Do you tell your children their test scores? Do you request that their teacher not share scores?

They are a total waste of time. They waste the schools money and terrify the children and their parents. This is learning at its worst!

I think it's sad that a child can be on the AB Honar roll all year for 2 years straight and both years score a 1 on EOG's. She also has been enrolled in Sylvan for the last year. Can someone explain this to me Please!!!

As a mom of a middle schooler on the west coast, I have opted her out of every standardized test there is. I am always confronted with "May we ask why?" Yes, you can ask. It's because they are a waste of time. Schools that also "teach to the test" are also wasting their time. We are in a high performing school in Orange County. How much higher can they go? There is no need for these tests. If my daughter, who is a gifted student, was failing, then I would expect the administrators to let me know. She is not. She is a high performer. The days she was exempt from the tests she had to report to the office area and do "busy work". I told her if she wasn't comofortable not to do it and find something else to do such as drawing or reading, etc. The tests are stressful and children these days across all grades need less stress. It's such a waste of time - time that could be spent actually teaching. Compile the week of standardized tests with the already exorbitant amount of days and half days off and you really have a poor annual educational schedule. Both of my kids do not have developmental or learning issues and would probably have no problem taking the tests if they wanted to but I don't want them to. It measures nothing. It has NOTHING to do with placement either. My kids will get promoted to the next grade and being that they are gifted students, they work along the gifted track. There's no issue of placement. If there were, I should have been notified of it already and as a parent realized if my kids were struggling. Standardized tests need to go away. Period.

As an educator, I must say the testing has become too much for teachers and students! My 3rd grade son is an A student in an excellent school district. However, he spent three hours (wanting to do an excellent job) writing a test (essay) in which he needed to combine information from two sources to write an informative article for a school newspaper. This seemed to be a bit much for his age, especially after already following 4 days of state testing.

I refused to give an EOG to my students with disabilities back in 2008. I ended up losing my teaching license, because the state superintendent (June Atkinson at the time) said that they 'had to make an example' out of me. They insisted no one could question the validity of the tests. As I went through the process, I found out how corrupt the people were who brought statewide EOGs to North Carolina and the country. It was all about money. The millions of dollars made on the tests and especially "test preparation" materials is astounding!! I heard from so may parents and witnessed myself the trauma so many kids suffer as a result of the test anxiety and pressure from schools and teachers concerned about their jobs and school scores.
Bravo for your stand, Adrian!!
Here is a link to a video explaining my stand back in 2008.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj_bJkGTC8U

My daughter stresses out over these tests every year. She's just about to enter 5th grade. She has ADHD and for years we've never put stress on her for grades. All I ask of her is that she try her best in all subjects. Sometimes she knocks it out of the park, sometimes, not so much. It's not for lack of her trying. She does the work. But every single year when these tests come around she starts freaking out. For the last two years I have had to advocate for her. I ask that they put her in a space where she cannot see the clocks. She's obsessed with getting everything answered in the allotted time. This year she did better. But she was still extremely stressed out and didn't want to go to school. The year before, the administration would call me daily because my daughter would rush through the test. Answering all the questions in a 5 minute time period. Of course she scored terribly. I keep telling her the tests don't matter. They don't decided if she moves up a grade, and they don't decided what college she will get into. But the school makes such a HUGE deal out of them. She's only 10! I wish they would scrap the tests all together & take the Common Core with them.

We endured this nonsense this year with our twins (3rd grade, public charter school, Delaware). The testing lasted, literally, for weeks. And for what? Of what possible pedagogical purpose is weeks of testing a nine year old?

This bullshit is what happens when bureaucrats, politicians and the education industrial complex get together and decide what's best for our children rather than we, the parents, making those decisions.

The worst part is that they have the kids brainwashed into believing these tests, actually matter. I kept telling my kids to just fill in some answers - don't even bother to read the damned questions - and move on with their lives. But they wouldn't do it.

All children learn differently and at different times. Standardized testing is incredibly inaccurate, and teaches nothing to the children. Let them learn, and let their teachers do their job of teaching!