TENNESSEE

Department of Education Attempts to Impose End-Of-Course Tests

On March 18, 1996, the Tennessee Department of Education issued a memorandum advising home schooling parents that certain end-of-course math tests were required for home school students. Written by Carol Bryan, Director of Home Schools, the memorandum specified that students in grade nine who are not associated with a church related school and students in grades nine through twelve who are associated with a church-related school must take math tests in the areas of Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, and Math for Technology I if they are enrolled in these courses. A number of member families have also received a similar memorandum from their local school districts.

Based upon the language of the Tennessee home school statute, the legislative history, and constitutional considerations, it is HSLDA's opinion that home school students do not have to take the tests described in these memoranda.

Home schools in Tennessee are regulated exclusively by the provisions of Section 49-6-3050 of Tennessee Code Annotated. Subparagraph (a)(2)(B) of this statute requires home school students who are also associated with a church-related school be administered in grades nine through 12 "an annual standardized achievement test or the Sanders Model of value-added assessment, whichever is in use by that LEA and is sanctioned by the state board of education." Further relating to such students, subparagraph (a)(2)(C)(ii) requires parents to "adhere to the same program of the Sanders Model of value-added assessment, or other standardized achievement testing in use in the local education agency which the child would otherwise attend." Subparagraph (b)(5)(A) of this statute relating to home school students who are not associated with a church-related school requires that these students be administered "the same state board approved secure standardized test required of public school students in grades two (2), five (5), seven (7) and nine (9) …" Home school students not associated with a church-related school are not required to take the Sanders Model of value-added assessment, because the Sanders Model testing was added to the home school law specifically to address the situation where parents without a baccalaureate degree are teaching their high school level children.

Clearly, the tests contemplated by Section 49-6-3050 for all home school students are standardized achievement tests, not any end-of-course tests as described in the Department of Education memorandum.

Home school leaders in Tennessee familiar with the legislative history of the current home school law agree that the testing contemplated by the Department of Education is contrary to the legislative intent expressed at the enactment of the revised law. When contacted for his comments, Claiborne Thornton, President of the Tennessee Home Education Association, pointed out that the statements made on the floor of the House of Representatives at the time of the legislative debate made it clear the intention was that home school students take standardized achievement tests, not text-specific tests prepared from the Tennessee public school curriculum.

Not only does Tennessee law not require home school students to participate in end-of-course tests, but such text-specific tests are fundamentally unfair, and, in HSLDA's opinion, unconstitutional. Parents of students in home schools are free to choose any curriculum they deem appropriate for their children. To require students to be tested on material in which they have not been instructed is obviously unfair and was so held by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the 1981 case of Debra P. v. Turlington, 644 F.2d 397. In that case, the court ruled that such tests violate the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the United States Constitution.

Options for Home Educators Expanded

On March 13, 1996, Governor Sundquist of Tennessee signed into law House Bill 29 which added the Tennessee Association of Church-Related Schools (TACRS) to the list of organizations which give legal status to church-related schools in Tennessee.

Under the home school law of Tennessee, parents may either elect to operate a home school through notification to the local school district or may become associated with a "church-related school" as that term is defined under Section 49-50-801 of Tennessee Code Annotated. Most home schooling families prefer to operate their home school through association with a church-related school because of the more favorable requirements of this option. However, some private schools have found it difficult or impossible to qualify as a church-related school because of doctrinal differences between the accrediting organizations and the school.