Testing, testing

It's that time of year, and I stress.

In Colorado, we met our state homeschool requirements by testing at the end of 3rd and 5th grades. That was okay. It was good to see something tangible, to see how our kids "compared" to others their age. It was convenient that my kids tested on opposing years--testing is expensive, and I was glad to break up the cost.

Virginia requires us to test yearly. ARGH. There are a number of standardized tests that can be used. Most of those must be administered by an outside party. A few months ago, I was planning for the kids to continue testing with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the same one they took in Colorado. I wanted to maintain the same baseline, to get a true comparison of their progress.

Unfortunately, the ITBS is not popular here, and by the time I found a place to test, I was looking at an $80 cost, plus driving an hour each way for three days in a row, plus getting out of our house pretty early in the morning. Although Virginia only requires that we test language arts and math skills, this testing option included history and science. Not good; it'd be a wasted day. I don't teach to state history or science standards; I really have no interest in what they are. (Actually, as a hser, I personally have no interest in state standards for any subject, but I have no doubts that my kids can hold their own.)

This is 4th grade math?

Then I learned that our local school district will test for free. They use a different test. But it's free. The school district office is only 20 minutes away. And it's free. They only test language arts and math. And did I say that it's free? Still, the pluses have outweighed the minus (different test), and Holly and Trevor will be testing at the end of the month. (As a side note, it's interesting that I *never* heard about the free district testing on any of my half dozen local hs lists.)

But for me, that opens up a whole new can of worms. In the past, I've deliberately separated us from the district as much as possible. In Colorado, (as permitted by law,) I even paid a small fee for a private school to hold our testing results, instead of providing them to our public school district. If I test with our local district here, they get the results before I do. While I'm not worried about the scores, I don't like giving control of that information directly to the district.

As they've done in prior years, they are working through their "test prep" books. I've heard a variety of opinions on "test prepping" in the past. Some consider it "cheating," not testing based strictly on what the child already knows. (Like the public schools don't spend most of the year prepping for standardized tests, eyes rolling.)

Holly wonders why "pancaikes" would be misspelled.

But I'm surprised more hsers don't do it. I've considered prepping a tool to see what areas might need a little brushing up before taking the actual test. We've certainly done that in the past. It's good practice for the kids to know what to expect, to possibly see problems presented in a slightly different way.

They began their workbooks this week. It's gone really well. At one point, I seriously double checked that Trevor's book was 4th grade. I'd wondered if I'd somehow accidentally bought the 3rd grade book. Let me tell you, it's great to see them flying through these books. They've even aced the sections that I would consider their "weaker" subjects. And coming back from vacation, with just eight more weeks of school to go, Holly and Trevor enjoy spending time on these books because it means that we've dropped a few other subjects for two weeks.

Testing? Sure. They're ready. And I think I am. LOL.