Un/Homeschooling

Lesson 6: Record Keeping

Preparing for Testing and Evaluations

Standardized testing, portfolio assessments, progress reports, or performance assessments may be legally required of homeschoolers in your area. Check with a local homeschool group or with your local educational department or school district for specific requirements. You may find a summary of your state’s requirements at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association website, http://www.hslda.org

If standardized testing is mandatory in your area, ask for a copy of a previous edition of the test so that you and your child can go over and practice it. If you feel that the test is biased against your educational philosophy, you may be able to negotiate a more appropriate test.

“In states where periodic standardized tests are mandated, unschooled children tend to do, on average, as well as or better than conventionally schooled students, without any more special preparation than a quick review of filling in answer-sheet bubbles with No. 2 pencils.” - Mary Griffith, author of The Unschooling Handbook.

Testing may be required annually or less often. Many states require testing only near the end of specific school years such as 3,5,8, and 10. School districts often supply, administer, and pay for testing, however, parents may have the option to hire an independent tester.

In states where testing is required, homeschool students typically pass at or above the 85th percentile. Children who don’t pass the test are commonly put on probation for a time after which they must show progress or potentially lose the privilege to homeschool.

Portfolio assessments are done by an educational authority on a selection of samples of a child’s work and descriptions of learning activities that showcase the child’s learning achievements. A portfolio might contain a journal recording activities and progress, a list of resources used for learning, samples of your child’s work, photos of activities and projects, brochures from places visited, a list of books your child has read, a list of learning interests, etc.

Progress reports are written narratives of a child’s learning over a specified period of time such as a quarter, semester, or year. Keeping a journal will help in creating this type of report.

Performance assessments are done on an activity or project that the child does to show mastery of a subject. For example, your child could perform in a play or build a science project to show mastery of the subject areas into which those activities fit. Performance assessments can also take the form of interviews and assessment of written reports from people, other than you, who work with your child, and of videotapes, audio tapes, and newspaper clippings that show your child’s mastery of a subject.

• Test Prep Central, Amazon.com, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/bro...
• Standardized Test Preparation, http://www.kidtest.com/standardtestprep.... Purchase Kidtest Benchmarked Sequenced Tests to prepare for standardized tests.
• The Homeschooler’s Guide to Portfolios and Transcripts, by Loretta Heuer.
• ’Creating, Maintaining and Presenting a Homeschool Portfolio,’ http://www.lessontutor.com/sc1.html

  1  2  3  4  5  6