Education Week posted a story about a mom who fought back within the school system and realized the problem was solved leaving the system.  Gretchen Herrera’s son, diagnosed with Asperger syndrome and Type 1 diabetes, suffered from the required standardized testing.

Testing? No, No Testing, No Matter What By Nirvi Shah

Ms. Herrera had tried to have Anthony, 12, exempted from South Carolina’s annual tests in reading, math, and other subjects when he was in 6th grade last school year. But no reason would do—not even a medical note that explained Anthony’s blood sugar could spike because of his Asperger-related anxiety, which is just what happened on the first day of testing. Anthony, who did well on the exam, stayed home during other state tests.

The federal Office for Civil Rights decided late last year that Anthony wasn’t the victim of discrimination when he was kicked out of the school.

It’s sadly true children are often lost in the system with their individual needs.  Even when parents intervene for their children trying to fix the problems preventing learning.

Congratulations in finding an optimistic solution and welcome to the wonderful world of homeschooling, Herrera family!

After nearly a year of battle with schools and the state department of education, Ms. Herrera has found peace for Anthony, now a 7th grader, even if she may face additional challenges down the line.

“I can’t be happier,” she said.

A new Senate bill has been placed on the Connecticut Children’s Committee agenda scheduled for hearing on February 14.  National Home Legal Defense  (NHELD) offers more information about this bill in the organization’s new Bulletin - More CT Proposed Legislation Regarding Children’s Mental Health Assessment.

There are now two proposed CT bills regarding children’s mental health assessments: Senate Bill 374 [held in Public Health Committee] and Senate Bill 169 [held in Children's Committee].

The new bill, SB 169, does not contain language specifiying homeschoolers in this mental health assessment proposal.  SB 374 did  include homeschoolers in the proposed mental health assessments at 12, 14 and 17 years of age.  From the NHELD Bulletin and Deborah Stevenson pertaining to the new SB 169:

This bill is before the Children’s Committee.  It apparently was placed on the agenda of a committee meeting, and it has been scheduled for a public hearing on February 14, 2013.  While at first glance, it sounds as though Senate Bill 169 purports to do the same thing as Senate Bill 374, it is extremely important not to jump to conclusions.  Legally speaking, one needs to review the exact language in any bill to determine its true effect.
For example, Bill 169 does not include the word “homeschool” at all.  Therefore, as it stands right now, based on the plain language of the bill, this bill has no direct effect on parents who homeschool their children.  In fact, Bill 169 says that the statutes are to be amended to require the assessments. It does not even specify when those statutes are to be amended, or in what manner.  To be sure, there are many arguments that can be made that the bill, as it is written now, should not be adopted.  But it would not be accurate to say that, at this time, this bill directly affects the rights of homeschooling parents.

There are many stages in the life of any bill.  The chairmen of each committee may change the language in the bill before it gets voted on, before or after a public hearing takes place on the bill.  The public hearing on Bill 169 is scheduled to take place on February 14.  If anyone wants to comment on the bill, they are certainly free to do so.  But, NHELD suggests that those who do comment on it be very careful not to allege that this bill is a direct threat against homeschooling. If we approach the legislature as homeschoolers, it is most important that we speak with accuracy and intelligence.  Remember that the key is to persuade.  Appearing to react to something that is not actually contained in a bill will not achieve your goal.  It may have the opposite effect and may even make legislators disregard your opinion.

Read more at the NHELD site.

The Innovative Educator

NYC Department of Education official, Lisa Nielsen, helps with teacher training materials in the New York public schools.

Ms. Nielsen:

• Opposes High Stakes Testing
• Supports the Opt Out Movement Against Standardized Testing
• Approves of Homeschooling
• Denounces the federal Common Core Standards

She sounds like someone who is interested in children and their education.

What a crazy notion!

Susan Edelman and Candice Giove fought back against these wild ideas!  They pushed out a New York Post article outing Lisa Nielsen.  These stealthy reporters noted this below regarding the suggestion students skip school testing:

Department of Education official rips standardized testing, tells students to skip school

Parent at the Helm slammed back and gave these reporters and their “Exclusive” a big, fat F in their media world of unprofessionalism:

Dying Mainstream Media Slams Pro-Homeschool, Anti-Testing NY State DOE Employee

So, what should a couple of fine, upstanding reporters who regularly churn out trash for that beacon of outstanding journalism, the  New York Post do? They write a piece of yellow journalism, dripping with so much bias as to be laughable, slap the word “exclusive” on it, add a photo of their target celebrating a birthday at a wine-tasting party, and publish their “findings” in a Sunday edition. For good measure, they don’t open their online “news report” for comments.

Read the rest of Linda Dobson’s useful article and we’ll leave it at that.

It is “not reasonable” that some home-educated young people have poor access to public examinations, warns the House of Commons Education Committee today in a report calling on the Government to ensure fair access and to meet the associated costs.

• Report: Support for Home Education
• Inquiry: Support for Home Education
• Education Committee

The report published today concludes a short inquiry that examined the support available for home educators and their families. Members of the Committee met home educators, national and local support groups, and a number of local authority officers from across the country.

There wasn’t any direct feedback from home educators in the Huffington Post article, so I went to our friend and author, Mike Fortune Wood, who lives and learns ‘across the pond’.  He runs the UK Home-Education.org site and also started up World Guide to Home Education.  Mike offered a more detailed explanation about the situation related in this report.

Unusually, while the HE community are normally reluctant to involve politicians, this report appears to have been broadly welcomed. The committee is not part of the government but is a cross party committee of members of parliament who’s roll it is to monitor and comment on government policy in the area of education.

It recognises that there are long standing difficulties over examinations. GCSEs are the exams that school children take at age 16. Good passes in these exams are required to go on to take advanced GCEs which are required for entry to University, although many home educators have creatively found alternative routs.

The costs of these exams can vary enormously depending upon subject and location. While some parents can pay around £60 ($90) per exam others can pay £200 ($300) for them. For conventional entry to university a child will need perhaps 5 GCSEs (English, Maths, a modern language and perhaps two or three others in and around the chosen subject of study at university) and a further 3 advanced GCEs (normally taken at around 18 years of age.)

 

In addition to the costs it can be very difficult to locate an examination centre willing to accept external candidates. Schools, where these exams are taken, often make it difficult for home educated children to access the exams and there is no duty placed upon the local authorities (like school boards) to help, although some do assist in finding places.

 

It is hoped that this report may lead to positive action forcing, or at least encouraging, local authorities to assist HE parents gain access to examination centres and to reduce the costs to more manageable levels and not see home educators as a ‘cash cow’ to aid schools budget deficits.

 

The report also speaks about varying levels of support/harassment home educators experience in different parts of England as well as the difficulties parents of children with special needs face with respect to necessary support and even medical assistance. For example a study of approximately 150 local authority websites all but 30 contained statements requiring home educators to jump through hurdles not required by law. 

 

The report also recognised that while home educators generally remain for the most part, independent minded, it is generally recognised that families of children with special needs require support and they hope that this report will end the ‘post code’ lottery that has been a feature of home education since it first became a movement in the UK some 30 years ago.

While not specifically about homeschooling, an article by Brian Gresko, a stay-at-home dad and writer, explains his view that childhood is under attack by the very people who should be protecting it: parents. His article In Defense of Childhood: Let Kids Be Kids! explains:

Many of the most important skills are untestable — imagination, general optimism and lightness of heart, the capability to love another creature, to empathize and demonstrate compassion. These are things a child can’t bubble in on a Scantron sheet, and yet cultivating these attitudes matters more in determining how my son will exist in the world and what kind of contribution he’ll make with his time on Earth.

Read the entire article at the link above.

A common question from those new to homeschooling is “How will my child receive a high school diploma?” and the corresponding question is “How will he or she get along without one?” The answers are as varied as the homeschooling families themselves, because ultimately the question of whether or not to pursue getting a diploma of some kind becomes a family decision.

The American Homeschool Association presents a selection of articles which offer information on credentials and many different options, both for those who decide to attain diplomas – and for those who decide they aren’t needed.

Laura Brodie, an English professor who taught her daughter at home for a year and wrote about it in her new book Love in a Time of Homeschooling, writes a parenting column for Psychology Today and invites reader feedback to the testing question in her May 14 post, titled Standardized Testing and the Flight to Homeschooling:

“…one of the chief reasons I homeschooled my daughter, Julia, for the fifth grade was to escape Virginia’s testing regimen. In our school district, fifth graders spend much of their year preparing for tests in history, science, reading, writing and math. The result is nine months of boredom and homework overload. In my new book, Love in a Time of Homeschooling, I write about how Julia and I tried to craft an ideal year of learning for her fifth grade year, which included a lot of writing-across-the-curriculum, music, art and field trips, as well as plenty of math and hands-on science. Though we had our share of bad moments, as well as good, we both agree that homeschooling was a great alternative to a test-heavy year of public education.

“I’ll share some excerpts from my book as I write about standardized testing over the next few weeks, but for now I want to invite readers to share their opinions. How does your state handle standardized testing? Do you think the testing is improving the quality of your kids’ educations? Should we have national standards, instead of a state-by-state patchwork? Or should we cut back drastically on the testing? Should teacher pay and school accreditation be tied to test scores? And if you don’t like the testing, what are you doing about it?”

The effort to develop a new assessment system is the subject of a commentary by Robert Rothman:

A Seamless System of Assessments

Is testing a waste of time? Teachers seem to think so. In a 2006 survey, 71 percent of them said that students took too many standardized tests, and 62 percent called testing a “necessary evil.”

Yet when Oregon introduced its online testing system, which allows students to take the tests up to three times a year, teachers embraced it. They apparently did not think the testing burden was either excessive or evil.

Why? Because the Oregon test delivers near-instantaneous results that show teachers how students perform on particular content strands, such as geometry or measurement.

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To envision how such a system might shift school practice, consider what has happened in the retail industry. In the past, retail stores would close their doors for a day each year to take inventory. Now, thanks to the accurate and instantaneous information bar codes allow, retailers can keep track of their inventory in real time, 365 days a year. This is not to say that students are commercial products, or that we want to slap bar codes on their foreheads. But a comprehensive assessment system could provide continuous, coherent, and high-quality information on student performance that teachers, school leaders, and district and state administrators could use to improve teaching and learning.

In such a system, assessment is neither excessive nor evil. Nor is it a waste of time. On the contrary, assessment—and the information it provides—is a vital tool to improve instruction, learning, and school practice.

This bar code theory of assessment (sorry – can’t shake the image) surely could be continuous, but, can it be coherent and high quality? Think about how your kids are maturing and how they learn?

Education Week continues to follow reform. In a piece on the competition to develop new testing systems we learn:

Competition opened yesterday for $350 million in federal money to design new ways of assessing what students learn. Rules for the contest make clear that the government wants to leave behind multiple-choice testing more often in favor of essays, multidisciplinary projects, and other more nuanced measures of achievement.

Guaranteed to come to a state near you:

Of the $350 million set aside for new tests, the Education Department plans to award one or two grants of up to $160 million each for “comprehensive assessment systems,” and one $30 million grant that is only for development of end-of-course tests at the high school level. All grants will run for four years.

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States must band together in groups, or “consortia,” of 15 or more to apply for the comprehensive-testing grant, with five states designated as “governing,” or leading, partners. Grant applicants for the high school testing program must also have five states designated as “governing,” but face no other minimum group-size requirement.

~~~
Tests must be able to measure if students are mastering a “common set of college- and career-ready” academic standards, and those standards must be adopted by the end of 2011. The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, with the support of 48 states, have led a move to write common standards, which are undergoing final revision. Federal officials have used states’ commitment to those standards as incentives in other programs, such as the main Race to the Top competition.

If we put this much time and money into new tests, and pull together all of these public and private players, sooner or later, we will be hearing calls for testing ALL kids. So, I would suggest you read through this piece and familiarize yourself with the process and the players. Read Race to Top Rules Aim to Spur Shifts in Testing.

Deborah Meier, writing on Education Week’s blog, Bridging Differences takes a bigger look at testing from a teacher’s perspective, with school reform on her mind. But the assessment of testing is worth the read. A few excerpts:

When Is Achievement Really an Achievement? – By Deborah Meier

If only everyone stopped using the word “achievement” as a synonym for scores on tests. It’s a sleight of hand that justifies so much that’s gone wrong. We’ve meanwhile discounted the work of real live children as “soft” data.

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We school teachers… invent formulas to help students score well, e.g., selecting “the main idea” or the “best title” for a short reading passage. (Although, no actual publishing house would ever use the “right” titles.) In consequence we agree to direct students to the learning of “test-like” tricks–the higher the stakes the more we conform.

As a teacher, I was intrigued by the outliers–scores that seemed surprisingly high or low for particular students. I could learn something useful by going over the test with such students. But I couldn’t catch an outlier if I didn’t already know the students.

When my 3rd grade son’s teacher told me he needed a remedial reading class, I knew she needed a remedial teaching class. She had never once read with him. He was a sophisticated fluent reader, who had his own odd theories about how best to answer tests.

Meier’s passion is for schools, so she asks:

How can we use schools as places where teachers, parents, and kids engage in serious intellectual challenges, respectful of their own histories and inclinations, buttressed by the vast knowledge and know-how of many others, past and present? Plus, the confidence, perseverance and curiosity to push beyond their boundaries.

While the institution continues to debate this answer, homeschooling families figured out their answers and have been putting them in practice for decades.

Read the whole article here.