My teacher won't let my child see her test!
Our tutors are hearing with increasing frequency that teachers are not giving back tests--they are only giving back the scores.

This is an educational tragedy, in my opinion. The biggest problem with this practice is that it is so widely accepted as "normal," even though it is unfair and unbelievably wasteful.

There are only two purposes for giving a test, and both are equally important:

1. To check for understanding
2. To allow students to learn from their mistakes

When a teacher does not allow a student to see his/her mistakes, the learning opportunity of going over the test is completely lost. If an adult makes a mistake at work and is penalized for it, I guarantee he/she will want an explanation of what they did wrong. Why should it be any different with our children, who are judged and graded all day long?

Why they withhold the test
Teachers usually withhold the test because they plan on using the exact same test again the following year. As a former teacher, I can tell you that this is just not a good enough excuse. Teaching is not an easy job, but in my opinion, reworking a test each time you give it is part of the job. Teachers should give back all tests they give, and let the students keep them to study from. I know this raises the hackles of just about every teacher out there, but it is true. No teacher will argue that giving tests back to students to keep is not the best practice to promote learning. They withhold the test purely to make a difficult job a little easier, and then camouflage the reason with talk about "preventing cheating."

Some don't even go over the test in class
We have heard that some teachers do not even go over the test in class. This is double jeopardy. So the student studies for hours, takes the test, and gets feedback: 67%; A-; 5.5 out of 10. But the student learns nothing by getting this result.

Passing the test back is good teaching
Sure, it creates more work for the teacher. But by passing the test back, the student can learn from his mistakes, and parents, tutors, or friends can go through the mistakes with him so that he doesn't make the same mistake again. This greatly increases the worth of giving the test in the first place.

Teachers are not infallible
Teachers are human, and they make mistakes. I made mistakes grading papers, especially when I had to go through a stack of 165 of them in two days. By not passing the tests back and at least going over them, students do not get a chance to defend their answers and find mistakes in the answer key. And, yep, you guessed it, another learning opportunity is lost.

Makes it more difficult to help a student
One of the biggest concerns this practice of withholding tests raises is how to help students who are struggling. With most teachers grading homework based on "completion," the test is often the only performance feedback the student gets from the teacher. This is why some students we tutor have As in homework and Fs on tests for a C average. Not having tests to look at and learn from puts parents and tutors at a disadvantage when helping kids learn the material. It leaves some things to guesswork. And it really is unnecessary.

What to do
If your child's teacher withholds tests, go to the principal and demand to see the test. This may get you an appointment with the teacher to go over the test, and it may even get your teacher to start giving your child the test regularly. If more parents complain like this, then teachers will have to adjust their practices and everyone will benefit.