"Technology." Faugh. (Venty post!)

[jenny_islander]

So receiving the full support of the school district--financial aid, free books & materials, specialized tutoring, etc.--means that I also have to send my homeschoolers to proctored standardized tests every spring starting in 3rd grade. OK, fine, the tests aren't that bad.

Ohwait. Now, as part of their "mission" to "improve" the "technology" my children "encounter," they have to take their reading and 'rithmetic tests on a computer. Supposedly this will provide a more perfect assessment because if--IF--they can get all the bugs ironed out before March, each child's answer to the initial test questions will affect which questions are displayed next. But they must all be able to manipulate drop-down menus, checkboxes, etc. Okay, okay, they've been playing with a mouse since K, sure, fine.

Next school year the writing portion will also be "improved" by "technology." In other words, in order to prove that they can make words do things, every THIRD GRADER is going to have to LEARN HOW TO TYPE.

Oh, oh, and in December we're going to have to go to the homeschool office, with me dragging the preschooler along and trying to figure out what to do with him while I am also attending to the teacher, so that my two students can be trained in how to properly take the test and I can be trained in how to train them to take the practice test at home. On the laptop that all homeschool households must now possess.

Joy of joys. Much efficiency. Such progress.

[nutmeg]

It sounds like you are doing a kind of virtual school like I did one year. It was a nightmare trying to keep up with all their demands. :hug2

[teamommy]

Wow. Are there brick and mortar schools that have standardized writing tests via typing in third grade? Or is this something they are trying out on the virtual school students?:-/ I can't imagine.

[Katigre]

My ds took the standardized test via computer last spring and I really like it vs a paper test. It was much shorter too.

I hope it all works out for you :hug.

[jenny_islander]

This is the exact same set of tests all the PS kids have to take, which means that at some point some poor IT code monkey will be sweating over how to hook up eleventy grillion Macbooks to the same overworked server and Web portal. Not to mention that they already know the program is buggier than a rotten log!

This school district is very committed to what they call "improved access to technology." I call it "spending tons of money every other year on various sizes of computer that will be obsolete many years before their students ever enter the world of work." They wanted me to conduct a formal course in "technology" and I flatly refused. My girls know as much about "technology" as they need to know in order to get online to do the things they want to do right now. They're making a zombie movie with the neighbor kids. They're fine.

I put quotes around the word because they seem to have a touching faith in the power of electronic beepy flashy things to make students into super-students, combined with complete ignorance that the word they want is "computers." "Technology" means anything people make in order to help them do stuff. Stone knives are technological components!

[mamacat]

Have you checked out www.allinonehomeschool.com? You dont have to purchase books etc and is a lot less demanding.YOU get to pick and choose your childs courses and level of study for each class

[jenny_islander]

I do that already. The district is eventually, in their abundant spare time (ha ha), going to review all of the textbooks used by their homeschool students, but in the meantime they will pay for anything that isn't explicitly religious. They lay out basic subjects to teach, but leave how up to me--as long as the kids can pass the tests. And they did back down about the "technology" part.

I just wish that somebody with a more reality-based view of what it takes to put a test on a computer had overseen the test revisions.