What are we Testing?

"Now that's a good cup of Joe."

Denver completed his annual testing today.  I had never seen him work so hard and so long.  He wanted to be done with homeschool for the summer; and this test was the last hurdle.  He clawed his way to the finish line, closed his book, threw down his pencil, and began dancing and singing, "Everything is awesome!  Everything is cool when you're done with your testing!"

Like his brothers, Denver took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS), renown nationally for its thoroughness. After assisting Denver in his testing, however, I have to say that I'm no longer confident in its assessment.

One of many funny examples:

There were three pictures: a tent in the rain, a tent on a sunny day, and a tent in the dark.  Because the pictures were just little black and white sketches, it was a little difficult to ascertain what they were at first.
 The question:

Spencer and Denver especially enjoyed seeing
  local police dog Nina demonstrate her skills
with her handler, Lieutenant Cripps.

Under which circumstance is it most difficult to start a fire?
Denver's answer, which he spoke aloud as he reasoned: "Well, it would be pretty easy on a sunny day unless it's windy and you really can't tell.  It would be hard to start a fire in the rain.  But it would be impossible to start a fire on the moon because there is no atmosphere and no oxygen."  Denver began filling in the circle under the picture of the tent at night.  I could see why he thought it was the moon-- the ground was white and the background was black with stars.  It did look like a scene on the moon.  And didn't it show a greater knowledge of science to answer the question the way he did?  Still, he got that one wrong.

I learned more about Denver sitting beside him during his testing week than I have learned in a long time.  He is intelligent, thoughtful, and quite knowledgeable.  He is quick to learn new things-- like when I had to explain what alphabetical order meant.  He answered every question correctly even though it was a brand new idea to him.  His reasoning, although sometimes leading to a wrong answer, is quite logical.

So now he gets a little break from his "brutal" homeschool schedule-- even more time now for minecraft and Legos Lord of the Rings!