Testing, testing

Homeschool laws vary from state to state, and lucky for me, Colorado is considered pretty reasonable. This could possibly change for the worse, however, with the democrats winning the state in the last election. It's been nice--our current hs law was co-written by Bill Owens, who just ended his second term as our governor.

As a homeschooling parent, I have to notify the school district yearly of my intent to educate my kids at home, including basics such as name, age and location of the child/ren. In general, we are required to teach a specific number of days, and our "program shall include, but need not be limited to, communication skills of reading, writing, and speaking, mathematics, history, civics, literature, science, and regular courses of instruction in the constitution of the United States." We are to maintain private records of attendance and immunization.

During grades three, five, seven, nine and eleven, we are to either have our child tested with a nationally standardized test OR have our child evaluated by a "qualified person." The results are to be submitted to either the school district OR a private school.

I've always gone back and forth on this testing vs. evaluation. I know how my children are doing. I have a bit of that rebel hsing attitude that test scores don't really matter. Even if they do, I have issues with the state getting involved--I'd be more inclined to trust them if they were doing such a bang up job. On the one hand, I understand the reasoning behind their mandate to test; but on the other, I have the urge to resist their authority and their determination of how my kids (and I) are doing. (Really--why should I let them know things are going so well.)

I also like everything to be convenient. When Holly was in third grade, she was attending a part time public school program. They did the testing for free. The only thing I had to do was make sure she showed up on test days. It was an easy "out" for me, so I did it. I bought a "test prep" book specific to that test and she knew exactly what to expect. She'd taken similar tests in the past, it was in her regular part time classroom, with kids and a teacher she knew. I received a copy of the results, and the school even took care of all the other notification stuff so I didn't have to. Piece of cake.

Last year was a different story. We were no longer with the part time school. While I don't want to share any results with the government, I still like the idea of knowing exactly where she tests, and the first test was a great baseline. We signed her up with our hs co-op. For $55 (ka-ching), she took the test over two mornings at the co-op in a facility with which she was familiar, in a group of other fifth graders, some of whom she knew. For an extra $10 (ka-ching), I opted to have her test results held by the private umbrella school that is associated with the co-op. This satisfied my rebellious side--the school district would not know her specific scores. Too bad for me, sometimes rebellion is not cheap.

This year, it's Trevor's turn to be tested. He will also be tested through the co-op. $55. Ka-ching. The umbrella school will hold his results. $10. Ka-ching. Poor guy's a little nervous; he's never done anything like this before. I know he has nothing to worry about. Just like I've done with Holly in the previous years, I bought a test prep book for Trevor to practice. It's definitely to his advantage to at least know what the test will look like and to practice darkening those little circles. $10 for the practice booklet. Ka-ching. (On the plus side, I already have the teacher book from when Holly did this in third grade.)

Trevor began his book this week. It's so very interesting to me to see how differently my kids each learn and how opposite many of their strengths are. It will also throw a different spin on this test, since Trevor will be 10 months younger than Holly was when she tested as a third grader.


I'm glad to have the baseline. I'm thankful to have the option to test or to evaluate. I'm pleased that I don't have to provide the results to the district. It'd be nice if all of this happiness didn't cost me quite so much. But at least I worked it out so the kids test in alternate years, making it a little easier to swallow. Ka-ching.