Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Exempt from testing?

To the best of all you wise folks, is there a way to get an exemption from state testing?

I received notice that the district begins Dibels testing next week. Dibels is the standards testing done for K-2 grade. It seems a little crazy for my DS to have to take this but according to the school it is mandatory for all kids registered in those grades. The test runs 3 half days. I can already hear the complaining!

Won't work. He'd have to take the make-up tests.

Found this: http://www.rense.com/general63/rights.htm

I'm not sure about other states, but I know for certain that parents have the right to opt their children out of testing. The schools tend to make it sound as though the testing mandatory when the reality is that it isn't. My understanding is that a parent only needs to contact the school, in writing preferably and let them know their wishes. There may also be a form to complete or somesuch, but technically it *should* be a painless process. Although, I don't know if the school officials will give you a hard time, because it may mean less funding for them.

I used to do the DIBELS testing in my old county and it really is nothing...in Kindergarten the test literally takes a hand full of minutes - in first grade they ask the child to read a short story and then check their reading comprehension level. It is a standardized score and the teachers liked it if it was used correctly (done at the beginning of the year, middle and end) because it gave us all a really good picture of any reading issues right from the start so that we could focus on helping build up a child's reading skills. please feel free to email me if you want any more info :-) The kids don't write anything - the teacher asks the questions and the child answers :-)

I'm a little curious as to why anyone that has their kids in a public school would care about whether their child was given a DIBELS or any other test. If it is like my state the results are not shared with the kids unless the parent wants to show it to them.

So beyond it being a waste of time and a foolish way to judge the quality of a school or teachers - what difference does it make?

I imagine because of the grade level material that your DS is doing it would seem awful silly to include him in this test. I imagine they just love to add his results to the pile of averages. If he has to take it is there a way for him to take it independantly so it doesn't take so long? We did this for my DD9. She took MEAP on her own in the special ed classroom, took about 2 hours total instead of the three days it took in the general classroom. Maybe they would be open to something like that, especially with his schedule, you could approach it as being less disruptive.

It's been my experience in teaching middle school that HG+ children often know that the scores don't matter to them. So they have a tendency to mess with the test :-) I had one very brilliant student who made a beautiful smiley face with her scantron. Others just refuse to be bothered year after year. Having those scores sitting in your file can be problematic.

That being said, in our district, they will run you down if you try to get your child out of testing and they are above grade-level. The district will do anything for one more point in the average. I've known them to send home/hospital teachers to people's houses to drag STAR testing scores out of the kids who stayed home "sick." It's just not worth the fight as a parent. As a teacher, I prefer bribery. Do your best, try hard and I'll buy ice cream!

I agree that the school wants to make sure that the gifted kids take the test, but not sure if it's as beneficial as they think....last year, my 2nd grader had to take the grade-level test even though he's ahead in reading and math. His solution to this boring test (given over 2 weeks) was to rush through as fast as he could so he could draw or read. He ended up skipping a page even though his teacher kept reminding him to slow down. He still did pretty well on the reading section but not as high as they were hoping.

After reading Dotties response, I agreed that with all the school is doing for DS, he can sit through the test. If it gets the school a pat on the back for increasing the average, good for them!