Standardized testing

[akafred]

Today is the first day for DD as she is in third grade this year. Lord help us all! Lol. Her teacher was very proactive and has a solid plan for how to accommodate DD. Most of the test will be given orally and individually. I've also rearranged my schedule a couple days this week and arranged a babysitter the other days to pick her up so she doesn't have to go to Aftercare as it's hard on everyone in Aftercare. The babysitter is also a personal trainer and will take her on hikes, bike rides, swimming, etc so she can burn off steam.

Unfortunately there was turnover in the OT office so she doesn't have OT this week, but I am going to WFM the normal day and do some OT heavy work before school.

Just wanted to vent some steam as I'm trying not to stress but I totally am. In positive news, DD has been AMAZING lately so fx it continues.

[funchicken]

It sounds like you have a good plan! I hope all goes well. FWIW, DD1 had her first SOLs last year, and it wasn't too bad.

[miranda]

That's a well thought out plan! We have testing starting in a bit, too. It's interesting how it varies from school to school. A SN mom at another school asked me if I was going to waive DS participation in testing. I shrugged and said no, it's good practice for him. State testing doesn't have bearing on grades or anything else related to the student, and I think it's a good barometer of how he's doing vis a vis other students. At other schools it's a highly touchy subject and there's a groundswell of parents opting out, particularly SN kids. Also if you opt out it counts as "not proficient" so the school could ostensibly receive more funding if it's considered low-achieving.

[akafred]

DD goes to private school, so instead of the newer CC state testing, they do Stanford Achievement Testing that I grew up with. The school treats it like a practical life skill, very low pressure. It means nothing in terms of consequences for high or low scoring. I opted in because presumably she will be taking more tests in life so might as well attempt it as a low-pressure situation. I'm still worried she'll feel pressure though.

[akafred]

First day went well, I think. I asked if it was good and DD said, "medium." She was also able to tell me which subtests she did (vocabulary, language, and social studies). I think she felt like a badass since only 3 of the kids "got" to do it (they start in third grade and this year there are only 2 third graders and 1 fifth grader doing testing; there is another girl in about her third sixth-grade year lol, but she has more profound special needs and has an IEP that gets her out of testing).

[funchicken]

I'm glad it went well. How many days of tests does she have?

[akafred]

Apr 18, 2018 13:10:57 GMT -5 funchicken said:

I'm glad it went well. How many days of tests does she have?

4 total (Tues-Fri). Day 2 involved comprehension and problem solving (which is apparently math), so two of her weaker areas, so not shockingly she was less enthused when she got in the car, but still in an upbeat mood.

[akafred]

We also did OT from home this morning, which went really well. She cooperated and I feel like it should have had a calming influence. My husband was grumpy when I asked him to do a thing or two though.

[funchicken]

Apr 18, 2018 17:53:57 GMT -5 akafred said:

We also did OT from home this morning, which went really well. She cooperated and I feel like it should have had a calming influence. My husband was grumpy when I asked him to do a thing or two though.

It's amazing how much things like that can help. DD had soccer practice yesterday, and I told her she could wait and do her homework after practice. Computer-based math programs stress her the F out, and she was positively mellow (for her) when she was working on it last night.

[auntie]

akafred,

I wonder if all of this "support" could backfire if Char intuits your anxiety level around the process and results which will drive up her anxiety. She's a bright kid.

DS's elementary always bent over backwards to get the best from all of their kids- they could wear comfy clothes, had sugary treats, movement breaks, etc. Our property values rise and fall on the backs of these little people and their older AP/SAT taking siblings; the stress the kids felt- even when it was just state mandated testing for school quality was tremendous.

Accommodations such as chunking (splitting the test into multiple days where allowed) and being read the test/instructions are appropriate. But be careful that in setting up an ideal testing scenario that you will not get an accurate measure of what Char brings to the table relative to her peers in a more mainstream setting going forward. This is good information to have as you plan for her secondary education and beyond.

The school is wise to find a balance between teaching test taking as a life skill but not over-doing it. DS got a small group testing option and extra time through middle school, but refused them for high school even though the school really pushed. I don't think he benefited and it was stigmatizing. Because he had an IEP, despite being fully mainstreamed by secondary, his scores counted as a special education student which meant they (and he) had a greater impact of AYP than gen ed kids would have.

DS's indie day school did SAT from 1st grade on. DS connected the dots on his scan form and made them into railroad tracks with steam engines running around the bottom. The teacher- who loathed him- sent it in as such. DS's results still came back well above average.

[akafred]

The only modifications I am making are the at home OT and not having Aftercare, which is a huge source of anxiety right now. She feels her Aftercare Teacher hates her, and it is definitely mutual. Meanwhile she doesn't even listen to the Aftercare Teacher AT ALL, so I get stories like "Miss L was so mean to me and she blames me for everything" and I ask what she actually said and DD says, "I don't know, I didn't listen." And when I actually heard the teacher's perspective on one of those situations, the teacher sided with DD, but she has no idea because she assumed the teacher was aiding with the other kid. It's just not a great situation right now, and with testing making DD more tired than usual, I just thought it would be a good idea to have her picked up early. OT was mainly because the teacher arranged the test so the hardest would be on her "best" day, which is Wed. So I felt like I should do the OT. I'm keeping my conversation around testing very minimal. "What did you do at school today?" "I had testing in X subjects." "How was it?" "X was hard, Y was boring, Z was easy." "Did you try your best?" "Yes." High five. End of discussion.

The school's accommodations are in line with what she would probably be eligible for elsewhere.

As for results, I'm not even sure I will get them. Friends have said they never saw the results. Teacher said she has never been surprised by them. So meh.