I realize some are required by law to do so, but does anyone here do standardized testing with their kids, on a voluntary basis? I'm especially interested in any Canadians who use the CAT-3 tests at the elementary level. I have to admit, in general, I'm no big fan of standardized testing. I hate how there's so much emphasis placed on them in public schools. I'd be beyond annoyed if my province required them of homeschoolers. That said, I'm in the process of testing my 3rd grader LOL I got an email from my homeschooling group that we have access to the testing materials for just $11/test, so I thought I'd go ahead. Mostly out of curiosity, to see how he compares. Partly, I figured I could use it to see if there's anything we should re-focus on before moving on to 4th grade. And I'll admit, there's a part of me who really hopes he does awesome so I can kind of stick it to my MIL and SIL a little bit. I know, it's petty, but I've heard so much disapproval from them, so much "if no one is holding you accountable, how will you know you're teaching him properly/enough?", etc etc. Even though *I* know that these test scores don't define his education in life so far, it'll be nice to have something tangible that *they* believe in, yanno? To maybe get them off my case a little bit?
This is something I wanted to know too. I was looking into maybe doing the CAT/5 survey tests (they are soooo much shorter than the full battery). But there are so many testing options available, it's a little overwhelming to pick the right one. My state requires testing, but even if they didn't I would still want to test just to make sure we are where we need to be. Any thoughts?
Well, we finished up the CAT over three days this week. It was much easier to get through than I thought. I was sure ds would balk at having to sit through it, but he was enthralled with the "fill in the circle" method, and having the timed sections brought out his competitiveness and he actually enjoyed doing it. After I graded it, it gave me a pretty good idea of a couple of areas/concepts we need to focus on for the upcoming year. And even though I know he's not defined by his test scores, I'm proud to say he scored in the 96th percentile overall. As my husband posted on Facebook "The Homeschooling Complain Department is now officially closed."!
