[BHS Etree] ADMIN: Standardized Tests - Attendance Clearance/Cell Phone Prohibition

[BHS etree]

PLEASE do not reply to this email, contact Daniel Roose, Dean of Attendance
danielroose at berkeley.net 

 

'Tis the season for standardized testing.  No sooner had we wrapped up a
week of STAR testing, when AP & IB testing began for a large portion of our
students.  And around the corner awaits another round of CAHSEE testing for
those students who were unable to pass earlier this year.  

 

When students are pulled out of class to take a test elsewhere on campus, it
can cause confusion for parents if you receive an automated 'robocall'
informing you that your son or daughter was marked absent.  Parents often
ask why we mark students absent when they are pulled out of class for
standardized tests, which are a school activity.  The answer is that the
teacher doesn't know whether the student actually made it to the test.
That's where the attendance office steps in.  Once we receive the attendance
sheet from the teachers / administrators in charge of the activity, we clear
the absence.  You will see it listed as "ACT" in PowerSchool, which is
abbreviation for "activity - excused." 

 

Ideally, the attendance office would clear the absence that very same day
and you wouldn't receive an automated phone call.  However, this simply is
not physically possible.  On days when we have standardized testing, there
might be hundreds, or even thousands, of students' test attendance to check.
It is a time-consuming task to sort through the test proctors' rosters of
names of those who attended, those who did not attend, and those who only
attended for partial time.  The same goes for school assemblies or field
trips.  In general, a good rule of thumb when your daughter/son says that
the robo-call was the result of a school activity, wait a week or two and
then check PowerSchool to see if that absence has been changed to "ACT." 

 

On the subject of testing, this is also a good time to discuss cell phones.
With mobile phone use becoming ever more ubiquitous among teens, new
challenges have arisen for test administrators around cheating.  It's not
hard for a student to snap a photo of his/her answers, upload the image, and
send to a friend who is also taking the same test a few rows over.  As a
result, test companies and state departments of education have started
pushing back aggressively, including through use of sophisticated spy
software that monitors content posted on social media.  Recently the
California Department of Education flagged a BHS student who had posted
images of her STAR test online -- within minutes of her having done so.  The
consequences of being caught can be severe for the student, regardless of
whether there was intent to cheat.  

 

In the case of high-stakes tests such as CAHSEE, AP, SAT, etc, a student
caught with a phone can be kicked out of the test and have the results
invalidated.  Parents, if you haven't already had a talk with your children
about this topic, consider discussing the serious implications of using a
phone during any school test.  Please encourage your children to understand
that phones should not be used during any academic setting and, most of all,
never during any form of assessment. 

 

Daniel Roose

Dean of Attendance / WASC / World Languages

Berkeley High School

1980 Allston Way, 94704

phone:  510.644.6929

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