Plano ISD Trustees keep students from taking home tests to show parents

by Kaitlin Parker

"My favorite teacher inspires me to continue the learning experience not only within the walls of the classroom, but also outside them."

--Front page of Plano ISD Guidebook

The DMN recently reported on Plano ISD’s policy regarding parents’ access to their children’s tests. Currently many high school and senior high school teachers “do not allow tests to go home so that they can be re-used without fear of cheating.”

The board of trustees met on Tuesday to debate the policy, ultimately deciding that Plano teachers can keep the tests on campus. For parents who wish to review any of their children’s tests, the district is allowing them to make appointments twice a week between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. This is a policy change, expanding the possible review times beyond regular school hours.

Parents, led by PISD father, Don Nicholson, were hoping for more of a change, perhaps even something as dramatic as (gasp!) letting students take their tests home.

This policy, as it stands now, is frustrating for several reasons. As Mr. Nicholson rightly asserts, "There's a trend going on: We tell parents we want them to be involved, but we make it as difficult as we can to make them involved. It's not right." Honestly, how many parents are going to make an appointment to go to school and review a test that was troubling for their child?

As board vice president Melody Timinsky, who voted against the policy, points out, the new policy does not affect teachers who already let students take their tests home, creating inconsistencies across the district.

In the midst of arguments between parents, board members and teachers, where do the students enter into the equation? How are students supposed to study for final exams without the aid of tests from earlier in the semester? If we want children to communicate with their parents, even during those angst-filled adolescent years, sealing off any physical evidence of failure or success (no more posting A+ math tests on the fridge, I suppose) does not seem like a step in the right direction.

And if teachers and trustees think they are going to put an end to cheating by stopping tests from leaving the classroom, they are sorely mistaken. Deputy Superintendent Danny Modisette believes, "In the age of camera phones and the Internet, the ability to distribute [tests] is significant." True, but what about the age of oral communication? Keep the tests, cell phones, and copy machines under lock and key if you wish, but you’re not going to stop students from talking to each other.

Still, Plano Senior High School teacher, Matt Cone, supports the current policy: "It…allows teachers to do their jobs more efficiently, because they won't be forced to spend time rewriting tests." It frightens me that people are equating teaching with efficiency. So stopping students from taking tests home will supposedly allow the same Scantron answer key to be used for years on end. How much time is that actually saving? And time saved to do what?

Perhaps I’m biased. I go to a small college with an honor code that allows for unproctored tests and self-scheduled final exams. Professors rarely reuse tests. Even in high school though (at a district with plenty of problems of their own these days), the strongest teachers I ever had were precisely the ones rewriting tests, adjusting them year to year, class to class, to properly reflect the subject matter that had been covered and the discussions that had arisen during a particular grading period. They also let us take our tests home.