Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Get Out Your #2 Pencils!

In accordance with New York State Regulation 100.10, Finn and Lucy are taking the PASS test today. This is the requirement for an end-of-year assessment for home educators beginning when the student is in grade 4 and must happen every other year until high school. The test was specifically created for homeschoolers so it has some nice features, like not being timed, but it is still a standardized test and has all the limitations and nonsense associated with standardized tests.

Yesterday we did the "placement" portion of the test in which the child takes a short preliminary test to determine which level of the main test they should take. In a weird way, it was kind of a relief to discover that they both did about exactly as I expected. Weird only in the sense that I completely disagree with the need for these tests and think they test only the ability to take tests but there I was, feeling good that they did quite well and that their errors were what I imagined they might be--errors of sloppiness not lack of comprehension of material.

I guess a childhood filled with Iowa tests and SATs and such is hard to shake.

But sshhh....must get back to filling in little bubbles.

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