Eric Novak

1. Parents don’t need the state requiring them to test their students to know where they stand. We either know, or we will test on our own if, when and where we deem it necessary. We (unlike others?) don’t need the state to tell us what to do in order do it.

2. What evidence are we given that no ps child is falling through the cracks. As a part of society, I really need that assurance. I would never send my child somewhere where they hadn’t presented proof that no one ever fell through the cracks. (sarcasticly said - well just the part about me needing assurance about other’s children)

3. Many of our children do take test that prove they have not fallen through the cracks. They are called the ACT and SAT. And we’ve proven that our students do very well on them. (I told our senator that one.)

Alassandra - glad to hear MS’s died in committee..

What difference does it matter where/how the child is schooled? Why can’t the politicians see this? Testing is pointless for the purposes it is intended.

In 2007, a school could be rated “Academically Acceptable” with only 40 percent of students passing science and 45 percent of students passing math. Surely, parents and taxpayers would not consider more than half of Texas school children failing core subjects like math and science as “acceptable.”

Astonishingly, the state deemed all of these schools “Academically Acceptable.”

I know this bill is in NE, but I suspect that many school’s numbers are high for the same reason as in TX- the standards are so low that a centipede with 99 broken legs could measure up.

So how does the system and standardized testing benefit kids again? ‘Cause I done forgetted.

I often wonder about what other people have said. Why doesn’t the public school system worry about their own kids who are failing ~with~ the testing!

Good post, Dana, even though the bill doesn’t exactly apply to me.

What do the schools do when schooled children don’t fare well on testing? They keep on doing the ’same old same old’. Individual children who don’t do well compared to their peers are not then given special help. Special education and struggling learners are identified, tested, and labeled via other means.

I have many reasons to be against standardized testing for homeschoolers after having one of my sons tested recently with a battery of tests, all of which contradicted each other and gave different results. It is very scary because I don’t know what to believe is accurate or inaccurate. I have so much to say about it I have not yet blogged my experience with that.

Anyhow my issue with testing homeschoolers is that homeschoolers should not be held to a higher standard than schooled students. Schooled kids fall through the cracks all the time but it seems the public wants homeshcoolers to have no gaps or to not even be ‘average kids’–they look for all Rhodes Scholars which is ridiculous.

I’m not raising my children to be able to compete with other countries for advancement of technology. The gov’t and schools need to stay out of our families lives. They’ve done enough damage to our nations children.

by the way, Happy Birthday Dana!

Actually, if we all had to pay dues to the NEA, I bet they’d change a lot of their public policies. Maybe we should scrap HSLDA and all take up membership in the NEA. After all, we are teachers, too.