It's unfortunate that Starr doesn't seem to realize that ALT-MSA testing goes on for MONTHS. Not exactly practical to keep your child out of school for MONTHS. The question was the ALT-MSA. It goes on for MONTHS. Does he even know what he is talking about? PS: the ALT-MSA measures nothing, and should not be used as an indicator of anything. Period.
Even if I opted my child out of the MSA's, there is test prep in her school for months beforehand. They've already had one practice MSA before Thanksgiving, with another scheduled for January, and if they follow last year's pattern, regular reading time will be replaced with small groups meeting to discuss how to find main ideas in passages and articles ad nauseum - and I do plan to opt her out of the next practice test at least. I am prepared for.....resistance on that matter. But there is no way I can practically opt her out of the entire test-prep build-up aside from pulling her and homeschooling her, which I sadly cannot financially afford to do at this time. :-(
I am encouraged that Dr. Starr is at least aware of other movements elsewhere to opt children out of State-mandated testing, so hopefully he won't be too terribly surprised if/when it catches on here. At this time, schools simply have students take makeup tests if they aren't in school on testing days, so keeping them home on test days isn't making much of a statement. It's going to take much more concerted and visible effort to make even a dent in the monolith.
It's unfortunate that Starr doesn't seem to realize that ALT-MSA testing goes on for MONTHS. Not exactly practical to keep your child out of school for MONTHS. The question was the ALT-MSA. It goes on for MONTHS. Does he even know what he is talking about?
ReplyDeletePS: the ALT-MSA measures nothing, and should not be used as an indicator of anything. Period.
Even if I opted my child out of the MSA's, there is test prep in her school for months beforehand. They've already had one practice MSA before Thanksgiving, with another scheduled for January, and if they follow last year's pattern, regular reading time will be replaced with small groups meeting to discuss how to find main ideas in passages and articles ad nauseum - and I do plan to opt her out of the next practice test at least. I am prepared for.....resistance on that matter. But there is no way I can practically opt her out of the entire test-prep build-up aside from pulling her and homeschooling her, which I sadly cannot financially afford to do at this time. :-(
ReplyDeleteI am encouraged that Dr. Starr is at least aware of other movements elsewhere to opt children out of State-mandated testing, so hopefully he won't be too terribly surprised if/when it catches on here. At this time, schools simply have students take makeup tests if they aren't in school on testing days, so keeping them home on test days isn't making much of a statement. It's going to take much more concerted and visible effort to make even a dent in the monolith.