Illinois Students Have No Homework Assignments, It's ISAT Time Again

When I opened my grandson's homework agenda to help him with his daily homework assignments, I found it blank. I asked him if he forgot to write down his homework. He said, "No. We didn't have any." I found this hard to believe as he has homework every night. Then it dawned on me. It is ISAT (Illinois Standard Achievement Test) time. Yes, that glorious time of year when students and teachers turn away from their daily curriculum of math, reading, social studies, science, and other less knowledgeable subjects to embrace the weeks of prep time needed for students to pass the illustrious ISAT.

I explained, or should I say complained, about the ISAT in March of 2009 in an article entitled; Obama, Cradle to Career Speech, Teachers Held Accountable and Illinois Standard Achievement Test (ISAT). My view of the ISAT has not changed, as you can tell from the sarcasm in my first paragraph. To me it is still a huge joke, depriving all involved, and fostering a lose/lose situation. Children are deprived from receiving a good education and teachers are deprived from teaching the basic subjects, because, everything stops for the ISAT.

Well, as the sayings go, "You can't fight city hall" and "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." So parents, it is time to join'em. Instead of allowing your children to have a homework vacation through the prep weeks, make them fill their evenings completing study guides for the ISAT. They are sure to love your more for this kind gesture and your thoughtfulness toward their education (sarcasm again). How you say, can you do this?

Well, it does take a computer, connected to the internet and this website (ISAT). The Illinois State Board of Education Student Assessment page is loaded with all kinds of information for schools, teachers, parents, and students. It answers questions, provides manuals, reports, statistics, and practice tests or sample questions.

Once parents log on to the 2011 Interactive ISAT Sample Questions page, they can direct their children to the appropriate grade level and sample tests. These can be taken online or printed out in PDF form. It would behoove parents to read all the information. I did not and failed to realize a calculator can be used on the math portion of the test. I am still apologizing to my grandson for making him use paper, pencil and his brain to figure problems. What was I thinking?