i plan on taking a convinent vacation next year when dd is supposed to do hers... she was held back or she would of taken it this year..i am against it.. too much stress on the kids even though they say otherwise... my dd has ADD and a processing learning disability.. and since the school board refuses to do her psychometric testing.. i refuse to let her participate...

thats my opinion.. if you don't want it to happen then don't allow it...

 

Why don't you want him to write the test? My son is only in grade 1 but I'd like to start thinking about it. My son's school seems to be pretty cool about the test, they say they don't teach to the test, they allow all the kids to take it if they want to (many schools don't let the slower learners take it so it won't damage their reputation/ranking). They are a very small school so they never do well in the rankings (with a grade 3 class of 15 all it take is 2 bad scores) so I hope the board of ed. isn't judging the school on the scores. The school does use the scores to help pin point areas that need work with individual students but they should know this already. So you're right, why are we taking time out of the school year to do this?

 

Here things are weird, this whole town is.

the education is done by Saskatchewan which does not require or have standardized testing.

I am against it as a method of teaching/learning/labelling kids.

However the schools here do the tests but use the Alberta one. They ONLY do the tests to see if there are any areas that they can improve on, things they are lacking/doing good in. It is used as feedback for the school. they don't do any prep for the tests here.

My oldest is in Grade 3 and I had doubts about having her do the test but decided in the end since it actually does not count towards anything or affect her grades to let her do it.

After they get the marks back any of the Grade 3 kids who had excelled at the test were then give the option to continue on and do the 2nd step with the Grade 4's. I don't like these tests, but I was proud that my dd was one who was selected to do the rest of them. We don't have the results yet(they did them before Easter).

In your particular situation it seems they only want the smart kids to do the tests which really doesn't give the school a guage of what is really going on.

 

Is this the test to determine if children are gifted?

I won't have a problem with my child taking it. I think labelling is problematic, but OTOH gifted courses tend to be much higher quality than regular courses. I would hope she would get access to gifted programming.

 

I think taking a well timed holiday might be the answer. I'm a teacher here in BC and I don't agree with standardized testing. We don't have a choice, we have to administer it, and it takes 4-5 hours spread over 2 weeks. So if a parent wanted to pull their child out they'd miss 2 weeks of school. Special needs kids are the only ones exempt from the test. As far as gifted, where I teach, it's something totally separate. Gifted testing starts in grade 4, and it's a totally different test.

 

I heard the grade 4/7 testing is now madatory in BC... I know a lot of people used to have their kids be sick that day, but apparently that is not going to fly anymore... we homeschool and I noticed that some programs are now asking you to sign a form saying your child will participate in the testing in order to get the $$ for homeschooling (if you are enrolled in a DEL)... I just don't want to waste our time practicing for a test... and I don't want my kids worrying about it or feeling judged

 

EQAO is not gifted testing...it is testing to judge how well the schools deliver the curriculum.

As far as the test helping the students, that is a load of garbage. You will not even get the marks back till October of next year, and they will simply be the score, not the corrected paper.

I have never heard a teacher admit to teaching to the test, yet I have seen many that do.

They used to excuse many IEP children from the test; now they do not. A low score makes a higher average than no score.

I do not like the test, can you tell

Kathy

 

i am lucky my dd's school does the test over 2 days... so i can i take a nice vacation and its at the end of the year so they can't tell me i did it on purpose...

(yes i have it all planned)

i don't like the testing.. the board won't even test my dd for a learning disability because she has to be 4 yrs behind... she is only 1.5 but her teachers know she has a processing issue... so why should i comply with their testing..

they say they don't teach to the test but the kids are preped etc and its way tooo much stress... i have heard of coworkers kids getting hours of test related homework... that don't fly with me...

so next year... im planning a vacation... we did 13 days this past april so it is possible... plus it will be after my nursing school graduation... yet another excuse...

 

In Ontario (at least our district) the Grade 3 EQAO test results are used WITH Grade four testing for giftedness to ascertain scores for the gifted programme. I wish I'd known this before Grade 3, as dd's scores were not high enough - but if I'd prepped her, I think they would have been, and she'd be getting the extra gifted stuff now.

 

Irishmama,

Most parents who think their children are gifted (um...like 80%

) are correct. If you think your child is gifted, the EQAO and the Grade 4 test are lousy indicators. They are academic achievement tests, NOT cognitive abilities test. Many gifted students underachieve, and many bright minds are screened out due to relying on such tests.

WISC should be used for testing. Please check out the Ontario Association of Bright Children for more info.

You can be a PITA and insist on proper screening. Good luck!

Kathy

 

EQAO is optional in Ontario. All you have to do is send a letter to your child's principal stating that you do not want her participating. Period. They will give you a hard time because they still have to report her score as a zero and, as someone else already mentioned, a low score is still better then a zero score. In a small school that really messes things up and schools hate seeing their name low on the published rankings. I've taught at the highest ranked schools in Ontario (according to EQAO) and I'm telling you the test is meaningless. Well, it's been good for my home's real estate price... but I digress...

My advice? Keep her home if you oppose the test. The school will likely give you a hard time if you send her and they really are not obligated to provide alternative programming for her while the rest of the class writes the test.

EQAO is totally different then the gifted screening. EQAO's purpose is to gather information for a variety of purposes, which would take way too long to get into right now. Here is their mandate link: http://www.eqao.com/AboutEQAO/01about.aspx?Lang=E

Gifted testing, at least in my board, is done in Grade Three and screens learners for a variety of academic gifts that may be better served in a community classroom with other gifted students. Parents who are not satisfied with their child's results (ie: think they are gifted and they were not selected) can have the child privately assessed by a certified psychologist and the board will accept the findings for placement.

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks for all the words of advice. I kept her home today.
My school does have one of the lowest ranks in Ontario, which is why I think they gave me such a hard time about it. I plan on keeping my children home in grade 6 as well.

 

Quote:

As far as the test helping the students, that is a load of garbage. You will not even get the marks back till October of next year, and they will simply be the score, not the corrected paper.

We can get the tests here. I don't know if it's because our school uses another province's test & it isn't mandatory but the school has the tests after.

 

hey, julienore...we are also one of the lowest!

You would not happen to be in Eastern Ontario (as in upper can. district school board), would you?

kathy

 

My partner is a teacher and I agree it's a very stressful test, very hard on kids. I have certainly seen parents keep kids home before. I would also agree that it's something that the schools use for their own purposes & not an effective way of assessing individual students. If I recall correctly this was a Harris-era education innovation.`nuff said.

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kathymuggle hey, julienore...we are also one of the lowest! You would not happen to be in Eastern Ontario (as in upper can. district school board), would you? kathy

We are in Grey/Bruce