Terra Nova, Schmerra Rova....Blah Blah Blah

My daughter, who makes A's and A -'s in all of her classes, including math and language is being DENIED the opportunity to take pre-algebra this year. WHY? Sounds like her grades are good enough to allow her to take it with the rest of the A students, doesn't it. NOPE! Thanks to a test called the Terra Nova, that she probably took at a time where she was either tired or over full and sleepy after lunch, maybe it was a day that she had a headache or a day that she just wasn't "there" at school, she doesn't get to take the class. This standardized testing is a completely UNFAIR and UNTRUE assessment of a students abilities. Some children just don't test well under the rigid circumstances that often surround these testing situations. Her future is being determined by a pamphlet test that is probably then graded by a computer, not on her body of work as a whole and her actual ability. If she doesn't take pre-algebra this year and Algebra next year, this puts her out of Calculus her Senior year. Now to my generation, that might not have been such a big deal but to hers, if you want the best schools, to go to school on the best scholarships you have to have the classes. Our government, by requiring and judging a students abilities based upon these tests, completely miss the individual that is sitting behind the desk and the pencil. This could easily get me going about the MAP testing, how teachers have to teach specifically for the MAP test, not what the kids fundamentally need to grow and learn. It isn't the teacher's faults, they have to do what they are told to do by administrators and politicians but thru this process and the decisions that these "great minds" are making, we are neglecting the individuals that are our children, our future. I pay the taxes you ask for, are you going to pay my kid's tuition because they are unable to get that scholarship? All because of one test, given under variable circumstances.... get out your check book, they tell me college is getting astronomical in cost. There's a focus for you.....worry about how our kids are going to pay for college, not about standardized testing that is an unfair assessment of my child's abilities. I look at her report card and see A's and A-'s for four quarters but you look at one day's testing and say nope, piss on her future. Guess who will be homeschooling Pre Algebra?!?! Take a look at a credible homeschooling curriculum such as Alpha Omega or Abeka and you will find a much more rigorous and challenging curriculum. You'll see her in 8th grade algebra~ All the while your going to make sure she takes Industrial Shop....lets make sure she can use a hammer and a saw but be damned if you'll get her into Calculus, after all power tools are so much more instrumental in the college application process.