies need to be reviewed, assessed and changed at this time," Avon parent Joan McDonald wrote in an email to Patch. "Let's clearly define what the unwritten policy is for each school and why each school has the rule exactly and what we can do at this point in time to improve these unwritten policies so that it has the greatest benefit to the majority of our students.  I don't think it's asking too much that the teachers have 3 or 4 tests rotating from year to year anyway.  Let's put the students first and do what's right for them."

Avon Middle School also does not allow students to take home certain graded tests. 

"At AMS this is done for major assessments such as mid-terms and finals so that the integrity of the tests are preserved," Avon Middle School Principal Marco Famiglietti wrote to Patch in April. "Parents and students have the right to view the graded assessments by arranging to do so with the classroom teacher."

Three of the Leopolds' children who graduated from Avon High School had a similar experience, not able to bring home certain corrected tests. High school officials have not confirmed the specifics of practices regarding which graded tests students can take home. 

The Leopolds found the restriction on bringing corrected tests home to be an "impediment" at the high school, stating that creates "major hurdles in identifying deficient areas of learning" for students – particularly in studying for mid-semester and final exams – and their parents and tutors.

"This issue is frustrating to students and to parents, whether in elementary school or in high school," the Leopolds said. "Are parents really expected to take time off from work so that they can review their children's tests?  If a student is working with a tutor, which is not unusual with upper level math, science and foreign language classes, is the tutor supposed to go to the school and review the test?"

They said that they understand "there are issues with the integrity of exams that are sent home with students (especially high school students), but said "priorities seem to have been misplaced."

"The sine qua non in this setting should be maximizing the potential for teaching the students," the Leopolds said. "If this necessitates further steps to administer uncompromised tests, so be it."

Do you think students should be able to bring all graded tests home or should district assessments be kept in school? Tell us in the comments!