It’s that time of year—time to start planning for spring standardized testing. Remember, these tests shouldn’t be “high stakes.” They’re more like a checkup that monitors growth. When I was a kid, I loved testing. I was tested by our local homeschool support group every year from first grade through eighth grade. I know standardized testing was a headache for my mom (she coordinated the whole thing for about forty families), but it was great for us kids. There were three half-days of testing. Each day after our testing, we’d get to play together for a couple of hours. And when we were all finished, we had a huge pizza party.
Here at BJU Press we just finished mailing out our 2016 Testing Catalog this week. If you’re used to using the Stanford Achievement Test Series (known as Stanford 10), this is an important year. Pearson, the publisher of the Stanford 10, is discontinuing the test after this year. Pearson is also discontinuing the related abilities test called the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test® (or OLSAT®).
If you’re looking for an alternative to the Stanford 10, the Iowa Tests® are a good option. The homeschool support group that my family participated in switched from Stanford to Iowa Tests when I was in third grade. In fact, the Iowa Form C is the most up-to-date standardized test available. BJU Press enables you to test any time of the year with the Iowa Tests. You can browse the Iowa Tests on our homeschool website. If you decide to use the Stanford 10, here are a couple of important dates to keep in mind.
April 30 is the last day to order Stanford Tests.
May 31 is the last day to send completed Stanford Tests back for scoring.
It’s very important to observe these dates. BJU Press is not permitted to fulfill any Stanford Tests orders after April 30, 2016, or to score Stanford Tests after May 31, 2016. And of course, no one wants to do standardized testing in the summer anyway . . .
Happy testing!
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