Posted on 09/08/2013 8:08:40 PM PDT by Olog-hai
While his eighth-grade classmates took state standardized tests this spring, Tucker Richardson woke up late and played basketball in his Delaware Township driveway.
Tucker’s parents, Wendy and Will, are part of a small but growing number of parents nationwide who are ensuring their children do not participate in standardized testing. They are opposed to the practice for myriad reasons, including the stress they believe it brings on young students, discomfort with tests being used to gauge teacher performance, fear that corporate influence is overriding education and concern that test prep is narrowing curricula down to the minimum needed to pass an exam. …
The opt-out movement, as it is called, is small but growing. It has been brewing for several years via word of mouth and social media, especially through Facebook. The “Long Island opt-out info” Facebook page has more than 9,200 members, many of them rallying at a Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., high school last month after a group of principals called this year’s state tests—and their low scores—a “debacle.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
And then they claim they are pro-education.
There are issues with high-stakes testing but simply refusing to participate is a fool’s response.
You can opt out of a test but you cannot opt out of a teacher showing a porn film to them throwing them a condom and telling them to have at it”?
Blaming the tests for the poor state of education is like blaming the gun for the crime. If Little Precious is stressed out by a test then he or she is in for a hard life in the real world.
No wonder the Indians and Chinese are kicking our ass.
Standardized tests are ridiculously easy to pass. If little Johnny can’t pass it, he should quit high school and get a job at McDonald’s.
If you oppose standardized testing, taking the test is the least damaging. The rest of the school year wasted on teaching to the test is where the real damage is done. As far as the stress of taking the test goes, kids need to learn at some point. Eventually those kids either learn how to take tests or learn how to use the fryer at McDonald’s.
This is interesting.
Standardized tests are norm-referenced. Scores are based on how other students score. It’s all one big curve.
My homeschooled daughter was upset when she got a 98% instead of a perfect score. I said that kids don’t really get 100%, because they throw in questions that kids aren’t expected to know yet (above grade level).
She really thought that was unfair.
Don't be silly! A fryer at McDonalds?
The ONLY standardized test that my three homeschoolers took was the GRE for graduate school. One took two types standardized tests. His exams for his CPA ( Certified Public Accountant) were the second!
By the way, the two younger homeschoolers took the GRE for graduate school when they were 18, the year they graduated from college with B.S. degrees in mathematics.
It was unfair.
” including the stress they believe it brings on young students,”
BLAH BLAH. Just take the tests, you cretins. This process has worked for decades and it will find out if you serve me at McDonald’s 10 years later, or sit on the board of McDonald’s.
I once knew a charming young lady that was homeschooled, started coursework at a large public university at 16, and graduated with a BFA in music a few weeks shy of her 19th birthday. Amazing young woman... very talented pianist, beautiful, strong set of moral values, strong on prepper skills... even adopted her sister’s child to raise as her own child when it became apparent that her older sister was incapable of responsible motyerhood. I found it unbelievable that such a woman actually exists these days.
Seriously, I fell off the carousel of life when I fumbled that brass ring.
Her husband is fortunate more than I can ever say.
If enough parents opt their kids out, any tests given will be meaningless and everyone will know it. Then with meaningless tests results the principals and teachers are then free to teach what they want.
Result: Local control and sabotaged Common Core.
The government reports that homeschooling is not about 4% of the school age population. The true number is likely twice that.
Read my post again. I didn’t say standardized. I said tests.
My sister is in med school, she’s always studying and testing.
A doctor who hasn’t taken tests is one I would avoid.
Modern American public school curricula is designed to produce unimaginative functionaries that lack critical thinking skills. If not for homeschooling, this nation would have no hope of survival.
Good luck with that in Virgina, Spanky.
SOL’s in high school are required for graduation.
Although you could certainly get away with it for middle and elementary.
There were state required tests in HS when I went to HS in NYC and I graduated in 1978.................and I went to Catholic school.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.