They don't happen to have a 504 do they? You can rewrite it to be in a room by themselves. I have small group testing written into DS4's
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They don't happen to have a 504 do they? You can rewrite it to be in a room by themselves. I have small group testing written into DS4's
It probably varies by state and even by district. In our district in the past, parents had to write a letter to the building principal, and then have a sit down meeting with the principal about they they did not want their student to take the test. I'm pretty sure this was done to discourage people from opting out, as the district gets penalized if a portion of students don't take the test. I've never minded my kids taking the state tests in the past, as they do not get stressed about them and are good testers, so they help bring up the school scores. But we are doing the fully cyber program through our district this year and have been pretty strict about not gathering with others unless it is small groups outside. When we signed up for the cyber program the district said the students would be expected to come into the buildings to take the tests. I honestly do not see how they will make this work. The classrooms are already at their normal sizes and the cyber classes actually have 30 some kids in a class. And I don't see the purpose of the tests this year. Our kids are not learning the same content or amount of content they would in a normal year (either in school or in the cyber program). The teachers are already stressed with all of the safety regulations and switching back and form from in building to cyber when there are too many cases identified in a school. I feel like asking the kids to take these tests is setting students and teachers up to fail. So far our district is moving forward with the assumption that the tests will happen. I'm hoping the state decides to just not do them again this year so that I don't have to worry about having my kids sit in crowded classrooms for 2 weeks straight.
I know my large district in CA has asked for this too. Not sure if it is state wide, or just my district.Quote:
Originally Posted by gamma
The whole district is 100% virtual here. The current plan is for the state testing to be done at home (if the waiver isn't granted). The interface the testing is on is difficult under the best of circumstances when there are teachers there to help. I have no idea how students/parents would navigate it at home. Not to mention there is no way to provide a secure testing session. I've never opted my kids out but if the district goes through with this crazy testing, I will opt my kids out this year. There is absolutely no need to waste weeks of precious learning time with state testing.
DD2 has done STAR testing virtually this year and it has worked out okay. Dd2 just had her second round two weeks ago and she did have some issues logging in on one day but they finally got it taken care of. The classes were split into two groups. The teacher taught on those days from her classroom.Quote:
Originally Posted by PZMommy
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I’m referring to the SBAC. It’s a nightmare of a testing system. There are so many security affidavits and special secure browsers that must be used and I don’t even know how they would install them for students to take the tests. They can “push” them out to district devices, but for any student using their own device it would be impossible for the students to get. I’m hoping for the waiver to pass.Quote:
Originally Posted by AnnieW625
Where I am you just have to email a letter to the school principal stating "my child will not be taking the state tests." There's something about the wording where you cannot opt out on behalf of your child, but you can deny your child permission to take the tests. My kids are in Catholic school and the school participates in testing, but this year they have decided that things are stressful enough and the school will opt out as a whole.
Thank you all for the advice. DS is in 6th grade (he doesn’t have a 504) and he attends a separate virtual academy that is a stand-alone school of our county school system. (Our system also offers the distance/e-learning that is attached to individual schools.) If it wasn’t a pandemic, he would go to the testing center to take end of the course exams but students have been allowed to do everything virtually.
All the students in the district were allowed to do STAR virtually/at-home. However, I’ve been told that this test has to be proctored so it must be in-person. He would have to go to a school testing site (ours would be our zoned elementary school) for two complete school days to take the test. Only the test takers and teachers would be in class/at the school during those days and they would be socially distancing and fed lunch. DS has test anxiety under normal circumstances plus I’m just not comfortable with the risk.
I was able to contact an organization that provides wording (state by state) to opt out of standardized testing. I’m in Alabama and I was told to write an email to the principal and Superintendent stating that since there is no legal obligation for my child to take the state assessment my child will be refusing to take the test. I don't have to go into detail or give any reasons.
Can you tell me what that organization is? I am in Wisconsin and am having the same issue. My children attend a public online school that does in-person testing. We normally do it every year, except last year when they cancelled it. I don't want my kids to do it this year due to the pandemic. We have been home since March 2020 and are being careful and the risk isn't worth it. I was hoping it would get cancelled as I know some school districts in our state are not even back in-person yet.Quote:
Originally Posted by IansMom
Not sure what the chances are of this happening, but I heard from some people in our district that there is still some talk about a federal waiver of tests this year. Has anyone else heard this?
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So far nothing official, but I think a lot of states are pushing for this.Quote:
Originally Posted by ang79