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Do any of you voluntarily do annual testing?
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Laurabora’s post got me thinking…
In my state, we have total freedom in our homeschooling. We don’t have to report to anyone or do any tests. However, I just finished administering the IOWA test to my 10 yr old. I did this for a few reasons: first, he is my oldest and I was hoping to get an idea of what is a reasonable breadth of knowledge for his age. Second, I want to have something to show doubtful in-laws that homeschooling is “working.” Third, I can be insecure about my own abilities and this test was a way to, hopefully, reassure myself that I am doing a good job and point out any gaps.
BUT, I am regretting doing it in the first place. I haven’t received the results yet, but I felt through the whole test that this was testing what he didn’t know, not what he did. He did well in several areas, but I know he did poorly on the social studies and math sections. There, or course, were no questions about the ancients or his science passions or bible (his strengths.) So how do you gauge your children’s progress, abilities and areas to grow? Is that even necessary? How do you know you are doing a good job? Where do you go for this assurance?
So obviously, we need to test here in NY during certain grades. But really, those tests don’t tell me anything I don’t already know. I watched him this year go leaps and bounds with his reading. I saw that he was struggling a bit more with math.
With my daughter, who didn’t have to test this year, I know she is struggling in every area. She struggles with math, with reading, with comprehension. So I imagine her test scores will mirror that, when it comes time to take them.
When you spend all day year after year, teaching them – you know where their strengths and weaknesses are. You know where your strengths and weaknesses are as their teacher. You said it up above, that your son did poorly in social studies and math but has a passion for history, science and the bible. So you just look at the weak areas and pray for wisdom on why it’s a weak area. Like for my kids and math, I know this year for my son, it was a weak area because it was one of the first things to be swept aside when I got sick. My daughter on the other hand, just struggles with the memorization of the facts, and even though she has a strong desire to understand and get it right, she just doesn’t seem to be able to do it just yet. I know with her, I just need to sit tight, be patient and wait for the light to turn on. With my son, we need to buckle down and do more math!
And the ladies here are usually where I go for encouragement.
Especially with my oldest, because he’s my first, so we’re learning about CM style as we go along. I always get great advice on if we’re on track, and what I can be doing differently if we aren’t. That said, I think curiosity would probably get the best of me and I’d test my kids anyway, even if it wasn’t required.
I agree with the above posters. However, I do plan to start testing my kids around jr. high just to develop the test-taking skill. I believe that is a worthwhile skill to have in our society.
I do agree with tld that testing is a useful skill, and I think we’ll see more of it in our society as years go by. However, for our children, it’s not something we want to rely on too heavily for guidance. As has been mentioned previously, we as parents know our children’s strengths & weaknesses better than any test could tell us.
It’s important to see beyond “this year’s struggles” into the future, beyond the current test results. I say this because these discussions of tests and strengths/weaknesses causes me to think of a man I once worked for in the business world. He was a horrible speller and probably not a very good writer overall. But we would sit in on meetings with him, and he would consider some aspect of a project we were working on. He would mull things over, utter a phrase or mumble a thought, and then he would say, “How about if we…..” and come up with brilliant solutions or ways of handling the issue at hand. Then he’d look at me or the other assistant and say, “Write that down. Are you getting this?” We would put it down on paper & implement it. Whenever he wrote up something, it was extremely hard to read or understand. But his ideas were brilliant, and he made a whole lot more money than we did!
I asked him once how he got through college courses where he had to write papers, and he said, “I had a lot of people proofreading my work!”
We do test our young adults in junior high and high school. I want to make sure that the girls don’t have gaps that I’m not aware of in junior high before starting high school. We test in high school, quite honestly, because we need to for the kids to get the good driver discount for car insurance. That’s it. I would possibly test a couple of those years just to check as we finish out their years and to prep them for ACT & SAT’s – the timed bit can be nerve wracking for my girls. 🙂
We do testing as the easiest way to fulfill the law requirements in my state (Ohio). We’ve done portfolios before too but it is much easier to just administer a test and get it out of the way. However I do think the tests are pretty pointless because, as you said, they only try to find out what a child doesn’t know, instead of the depth and breadth of what they do know.
We treat it very much as a ‘learn what tests are like’ experience. My kids don’t stress over it because I don’t. It’s just an interesting week in our year and we move on.
Beloved,
I test involuntarily.
It is required in my state. I can relate, though, to the angst that it causes. Don’t give the tests more “authority” than they deserve. What I mean is that they are not the final judge of your success as a homeschooler. You are working with your child every day and you really do know how he is doing. The test might reveal one little snippet that you missed (“oh, he needs to work on reading graphs”) but don’t let it deflate your confidence. Do you have goals written for your homeschool? Sonya covers how to do that in Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education. I’ve found it very helpful to review these often to regain my persective on what we are doing and where we are going.
Thanks for the thoughtful responses. JennyMN, you are right on: I do need to revisit those goals. It’s so easy to loose sight of them! Thankfully hubby and I are on the same page, but something in me still wants a measuring stick to hold my kids up to. It’s hard for me to know when I should push them to do more, and when they are already doing their best, especially with the oldest one, since we’ve never had a 4th grader before, and he is very gifted in some areas and a bit “delayed” in others.
Your child sounds so much like mine. My oldest is in 4th as well and he is the same way “delayed” in some areas and very gifted and ahead in others. We are voluntarily testing this year as well for many of the reasons you listed. We won’t do it every year, but this will be our first time and I just wanted to see how things are and give the experience of testing.
I tested my oldest (12) last year just out of curiosity, really. I wanted to see how “right on” I was about how he would do-and I was, “right on.” 😉 We did it on the iPad and he thought it was kind of like a game or contest and had fun doing it. I will mention that one veteran homeschool mom told me she never tested her kids, but on the recommendation of a friend, she decided to do it one year. She said the most beneficial thing for her was that through that test, she was able to identify a gift in writing in one of her daughters that she may not have picked up on.
Threekidsmom, I wonder what test the veteran homeschool mom used that she would have been able to identify the gift of writing. When I think of annual testing I think of bubble tests (IOWA, CAT). It doesn’t sound like she used a bubble test.
Many people in my state use the Peabody which is an oral test. For phonics, I really like the Let’s Go Learn test from homeschoolbuyersco-op.com because it shows you very specific areas that your child has mastered and what they need to work on. It’s the only test I like to spend money on.
Especially with my oldest, because he’s my first, so we’re learning about CM style as we go along. I always get great advice on if we’re on track, and what I can be doing differently if we aren’t. 
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