Last week we received Luke and Lilly's scores. Based on both of their scores in virtually every area my youngest two are "not proficient" or "partially proficient". I stood there staring at their scores and felt myself first wanting to defend my children knowing how hard both of them work both in the classroom and at home. Then I started to get angry and felt this overwhelming desire to fight the system and "the man" who wanted to peg my children as not proficient when I'm certain they are amazing (yes, spoken like a true mother).
Then today came and we received Caleb's MEAP scores which reflected "advanced" in every area. Although I was proud of him, it made me think. Caleb is not necessarily any smarter than our other two - he is just different. He is the type of personality/student a standardized test is made for, Luke and Lilly are not.
I guess I can understand why these tests are necessary to measure the success of a school/district. But what do they really tell us about our kids and what are we communicating to our kids based on these results? I know for a fact that Luke has an incredible aptitude for math. At times it is shocking what he is able to discern and yet because a test scores him as not proficient, what are we to gather from that data? That he doesn't test well! I could have told you that :)
I am thankful to have the opportunity to walk alongside my children and be the voice of encouragement for them. I am thankful for the teachers that spend the extra time working with them through their struggles as well as strength areas. Ultimately, I am thankful that I can be proud of my kids no matter what a test score says because we are a family and I love them to the moon - and back!!
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