Time for a rant!
I'm annoyed. I have to take three school days from doing something much more productive and beneficial, to administer the ITBS to my two older boys, just so I can jump through hoops the state has set. Why? Who knows. We have to jump, and jump so high, so the state will "let" us continue to homeschool. The public school kids are tested, but if THEY score below 30%, shall we not "let" them go to public school anymore? No, if they score below, nothing much happens; the federal government shakes a finger at them and says "Bad school" and that's about it. Grrr. Anyway, I'd rather spend my week truly assessing what my children have absorbed from our term's readings in Charlotte Mason style. I like to think I'm bright enough to be able to notice if they've learned or not. :-) But apparently I'm not, since I'm not "certified." So we will spend several hours this week filling in little ovals instead of narrating their books to me.
And all to fulfill what the state THINKS is their "responsibility." Oh, please. Ten minutes with my kids and one could determine that they are bright and learning; a half an hour and one could see they were light-years ahead. Last night my 9yo (and his 12yo brother) were discussing with their father the difference between ionic and covalent bonds and which was more prevalent in nature and why. (eyes rolling) It's MY responsibility to see that my kids learn, and I have a whole lot more interest in the outcome than the state does. These kids will be raising my grandchildren!!! LOL All the evidence shows that homeschooled kids in tightly regulated, mandatory-testing states like mine do NO BETTER than homeschooled kids in more lenient states. So all this aggravation and hassle is not benefitting the homeschooled kids of Iowa one iota. Although it certainly is providing employment for bureaucrats who push all the papers around and make regulations. So I suppose I'm performing a public service that way. I guess I feel better now.
One silver lining--I get to sit at the table and read while they are testing. I have Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time open at the moment and it is fascinating! I should be able to finish it today, LOL.
Well, off to sharpen pencils and blunt minds. :-)
About Me
- Bookworm
- I am a home-educating mother of three sons, wife to a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, inveterate bookworm. I love faith, family, food, reading, poetry, birds, flowers, scrapbooking, and, oh, did I mention reading? My sons grow too fast, read, make a lot of noise, keep snakes and hamsters, and build elaborate structures with everything from popsicle sticks to electronics components.
3 comments:
See, isn't blogging fun? lol
I agree that mandatory testing is ludicrous for homeschoolers. I mean, what are they going to do if your child's scores are very low? Send him to the public school where he can feel comfortable among other children with low scores?
I have to admit I thought it was fun taking my daughter in to test at the elementary she'd been attending the year before. We'd only been homeschooling a few months and the principal agreed to let her and a homeschooled friend (also had been in ps the previous year) take the standardized tests with the ps kids. The principal was a friendly acquaintance and I think he let us do this because HE wanted to see their test scores. My daughter and her friend had tested well the previous Spring in ps, but just a few months of homeschooling shot their scores way up. A friend who worked at the school told me she overheard some teachers talking about my daughter and her friend's test scores. "I guess they must be doing SOMETHING right," one said. That made me laugh so hard.
I don't test scores even begin to show what a child has learned, but I had fun with that experience. :-)
Well, if you really get tired of the testing, Bookworm, move to Nevada! Homeschoolers are not required to take any standarized tests. I swear we have it easy here. We're only required to turn in a summary of what we'll be teaching the coming year. That's it. Nobody coming to check on us, no tests, easy breezy.
I wish more states would take Texas' lead. We are under the same umbrella as private schools, which are also not regulated. Our universities now clammer to recruit homeschool students. I think that speaks for itself.
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