Test When?

Will students who were previously attending campus classes return backmto school the first of May? If they do, most kids will have spent 6 weeks away from the books. I know, some schoolwork is supposed to be continuing, but I’m guessing probably not that much. No blame here. It’s too much to expect parents to simply start teaching or supervise instruction for 4 to 6 hours a day. They’re focusing on keeping everyone well. On top of that are job losses and an uncertain economy to think and worry about. Taking a week of for spring break is one thing; missing a month and a half of school, another. And, what if a decision is made not to return the kids to school at all for the remainder of the year? 

No wonder high stakes testing for public school students has been canceled. 

But, if you’re not testing for high stakes reasons but for your own information, when should you test?

Test near the end of your school year, and definitely not too long after you conclude your studies. For most home schoolers, that would mean testing sometime between April through June. For other families, the time to test will be during the summer months since they work into the summer.

The guiding principle here is you want to test over content that has been recently presented and is still relevant. Waiting to test 6 weeks after the last time your student picked up a book will not yield the kind of insights you’re after. Insights that will help you with choosing textbooks for next year. Insights that may lead you to consider different teaching strategies. Insights that will help you to know that what you’re doing is working, or whether it’s time to change course.  

As I mentioned in my last post, Declaring A Test Holiday, you have some new testing options. You can read about them here.

Stay the course. 

Thanks for reading!

Curt Bumcrot, MRE