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Is Home Schooling Legal?—Testing
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Volume 37, Program 9
Airdate: April 25, 2002
Original Airdate: January 13, 2000
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Standardized achievement tests can be useful tools to enable home school parents to evaluate their children’s academic progress. Join Michael Farris, president of Home School Legal Defense Association, as he discusses testing on today’s Home School Heartbeat.
Mike:
The vast majority of home schooling families give their children standardized achievement tests on a regular basis. Only 26 states require academic achievement testing as a condition on the right to home school. Achievement tests are required annually in Iowa, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, with limited exceptions. Testing is required approximately every 3 years in Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, New Mexico, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Tennessee. New York requires testing every other year from 4th through 8th grade and then every year for high schoolers. Evaluation by a certified teacher can be substituted for testing in Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, Vermont, and West Virginia. In local school authorities have control of testing in Delaware and Rhode Island.
We all learned that President Clinton’s national testing program would in fact have the effect of imposing a national curriculum. Senator John Ashcroft and Congressman Bill Goodling, eloquently proved that when government dictates the test it dictates curriculum. Testing is a great idea and every grandparent should ask to see his or her grandchildren’s test results. Family accountability works far better than government mandates any day.
This is Michael Farris.
Home School Heartbeat, with Mike Farris, is a production of the Home School Legal Defense Association and is brought to you by the Home School channel at Crosswalk.com. Check out the Home School channel today at Crosswalk.com. That’s www.crosswalk.com.
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