STAR testing

STAR testing

Please keep my children in your thoughts and prayers this week as they take part in the state's standardized testing.

We homeschool, yes. However, we home school through a charter school that is publicly funded. Thus, we are subject to the standardized tests that the state requires all public school children take.

This is DD1's first time to participate in testing. To prepare her, I gave her mock tests at home. I tried to simulate the testing environment as much as I could. Everything was quiet. The other kids were upstairs and were told not to come down till I got them. All media was off, of course. She got a bit unnerved. She burst into anxious tears. She said that she was afraid to make mistakes. She was also afraid because I would not be in the room with her.  I assured her that we were doing the practice tests precisely to help her get used to it.

After her mock tests, she felt better and more confident. I was also glad that we did the mock tests because it revealed some areas where she was a little weak, particularly in Math.

I find it rather odd that in the Math exams, the questions are going to be read out loud by the proctor. The answers/choices are in the students' test booklet but not the questions. The questions are read twice and the students are expected to answer by filling in the bubble of the correct answer. We definitely needed to practice this with DD1 to train her to listen well to the question. As a visual learner, I probably would have had a difficult time with this type of testing. DD1 however caught on fairly quickly and did not struggle as much as I though she would.

There were some multiplication and division problems already but they were fairly simple. They were word problems like if you buy gold bars online from Golden Eagle for $5each and you bought 6 gold bars, how much did you pay in all?

Anyway, they had their first day yesterday. They will continue to test until Friday. I'm not really worried about their test scores. I feel like the tests are not really an accurate reflection of their abilities. If anything, their test scores will likely be more a reflection of how well (or badly) I have taught them. Maybe their test scores will reveal any gaps that I will need to fill up in my children's education.