Students, teachers prep for MCAS
By Melissa Muntz Community Reporter
Shrewsbury - There are few things that can strike fear and panic in the hearts of middle school students quite like the MCAS tests can.

Pressure to perform well can be very intense, which is why Sherwood Middle School is holding mock MCAS testing to give kids a chance to practice the MCAS format of testing before having to do the real thing this spring.

"The MCAS are built up to be such a big experience, so we give them a similar test a few times before so by the time they take the real one, it doesn't become this huge stress-producing experience," Assistant Principal Michelle Melick said.

Teachers create the mock tests based on previous MCAS exams that are released by the Department of Education each year.

Once completed and scored, the teachers help students compare their answers to previous student work provided by the state to see how their scores compare, and see exactly what the difference is between a high- and low-scoring answer.

"If you get a [certain score] and don't know why, you don't really know what you're looking for," Special Education Coordinator Stephanie Wysocki said. "Here there are no secrets, because the mock shows the kids what they need to do to be successful and gives them an example to look at."

Fifth-grader Abby Joseph said being able to see which answer received what score was the most helpful part of the mock testing.

"You get to see an answer that got a zero and one that got a four and you can see what the zero doesn't include but the four did, and you know to include that in your answer," she said.

The mock test gives students a chance to get used to the environment.

"It's good because you know what it feels like and you know what kind of questions to expect," fifth-grader Robert Veale said.

Because they are able to see exactly how they scored in diff erent areas, students said they have a better idea of which areas they need to work on the hardest before the real tests.

"On MCAS there's no second chance, you can't redo it, so you have to do your best the first time," fifth-grader Alex Todorov said.

It gives teachers a chance to see which areas they may need to work on with individual students or the class as a whole to increase understanding and improve scores.

"They can see which kids don't have which piece of the puzzle and what they need to do to get them there," Assistant Principal Ann Jones said.