Seal of approval

We’ve received a letter from the local school district’s director of learning and teaching stating that we have completed all requirements of the 2010-2011 home-school application. “Please extend my congratulations to Allegra on her tremendous achievements,” she wrote. “She has shown remarkable effort and I wish her continued success in her future endeavors.” As instructed, we had delivered to the district office June 15 a box containing folders of Allegra’s work. We weren’t even required to schedule an interview. After we retrieve the box, we’ll be finished with the local school district because Allegra has chosen to attend an out-of-district high school. In Massachusetts, students can request to attend a school outside of their own district under the state’s school-choice program. Schools accepting out-of-district students receive tax dollars allocated to educate those students. Allegra chose to attend an out-of-district school because she wants to study Latin, a subject not offered at the local high school.

Assessment: How is my child progressing?

Every homeschool parent wonders if his or her child is “keeping up” with peers in formal school settings. How do you know if your child is learning what society expects of children at a particular grade level? Many of the educational materials mentioned in previous posts are based on national standards and include tests with answer keys. These will provide you with some measure of your child’s progress. However, the only way to know how your child is stacking up against other students in your state is by administering the state’s standardized test. By law, homeschoolers cannot take these tests during regular test administration because the exams are supposed to serve as a measure of a public school’s performance, not the child’s performance. But, let’s face it, if the child fares well on the state’s standardized test, he or she has obviously mastered what needs to be learned for the grade level. In Massachusetts, copies of the previous year’s tests, along with answer keys, are available on the state Department of Education website. The state even provides copies of actual student-written test essays and shows how they were scored.

Allegra's take: Taking the standardized tests put my mind at ease when I was worrying that I wasn’t keeping up with those in public school. Taking the tests provided in books aligned to standards was handy too.