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A family friend of mine has a special needs kid. The diagnosis is Autism but not with many outward classical autism symptoms other than the social skills. The kid is smart and definitely has issues with comprehension (word problems for example). The school and the parents are working their best. Currently, he is in 5th grade in the state of NY. Next week is one of the state tests.
Last weekend, the father told me that the kid has never taken the state test. The school, off the record, suggests them not to let the kid take the test because the kid will not perform well even with the accommodations. It is unnecessary stress to the kid (to which the parents agree). The teachers cannot help him with anything in the test. And this year, it is going computer based, which is a disaster (for all the kids). For the school tests, the teacher simplifies the problems for him (and others like him) to understand.
There is a test almost every week at the school on what they have been learning so the school claims that they keep a check on who is doing how and they support extra as and when needed. This is true because there are some typical kids also work with this kid when they are lagging behind. The mom claimed that during the IEP meeting, even the director of special ed claimed that her kids never take the test (and they are not special ed kids). They were also told that the state tests are not mandatory. The mom asked how will he perform when he has to take the test, say like SAT. The teachers have been telling them that it is a long way and when the time comes he will be ready.
I am very surprised by this. I am not a teacher, just another parent. From my point of view, the kid will not be ready for an important test if he has never taken a CBT before. Plus, not taking a test, how is that affect the kid in the future. What kind of transcripts is he going to get? The kid has the potential to go to the college (even with his needs).
Can any experienced teachers who know ins and out of this thing shed some light, if this is a good idea. And most importantly how legit this thing is. The school district and the school has a good reputation so I am even more surprised to hear.
Bonus question, the father is not worried but the mother is. Are there are any practice CBTs available for elementary schools that the parents can use to train the kid?
I don't know about NY state. In Texas, you can opt the children out of the state tests by writing a letter to the school doing that.
We sent this when our autistic grandson was in fifth grade:
April 24, 2016
Dear Principal:
This letter is to respectfully inform you that our fifth grade child, ********, will need to be excused from all mandated standardized testing (e.g. STAAR test) from this point forward. This is also to include classroom activities that are intended as STAAR test preparation, such as practice tests and test-taking training exercises.
As we are morally and ethically opposed to these school activities in his case, we are making this decision with recognition of our parental rights and obligations under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and the Texas Education Code (Title 2, Subtitle E, “Students and Parents, Section 26, “Parental Rights and Responsibilities”)
We opted him back in this year for 8th grade and are not sure how that will work out. He passed the math, but has to retake the reading portion.
From Wikipedia: In New York State, Regents Examinations are statewide standardized examinations in core high school subjects required for a certain Regents Diploma to graduate. To graduate, students are required to have earned appropriate credits in a number of specific subjects by passing year-long or half-year courses, after which they must pass at least five Regents examinations in some of the subject areas. For higher achieving students, a Regents with Advanced designation, and an Honor designation, are also offered. Students with disabilities or enrolled in an English as a Second Language program are able to earn a local diploma.
So if your friend's son doesn't pass his regents exams, he can't not receive a NY state high school diploma. He can receive a "insert his local town" high school diploma.
I wonder if keeping him from the test is for his own good or to protect the teachers/school from lower average test scores?
I am interested in seeing other responses. You might want to also post this on the NY forums.
^The boy is in 5th grade. He won't be taking any regents tests for a while. The OP is discussing the controversial ELA, Math tests administered in elementary school. A lot of parents are "opting out" for various reasons. There are "opt out" signs all over my area's lawns, as there have been for the past few years. It's the OP's decision, but if they decide to pull him from the test, he won't be the only student missing it, with or without Asperger's. NY is gradually phasing in computer administered test, but this particular test will not be administered by computer in all districts. It doesn't resemble anything like a MS/HS regents exam, nor the current version of the SAT. The teacher's salary is not related to test scores and there was a lawsuit several years ago about not basing a teacher's evaluation on these particular state tests.
Maturity may help this child to become a better test taker in the future.
I wish more parents opted their kids out, that is the only hope we have of ending this circus once and for all. The pressure put on these kids at such young ages are ridiculous. Yes, some tests supposedly only impact the teachers but don’t think for a second the kids don’t catch that bad vibe and stress emanating from their teacher, who most of them care about. Additionally, testing eats up actual instructional time not only the one or two weeks of time dedicated to testing, but also during all the test prep. Our students are doing worse on international random testing since the advent of all this testing, not better.
The only ones who have benefited from all this testing are the folks who got all the newly formed administrator jobs created asdociated with testing and the test providers, such as Pearson.
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I wish more parents opted their kids out, that is the only hope we have of ending this circus once and for all. The pressure put on these kids at such young ages are ridiculous. Yes, some tests supposedly only impact the teachers but don’t think for a second the kids don’t catch that bad vibe and stress emanating from their teacher, who most of them care about. Additionally, testing eats up actual instructional time not only the one or two weeks of time dedicated to testing, but also during all the test prep. Our students are doing worse on international random testing since the advent of all this testing, not better.
The only ones who have benefited from all this testing are the folks who got all the newly formed administrator jobs created asdociated with testing and the test providers, such as Pearson.
Put me on the other list as it were. In no order of importance.
1). I'm 55yo...I'm not sure we took "Iowa" tests every year but we took them often.
2). We need broad based testing to know where kids actually are vis a vis academic achievement relative to each other across large numbers of kids. Parents deserve to know and up the food chain administrators need to know as well.
3). I'd submit that virtually all associated undue stress springs from two main sources A). the near hysterical reactions from teachers and teacher's group who en mass hate any metric trending towards accountability. B). Misguided parents falling into two main groups 1). those who want Jr's. K-12 to be an easy glide. 2). Those who don't want to be reminded that Jr. isn't the best student of all time.
4). My wife and I have managed to raise two children who have earned their way through very demanding academic careers.
I will add that parents of kids with legitimate special needs should be able to opt their kids out.
Put me on the other list as it were. In no order of importance.
1). I'm 55yo...I'm not sure we took "Iowa" tests every year but we took them often.
2). We need broad based testing to know where kids actually are vis a vis academic achievement relative to each other across large numbers of kids. Parents deserve to know and up the food chain administrators need to know as well.
3). I'd submit that virtually all associated undue stress springs from two main sources A). the near hysterical reactions from teachers and teacher's group who en mass hate any metric trending towards accountability. B). Misguided parents falling into two main groups 1). those who want Jr's. K-12 to be an easy glide. 2). Those who don't want to be reminded that Jr. isn't the best student of all time.
4). My wife and I have managed to raise two children who have earned their way through very demanding academic careers.
I will add that parents of kids with legitimate special needs should be able to opt their kids out.
The Iowa tests are in no way comparable to the tests they are giving to kids today. I wish they would used these for our kids today. States excessively test students and then bases school accountability entirely on standardized test scores.
After 30 years of tests, with increasingly higher stakes each time, Texas has become a leader in devising a complex testing system, but SAT and ACT scores in Texas reveal that the state has made little progress in attaining college/career readiness after high school for many students. In fact, Texas SAT score averages are about the same as they were years ago. Some in Texas mistakenly believe that its internal standardized testing regime gives parents and educators meaningful data. Testing simply does not equal accountability.
By the end of the 2018 school year, 750,000 students will have taken the end of course exams in math, science, social studies, writing and reading. For current 10th-graders, that means they already will have taken 10 tests that are needed to graduate, more tests than any other state in the country requires to graduate from high school.
The Iowa tests are in no way comparable to the tests they are giving to kids today. I wish they would used these for our kids today. States excessively test students and then bases school accountability entirely on standardized test scores.
After 30 years of tests, with increasingly higher stakes each time, Texas has become a leader in devising a complex testing system, but SAT and ACT scores in Texas reveal that the state has made little progress in attaining college/career readiness after high school for many students. In fact, Texas SAT score averages are about the same as they were years ago. Some in Texas mistakenly believe that its internal standardized testing regime gives parents and educators meaningful data. Testing simply does not equal accountability.
By the end of the 2018 school year, 750,000 students will have taken the end of course exams in math, science, social studies, writing and reading. For current 10th-graders, that means they already will have taken 10 tests that are needed to graduate, more tests than any other state in the country requires to graduate from high school.
We live in Dallas.
1. Our recent dither regarding ACT and SAT results is mostly about increased participation rates of late. Further, the newest testing hasn't been around long enough for SAT/ACT results to be instructive.
2. You may not believe internal standardized testing gives parents and educators meaningful data. I disagree. So do legions of others.
2.1. An example, STAAR test results have demonstrated that local efforts like paying great teachers more, encouraging great teachers to teach in the worst schools, increased school choice and others are working. STAAR test results quantified that DISD improved from ~43 grossly underperforming schools to less than 5 in a few years.
Everything DISD has accomplished over the last several years has been over the constant sometimes screaming objection of most teachers and teacher's groups.
1. Our recent dither regarding ACT and SAT results is mostly about increased participation rates of late. Further, the newest testing hasn't been around long enough for SAT/ACT results to be instructive.
2. You may not believe internal standardized testing gives parents and educators meaningful data. I disagree. So do legions of others.
2.1. An example, STAAR test results have demonstrated that local efforts like paying great teachers more, encouraging great teachers to teach in the worst schools, increased school choice and others are working. STAAR test results quantified that DISD improved from ~43 grossly underperforming schools to less than 5 in a few years.
Everything DISD has accomplished over the last several years has been over the constant sometimes screaming objection of most teachers and teacher's groups.
Participation in the ACT and SAT have been going up for a long time because schools have tried to place everyone in the college track.
I don't know what Dallas Schools have accomplished so I cannot speak to that, but state tests all over the country with the NCLB have not been helpful at all.
The IOWA tests gave meaningful data the STAAR tests do not. STAAR tests tell us more about the particular community the children live in than they do about what they know. It’s possible to predict the percentages of students who will score proficient or above on some standardized tests. We can do this just by looking at some of the important characteristics of the community, rather than factors related to the schools themselves, like student-teacher ratios or teacher quality.
We decided to see if we could predict standardized test scores based on demographic factors related to the community where a student lived. By looking at three to five community and family demographic variables from U.S. Census data, we have been able to accurately predict the percentages of students who score proficient or above on standardized test scores for grades three through 12. These predictions are made without looking at school district data factors such as school size, teacher experience or per pupil spending.
Quote:
According to the technical manuals published by the creators of standardized assessments, none of the tests currently in use to judge teacher or school administrator effectiveness or student achievement have been validated for those uses. For example, none of the PARCC research, as provided by PARCC, addresses these issues directly. The tests are simply not designed to diagnose learning. They are simply monitoring devices, as evidenced by their technical reports.
Participation in the ACT and SAT have been going up for a long time because schools have tried to place everyone in the college track.
I don't know what Dallas Schools have accomplished so I cannot speak to that, but state tests all over the country with the NCLB have not been helpful at all.
The IOWA tests gave meaningful data the STAAR tests do not. STAAR tests tell us more about the particular community the children live in than they do about what they know. It’s possible to predict the percentages of students who will score proficient or above on some standardized tests. We can do this just by looking at some of the important characteristics of the community, rather than factors related to the schools themselves, like student-teacher ratios or teacher quality.
The same data to a satisfying degree predict family income, parental IQ, parental educational attainment etc.
These things move in lock step across the quartiles.
The trick is what do we do the give the kids in the bottom 20% legitimate chances to improve their lot?
The STAAR test has allowed DISD to prove that its outside the box thinking is actually working. DISD is 90-93% poor, with very high traditional educational minority populations and a very high (40-45%?) ESL rate. Traditional educational orthodoxy got us here. Shaking things up and being able to prove the successes via STAAR tests is revelatory.
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