Ian and Jonah went through four days of state standardized testing this month.

A lot of suburban parents gripe about the lost days of learning during that week. The morning is spent with the tests and then they rest for the afternoon. There is no homework or school projects. The nervous kids leave for school with sharpened pencils and reminders from their parents to check their work. 

I don't have a huge problem with Jonah's week of testing. It's a testing world, and he'll need those skills when he takes the SATs. I like to know how he compares with other kids in terms of math and writing. He is a good writer, but he writes very slowly. It will be interesting to see if he improves in that area this year. 

For Ian, my special ed boy, these tests are torture. He and his classmates are not on grade level for learning, but they don't know that. Until they get these tests. For four days, they take standardized tests on information that they haven't learned yet. Ian is nearly on grade level for math. He could be on grade level, but he has so much remedial work in other areas that his teachers don't push the math. His language deficits are most obvious in the reading and writing section of the test.

There's no question that Ian and all his classmates will fail the test. And they know that. They come home from school that week, sad and dispirited. 

One mom told me that she took her daughter on vacation for three days after the test to help her recover from that humiliation. 

I suppose that there are good political reasons for testing the special ed kids. If those kids were released from the testing requirements, schools would put all the slower kids into special ed classes in order to raise overall test scores for the school. However, the result is a class of humiliated children. There has to be a better way. 

Please stop humiliating the special ed kids with standardized tests.