El Paso Families Opting Out of STAAR
Remember when you just had to take your assessment test in school and there was no "opt out"? That's not the case anymore. There are 10 states that allow parents to opt their kids out of standardized testing, but Texas isn't one of those states. There were some parents that were able to get their kids out of the STAAR test this past year. It wasn't all that hard though. My kid was up for the STAAR test this year and we were told if you don't want your kid to take the test, just say so. That was it.
However, THIS ARTICLE over at KFOX makes it seem like it was a big ordeal to get your kids out of the test. It might have been in other schools, but it was pretty transparent at my kid's school. Don't want them to take the STAAR test this year? Just keep them home that day.
In that article, they have quotes from Irma Melendez, a mom who chose to let her kids skip the STAAR test. She talked about why she let her kids skip the test:
It's a lot of stress. I saw the way my daughter got stressed out, every single year from third to eighth grade.
While I understand this past year and a half has been vastly different and we need to allow kids to catch back up, I don't believe in the theory that since it's stressful, just don't have your kids do it. You aren't properly preparing your kids for life by doing this. Life is going to throw a lot of very stressful things your way. You won't make it through these situations if you haven't properly prepared for them, and you prepare for them by going through them at an early age. What's your kid learning by just skipping the test? If something gets too stressful you can just quit. Your job as the parent is to help them deal with stress, not avoid it altogether. She doesn't agree with this though saying:
Yea, this is life, but they are kids. Kids should be learning other stuff and not learning how to take a test.
I agree that there's more to learning than just learning to take a test, but just skipping it doesn't teach anything. You learn a whole lot more by putting yourself in new situations and being uncomfortable than by just skipping stress.