In New York, every other year starting in the 4th grade (or 5th grade), the end of the year home school evaluation needs to be a standardized test. In Virginia, I chose to give Madison the CAT (California Achievement Test) at the end of her 1st grade year.
I was always a whiz at standardized tests. They never caused me any stress. I actually liked them. I took the SAT 7 times, starting in 7th grade, so by the time I took it early senior year I had no trouble or worries.
By the time Madison was at the end of first grade, she was devouring books like Harry Potter. Madison took to standardized testing like a duck to water, or at least like a challenge-loving kid to a challenge. She tested at a 6th grade level at the end of 1st grade.
Ella never took a standardized test before. But because it's time for Madison to take one to fulfill state requirements, I've ordered the CAT tests for 2nd grade and 4th grade this year. We just got them. I also ordered the 2nd grade test prep book for Ella, figuring that Madison wouldn't need to prepare.
So why do I care if ELLA prepares, given that I don't need to send her test scores anywhere? When I look at it this way, it seems that I am being foolish.
Now, as she winds up her second grade year, Ella is about an average reader, I estimate. But SO MUCH of the CAT depends on reading ability that it's really all they are testing. Ella has come very far this year; she NEVER could have managed this test at the beginning of the year, and that's saying something. So I have no idea how half of the kids even manage to take this test. Even the math has to do with reading. I don't really care if Ella knows that eight thousand, seven hundred and eighty-four translates to 8,784. I'd much rather she knows the answer to 7x+1=50. But the first one is a test question, not the second.
So why am I doing this if I don't really care about someone else's arbitrary standards? The answer is, I'm not sure.
It's good to have a sense of where my kid measures up against what other second graders are being tested for in the country. I guess. But to my surprise and somewhat to my dismay, I'm caring, much more than maybe I should. (Ella, of course, has no idea that I do, I'm very careful not to show it.) I see a problem to which she doesn't know the answer (or a subject that we haven't covered), and I wince, inside. What does it mean about her education, that I haven't taught her that yet? Oh, goodness, she's forgotten how to read a clock, she knew that back in the fall, maybe I'm letting her be too much a child of the digital age..." I worry about whether I can read the directions out loud with her, or whether she must read them herself, and let the chips fall where they may if she doesn't understand.
And, worst of all, this test makes it thoroughly apparent to me that Ella's reading level is way far behind where Madison's was at the end of first grade. Now, I'm not all hyped up on my kids being precocious in everything, or even in anything. But there's no question that Madison takes in far more information per unit time than Ella does, simply because she reads voraciously. I was the same way at her age, and it made for a very rich intellectual life.
Ella is fine. Ella is exactly where she should be in some things, and beyond in others, such as math, history, science, and general cultural literacy. But the kid won't read on her own, for pleasure. And maybe this is an instance of Bad Mommy surfacing, but it privately drives me nuts. It makes me worry. Madison's reading (combined with the tenacity with which she tackles ideas she wants to understand) makes her so smart; she's got these two great tools for learning that Ella hasn't really cultivated yet. I can't exactly say to Ella, "Read, damn it, and start enjoying it, QUICK, because I don't want it ever to be apparent to you that your sister is way beyond where you are when she was the same age." I can't exactly say, "CARE MORE about ideas!" I can lead, we can all serve as her models, but I can't exhort the child to be "more like the rest of your family." I mean, she's not even 8 yet, for pity's sake. She's going to lead a perfectly smart, rich life. I'm not in the least worried about that. But I do worry that Madison is going continually to come off as this brainy genius through her life, and Ella will be regarded as Madison's Little Sister. I don't want her EVER to see herself in that light.
Interestingly enough, Ella actually LIKES working in the test preparation booklet. I was prepared for her to like most of the math, because it is, as she calls it, mostly "easy-puhleasy." But she even likes the reading comprehension. She's not having much trouble with it, she's doing fine even if not stellar, and she's been perfectly willing to work on these with me for a couple of hours each day.
But I still almost feel as though I'm betraying my own educational philosophy, that I'm falling into the same trap as today's public school teachers subject to No Child Left Behind are -- and who would have thought that I would ever feel THEIR pain? Today, we didn't get to reading about the American Revolution because we worked on test prep and then had to go out to science class. That has to be wrong, right?
As you can tell, I'm still working through this issue. Comments welcome.
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3 comments:
One of my main reasons for homeschooling is and was the emphasis on testing. I've always believed that testing does not measure intelligence or learning and is a very poor predictor of future accomplishment, except to kill self-esteem and the love of learning. The irony is that since I homeschool in NC, I am required to test every single year once my children turn 7.
Mary is 9, extremely bright, picks up on concepts easily, finds math fun and is an out-side the box thinker. But, she has struggled with reading from the word go! Just this year she has finally turned the corner in her reading, but still struggles with confidence. The first year I decided to try the WJIII interview style test, but that was an absolute failure. She does not not "perform" well and refused to finish the test. Last year we did the Iowa, and after much research I decided to modify the test, much like they would do for children with IEPs in the classroom. My mother used to give tests to students with LDs when she taught, so I asked her for the guidelines and followed those. And, we also went through the test prep booklets, which Mary actually enjoyed. I soothed my troubled souled about teaching to the test by reminding myself that I wasn't spending my whole year teaching the test. Instead I was using the booklets to help Mary overcome her fear of testing by making her more comfortable with the style of question asking.
I was just pleased that she was able to finish the test last year. Her scores came back as just average. At this time, that is going to have to be okay for me. (I will be repeating that mantra to myself, again this year I am sure).The fact is everyone who knows Mary, knows that she is far smarter than average. But, these kinds of tests are unable to really measure the Right-brain, visual-spatial learner.
This year, both Mary and Katie will have to endure testing. I've barely given it any thought, except to purchase test prep books for them to use over the summer before we test in August (when one school year ends and the next begins).
Oh, and I found a big unusual field trip at the end of testing was a big motivator, for all of us.
Peace,
Amy
Amy, THANK you for commenting! I've been reading your blog for several years and in fact watching how it's worked with Mary and reading has been a big encouragement to me in my work with Ella. I'm so glad they aren't in a school where they'd be stamped and labeled and regarded as "slow." I'm just having to wrap my mind around the correct mindset regarding this testing, and I really appreciate your thoughts. Thanks for taking the time.
I share a lot of your concerns about standardized testing, but I see value in teaching test-taking skills, which is basically what you're doing with Ella with the test prep book. As inaccurate/uninformative as these types of tests can be, they can be important beyond even college concerns, as many, many professions require some kind of licensing test. And test-taking is, in fact, a skill independent of other skills--learning how they're set up, learning to see the patterns in multiple choice questions. I think it's especially nice that Ella's enjoying it. If she has positive test associations, she's less likely to let anxiety get in the way of her performance on tests she has to take down the line. I know so many really, really smart people who have test anxieties that have really gotten in the way of them achieving their goals.
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