Who is refusing Common Core tests for 3rd-8th graders?

[sam_gordon]

I graduated high school in 1988 (just to let you know how long ago that was). I remember taking standardized tests in middle and high school back then (sorry, I have very few elementary school memories). Standardized tests are NOT new. Now, you can argue teachers are putting too much of an emphasis on the tests, but I feel having a standardized tests ARE a good indication of how well they're doing their jobs.

Yes, I know, little "Jimmy" stresses over these tests so much he gets violently ill for two week leading up to the tests. You know what, maybe Jimmy's mommy and daddy should explain what is proper for him to stress over. If he gets excused from stressful (and these test shouldn't be that stressful) situations, how will he learn to handle adversity?

If I offended someone, I apologize. That wasn't my intent.

 

[mom2rtk]

I graduated high school in 1988 (just to let you know how long ago that was). I remember taking standardized tests in middle and high school back then (sorry, I have very few elementary school memories). Standardized tests are NOT new. Now, you can argue teachers are putting too much of an emphasis on the tests, but I feel having a standardized tests ARE a good indication of how well they're doing their jobs.

Yes, I know, little "Jimmy" stresses over these tests so much he gets violently ill for two week leading up to the tests. You know what, maybe Jimmy's mommy and daddy should explain what is proper for him to stress over. If he gets excused from stressful (and these test shouldn't be that stressful) situations, how will he learn to handle adversity?

If I offended someone, I apologize. That wasn't my intent.

Our "Jimmy" cried himself to sleep every night before his first round of testing in 3rd grade. It was awful. It wasn't rational, so there wasn't really any reasoning with him about what to stress over. But it never crossed our minds to opt him out. I honestly think if we had, he would not even consider sitting for something as high stakes at the CPA Exam in the near future. Yet that is a path he has willingly chosen.

Our other 2 kids were not fazed by standardized tests at all. They usually got extra snacks and recesses those weeks.

 

[Southernmiss]

I graduated 2 years before samgordon. I remember CAT test (California Achievement Tests) in elementary school. I vividly remember 2nd grade. We were taking the test, it was warm in the classroom (no airconditioning-May in Mississippi) I was scooting my desk closer to the open windows for some air and fell over with the desk on my fingers and hand. My fingers were bruised and swollen. The teacher came out at the end of the day and apologized to my mom. I didn't have to finish taking those tests that week.

Nope nothing new and we all survived.

 

[Bluestars]

I don't get all the test anxiety either. When i was a kid, in the dark ages, we took the Iowa Basics every year. Same/similar content as the tests my kids take now. And, they've got some HUGE tests coming up in high school....so I want them prepared for what it means to take a test. I don't want their first exposure to be when they take the ACT or SAT for real.

And, testing just gets more high stakes. When I was in law school, we had a SINGLE exam per class which determined out grade. That's it. The entire quarter boiled down to one exam per class. And, of course, when you get licensed to practice in your state, that is also a single test. Pass it and you can practice law. Fail and you can't. Black/white, yes/no. That sucker was three 8 hour testing days too. Talk about intense. (BTW, the pass rate was around 45% too). What are all these parents who oppose testing going to do when their kids hit high school and college? Decline to take any tests?

At least the "standardized tests" my kids took in 1-8th grade count for NOTHING grade wise. Nothing whatsoever. The same cannot be said for the ACT or SAT.

I agree. I took standardized tests when I was in school and my kids took them. My youngest is a freshman in college now, but I would not have opted out of any testing. I'd just tell him to do the best he could.

 

[smitch425]

For those of you who opt out, what do you tell your kids? Do you just keep them home or are they at school doing something else while the rest of the class is taking the tests?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

My kids never had anxiety taking state standardized tests, regardless of whether they were the old PA standards or the current Common Core Standards. In our state, standardized tests are for checking how well the schools are performing and do not affect student advancement (although an "Advanced" score is desired for being put into honors classes). I saw no reason to refuse testing.

 

[aprilchem]

Not opting out. I don't agree with the tests, but I know they're tied to funding and teacher evaluations at my kids' school. My kids tend to do very well on those type of tests so I don't think it would be particularly fair to pull them from the testing.

 

[Oodalally13]

This "little jimmy" broke out in hives all over before my first standardized test in 3rd grade. That's because hey we're telling us how we had to do good on these or would fail, not go on to high school or college, not get a good job and basically be bums for life. I don't know about them and still don't even now as a teacher if opt out is allowed in Texas. If it was I am sure there would be a swell of the under-achievers not taking it.

 

[momtosam]

Not opting out because I feel my children need to have the experience of test taking so they will be successful when they have to take exams later in life for graduation and college. Test taking skills are an art in and of themselves.

 

[bsblady01]

Just taking an informal poll. Are you refusing to allow the state to test your child ad nauseum? My kids are now all beyond grades 3-8 (oops-dd13 will have to refuse next year). I have sent in letters of refusal for my kids for the past 4-5 years.

your kids are going to have to take test like this to graduate from high school so let them get used to it now

 

[bsblady01]

my kids will take the test

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

Obviously I have no experience with the matter itself but I do think it's important to learn good test-taking skills before kids get ti high school. It especially teaches good study habits when they're older, since they will have to learn how to retain important knowledge before a big test. I do get stressed out over tests, however the stress helps to keep me focused. I'm an AP student and before I took my first AP test I was so stressed I could barely walk in a straight line because I kept looking at flashcards I had made.

My state is also now requiring that all juniors take the ACT. This upcoming Tuesday and Wednesday everyone in my junior class will be sorted in various classrooms and forced to sit there for 4 hours and take a standardized tests. I would feel more stressed about it if I didn't have my experience with taking AP tests. So, it's something kids needs to experience and learn how to handle.

Just my $0.02.

 

[Happy Snowman]

Absolutely opting out. My child always scores proficient or advanced, but I think they are a waste of time and money that could be used for other things. The billions of dollars that the testing companies get for these tests is absolutely ridiculous. An employer is not going to care how anyone does on a test. They are going to be more concerned with whether you are a critical thinker, a problem solver not if you can fill in a bubble on a test.

These are not the same types of tests that you take in college. Most tests in college want you think and problem solve. Oh and a lot of colleges are moving away from SAT/ACT requirements.

Of course these are not the same tests as they take in college, these tests are for 3-8th graders who's brains have not developed in the same way as a college student yet.

I don't know that I would consider this "a lot" of schools moving away from ACT/SAT...

http://www.fairtest.org/sites/default/files/Optional-Schools-in-U.S.News-Top-Tiers.pdf

Our kids are past this but I also see no valid reason to opt out.


I also too standardized testing way back when I was in school in the 70's.

 

[deedeetoo]

I agree with others. Standardized tests are nothing new. They were around in the 1960's when I was in elementary school. I don't see the point in opting out. Your child needs to learn how to take big tests. Its a skill that becomes more and more important as they get older. I don't know why you don't like common core, but if it is politically motivated, then I think you are putting your political agenda above what is best for your child.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I do remember taking standardized tests as early as third grade, and I was not one of the kids stressed over them, but it see two big differences today. -

1. Teachers are evaluated based on the results when they don't have control over so many of the factors that contribute to those results - how much sleep the kids get the night before, whether they have a good breakfast, whether they are coming down with a cold, etc.

2. Testing on a computer (which some districts are moving to) tests the child's comfort with computers as much as it tests the subject matter. This will give very "fuzzy" data, and likely cause an income bias.

As for whether I will opt out for these reasons - no. Pulling my kid will not change the difficult situation his teacher is in. In fact, if he would have scored well, it would hurt her average. And if my district goes to computers, I want him to have this year to practice, before high school, when it becomes more important. Even though he has always had access to computers, he just doesn't like them. So he will benefit from more time to get comfortable with the format.

 

[leebee]

There are many things about the Smarter Balance tests with which I strongly disagree. They do NOT test the material we teach the kids in the way we teach them. These tests are heavily language-based, which puts kids with poorer language skills at a disadvantage, and many kids struggle with the language-dependent math answers. In math, giving the answer is often not good enough; you have to explain, in words, how you knew how to subtract, for example, or explain another way to do the problem you already did. I think these tests strive to test too much at one time, and put any child with any kind of reading shortcoming at a disadvantage before they ever sit down at the computer. Being computer-based is also an issue. At my school, we will be taking SB over a six-week period, because as a small, rural k-8 school, we do not have the computer capacity to test all kids efficiently. This will be reasonably disruptive for all classes. Also, manipulating the computer to answer the math questions is not user-friendly, and will frustrate many kids. Our school has been practicing taking these tests since early January and the kids still struggle to "get the computer to do what I want!" I predict at least half of the kids are going to give up and go click, click, click just to be done with the test. We all took standardized tests throughout school… but these tests are nothing like the Iowa tests, NECAPs, etc., that we are remembering.

Having said that, I would NOT opt my child out of the testing. These tests do not effect a child's grade in any class, so no worries about that. I think it's important to teach kids that in real life, we often have to undertake situations that make us uncomfortable- and refusing to do as your boss asks, for example, is not an option. I have been trying to impress on my students that these tests won't effect their grades, but instead will tell us, as a school, how we are doing with our teaching and help us learn to be more effective teachers- how to "teach you better." I reiterate that there is nothing to be stressed over because the test isn't testing the student, it's providing information for the school. These tests are here to stay for probably another 5 years, so it's important for students to learn to take these tests, regardless of their grades. While I disagree with the tests themselves, the mechanics of taking the tests, the level of expectation/knowledge to which the test is designed, and the over-integration of math and language within the tests, there is no way I would opt my child (if she were of an age) out of taking these tests.

 

[Ceila]

My kids will both take the test, because I believe that exposure to this kind of test can help them prepare for other tests in similar format that they may face in the future. That being said, I'm not a fan of this test in particular, nor of this kind of testing in general.

I participated in the field test last year and have been working with teachers and their classes this year on the practice tests and tutorials. It's a poorly designed and worded test. It's not the difficulty of the questions, but some are worded so badly that it will affect the answer some children choose. Third grade students are being asked to construct written responses when most of their typing skills are not (and should not, at that age) developed enough to do this comfortably. Older students are asked to read long passages but have no way to make notations alongside the text. In the work world, I have a variety of tools I can either add on to my computer to do so, or I can print out an article and makes notes, so this test doesn't even reflect "college and career" skills that Pearson constantly claims to address. I could go on and on!

As an educator, I disagree with using this type pf test to evaluate teachers, and it's not for the reason some of you might assume. With PARCC and other standardized tests, the exact same test is given to every student in a grade. However, some classroom teachers have classes of students in only regular ed;
some have regular ed and special ed, and some have only special ed. Yet, all of those teachers will be evaluated on how well their students perform on the same test. Obviously, teachers with no special ed students will be "graded" as more effective teachers than the teacher with only special ed students. How is this possible fair? I'm also very concerned that we will see a reduction in the number of college students choosing to go into special education as a result. There ARE tests available that track student growth, such as MAP (Measures of Academic Progress). Those would be much a more valuable tool in evaluating teachers and students.

 

[JanaDee]

Absolutely opting out. My child always scores proficient or advanced, but I think they are a waste of time and money that could be used for other things. The billions of dollars that the testing companies get for these tests is absolutely ridiculous. An employer is not going to care how anyone does on a test. They are going to be more concerned with whether you are a critical thinker, a problem solver not if you can fill in a bubble on a test.

These are not the same types of tests that you take in college. Most tests in college want you think and problem solve. Oh and a lot of colleges are moving away from SAT/ACT requirements.

Even if you opt your child out, their classroom time will still be wasted on test prep, so the opted out child isn't gaining anything.

 

[JanaDee]

I agree. I took standardized tests when I was in school and my kids took them. My youngest is a freshman in college now, but I would not have opted out of any testing. I'd just tell him to do the best he could.

I took standardized tests when I was in school, too. Prepping for the test took a day, two max and we took one standardized test a year. Now? The majority of their class time is devoted to learning materials for the tests (as they take multiples throughout the year). The only things they learn about are material on the tests. They don't have time for anything else.

 

[Ceila]

Even if you opt your child out, their classroom time will still be wasted on test prep, so the opted out child isn't gaining anything.

We've had a couple of parents who are refusing the test complain about that as well. They seem to believe that our teachers should prepare two lessons for those classes - one for the students who are getting comfortable with the new testing environment, and one for their child.