Speaker A: Welcome to the Sequoia Breeze Podcast, a breath of fresh air for your homeschool.
I am your host, Rebecca La Savio.
Welcome listeners, to a little bit different experience today.
This is a sort of extra or bonus episode and yes,
it's about testing. But wait,
don't go.
I'm not here to strong arm you or guilt you. Instead, a whole bunch of us got together to say thank you because you and your kiddos are showing up. And it shows.
We also want to let you know why this stuff matters. I know how easy it is to see testing as an interruption,
maybe even an irritation.
But we also want you to know that there are a lot of tools available to help your students feel equipped and ready for these tests,
maybe even excited.
You're going to hear from administration singing your praises.
You're going to hear from parents who've wrestled with testing and helped their kiddos to conquer the casp.
And I think you're going to hear some really great ideas for making meaningful observations about your students progress and for building life skills along the way.
And if by the end of this episode you're able to see state mandated testing as an opportunity,
well, then we've accomplished something worthwhile.
So join me as I sit down with Stacy in the Sequoia Grove Library to talk about why testing is important and all that our schools.
Hey, that's you accomplished last year.
Stacy, welcome. Introduce us a little bit. I'm glad that you're here because you've got some exciting things to tell parents about testing. Yes, I said that we have some exciting things to tell parents about testing.
So explain to us what your role is and then we'll get into that.
Speaker B: All right. Awesome. Well, I'm Stacy Close. I've been here for about six years and right now I serve as the director of Student growth.
I support English learners, I support students who are homeless or foster youth, and also assessments. So three prongs of advocating for students. And so that's something that I'm passionate about and I love.
And no matter what, where, what we're doing or who we're talking to, every student deserves a voice and to be advocated for. And that's how I serve our schools.
Speaker A: That sounds like a lot of hats to wear today. We're gonna just focus on the assessment part and I think it's brave of you to take that particular job on because we know most of us are not excited about assessments.
Speaker B: Right.
Speaker A: Like I said, we have some actually exciting news that we want parents to know about how things have been changing in our community,
in regards today, we're really specifically talking about CASP testing. Not so much the STAR test and all of the.
The other tests that go into this. So today, as we talk about the CASP test, I think families, you might have noticed if you've been with us for a couple of years, that last year might have felt a little different with what we were asking of you in regards to CASP testing and how.
What the focus was.
And so, Stacy, explain to us why we needed to do that, what was going on.
Speaker B: The focus and the magnifying glass on charter schools in California is ever growing.
We really have to show up. We have to show that the way that we're learning in our homes and in our communities is serving our students in the best way possible.
Each individual student, we want to show that along their measuring stick, we add up that our students can show up. They know how to show what they know. And that was our theme last year.
That was something that was so important, not just do it,
but really do do it. Really show the things that you know.
And some of that needed translation. Right. How we're learning at home needs a little bit of translation to look at that measuring stick and figure out, okay, what are they really asking me?
So we really reached out and gave tons of resources for our families so that they could pick and choose whichever resource might work for them and integrate it into the learning that they're already doing.
Speaker A: So, for instance,
your kiddo's doing Beast Academy, and they're learning all kinds of great ways of thinking about math.
But the problems on the CASP test are going to look different. So you need to translate what you know from Beast Academy to the format that's going to be on the state test.
Speaker B: Exactly. So the academic vocabulary is. We found one of the bigger pieces that is actually an easy hurdle to overcome.
We looked at the writing that students are using. Are they putting capitals and periods on there? Those are easy points.
Are they answering the question that's being asked? Easy points. So we looked really carefully at, like, how are we showing up? And what could we do to just dig in just a little bit more?
Speaker A: We know our kiddos are getting fantastic educations. We just need to make sure they understand the question that they're being asked on the CASP test.
So parents might have heard of the word dashboard before,
and it. It's a little. If you're not familiar with it, it's a. It feels a little hypothetical. Yeah, it's a little hard to get your head around, but it Plays a really crucial role for our schools.
So can you explain to us what that is and what ours said last year?
Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. Our dashboard, in a matter of speaking, is our report card for our school. How is our school doing?
Are we. Are our students progressing?
Are they making gains? Are they learning? It's our report card. It's basically just to say where we are. To the state of California. They're looking at that report card, and they're deciding, can your school stay open when it's time to renew?
Can you be granted a new renewal? We're up against renewals coming up soon for a lot of our schools, and that's really important information that's utilized in order to be able to stay a healthy school.
Speaker A: So how was our report card last year?
Speaker B: Okay, so our report card showed that we needed improvement.
It showed that, oh, we've got some spots where we really need to focus and dig in and see what we really can do.
Speaker A: So test scores from the spring of 24, correct. Were not fantastic. We got. We got involvement. We got participation.
But our test scores did not show that our kiddos were really above average the way we know that they are.
Speaker B: Exactly. It did not reflect what we knew about our students.
And so the challenge was, how can we get this to reflect closer to what we see with our students?
Speaker A: And so last year's report card did not look great because of those test scores. But then we took the test last year in the spring of 25,
and those results are back. How is our report card now?
Speaker C: Yes.
Speaker B: You guys,
I'm so excited.
The amount of growth that we saw when students showed up and they really made efforts to show what they knew. We saw massive gains across all grades,
across all subjects. I'm talking English language arts. I'm talking math. I'm talking science.
We saw beautiful things happen when students came prepared and their anxiety was lowered and they really took one test at a time.
And the overall feeling about it was just, do the best you can do, right?
It's just one snapshot. We all know this, right?
And having them have that experience of, like, okay, I did that yesterday, and in two days, I'm gonna do the next part. It's gonna be okay.
Speaker A: So we really have a lot to celebrate. So, parents, thank you for all of you. Who got your kiddos there? Got them, or got them logged on at home?
Who helped their kiddos refine their writing? Who did some practice questions so the kids would know what to expect when they were asked to read these paragraphs and talk about Them who practiced those math problems.
I remember this is a little random, but one of the things that made an impact on me when I was talking a couple years ago in a previous podcast episode about testing was a parent mentioned that her kiddo was ahead in math and so she needed to make sure she remembered the grade level questions she was going to be asked.
So it's not always a scramble of a kiddo who might be a little behind grade level. Sometimes if they're above grade level, they need a little review so that when they see that question they, they did a couple years ago, they can still remember how to answer that question now and show that they are.
Speaker B: Yes.
You know what? There are so many great resources out there. And we saw, we asked parents, like, how did it go for you? What did, how did your student do individually?
How did their scores improve? And why do you think they improve like that?
And that became something that was really eye opening. We found that students who utilize one or more of the resources that we provided,
they really felt confident they had seen the tests before. That had a lot of impact.
Their teacher talked to them about it. They knew what it looked like in that practice test. They could go through and be like, okay, I know what to expect. I know what that's going to look like.
Because when you first open that,
a performance task and you look at all the writing on one paper, it's really on one screen, it's difficult. And teaching them, look, here's a little arrow. Move that off the screen.
Now focus just on this. Just that practice lowers the anxiety and really opens up the availability for that student to really just focus in on the question alone.
And so asking parents themselves, like, what was working for you and why do you think that, you know, you gained hundreds of points for your student? I mean, that's incredible.
Hundreds of points.
Speaker A: That's really amazing.
Which shows that if a kiddo can gain that much, they clearly knew it the year before.
They just didn't necessarily know how to go about demonstrating.
Speaker B: Accessing. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker A: Tell us a little bit about those tools that are available.
Speaker B: I would love to. We have been working so hard to make sure that it doesn't disrupt what you're already learning, that it's not going to take away from what you're already learning.
We have resources that you can just do a little bit each day or a little bit a couple days a week and just make sure you're connecting all of the dots.
It's really what it's about.
What if the conversation about academic Vocabulary was over the dinner table. And what if you said what does it really mean when they're asking me to justify my answer?
And in five seconds you're having this conversation where your student now knows, oh, I'm not worried about that. I know what that means. I know what it's asking me.
Right. If they use the word some instead of answer. I mean, these are tiny little things. And we have grade level academic vocabulary list that are located in the parent Parent Planner.
Speaker A: So we all have this.
Speaker B: You have it, you've had it since August.
It's in there. In fact, that was a recommendation given by a parent last year who said, could we have this earlier?
And so we made sure that it was right there inside of the parent planner.
Speaker C: Uh huh.
Speaker A: Okay. So in the parent Planner there's not just the I can statements, there's also lists of grade appropriate academic language. So you can go and see.
And if you're not even sure what we're talking about when we say academic language, we're just talking about those sort of technical terms like some or divisor or some of those words that come up that they use instead of saying,
Speaker B: well, times it,
the, the numerator or the top number. Right. Like I don't know what you're saying at home, but all it does is it connects the dots and that's what we're hoping for.
We have a lot of great programs available in All Access that are free. Mr. D's was a very popular one.
Speaker A: Okay, so if you aren't familiar with what we're talking about with the Mr. D test prep, go back and listen to the last episode that we released because I got to interview Mr.
D and he's fantastic.
And the test prep class is really accessible and helpful. And it's also free in the All Access. So you can,
you can order that in Vista.
Speaker C: Yep.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: So then we also have, we have
Speaker B: Writers Workshop, which is phenomenal. We're excited because this is a spot where kids are like, oh, I don't know, I don't know if I can write that much or I don't know if I can read a, a source and then cite from that source.
So the Writers Workshop walks them through it. We have two sections, one for primary grades and one for middle school high school age students. So your student will be able to find a teacher who will support them where they are.
We have asynchronous, so it's a bit of a hybrid option. So you can do the lessons at home leading up to the live class. That's provided. That's coming up next month in February.
Speaker A: Okay. And then there's also, if they miss the writer's workshop, there's also the Google Classroom, which is available all the time.
Speaker B: Yes, all the time.
Speaker A: Tell us a little bit more about that.
Speaker B: That just went out again with teachers that sent those out to families,
kind of reiterating all of those options for families. The Google Classroom is pretty awesome. You can pick and choose. It's. It's a buffet, honestly. And it'll walk you through grade level appropriate.
It'll even give you a pacing guide so that you can start now and, and wrap it up by the time we get to testing.
Speaker A: So, families, you have access to the Google Classroom now. And if you've never used a Google Classroom or you're like, I don't know, I don't remember that email, just talk to your hst.
They can help you. They will be thrilled. They should be thrilled to help you get connected with that and to figure out how to use it so often. Even if you just do a little bit of test prep, maybe it's one day a week or maybe it's.
We're gonna just, we're gonna focus for a week on some writing skills, and then next week we'll look at.
And if you even that much can really make a big difference. Some people are much more interested in going all in, and we're gonna really get to know this test super well.
And that's fantastic. If test prep feels a little overwhelming or you're worried about how much it's gonna interrupt what you're already doing with your kiddos, even giving it just a few days can really make a big impact on their confidence and on their ability to approach those questions with an ability to translate what they know into the test language.
Speaker B: Exactly. And I think too,
having discussions about doing things that maybe we don't love doing is really valuable because the way that our parents, the way that our learning coaches approach something, we're going to copy it.
It's like as if you were at a dinner table and, you know, a parent or a mom or a dad said,
hey, this broccoli's disgusting. I'm not eating it.
Do you think your child is going to consider it? Maybe not.
And our impact and our table manners and the way that we approach something, oh, I'm gonna try this. Let's see how we do it. Oh, this needs a little salt.
Maybe it needs a little bit of an adjustment in order to be able to do it. Teaching our kids that Resiliency, that problem solving is really valuable.
It's really valuable to do something that is not necessarily our favorite thing to
Speaker A: do and testing or at least demonstrating what you know, is actually a life skill that we are all going to have to show in different ways at different times. And so,
you know, how you write an email to a friend and how you write an email to a colleague or two different things. And learning to kind of translate the same message, perhaps, but into professional language instead of friend language is important.
It's an. It's a skill that will. We all need. And it can start with translating what you casually know into academically.
Speaker B: Yeah, good point. And, you know, speaking of doing things that we don't necessarily love, I've been thinking about this all week, and I've been thinking about what do I not necessarily love to do?
I'm somebody who enjoys walking and exercising a little bit and getting out and moving around. But what I don't love are pushups.
You know why? Because I can only do, like, four or five maybe.
And so I. I thought about that. Like, what if somebody said to me in April, I need you to do 50 pushups, Stacy?
I would think, there's no way I can do 50 pushups in April.
And then I started thinking about, okay, what if I really did this?
If I can do four today and my goal is 50,
what would I need to do?
I would have to practice doing them. I would have to do it probably,
I don't know, once every couple of days. I would need to do some.
Some. Some pushups. I would need to kind of work on a progression. I probably would start on my knees, to be honest with you,
and I would work my way up to a full pushup.
My daughter can do these amazing pushups where her elbows are right next to her body. I think that is so cool. She didn't learn to do that in a day, Right.
That took a lot of effort.
I would probably train in little.
Little bursts, right? So that I could gain some strength around doing that, some endurance,
and I would probably rest.
Speaker C: Right.
Speaker B: I wouldn't do it all the time, full force every day.
I would focus on proper form, right? I would make sure that I'm doing it the way that develops the muscle to make it meaningful.
I don't know if I could actually get to 50 pushups in April, but I have this idea that I'm gonna try that I'm gonna start working on something that I don't really care to work on.
Well, I know I care to work on it, but I just.
Speaker A: They're really hard. You're not going to enjoy it. I don't know.
Speaker B: Like, maybe I will. Maybe I'll be this, like, push up queen.
But I'm going to tell you something.
After April, I'm probably not even going to bat an eye about a pushup. I'm going to be like, oh, yeah, you know what? I didn't get to 50, but I got to 40.
And I'm really proud. I'll probably tell everyone I made it to 40.
That's what I've been thinking about. What is something that is hard for me that maybe I don't want to do? Because we are asking these families, hey, we need you.
Yeah, we need you. Because we want our school to be healthy and thriving.
We need you. You are it.
Speaker A: Okay, so that leads me to the next thing I was going to say is one of the things I've thought about with this podcast is sometimes I think it's really helpful to say the things we don't often say out loud.
And one of those things is a lot of people have a tendency to think that testing is about the school not trusting the parents or that, well, they just want to have a way to nail me, that I'm not doing enough with my kids or that they're out to.
I don't know. That can be a real adversarial feeling that the school is against the family when it comes to testing.
And it can sometimes feel like the school is this machine, this. This entity.
But really,
I'm sitting across the table from you, Stacy. Who are the head of. Who is the head of assessment?
And it's a person, right? We're talking about people and we're. Is your goal to show that parents don't know what they're doing or that they aren't doing enough?
Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. My goal, thank you for asking. My goal is to keep our school open.
And this is what is needed to keep our school open. We have to show that the way that we're learning, like I said earlier, is working.
It's working.
And then we need to. To show the state this is really about what the state requires us when we receive funding from the state as a public charter school.
This is what's required. These are the steps. So. And also, test scores aren't punitive. There's nothing that I'm going to do. I hope that you'll look at it and be like, oh, we need to work a little bit more infractions, or we need to work a Little bit more in writing.
But don't you want your child to grow up a strong writer, period?
Speaker C: Right?
Speaker B: And that's the hope, honestly, is if we didn't have to do this, wouldn't it be great if we didn't?
But we do.
This is how we stay open. And. And so my goal is to remove any barrier that you identify or your child identifies so that they can access this test. Is it the vocabulary?
Is it their nerves?
Is it their test setting? Like, what is it? Let me help you and I, Tony or what's his name, Jerry Maguire comes into my head of like, let me help you help me help you, help me help you.
And that's what HSTs are here for. We're so proud of them. They're really taking on a lot of things to be able to support the students. So if you as the parent, you as the student have a concern, tell us, I would love to hear your concern so that I can be creative and show you all the items that we have available to remove that barrier for your child.
Right? If we know we have to do it. Okay, let's do the pushups. Let's like do the hard thing.
We will come out stronger people for it and a stronger community. When we have this feeling of like, hey, I'm doing my part,
right?
Speaker A: So we have the CASP test to show the state, hey, we're legit. This is a real way to educate kids. It is fantastic. And we have the showcases in May to show all this stuff that doesn't fit on the test, right?
Like we have all these things that are so fantastic about how we educate our kiddos and they don't fit on the test. But you can come to the showcase and may show us all the other cool stuff.
How they've hatched tadpoles and yes, made
Speaker B: their sourdough bread and their panties and
Speaker A: so many of the super cool things that make our kiddos so well rounded.
And unfortunately, we don't get to show those things on the test. If we don't show how fantastic we are on the test, then we don't get to continue this method with the support of the schools and the state.
Speaker B: Right? And every school is under the same obligation. We're not special.
Speaker A: Right.
Speaker B: Your neighborhood seat based school has the same requirement.
They choose the curriculum. The blessing is that we get to choose how our students are learning. And we want that to continue on forever because we can see how amazing it is for each of these students.
And so all we're doing is we're, we're really making sure everyone knows this is valid. This is a beautiful way to learn. Not only can we play guitar and speak in three languages, but we can also do that test.
We can, we can do that test and we can keep moving with our day.
Speaker A: So, parents, thank you for all the work that you've put into this. Thank you for all the work that you will put into this. And well done.
Speaker B: Yay this year. Can I say this? Our new theme for this year is unleash your genius. I want you to look at the logo very carefully because your is highlighted in yellow and we know how smart our kids are and we want them to level up and and release what is so great about them.
Right. They have strengths and we want to really focus on those strengths. And so hopefully you've seen that cute little commercial that's going around talking about our new theme for this year and that you'll be inspired to kind of be a part of this community and help your student to unleash what is so genius about them.
Speaker A: Thank you so much for being here, Stacey.
Speaker B: My pleasure.
Speaker A: Thanks for all your hard work for us.
Speaker B: Let's go Go team listeners, I hope
Speaker A: you heard how fervently Stacy is rooting for you and your fantastic students.
I was so encouraged as she shared how deeply she wants to help us equip our kids to demonstrate what they already know.
She's not asking us to teach to the test and that was a huge relief to me because I know none of us homeschool with that as our goal.
After I talked to Stacy, I was able to connect with three parents to hear how they helped their students feel more ready for the test with really encouraging results.
Listening to these thoughtful parents reflect on where their kids needed strengthening and then gently find the right tools motivated me to look more closely at my own kids.
They didn't see testing as an obstacle. They saw it as an opportunity to notice where growth was needed and where confidence could be built.
These moms took the opportunity to prepare their kids to study. Step forward with courage.
I can't wait for you to meet Megan, Camille and Andrea. I think you'll be inspired too.
Welcome, Megan, thank you so much for joining me today. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your homeschool background.
Speaker D: Sure. Yeah. My name is Megan misson. I have three kids that I homeschool.
10 year old twin daughters who are in 5th grade and a 6 year old son who is in 1st grade.
And we've been homeschooling since TK. We've been with Sequoia Grove since the beginning. We were here when they were inspire, and now we're with Clarksville. We've followed our HST through the whole journey.
She's been with us the entire time,
and we just don't see ourselves doing anything else. So we're happy to be here and looking forward to homeschooling into the future.
Speaker C: Awesome.
Speaker A: So you guys have a couple of years of CASP experience at this point with fifth graders. So you've done third and fourth grade?
Speaker D: Yep.
Speaker A: Last year you guys used one of the tools that the school offers for test prep, correct?
Speaker D: Yes, we did. We used the Google classroom for the math prep.
My girls are pretty strong writers, and we've been using. Right. Right. Reflections through the school for,
I think, two years now. So I wasn't as concerned about the writing prep as I was math. Math isn't one of our strongest subjects for them at least, and I knew that I wanted them to be as prepared as possible for what they were going to see in the casp.
Speaker A: So did they enjoy doing the Google classroom work or was it kind of a eat your vegetables?
Speaker D: Um, I was kind of worried that it would be an eat your vegetable situation sometimes. That's how math goes for us.
They actually really enjoyed it. We worked through the problems. I think there was like one problem a week that we would work through in sections, and I felt like it was broken down into really digestible chunks,
and they would be like, oh, that's,
that's all we're doing.
Speaker A: Like, oh, I guess it is.
Speaker D: But they, they really, they understood the concepts really easily. And I was really pleased with,
with how easily they were able to grasp the concepts because at least for one of my children,
grasping new math concepts is definitely a struggle for her.
And she was, she was keeping up,
which was a relief.
Speaker A: So do you feel like it helped them enter the test feeling less intimidated?
Speaker D: Definitely, because math is intimidating to them.
And I remember after they took the test, I asked them how it went and they were like, oh, it was easy. And I was like, was it easy?
Speaker A: Or.
Speaker D: But. But then they, then their scores were reflected that, oh, I think that they really did understand what was. What was going on.
Speaker A: So you saw an increase in their scores that year?
Speaker D: Yes, they did. They. They increased on both math and writing from third to fourth grade.
Speaker A: So not just a grade level jump, but a overall better test taking experience.
Speaker D: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker A: They're.
Speaker D: They don't have a lot of testing anxiety. I,
I try to make Testing just part or like a normal part of like our school experience. Like, I don't put any pressure on it. I just tell them like, this is just an assessment.
I don't even think I call it a test. I call it an assessment all the time. Just kind of like see how much you remember or what parts we need to kind of go over again so that you feel more confident.
And I just don't use a lot of like,
I guess, anxious language about test taking. And I don't really talk about myself as a kid feeling really nervous about taking tests. I just really try to keep it as light as possible, but also stress the importance for us to see how much we've learned or to really see where we're at so that we can,
you know, continue to improve.
And so they didn't really have a lot of test taking anxiety going into it, but I could tell just from their, their attitudes that they weren't agonizing over it and that the math,
even though the math was the thing that I was most worried about, I, I felt like they felt confident going into it, especially after we finished all of the Google classroom math assignments.
Cause it does ramp up.
It gives you like work, walks you through it. And then like the last problem, you kind of don't have as much handholding.
And I felt that they could remember what the, what the previous weeks were like and sort of have the confidence to tackle those bigger word problems on their own. Because I feel like our curriculum, while I loved it, didn't really have a lot of word problems in it.
And that was my concern was they're going to go into this test without like a lot of exposure to,
to these word problems that kind of make them break this down into parts.
This problem is asking me to divide and add and do this and like where, how do I read this and understand what step comes first? Because I can separately multiply and add and divide and all that if you tell me to do it.
But if I'm sort of doing this more abstract thinking around a word problem, can I,
can I understand what they're asking for? And I felt like that Google Classroom really helped them to think in that way, whereas their,
their curriculum, while I liked it,
didn't ask that of them that often.
Speaker A: So the test prep wasn't just about like, here's a bunch of problems to practice so much as here's how to navigate.
Speaker D: Right, yeah.
Speaker A: What you're being asked to do.
Speaker D: Okay. Yeah. It wasn't just like a list of, of math problems, like here's what you could see on the test. Here's some examples of problems. It was like,
no, this is like an actual problem that you will.
You will have, and it will require you to break it down into parts and made them revisit all these math concepts that they had learned over the school year, but in a bit more of an abstract way, since they were more like a word problem.
Speaker A: Do you have plans to do more preparation this year?
Speaker D: Yes, I. This year I'm going to use the Mr. D.
My HST has just been. She's been trying to, like, not so subtly get me to use that curriculum all the time. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I. I like what I'm using and you like what's familiar and what's working.
If it isn't broken, don't fix it kind of attitude. But since it was.
It was free through the all access, I was like, fine, I'll. I'll use.
I'll use Mr. D this year and see how it goes. And if they really have success with it and they really like it, like,
my agency insists that they will. So I, I believe her. I will probably use the Mr. D curriculum for math for next year for probably both my kids.
Right now we're using Prodigy, which is another all access,
and they really like that one, too. I think it's. It's really great for.
For little kids. My son is obsessed with it.
So I'm going to be starting Mr. D actually this week.
And because we have like a month,
two months, right? Until the cast.
Speaker A: It's not until April this year, so we have a little longer than we
Speaker D: did two months from now.
Speaker A: There's still plenty of time to get some. Some prep in, so. But do you guys have any little traditions around testing week? I'm sorry, Assessment week.
Speaker D: I just try to keep it as, like,
hey, this was just not a big deal. And I mean, they've. The past to. Or actually, I think the first year we did it, like, at the Rockland Library and there were other kids there and they did it together and then.
And that was fine.
Speaker A: But they're kind of.
Speaker D: My kids are very, like, they're not very social.
So I think that having, like, a lot of kids there was more stressful than actually made it more stressful than it needed to be. And last year we just did it
Speaker A: with our hst and she proctored it at the.
Speaker D: The library, and it was just the two of them. And I think that they.
I mean, since they've known her since they were like four,
they Felt really comfortable doing that. So I don't know. I don't make a big deal out of it. It's also my kids do competitive dance, and so it's always the peak of dance comp season.
So I'm like, we just gotta get this done.
Speaker B: We just gotta survive.
Speaker D: Yeah. This.
This April,
the week of casp. They have a competition that weekend,
so it's gonna be okay. I just gotta get all the candles out and just the Zen and just
Speaker A: relax and just do some, like, meditation
Speaker D: and some deep breathing.
It's gonna be really, really busy for us, and it's gonna be extra hard for them to just focus on the test and not be like, oh, tomorrow I'm performing well.
Speaker A: All the extra test prep could really be helpful because they just have to think less about what it is they're supposed to do for sure.
Speaker D: And as much help as I can get, I will take it. And this year, we probably still won't do the writing.
The writing test prep. They're taking a Iew writing class at level of learning,
and they. I mean, their writing has just gotten so much better this year from that class, and. And I just feel like I don't want to. That I don't want to burn them out.
I feel like we're. They're in a really good spot for writing.
Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for sharing your experience with us, Megan. I appreciate it.
Speaker D: Yeah, of course. I'm happy to help.
Speaker A: Camille, thank you so much for being here today. I'm excited to hear your story. Why don't you tell families a little bit about who you are?
Speaker E: Sure, sure. Thank you for having me.
So my name's Camille Vocer, and I am the director of school support.
I am also a parent of a homeschool child. That's actually how I found our family of schools. I started off as a parent,
and I began homeschooling back in 2013 when my oldest was in preschool,
and he's now in high school and attends a local school. But my youngest is still homeschooling strong. He's in seventh grade, and he plans to continue to homeschool all the way through high school, is his plan.
In fact, he actually says he wants to homeschool through college, too.
We'll see.
Speaker B: We'll see.
Speaker E: And I still have a roster of students, so I consider myself an HST as well.
Speaker A: So you fill lots of roles, so you understand testing from the importance of what our school needs to be able to continue in a healthy way. You also understand as an HST Helping your families walk through it, and then also as a parent, helping your own kiddo, which is really what we're here to talk about today.
Speaker E: Yes.
Speaker A: Despite all these other roles, you're really here as a parent today.
Speaker E: Okay, that sounds good. I can wear that out.
Speaker A: Well,
so we got connected about this topic because you were so excited about your experience with Mr. D test prep.
So I think we'll get to that in a minute. But why don't you go ahead and tell us about your son's experience and what led you to even sort of pursue the Mr.
D thing and then, you know, where that went and why it was so exciting.
Speaker E: Sure, sure, absolutely. So a little bit of a backstory about my son.
He was a late reader,
and let me tell you, it was not for lack of exposure or effort on my part. I was a former first grade teacher. I have taught over a hundred kids how to read.
And yet it was just something was really difficult about helping him become an independent reader.
He did not become a full reader until he was 8 years old. And honestly, the thing that made it click for him was Minecraft.
He just decided one day that he wanted to be able to read the words on the screen of his Minecraft game. And so he was like, okay, fine, I'll start reading.
But because of that history,
he was a late reader. He was even a later writer because writing comes after reading, you know.
So when casp testing started rolling around for him in third grade,
the writing part of it was very challenging. And honestly, I don't know that he wrote anything. I think he probably just typed one
Speaker B: letter and hit enter and was like,
Speaker C: that's it, you know, that's all you get from me.
Speaker E: So, I mean, it was something that we definitely have been intentional about working on over the years. I, you know, was very intentional about getting him on a typing program and making sure that he knew how to type, which I think is really important as my son continued to grow and became proficient in where he needed to be and was what I would consider to be on grade level.
But gosh darn it, that test was still a challenge for him.
And he started to develop what I would consider some. Some testing anxiety.
In fifth grade. I was really intentional about taking practice tests with him, going on to the official CAASPP website and doing some practice tests.
But honestly, that still wasn't really enough to make a difference for him.
And so when sixth grade rolled around and our school was really promoting a bunch of different test prep options,
I learned about Mr. D and conquer the CASP. And I thought, I'm going to try that with him, you know.
So Mr. D offers two versions of his test prep. He has an ELA version,
and he also has a math version.
And just based on the timing of last year, when we started prepping for casp, I didn't really think that we had time to complete both of those,
so I chose the ELA one for him,
and that was just such a fantastic choice. We started it around January,
and I had to pay for it out of my own funds because it was not included in All Access last year.
But we started around January,
and he worked on it every day.
Not for very long, maybe about 10 minutes a day.
And by the time testing came, which was in March of last year,
he was really psyched up and prepared for the test. It just increased his confidence, I would say, like, tenfold.
And he just used those strategies in both the computer adaptive portion of the test and really in the performance task. That's where I saw the biggest difference for him to be able to plan out his essay and prepare and utilize,
you know, facts and details from the.
The source texts that he had read to just be able to write a really thoughtful essay. He did a really great job. He went from a 2 the previous year in English Language Arts all the way up to a 4.
So he made two levels of growth,
and that. That test prep was the difference for him.
Speaker A: So he got to make some exciting progress, not just in the scores of the test, but also in his approach.
Like, he felt more comfortable going in. He felt more confident taking the test.
His anxiety was lessened.
Speaker E: Yes, yes, big time.
Yeah. He had a lot of tools in his toolkit to be able to utilize. He,
you know, took notes on a piece of paper when he was reading through the different source texts, as opposed to taking notes on the digital notepad that the test provides.
I think there's something about writing it down with your hand that just kind of helps it to get into your brain a little bit better.
And then when it came time to actually plan out his essay, he did the whole rough draft on a piece of paper first. And he took the time to edit it like we would normally edit an essay in school, you know, checking his capitalization and punctuation and making sure that his thoughts,
you know, were organized the way that he wanted them to be. And then he typed it all out according to what he had put on his draft.
And that strategy was so successful for him, and just like you said, gave him that confidence that he could do it and he did.
Speaker A: He sounds like he went in with a plan.
Speaker E: He did. Exactly.
Speaker A: Do you feel like his confidence going into that portion of the test bled over into confidence in other portions, even if he hadn't done as much test prep online with it?
I mean, you said he didn't do the math, but do you feel like he made because he wasn't feeling as nervous about the test?
Speaker E: Oh yes. It definitely helped his math scores to improve as well.
The test prep goes into detail about what the test looks like and how to use all of the different tools and different test taking strategies, how to go through the process of elimination and to cross out answers that you know cannot be true and helps you select an answer that is most likely true,
you know, even if you're not a hundred percent confident that you know what the answer is. And so those skills of course are transferable to math as well. So I think that he was able to use that on math too.
Speaker A: And one of the test skills that they need is also just being able to filter out the information that isn't relevant. Right.
So you can kind of, oh,
I don't know how to pronounce that name. But that doesn't matter. I can just call them person B and move on. Or yes. This piece of information is just distracting.
I can kind of put it out of my mind.
Speaker E: Yeah, definitely.
Speaker A: Are you planning to use the Conquer the CASP again this year?
Speaker C: Yeah.
Speaker E: So this year I'm super excited. The school decided to include Conquer the CASP as a part of their all access offerings.
So now it's available for free to any kiddo that needs to take the casp. And so right away at the beginning of the year, I signed him up and got him both the ELA and the math and we decided to do the ELA in the fall this year.
So he's been working on that since the start of the school year and he's done with that now and he's moved on to the math and we decided to do it that way because he needed a little bit more exposure to the seventh grade math concepts before he could do a good job with the Conquer the CAST math test prep.
They were asked, we had tried it like back in September and they were asking him some questions that he just wasn't able to.
Speaker A: He hadn't had a chance to learn yet.
Speaker E: Exactly. That he wasn't able to answer cuz he hadn't been exposed yet.
So we waited until January to start the math portion and he's doing well and he plans to Finish that before testing in April.
Which is another thing that I think is really helpful, that we've moved testing back to April this year. So he's got plenty of time to finish that up before he has to take the test,
and he'll. He'll have had more time to be exposed.
Speaker A: It's another month of learning to. Right, exactly. And so I was also thinking, you said last year you started in January, test was in March. So this year, as families are listening to this, in February, you still have about the same amount of time.
Because testing isn't until April.
Speaker E: That's correct.
Speaker A: To be able to.
I mean, realistically,
even a little bit of prep can make a really big difference.
You know, even if. Especially if you have a third. Third grader who's maybe not taken the test before, helping them know what to expect. And the idea of the Mr.
D conquer the CASP. Going through what the test looks like and what all the different buttons are for and how all of that works could be a really scary thing for a third grader.
Speaker E: Yes.
Speaker A: And some of our families do try to limit the amount of tech that their kiddos are on. And so trying to take this test with a kiddo who might not be as familiar with all the windows and all the buttons and all the tools and all the things that are there could be really helpful to spend a little time on that.
Speaker E: Yeah. And like I said, it probably took us about 10 minutes a day.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: That's really manageable.
Speaker E: Very manageable.
Speaker A: That's actually really helpful to me, because one of the things I have always dreaded about test prep is I don't want it to take away from the other things we're already trying to do.
Speaker E: Right.
Speaker A: And so. But that short you can find 10 minutes.
So tell me about.
I know that all of the administration of our school was at a conference. And who did you run into?
Speaker C: Mr. D.
Speaker D: Yeah.
Speaker E: I was fangirling big time,
Speaker D: so that's fun.
Speaker A: So he was there letting other schools know.
Speaker E: Yes. About his product and his curriculum. Exactly. And so I just went right up to him.
Speaker C: I was like, Mr. Dean, we love you. I took a selfie with him.
Speaker A: Well, thank you for doing that. Cause that actually helped me then get connected to him to be able to have him on the podcast that was last released. That's awesome.
Speaker B: That's awesome.
Speaker A: How did last year's experience of really intentionally preparing for the test change how you'll approach testing going forward?
Or how would you advise one of the families on your roster?
Speaker E: My advice would be to Pick something.
Pick some test prep option that is going to work for your child and your family.
Look at how much time you have left between now and the time of the test.
Look at your child's strengths and weaknesses and find something that will really help them build their confidence and just perform to their best ability.
And I think that the school has done a really good job this year of providing a lot of options.
And, I mean, any of the options that we're offering, I think would be a good choice. Whether it's Mr. D or it's the Google test prep classroom,
or we've got, you know, our writer's workshop, a variety of different things to choose from. And there's other things that you can even just do independently on your own to help prepare for the test.
Speaker A: So parents can also go to the CAASPP website and set up practice tests for their kiddos too, right?
Speaker E: Yes, yes, absolutely. You can just go to caaspp.org CAASPP is spelled C A, A, S P P.
And then once you're on there, there's a practice and training tests button,
and you would just click on that and have your student take a practice test. It's great.
Speaker B: Okay.
Speaker A: And then that way they can have a chance to just see what it looks like, see how it feels, go through the process, and then that something that is unknown is always scarier than something that is known.
So if you feel like your kiddo is a pretty good writer, they're not going to be overwhelmed by the information, but they just need to see how it feels.
You could. That's. You can at least do that part of it. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker E: That's right.
Speaker A: Well, Camille, thank you so much for sharing your story with us and giving us a little glimpse into your family, which is not always easy, and helping us see ways that we can help our kiddos grow and really show us what they already know in a way that is less threatening and a little easier to access.
Speaker E: Thank you, Rebecca. My pleasure.
Speaker A: Next. Today, I am excited to introduce you to Andrea Bloom. I had the pleasure of meeting her through one of our schools preparing your year book clubs and found that she is a font of information.
And so I'm excited to have her join us today to talk about testing with her kiddos because she's had some interesting experience and insight with that. So welcome. Andrea.
Speaker C: Hi. Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
Speaker A: Tell us a little bit about your homeschooling experience.
Speaker C: My kids have been homeschoolers from the beginning. I have an 8, 10, and 12 year old and they've been with Sequoia from the get go.
When I was in graduate school, I was studying experiential education, which is like hands on learning.
And one of my fellow students introduced me to the idea of homeschooling and I was hooked. I was like, when we have kids someday,
which was a good ten years later,
I. I knew that's what I wanted to do.
Speaker A: That's a unique story for getting introduced to homeschooling. I haven't heard that one before.
Tell us a little bit about what motivated you to use the school's test prep materials.
Speaker C: I know that our homeschooling successes don't always show up really well on the state tests. And I think there's a couple of reasons for that. One is the tests are designed for in person learning that students go through.
And then also at home,
at least my family does a lot of our stuff orally. And of course the tests are all written in multiple choice. So my kids are used to answering questions in a certain way and they might not be the same on the tests.
So I started observing my kids doing their staar tests at home.
And we also did a practice CASP test with each of my kids. And I kind of just watched them to see where their struggles were.
And I identified three different problems. One was they weren't used to the vocabulary on the tests. So not as much vocabulary in general, but testing vocabulary words like define.
I'm used to asking my kids, oh, what does that mean? And then them explaining.
But when they see the word define, they kind of get stoppered up on that.
So that was one issue. Another issue is my kids really need stronger writing because a lot of our stuff at home is oral. They needed more practice with essay writing.
And the third thing was they needed more Chromebook skills, especially when they were first taking the test.
My kids don't use a lot of technology.
So even just scrolling or understanding that the CASP had two different pains to scroll up and down and forward and back, they really needed practice with that. So those were the three areas that I thought they really, really could work
Speaker A: on that's really thoughtfully analyzed and,
you know, not just throwing extra stuff at the kids that they don't need, but figuring out like, here's some specific areas that if we work on those,
what they already know will shine through on the test much better.
Speaker D: How?
Speaker A: Which tools did you end up using?
Speaker C: Used a few different tools.
One thing was for the testing vocabulary, I attended one of the parent workshops on the caaspp and they gave out lists of vocabulary that was grade specific that had those words like define,
multiply. I mean my kids are used to saying times or whatever. So they had lists for those.
And so I just printed those out and started using those in our day to day organic interactions. So I just, it wasn't as much that I had the kids sit down and memorize those, but I,
I did see that now they're offering quizlet for kids to practice those words.
So we signed up for that. We haven't had a chance to start that yet.
Speaker A: That's what I did.
Speaker C: For the vocabulary,
the Chromebook skills, we just continued to do our.
We did more of the Casper practice test and they did freckle through the Star Testing Renaissance website. They did freckle stuff on there just to get used to navigating the computer.
And we also did touch type read spell, which is one of the,
one of the enrichment options. We have the all access.
The all access, yeah. And all my kids like doing the touch type read spell. They just do it for, you know, five to 15 minutes a day. And their typing skills have improved and it makes them a lot more confident whenever they need to write sentences or write a paragraph that they're not struggling to find the letters.
So that, that was really helpful. And then the other thing that we were working on was the essay writing skills.
And so I know that there's classes through the school and my middle son was a little resistant to sign up for the whole class.
So we looked and saw what textbook they were using and we got that textbook to do ourselves at home.
So it was iew's Adventures in Writing, I believe.
And so we started doing that and it had keyword outlines and he could do it orally a little bit, he could write a little bit of the keyword, but then he could just give an oral speech.
And he is used to doing things orally. So we started there and it just has blossomed in him to him being able to write paragraphs now. And I'm hoping that we'll see more improvement this year with his,
with his CAF scores. But my kids have shown improvement each time we've done these things. Each year they seem to be moving up.
Speaker A: So listeners,
she's just mentioned quite a few resources that I will put links for in the show notes. One thing that I wanted to mention is that the academic language vocabulary list that she's talking about this year is in your parent planner.
So you already have it,
it's there and you can start looking through that and see for math, language arts and for science, if your kiddos are doing a science test this year, there are great appropriate words for each of those subjects.
Did you also use the Google classroom for test prep? A little bit.
Speaker C: Two of my kids have done the writer's workshop through there and it became pretty obvious that my younger son wasn't quite ready for that,
that the writing was a little bit too hard and it was taking him too long to finish it. And that gave me a clue as to how I could scale things down.
And then for my daughter who was a little bit older, it was the perfect level for her and really brought up her writing significantly and then made her kind of ready for her GHBA classes that she started this year.
I felt like the writer's test prep prepped her for that.
Speaker A: Oh, that's so cool to see it like have multiple applications.
And so you mentioned that you had an 8 year old. Will this be their first year testing this year?
Speaker C: So she doesn't start till next year but she is so jealous that she doesn't get to go do the in person testing.
Speaker A: So your kiddos do in person testing?
Speaker C: My kids do in person testing. They were pretty nervous about it before they started because being homeschooled they're not dropped off a lot of times with strangers.
So that was quite thing that they were nervous about. But we felt that it was really good for them to overcome that discomfort and they love it. Every time I go to anywhere with Sequoia, people come up to me and say, oh, I've seen your kids in testing.
They're the ones that love testing. It's true. My kids really like it. I asked them what they really liked about it and they said the teachers were really kind.
And my kids said that it was fun to go into a classroom setting since they don't usually do that. So they thought that was exciting. And then my older daughter said she likes that.
Me and her review a little bit ahead of time. We, we do old kind of chapter summary math things from years back a little bit so she feels confident going in there.
So she really likes that. And she said there's snacks and it's calm and quiet in there and we're a family of five so we don't have a lot of calm quiet normally.
So she really liked that. And they sometimes give you popcorn so that, that she's just so excited to go. Every, all of them really, really like the testing in person.
The in person testing, the star.
It's hit and miss but they really do like the in person testing. They think it's pretty much the best day of the year. They all look forward to it.
Speaker A: HST is involved in that testing.
Speaker E: Way to go.
Speaker B: Getting it out of the park.
Speaker A: So what are your plans as we're approaching testing this year?
Speaker C: So we're still working on writing every day, practicing writing. And so it's scaled for each of my kids. We just do gratitude writing every day. So my youngest daughter does maybe a sentence or two about what she's grateful for from the last day.
And my son does a few sentences. And then my daughter, who's older, does at least a whole paragraph where she practices having a, you know, a title sentence and a and some supporting sentences.
And so I think that the writing is really big for us.
We, like I said, we always do a little bit of math review from the years before because my kids are kind of advanced in math and they'll forget little things from several years before that they didn't like the mean or the average, you know, what, what is that versus the median or this or that.
So, so there's a little bit of just reviewing that stuff, giving them confidence. And we take a week to do that review stuff right before the test. And then they know that after the test we'll do some type of little celebration for them doing their best.
I very much emphasize that all we're doing in this is showing what stuff we know. And we're not worried about getting any of it wrong.
It's just,
it's just to show where you're at. And it really helps them to be excited about the whole thing, to show what they know.
And then I don't tell them what we're going to do as a celebration because if they're too focused on that,
they will try to hurry through the test.
Speaker A: That's a good point.
So if you were talking to a parent that hadn't really given much thought to test prep before,
what advice would you give them, like where to start or how much to do?
Speaker C: I think that the first thing is just really observing your kids, which we're all experts at, through the homeschooling.
So I would say see where they're at and just try to move the needle in the direction of where they're lacking or where they could most improve.
So like I said, my kids are great with math, so I don't focus on that as much because I know that the CASP test doesn't just expand and expand like the STAR test.
It just tests for their grade level stuff. So I,
I focus on what do they need in that test and I really feel like that practice CASP test online is huge for seeing that.
So having the kids do the practice test, even if they can't do all of it at once because you don't want to overwhelm them, just having them do that and kind of looking over their shoulder and treating it like a really casual thing I think is important.
I like baked cookies while they were doing it at the kitchen table and just was like oh yeah, we're just practicing our, our scrolling skills and, and how this goes.
And then you can kind of see if they're really struggling with the vocabulary like I said, or if they're struggling with the essay writing or showing their work with math.
I know that that's required on part of the casp. So really knowing what's in the test and then seeing where the need help.
Speaker A: So I haven't heard you say through any of this conversation that you're trying to beef up your kids knowledge for the test, but rather that you're trying to help them translate what they already know into a format or a language that the test understands.
Is that a fair assessment?
Speaker C: Absolutely, absolutely.
One One thing that I really like with the STAAR test is those instructional reports that you can get. I know the HSTs don't always send out the instructional reports, but you can ask for them and they will say very specific things like your child is now ready to differentiate the shapes of different letters.
They'll kind of give you an idea of what they can learn next.
So if the test itself isn't causing them a problem, if it's not scrolling or some other thing like that, then you can go back and look and see what's the next thing for them to learn.
I like to use that, the STAR test for those reports all year long to kind of drive what I focus on next or see if I've missed something.
But for the CASP test it I think that mostly you're focusing on them being able to show what they already know and, and to, and to go through it with no stress.
Go through excited about it because test taking anxiety seems to take a lot more away from their scores than, than lack of knowledge.
Speaker A: I think,
I think that's a fabulous quote to end on.
The test taking anxiety takes away a lot more from their scores than lack of knowledge.
Thank you Andrea for talking to us today. I really appreciate it.
Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me. Your, your voice is always calm and reassuring and the content always helps set everybody's mind at ease. So thank you for for doing this.
Speaker A: Thank you Andrea.
Thank you Megan, Camille and Andrea for sharing your stories and your hard won wisdom.
Your openness is such a gift to our community families. As Andrea said so well, Testing anxiety takes away a lot more from their scores than lack of knowledge.
So if you or your kiddo are feeling nervous or unprepared for the CAASPP this year, please don't hesitate to grab one of the tools available to help your students know what to expect when they begin the test.
You can order Mr. D's conquer the CAASPP in Vista. You can find information about the Google Test Prep Classroom and other resources on the bridge under assessments and then caaspp.
And if you need help navigating any of that, your HST is always a great place to start.
Over the next couple of months we have an opportunity not just to prepare for a test, but to build confidence and some life skills that will serve our students far beyond just one test.
Small, simple steps really do make a difference.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Sequoia Breeze Podcast. I've been your host, Rebecca La Savio. I hope it's been a breath of fresh air for your homeschool next month.
I hope you come back for a unique episode all about why animals add so much to our homeschools.