Testing 1 . . . 2 . . . 3

This falls under that category of "How You Do It" posts. We do standardized testing every other year at the end of the school year.

We order them from an internet company called Family Learning Organization. The testing we do is relatively cheap ($35 per kid) and relatively flexible (we do it at home, on our timetable). Once we receive the tests in the mail we have 2 weeks to complete them and send them back in the mail for grading. This has always been enough time.

Each child has 10 tests to complete. The younger grades (through 3rd) are done with a great deal of administrator involvement, for the most part. From 4th grade, I start them off with the samples and then we set the timer.

The tests are older tests, I know because they have questions about library card catalogs.

We do it because our state requires some sort of ambiguous "assessment" and because it lets us know how we are doing. It also gives my kids great practice on test taking, finishing within a time limit, not being able to get Mom's help, being quiet while others are working, those kinds of things.

It also gives my little kids plenty of time watching Backyardigans and other brain melting fluff that they may miss out on ordinarily.

Once we send the tests in, it is usually only a few weeks till we get the results back. They are the normal test results, raw score, percentile, what grade level they are approximately performing at. (I know, I'm not supposed to put a preposition at the end of a sentence, but this isn't my test.) We take all that with a grain of salt. But, when a certain son got 7 out of 28 on his spelling exam, we realized we needed to change our spelling program. We did. This time he missed 7 out of 30. Still not his best thing, but way better.

I have the olders do it together and the youngers (those that need my help) take turns watching tv (I mean, watching the babies) and takig tests with me. I could probably juggle them if needed, but they are already a distraction for the olders. So is my typing, probably. I'll stop now.