Mock Staar Testing

[jessi.cortinas]

Hello,

My daughter is in 4th grade as was told they are doing mock staar testing most of this week and on a few other weeks until the date of the exam itself. I am in the process of getting an opt-out letter together because she has been exhibiting signs of extreme emotional and mental distress because of major testing anxieties. She is so worried she will get in trouble for refusing to do the mock testing because her teachers have told her she will not pass her grade level if she doesn't pass the Staar. I told her this was not true but she gets very upset at the thought.
She has also started to fall behind on some of her subjects because she says they spend a lot of their school day preparing for the Staar.
How do I go about requesting that they allow her to spend more time focusing on the concepts she needs extra help in and forgo all of the test prep?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[scott.placek]

I would try to have a conference with the teacher and an administrator about the failure threats. It's not true for fourth grade ever and it's not true for any grade this year. Threat like this are unacceptable and are purely local actors making bad decisions.