A letter sent in from a parent about her experience opting her child out of high stakes testing: I am a parent of 3 children. When my youngest child was in the third grade he took the HSA test twice. It was exhausting for him to sit in front of the computer for a couple of hours. He saw that it took some children several hours from 8 a.m. to sometimes after lunch to complete the test. What he didn’t like most was that they were given the results immediately and students compared and judged each other based on these numbers. He saw that the HSA results became a source of teasing by his peers who did “better.” He told me he did not like being part of this situation and did not share his test results with his classmates even though his scores were great. Just before the third test in the spring, we decided to opt him out. I talked to the principal who was understanding and supportive and we have been opting out of the HSA ever since. Currently he is in the sixth grade. Every school year I inform his teachers that he will not be taking the HSA. Because he is the only student in his class who does not take the test, however, he must still follow the textbooks geared for the test and do the prep work like everyone else. Sometimes he is required to take pre tests. Last year, his math class covered 2 to 3 chapters a week to try to finish the textbook in time for the test. According to him, it is typical classroom procedure in which just weeks before the test he must do extra drills at school and at home. This year the school began using a program called IXL where he gains a certain number of points per question and the test continues until he earns 100 points. I understand the school purchased the program to try to meet the demands of the Smarter Balanced Assessment System. He has spent many hours a day trying to complete the program at home. It is terribly frustrating for him when he nears 100 points and loses 10 points for getting one problem wrong. The language arts requirement is not much better. He finds the Wonders textbook exercises time-consuming and tedious. It takes away the joy out of reading and learning. Each year his frustration at his schoolwork gets worse. His school has been trying to balance the curriculum with PE, art and music, and my older children do not seem too bothered by the HSA. However, I am increasingly concerned about test-based learning in math and language arts for all my children. Their education is clearly imbalanced and has been compromised thanks to HSA, NCLB and Common Core.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 02:21:25 +0000
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