Apparently, it’s shocking that we don’t do any testing in our homeschool.
Going against the norm is uncomfortable for lots of people. Homeschool parents seem to feel like they must recreate a school environment at home.
We don’t do testing in our homeschool.
Whoever said there’s no such thing as a stupid question never looked carefully at a standardized test. ~Alfie Kohn
Our culture is permeated with performance.
Outcomes, grades, products, success are more important than the process, than learning. When we focus on outcomes, the motivation is extrinsic and meaningless. We cram for the assignment and then purge the information to move on to the next. There’s no learning involved except in the conditioned behavior, like a rat pushing a button for food.
Let’s begin with a few definitions:
What are Assessments?
Assessment focuses on learning, teaching, and outcomes. It provides information for improving learning and teaching. Assessment is an interactive process between student and teacher that informs the teacher how well the student is learning what they are teaching. The information is used to make changes in the learning environment, and is shared with students to assist them in improving their learning and study habits. This information is learner-centered, course based, frequently anonymous, and not graded.
What are Evaluations?
Evaluation focuses on grades and may reflect components other than course content and mastery level. These could include discussion, cooperation, attendance, and verbal ability.
Tests, exams, quizzes, assessments, and evaluations are often used interchangeably among teachers and parents.
In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson. ~Tom Bodett
Some arguments I’ve heard for testing:
How do I know if the kids are learning?
I have FOUR children. I think I know if they’re learning or not. I don’t have 150 students. Testing is for schools. We’re always learning and the kids are great at self-evaluation. Life is learning. I allow them great freedom to explore their interests.
How do the kids know how to take tests?
Trust me. My kids know what tests are and can complete true/false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer, and essay questions on a variety of subjects. But why would I require such low level evaluation?
How do I report to authorities that require test results?
Sure, it’s probably easier to subject the kids to standardized tests to report to state authorities than complete a portfolio or evaluation form. But is it easiest for the kids or the parent?
Only 8 states require testing with no other option: GA, MN, NC, ND, OR, SC, SD, TN. The standard and penalty are arbitrary, undefined, remediation, “family should remedy,” or enrolling in an umbrella school. AR, MN, NC are the only states which require annual testing without alternatives.
I had my eldest daughter tested in Hawaii in 3rd grade. We weren’t stressed about it. It gave us a baseline, but nothing we didn’t already know. The other states where we’ve lived, TX and UT, didn’t require any reporting.
We’re not interested in comparing our kids to anyone, so testing isn’t important to us.
It’s not difficult to complete portfolio or evaluation requirements. Or just enroll under an umbrella school or homeschool organization if that’s an option.
How are the kids graded?
My kids are not graded.
I repeat: We don’t do grades.
We’re constantly learning. Grades ruin the process. Grades don’t mean anything. They have freedom to learn. They have freedom to take risks, to explore, to fail, to succeed, to be challenged. They are not limited to a rubric. There’s no pressure.
Grades are extrinsic motivation and we prefer intrinsic motivation.
How do the kids know how to study?
I prefer that my kids learn than cram for some test, but they have great skills to help with studying if and when they need it. They’re active readers and writers and remember lots of information and make great connections. I occasionally offer minilessons to teach a skill I think is interesting.
How do I write high school transcripts?
Transcripts are pretty subjective. I list courses completed to mastery. Based on effort, there are a range of A’s and B’s on the transcript.
My eldest audited physics. Civil Air Patrol didn’t issue grades, but she excelled at it.
I’m hoping for colleges to look at a portfolio and not put such an emphasis on grades.
No one has ever asked me for my transcript or GPA or grades since my grad school enrollment.
How do the kids prep for the SAT/ACT?
Strong vocabulary and math skills are key. We read lots and discuss for comprehension, focus on math skills all along, then learn some testing tricks. My teen’s score on the PSAT was great with no prep at all, so we’re hoping to boost that score by a couple hundred points with some practice on Kahn Academy and a vocabulary book.
Thanks to the nation’s testing mania (which I like to call ‘No Child Left Untested’ rather than ‘No Child Left Behind’), children are being barraged with a nonstop volley of standardized tests. From kindergarten to graduate school, students are subjected to an unprecedented number of high-stakes tests. ~Laurie E. Rozakis, I Before E, Except After C: Spelling for the Alphabetically Challenged
How we assess in our homeschool:
My kids are great learners. They don’t need me.
I’m not a teacher. I’m not a tutor.
I’m a guide. I’m a counselor.
Discussion
We constantly discuss what we’re learning and reading and exploring. Narration is a great tool that can be really fun with all ages.
Language is important to express our ideas, preferences, interests.
I love to hear what my kids have to say about art, music, literature, history. I love to see them make connections on their own. I love to see that lightbulb moment.
Notebooking
The kids love to write and draw about their experiences. The open-ended idea of notebooking allows for great creativity and individuality instead of a cookie-cutter worksheet with low level thought processes.
I’m not worried about benchmarks, curricula, What My Child Needs to Know in Nth Grade, grades, tests, or knowledge. We don’t participate in co-ops.
Writing
I don’t discourage essay writing, but I don’t force it. I don’t even really teach it until high school.
I think younger kids need to learn so much more than writing that we don’t focus on it at all. Kids are natural storytellers. We discuss what we read and make connections, synthesizing knowledge…and this paves the way almost effortlessly into the formulaic essays that college professors like.
I’m more concerned that my kids love learning and exploring and grow up to be free thinkers.
Educational success should be measured by how strong your desire is to keep learning. ~ Alfie Kohn
Learning is a lifelong process.
I’ve learned more outside of school, after high school and university, then I ever did inside a classroom.
Kids will learn despite school.
Sources:
https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
https://arc.duke.edu/documents/The%20difference%20between%20assessment%20and%20evaluation.pdf
http://a2zhomeschooling.com/main_articles/comparing_testing_requirements/
We don’t do grades or exams either at Insanitek (homeschool co-op/research and development firm/science apprenticeship). Well, not like you’d think.
We do “assessments” with critique and feedback, debating, and constant learning. It’s more of an organic process. My favourite way to push them further is, “That’s interesting. Please tell me more.” My favourite question to hear from the students is, “I’m not sure I get what you’re saying. Could you please explain?”
Instead, we do hands on projects and they teach me for “evaluation” and “practice for the real world”. You know, real world tasks one would have in business and life. So far it has helped all our students that my company has trained be successful without the stress. It has helped their writing, presentation and speaking, creativity thinking, and metacognition skills to grow while they constantly take their projects one step further.
I love the idea of the Civil Air Patrol. I just heard about them a few weeks ago since they are in the area. Can you or your kids tell me what kind of things they learnt there?
I lay it all out here: https://www.jenniferalambert.com/civil-air-patrol/
I live in NY state, finger lakes, and homeschool. Our district is very laid back, never hear from the Super about what we’re doing. My daughter is not easy to teach, and is defiant most days. But, we are using PennFoster for highschool. Is an assessment for each grade all I need? Up to this point we’ve tested every other year, and assessments the other. I issued the standardized Calif. Achievement test for 8th grade and never heard a word from the Super. Any thoughts?
Debb
If you’re using PennFoster for high school, that’s VERY different than anything I’m familiar with. We don’t use any programs. It looks like they have lots of info laid out and they might be better at answering any questions you have about their high school requirements.
According to NY state homeschool law, you are required to “file an annual assessment with the last quarterly report. The assessment can either be a normreferenced
achievement test, or a written narrative evaluation.”
I’ve never heard of supers contacting homeschoolers unless there are problems with filing letters of intent or assessments. I think silence is better!
Testing is required every other year starting in 4th grade in NYS. Quarterly reports and yearly evals must be done as well.
There is an alternative to annual testing in NY:
(2) Alternative evaluation methods. An alternative form of evaluation shall be permitted to be chosen by the parent only as follows:
(i) for grades one through three a written narrative prepared by a person specified in subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph;
(ii) for grades four through eight a written narrative prepared by a person specified in subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph. This alternative form of evaluation may be used no more often than every other school year for these grades;
(iii) for the purposes of this paragraph, the person who prepares the written narrative shall be a New York State certified teacher, a home instruction peer group review panel, or other person, who has interviewed the child and reviewed a portfolio of the child’s work.
No, those are written narratives by the patents for the end of the year, instead of having a certified teacher come in and evaluate the child. You still MUST test your children every other year starting in 4th grade.
“An annual assessment is required every year. In grades 1–3, you can have your student take a standardized test or you can choose to submit a written narrative evaluation for your student. In grades 4–8, standardized testing is required at least every other year, with the written narrative evaluation available as an option in the years you do not use a standardized testing option. So, for example, you could use a written narrative evaluation in grade 4, but would need to use a standardized test in grade 5, and so on. Standardized testing is required every year in high school.
Standardized tests can be administered at the local public school or a registered nonpublic school. A test can also be administered in your home, or at any other reasonable location, by a New York–certified teacher or by another qualified person (including the student’s parent) with the consent of the superintendent. You can obtain consent by simply notifying the superintendent in your third quarterly report what test you will be using and who will be administering it.
To demonstrate satisfactory progress, your student’s composite score must be above the 33rd percentile, or the score must reflect one academic year of growth compared to a test administered the prior school year.
You may choose one of the following tests: Iowa Test of Basic Skills, the California Achievement Test, the Stanford Achievement Test, the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, the Metropolitan Achievement Test, a State Education Department Test, or another test approved by the State Education Department, such as the Personalized Achievement Summary System (PASS) test.
Written narrative evaluations may be conducted by a certified teacher, a home instruction peer group review panel, or other person with the consent of the local superintendent. Just as with the standardized test, you can obtain implied consent by notifying the superintendent in your third quarterly report that you will be submitting a written narrative evaluation and by whom it will be prepared.”
We don’t do tests in our homeschool either. In Missouri we don’t have to report our grades, so we just work on the questions until they are all correct and they understand why they are correct or wrong, then we move on! Thanks for linking up at the Homeschool Nook this week!
Nor do we! :)
Thank you for sharing your excellent posts with us on the Art of Home-Making Mondays at Strangers & Pilgrims on Earth!
Great idea!
This is so great!!! We don’t do testing with our kids either. I just never see the point. In our experience it has just caused a lot of anxiety for kids. And for what purpose? If I want to know that my kids have learned what we’ve been studying I talk to them. It’s a lot easier and simpler!!
Thank you for sharing this. I am homeschooling my last child and tested my older ones as a homeschool study done by Brian D. Ray.
Thanks for your insights on this! We do some tests but not many, and when we do, rather than focus on the grade, we simply go back and focus on correcting any mistakes and learning to master the concepts. As my oldest nears high school, keeping a portfolio and transcript has been on my mind more and more lately so I appreciate knowing how others approach it!
We’ve looked at testing as a way of preparing our kids for the inevitable SAT’s and the testing experience in college. They certainly aren’t the only means for assessing student progress, but really just one tool, and one more tiny step in becoming a mature learner.
AR no longer requires testing (I live and home school there). I believe they stopped because the home schooled children were outscoring the public school children by such a wide margin that they did not want parents and other officials to see that and start asking questions.
Yay! I updated the post. Thanks!
New York State requires testing. We have to send in quarterly assessments and yearly evals, too.
There is an alternative to annual testing in NY:
(2) Alternative evaluation methods. An alternative form of evaluation shall be permitted to be chosen by the parent only as follows:
(i) for grades one through three a written narrative prepared by a person specified in subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph;
(ii) for grades four through eight a written narrative prepared by a person specified in subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph. This alternative form of evaluation may be used no more often than every other school year for these grades;
(iii) for the purposes of this paragraph, the person who prepares the written narrative shall be a New York State certified teacher, a home instruction peer group review panel, or other person, who has interviewed the child and reviewed a portfolio of the child’s work.
I completely agree about having learned more post graduation then pre! It feeds the fact I try to teach my kids that learning is a lifestyle, not in a classroom. I like how you broke down the various aspects of tests/evaluations etc. I have had homeschool friends who take their kids to the standardized tests and I really don’t get it because our state doesn’t require it. I don’t see what purpose it serves. Even using it as a personal benchmark… why? It all comes in its own time and they always seem to hit graduation with everything they need most to know as they launch into life!
I didn’t test for the longest time. I have an ADHD daughter and a Dyslexic son and testing just didn’t work for them. The youngest of my 4, doesn’t have her siblings’ challenges and actually begged me for grades and tests! So I started issuing them for her.
My ADHD daughter actually did great when she finally had to do tests. Like you pointed out, they just figure that out naturally. I did, however, have to assemble grade transcripts for her when she started college, so just a heads up on that. :-)
Yes, we’re working on a transcript now for our eldest.
Thanks for sharing your post at Together on Tuesdays. I really like your points, and agree with you that testing should be unnecessary. Now, that I’m retired from homeschooling, I look back with a different opinion. After one child received his masters, one is in OT grad school and one is a junior in college, I think testing is good for them. The SAT’s got them into college (including scholarships) and they face years of timed tests, standardized tests, GREs and more. The more tests they take, the easier it is and the better they score.
Of course, not everyone will go to college. But, we didn’t know which child would actually need college. This is why we tested every year. I hope everyone finds what they need in homeschool. We loved it :)
Thank you for sharing with us here at Tell me a Story blog party site. Your views are interesting although I would not agree with everything. Some testing helps the person to see where they need to review, learn more and keep up. Tests can also stress the person, but when it is in a home environment, they should manage well. Life in general has many tests so they need to get used to some testing and trials.
We don’t have that negative idea towards testing and trials.
http://happinessishereblog.com/2016/02/life-isnt-meant-to-be-easy/
Love this, Jennifer! Thanks for sharing your family’s experiences and thoughts on the widely disputed subject of testing…I was encouraged!
Very interesting that you don’t do grades or testing even in high school.
I’m planning a very laid back “unschooling” way of teaching for the first few years at least with my boys. They are both, busy and on the guy little guys and I feel like they will learn better if it’s not forced.
However, from a homeschooled perspective I will say this much. If it weren’t for grades and scores, I don’t think I would’ve tried near as hard as I did in in highschool. My younger by 18months brother and I did several courses together because he was really smart and I had to work hard just to keep up with him. Without the grading, I probably wouldn’t have tried.
That being said, my personality made the grades a very good thing for me, it may not have been such a good thing for my brother, were he the older one who had to work hard to keep up with the younger.
Always learning new perspectives, that’s for sure!
Thanks for sharing at living proverbs 31!