| From the HSLDA E-lert Service: |
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| Date: From: Subject: | 1/14/2008 12:01:11 PM Home School Legal Defense Association Virginia--Bill Introduced to Expand Assessment Options |
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====================================================================== From the HSLDA E-lert Service... ====================================================================== Virginia--Bill Introduced to Expand Assessment Options Dear HSLDA Members and Friends: It's time for Virginia homeschoolers to have more options for year-end assessments! Because of a recent surge in local public school superintendents making unreasonable demands on families, Home School Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel Chris Klicka secured Delegate L. Scott Lingamfelter to file a bill we drafted to create three new annual assessment options. House Bill 1183 will add these options that homeschool parents can choose from in order to satisfy the homeschool statute requirement of submitting the results of an annual assessment to the local school district: 1. A letter from a person licensed to teach in any state, or a person employed as a teacher in a private school in Virginia, or a person with a master's degree or higher in the field of education, stating that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress; 2. A portfolio containing a sample of the child's work each quarter in math and language arts that demonstrates the child is achieving an adequate level of annual educational growth and progress; 3. A report card from a private school in Virginia, college distance learning program, or home education correspondence school. Virginia is currently one of the more limited states for assessment options. Parents only have one clear option. A second option exists, but it is very vague, and superintendents have increasingly rejected assessments under the second option for frivolous reasons. There are many reasons families might not want to use standardized tests. For some children, standardized test results do not accurately reflect their progress. For others, scoring at the 20th percentile could be an excellent score for them individually, but the law currently considers any score below 23rd percentile to be failing. Most states give multiple options for year-end assessments that do not rely on the discretion of officials. States as diverse as West Virginia, Colorado, Maine, Florida, and Washington allow a variety of types of assessments. All of the assessments that would be added under H.B. 1183 are already offered by other states. From a national perspective, adding these options merely puts Virginia more in the mainstream. Having additional options will give families more freedom, and reduce the potential for conflicts with officials. This past year has seen a record number of conflicts over year-end assessments. Nearly all would have been eliminated if Virginia were in the mainstream on assessment options. Our thanks go to Delegate Lingamfelter for sponsoring H.B. 1183. This bill will expand freedom for homeschool families in Virginia. No action is needed at this time. We will contact you when it is necessary to contact your delegate and senator. Sincerely Yours, Scott Woodruff HSLDA Staff Attorney ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -> What do you look like when you get out of bed? It's hard to look our best all the time. HSLDA works to present homeschooling in an engaging, dynamic, and informative light to the public news media. More reasons to join HSLDA... http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?id=1104 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ====================================================================== The HSLDA E-lert Service is a service of: Home School Legal Defense Association P.O. 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