In Texas, we call it the STAAR test. Your state may call it something else. I have plenty of other names for it, but we'll just call it the soul-crushing, anxiety-inducing, totally unnecessary state mandated standardized test for now. You know the test I'm talking about: it's the one on which your child is taught his or her entire future is hinged. They're told it's the magical future-predicting test, that if they don't pass, they will not just fail at school but that they will fail in life. They are taught that their self worth and level of intelligence are entirely dependent on how they perform on this test.
For my son the STAAR test causes extreme anxiety, nights filled with tears, and angry arguments with the teachers throughout the school year when they bark at him to use his strategies. As the days get closer to the actual STAAR test at the end of the year, the anxiety of the teachers is always thrust upon him and those like him. It never fails.
Braden recently took his umpteenth "benchmark" test about a month ago. (For those of you not in the know, benchmark testing is the testing before the testing to determine how prepared the children are for the real test.) When he came into the classroom, he lied to his teachers and told them he didn't have his iPad when, in fact, he did. Strange as it sounds, his iPad is his security blanket... and it's his link to me on the worst days because he can use the school's wireless internet connection to send me a quick message. (Sneaky little genius!)
When I was informed that he brought his iPad to the test, my jaw hit the floor. I foolishly sided with the school when they told me that if this benchmark had been the real deal, his actions could have put the school under a formal investigation, that the TEA would be called in, and teachers put under review. In the words of the Vice Principal, her heart nearly stopped beating! *Gasp!* This may seem dramatic, but it's all true - and it's an understandable and genuine fear for the school because it works like this:
If children fail, the teachers fail. If teachers fail, the school fails. If the school fails, the district fails. And nobody - NOBODY - is allowed to fail.
Some parents here in the Lone Star State have decided to opt out of standardized testing. Apparently, we can use Section 26 of the Texas Education Code and the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment from the U.S. Constitution. Now I don't know what all of that fancy talk means, but it sounds pretty legit to me. From what I can tell:
it is my parental right to choose to “opt my child out” of curriculum or instruction that is harmful to children as stated in the Texas Education Code CHAPTER 26. PARENTAL RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES Sec. A26.010.EXEMPTION FROM INSTRUCTION. (a) A parent is entitled to remove the parent ’s child temporarily from a class or other school activity that conflicts with the parent ’s religious or moral beliefs if the parent presents or delivers to the teacher of the parent ’s child a written statement authorizing the removal of the child from the class or other school activity.
I wish I could take credit for that, but I straight up stole it from the "opt out" link above.
Considering that Braden has diagnosed anxiety directly related to myriad classroom settings, it could be considered morally reprehensible for the school to subject my son to the exact environment that triggers his anxiety. Hmmm... must ponder that some more.
I'm still on the fence about opting out, though. Yes, it's good to take a stand regarding such an important issue, but what example would I be setting for my son? We, as adults, know a genuine issue when we see one. Children don't necessarily see things the way we do.
While I see opting out as an important statement, my son may interpret opting out as simply saying "no" when he doesn't want to do something: "I don't like this test, so I'm not gonna' do it... and you can't make me." Could I end up teaching him this lesson? Maybe. So the question - to me - is this:
Do we tell our children it's their right to opt out if they want to and potentially teach them the old "when the going gets tough" cliché, or do we give them a pep talk and to remind them of their true value and worth before sending them off to school to potentially teach them that sometimes a problem presents itself as a mountain when it's really just a hurdle. After all, these tests don't mean a thing when it comes to life in general, do they?
Do we fight this battle legally, as TAMSA is striving to do... or do those of us without TAMSA's resources fight the battle in the classrooms?
Here's my experience with the STAAR test...
ReplyDeleteMy middle son has EXTREME anxiety in general. I knew...just simply knew...that if he attended a traditional brick and mortar school for 3rd grade it could cripple him for life. I decided to bring him home and I enrolled him in a public charter school that just happened to be online.
This school did not have the ability to push their stresses about the tests on to the children. My son could opt out of all his "live" classes and I could do all the teaching. And since the curriculum was generic - not Ye Haw Texas - the curriculum didn't beat the test drum into his head.
Now, because it was a public charter school, my son still had to take that blasted test. We drove over to a hotel and he sat in a conference room and he took (and failed) his third grade STAAR tests.
No worries. No teacher telling him he was going to fail in life. I told him the truth about his grades. But I didn't shame him or scare him to death.
Then he started 4th grade in this public charter school. The signs of his (undiagnosed) dyslexia still reared their ugly heads. And now, because he had failed his test, he was an at risk child. They pushed and pushed and now required him to attend these "live" classes where they could hopefully catch him up on what he didn't understand.
Thing is -- the kid knows his stuff. He just freaks out during tests.
It wasn't possible for us to continue trying to play the games. We simply couldn't get through all the regular school AND all the extra stuff they required because he was now "at risk". I pulled him from the charter school in October 2013 and we now traditionally home school.
My only concern with opting out of the test is that the school would then mark the child as an "at risk" student and make their education even more unbearable. Otherwise, I'm ALL for opting out! Never in a million years did I think I would home school. But I have a problem with schools putting so much emphasis on the stupid tests that it impacts what they are taught all year long. And then come spring, they literally have pep rallies for the test! What a crock!
I didn't know about the pep rallies for the test. That's ridiculous! B actually doesn't do too poorly on them. Last year, he got some kind of award for scoring so high, which was unexpected but nice. Still, with only 40 or so days away, he's already crying when he simply thinks about the upcoming test. As a mom, that's pretty upsetting and hard to watch.
DeleteIt's also upsetting that he can't remember his multiplication facts (which is due to his dyslexia. The memory of the multiplication facts comes and goes.) At the same time, he can tell you at any given moment the exact number of days to his testing date.
I look at all of the pressure put on these kids and I wonder if some of the random acts of school violence has to do with this issue. If a kid is bullied by his peers, and then academically bullied by the school, he's gotta' snap at some point. I know that's taking a huge leap in logic (because, let's face it, many more children deal with the same pressures and choose not to tote a gun to school), but still... I wonder.