In article f_Xnb.46659$hp5.28348@fed1read04, Circe says...

"Donna Metler" wrote in message
.. .
"Circe" wrote in message
news:%iXnb.46654$hp5.9943@fed1read04...
"Donna Metler" wrote in message
. ..
In addition, starting in grade 3, standardized test scores count
against
the
school. Depending on the state, it could be every year, or just
specific
ones. The real crisis years here are 3rd, 5th, and 8th, although
students
are tested in grades 1-8, with exit tests in high school subjects.

Well, unless I see some evidence that the new California tests are a
vast
improvement, both in content and scoring, over the old Stanford 9s, my
kids
won't be taking them, so no one need worry that their non-attendance
will
negatively affect test scores (not that I plan on taking them out, mind
you). While I realize that the school is under a mandate to test 95% of
its
students, sitting the test is optional for any individual student. And
by
the time my kids are graduating high school, I'm pretty certain that the
fallacies of NCLB will be wildly apparent to everyone because every
single
school in the US will be failing by its standards and much of this
testing
mania (including the exit exams) will have passed. But perhaps I'm too
much
the optimist...

And if more than 5% of the parents take this option, every year for the
next
three years, the school faces state takeover. Not a good thing.

To the contrary, if more than 5% of parents in most schools begin to
*refuse* to allow their children to be subjected to these absurd tests that
foolishly waste classroom time and resources (both human and financial),
that rarely reflect the curriculum accurately, and that wind up producing
results that are consistently both misinterpreted and misrepresented, I
strongly suspect that the testing mania will come to an end.

I hear what you're saying (and loathe the tests too - I won't even let teachers
bring up tests as a reason why my son should do x or y, other than being rested
and breakfasted on the day of the tests).

But of course, on the way to this test-free Nirvana, this nationwide surge of
High Stakes Civil Disobedience you propose would be disruptive and painful in
ways that really woudln't help to convince schools to relax their policies
concerning attendance. (Not that something like that shouldn't happen, but it
doesn't make a reason to take little Johnny to Hawaii).

In the meantime, the teachers hafta deal with what they hafta deal with. And
fourth graders going to Disney on school time don't help.

Cheers,
Banty