...then just invalidate the results.
Here is a short piece from the February 2000 issue of Home Education Magazine's online newsletter (from the days when online newsletters were used). They unfairly called this "Sandra Dodd Cheats on Tests." I never did! I'm simply and subversively recommending that in the absence of the opportunity to avoid them altogether, the second best option might be invalidating them.On the topic of testing: I have a very serious suggestion which will seem like a joke, but I'm absolutely soberly recommending this:
Cheat.
Don't cheat to get a better score or a worse score. Just invalidate the test either by taking too long, or making a pattern with all the answer marks in odd-numbered sections, or using dice to decide anything for which the answer isn't absolutely obvious to the child.
If the parent and child both know in advance that the scores could not POSSIBLY actually begin to attempt to reflect the child's "actual" knowledge or intelligence or aptitude or value, then that number will lose its juju and its ability to harm the child-parent relationship.
Of all the things I believe strongly, one which has changed my life as profoundly as any one other belief is my personal knowledge that test scores can and do (can't fail to) affect the treatment a child receives at his parents' hands. High scores, low scores, average scores--no matter. Parents cease to treat the child as his original, known self and color him soul deep with that number.
My life would have been different. My husband's life would have been different, without those 5th and 8th grade ITBS scores. I venture to say without even knowing who is reading this that your life would have been different, and specifically I believe your life would have been better, had not you been branded with a number on your "permanent record" (there's a big mean scary joke, the "permanence" and important parts) as a young innocent ten or thirteen year old full of potential, at some unknown point on a learning curve which might soon be at its settled-out point, or might just be beginning.
OTHER IDEAS:
Subj: Re: [Unschooling-dotcom] How to satisfy State requirements with an unschooling approach.Date: Monday, January 6, 2003 . . . .
> I am interested in knowing how "unschoolers" handle the requirements
> of their state in regards to end of the year testing or evaluations.
> Have many people joined a private organization to handle their legal
> requirements or do many use an evaluator? I am homeschooling my only
> child who is 6 years old. I fully agree with an "unschooling"
> approach, but I am uncertain about the best approach when it comes to
> the State.
Depends on what the state requiremnts are. Here in VA we must provide results from a test every August. There are several ways round that for the creative mind. Parents can buy and administer the test then send it to the company to be marked. All the state wants is a piece of paper with results on above the 23rd Stanine. They get that bit of paper but I don't test my kids. We can also put our kids in whichever 'grade' we feel is appropriate and test accordingly. Mine are always in Grade 1 and last year we had a blast filling in the grade one tests, making a pattern with the circles. Each test had a different pattern on the score chart yet each test scored in the 60th centile. Not bad :-)
Shyrley
POSSIBLE test sources. If you're required to test and can self-administer, you might try to get one from these sources (info from various people and unverified):
Try Family Learning Organization at http://www.familylearning.org/ I think the CAT runs about $35.IF you have to test and can test at home and must use a standardized test, use google.com to find a test. Enter one of the organizations or sites above, and the word test and I hope your task isn't too hard. Whenever you read this, there might be more and better options than there are now, and I don't want to give outdated information as fact on something I really object to anyway. |