ISAT Frenzy

It’s ISAT time in Chicago Public Schools (Illinois Standardized Achievement Test for those of you who don’t have school-aged kids). Ethan in only in second grade and ISAT testing starts in third grade. But because his class is doing the third-grade curriculum, they’re going through the whole process and taking “Junior” ISATs. And Ethan hasn’t been this excited in ages.

They had no school on Monday (Pulaski Day here in Chicago), but on Tuesday — which is Ethan’s long day with Spanish after school — he came out of school beaming and skipping. He talked nonstop about the ISATs all the way to bedtime, and them again the next morning. He told us about their ISAT study center, about the new schedule, about what was on the Writing ISAT (which he took on Tuesday). 

When I asked him why the ISATs made him so happy, he told me, “Well, they’re kind of hard. And I like that they’re challenging.” We also agreed that they might make him feel a little like a bigger kid, getting to be in on the action a year early. Let’s just hope this excitement continues next year when he has to start taking them for real.