End-of-year testing is going on all around the country. Do you have any thoughts, suggestions, advice, comments on how things are going for your child/your students/your community? Are the special ed students getting the accommodations they need?

Maybe you have an opinion about all the testing?!

I'd love to hear from all of you!

Personally, I think the state testing is a joke for any student. Ours just finished and school may as well begin summer break.

My dyslexic son still struggles greatly with writing, although he has always passed the writing section. They do not count off for spelling or punctuation. He passed this very minimal skills test by 2 points and I'm told I should be "proud" of such a "good" score. I am very proud of my child which may be why I expect more than the bare minimum from a gifted, dyslexic child.
Unfortunately, he can't teach himself everything.

School actually spent money on t-shirts as a "surprise" in student lockers. This is HS - do they really think those kids will wear a TAKS t-shirt? I got a new messy job shirt.

State testing is one of my triggers. It irks me how they suppress a love of learning for 1 darn week of filling in little circles.

Great comments juliegee. To add - in my state the kids spend 2-3 weeks. Plus, hours and hours over months "filling in little circles" for "practice" to prepare.

On a different subject...you mentioned your child is a "gifted dyslexic". I worked as a dyslexia teacher (Orton-Gillingham) in schools in Texas and was surprised at first how often my students were very high IQ, and enjoyed all my student's giftedness in many areas.

Testing starts tomorrow for LAUSD and my special ed kid is taking the test this year. The IEP is always in June so last year there was a disagreement about what he would take and I wanted the CAPA and they wanted the next level for gen ed students. I quickly wrote a letter in the office and got a copy of it and excused my son from taking the test.

My HFA kid is in California Virtual Academy and we went to a center where the testing took place to two days about two weeks ago. He is in sixth grade so it was two days, but other grades it was 3 or 4 days.

Next year will be the CA fitness test again so I think we will have to go somewhere for practice sessions, etc. I should ask on the CAVA yahoo group about that to prepare for next year.

My spec ed son is in an autism class and in fifth grade and they did the fitness testing already. Those results took a long time to get for my older son.

To practice for the testing with CAVA the kids use a website calledBellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Our children will graduate with such a useful skill - filling in those stupid little circles.

You must have been in a good school district. Ours didn't even know what OG was. Luckily we found a great private tutor that lived close by. And, yes, many dyslexics are gifted. It is a very misunderstood learning difference.

My son is no longer classified as SPED because I found the services useless. The 1st thing they wanted to do was modify his state tests. I would not allow it because I wanted them to teach him to his ability, not their minimum standards.

I realize many SPED students do need mods but major test modifications should be limited to the most severe students. Otherwise, I think many schools expectations are very low for too many children.

Actually, I wish they'd do away with the testing or move it to the beginning of the year so we could all just get it over with and move on with the real job of learning & teaching.

When do these tests usually start? My daughter is leaving kindergarten this year.

I'm in TX and I think they start in 3rd.

In TX, they start the TEKS at grade 3; but there are other standardized tests they use prior to this (levelling for reading and math).