Homeschooling Tips - What Happen Next?
When it comes to the homeschooling of your children, there are quite a few factors that play into not just what you will do about it, but also how you will make sure that you are approved to do it. Like everything else, this is a process. Many people have questions that they need to answer about homeschooling. As the parent/teacher of your child, you must do the following to get started with homeschooling:
- Develop your homeschooling curriculum that is both approved by the school board or state, as well as meeting your ability to teach.
- Schedule a meeting with the school board or state education officials so that they can offer you any help with tutors etc. that are approved. You will also be presenting your proposal at this meeting.
- Get information about and register for evaluations with your school board or state to ensure that your child is meeting with the approved standards in your area.
- Get yourself certified to teach your child
- Create a homeschooling proposal for what you are planning to teach your child and how you plan to go about it.
The court recognized that certain factors should be considered by the superintendent or school committee when it comes to deciding whether or not to approve any homeschool proposal that they receive. One of these factors is a form of periodic evaluation of the children that is designed to ensure educational progress and the attainment of minimum standards that are required by the state.
The court says clearly that school officials and parents should and must agree on a method of evaluation that may include one of the following approaches: standardized testing, periodic progress report, or dated work samples. Home visits may not be necessary as a condition of this approval.
Dated work samples mean just what they sound like in that they are a few samples of work with dates on them. You do not have to compile an extensive portfolio in order to submit it to the school although you might like to keep these kinds of records for your own use.
Progress reports can also serve as your plan for the coming year if you include information about how current learning will be extended into the next year, and what new areas will be added. While the law does not specify that a homeschooling plan needs to be submitted annually, many towns have come to expect them.
If you live in a town that tells you that your approval is only valid for only one year, you might also want to add any important information such as how long the homeschool year will be, how qualified the parents are, as well as the fact that you plan to submit one such report a year. I will provide a sample report in a later section.
It is important for you to include in your education plan what form of evaluation you are planning to use. That way if the school later asks you for a form of evaluation that you'd prefer not to use, you can refer them to your approved education plan in which you already said that you would submit your preferred evaluation. It doesn’t matter if you choose to submit test scores, a progress report, or work samples.
Adding a line in your annual report such as, an annual progress report/dated work sample/standardized test results will be submitted upon request; is a good idea if you aren't sure whether or not they'll ask you for anything. Of course if they don't ask, you don't need to submit anything.
If you know for a fact that your town consistently requires people to report, then it's somewhat pointless to state the terms “at your request” since you know they'll ask and it just creates more work for them to have to. Some of the information from the most recent homeschool policies will vary by state, and what form and frequency of assessment that homeschoolers provide is also very interesting and worth a quick look. Some of this information is like the following:
The court says clearly that school officials and parents should and must agree on a method of evaluation that may include one of the following approaches: standardized testing, periodic progress report, or dated work samples. Home visits may not be necessary as a condition of this approval.
Dated work samples mean just what they sound like in that they are a few samples of work with dates on them. You do not have to compile an extensive portfolio in order to submit it to the school although you might like to keep these kinds of records for your own use.
Progress reports can also serve as your plan for the coming year if you include information about how current learning will be extended into the next year, and what new areas will be added. While the law does not specify that a homeschooling plan needs to be submitted annually, many towns have come to expect them.
If you live in a town that tells you that your approval is only valid for only one year, you might also want to add any important information such as how long the homeschool year will be, how qualified the parents are, as well as the fact that you plan to submit one such report a year. I will provide a sample report in a later section.
It is important for you to include in your education plan what form of evaluation you are planning to use. That way if the school later asks you for a form of evaluation that you'd prefer not to use, you can refer them to your approved education plan in which you already said that you would submit your preferred evaluation. It doesn’t matter if you choose to submit test scores, a progress report, or work samples.
Adding a line in your annual report such as, an annual progress report/dated work sample/standardized test results will be submitted upon request; is a good idea if you aren't sure whether or not they'll ask you for anything. Of course if they don't ask, you don't need to submit anything.
If you know for a fact that your town consistently requires people to report, then it's somewhat pointless to state the terms “at your request” since you know they'll ask and it just creates more work for them to have to. Some of the information from the most recent homeschool policies will vary by state, and what form and frequency of assessment that homeschoolers provide is also very interesting and worth a quick look. Some of this information is like the following:
- About half of the respondents actually write a progress report.
- 21% of the respondents who did submit work samples or a portfolio; several of them indicated that the schools expected them to also submit work samples.
- Fourteen percent of respondents chose to test instead. Tests used include the California Achievement Test (CAT), the Personalized Achievement Summary System Test (PASS), the Wide Range Assessment test (WRAT), the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS), the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and the Stanford Test.
- Thirteen percent of the people didn’t submit any evaluation at all.
- Ten percent of the people indicated their evaluation method changes often.
- Four percent of the people indicated that they use of a form of evaluation other than testing, progress reports, or work samples.
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