A Simple Plan for Homeschool Assessment by Grade Level
Homeschool assessment and Scantron tests are NOT one and the same. Let me teach you simple and effective ways to document growth without the tears!
My first experience with homeschooling was not at all what most people would expect. I was a classroom teacher in the local public schools, and my friends had reached out for help. The state of Florida required them to have an annual evaluation of their homeschool student done by a certified teacher. Although I knew very little about it and had absolutely ZERO intention of homeschooling my children, I was more than willing to help them with homeschool assessment.
Looking back, I find it fun to see how God used those early years, even before I became a parent, to mold my views of homeschooling.
As I browsed through the many homeschooling resources and talked with dozens of sweet children, the tiny seed of homeschooling was planted in my heart.
A few years later, I became pregnant with my own child and left the classroom to stay home with her—or so I thought. Barely a week after the baby was born, my sister called me with the news that my nephew was going to be retained again. Frustrated over a system that doesn’t take little boys’ needs into account and binds them with an arsenal of needless paperwork, I volunteered to homeschool my nephew. Immediately.
The rest is homeschool history.
It didn’t take long for me to grow to love the flexibility of homeschooling and the accuracy with which I was able to meet the needs of my nephew. I loved that he could be an 8-year-old boy, dancing or jumping while doing math if he needed to. I loved that we could move slowly with reading and still accomplish our goals without the constraints of the needs of 22 other students in the classroom.
It only took a few weeks before I saw the beauty of homeschooling and found myself making plans to give my own kids these same advantages. Homeschooling removed the many frustrations I had felt over little boys (and sometimes girls) not yet ready to sit still for 6 hours a day. It removed the need to retain a child in the early years simply because they weren’t keeping the same pace as the rest of the class.
However, after having evaluated all of my friends’ kids, I also saw one huge problem: homeschool assessment. Most parents didn’t even know where to begin with assessing and documenting their children’s progress.
I have found three common responses to this dilemma. Some parents will give up on homeschooling out of fear they are failing their child. Some will simply test their child to death in a desperate attempt to prove they are somehow doing a good job. And finally, many who don’t fall into one of these extremes find themselves constantly doubting and worrying that they are messing up their child.
Can you relate? The purpose of this post is to help homeschool families feel comfortable documenting progress without the extremes and without feelings of failure.
The Right Perspective on Homeschool Assessment and Documentation
The most important thing to grasp is the right perspective on assessment. The purpose of assessing your students is to SHOW GROWTH. It’s not to record an arbitrary score. Sometimes we miss this because of the traditional view of testing we all grew up being brainwashed with. We are looking for an “A.” But the truth is that the letter A is arbitrary. What we really need to know is:
- Does our student understand the material?
- Has our student learned something new?
- Is our student progressing or just maintaining?
- Is there a problem that needs to be addressed?
- Is our student being adequately challenged?
- Is our student applying the knowledge he or she has learned?
Can you see how the letter A fails to help us answer all of the important questions? If we focus on letter grades and test scores for our kids, we are really saying, “I’d like for you to keep up with the other kids.”
Instead, we should be saying, “I want you to GROW! I want you to be challenged where you are, apply what you know, and progress in the process.” That’s what real education looks like.
Now, don’t worry, I see the white elephant in the room, and I know that colleges dictate certain things. But I have to tell you, letter grades and testing in kindergarten are not part of them. Colleges are looking for students who excel in high school. How you get them to that point isn’t their concern. This is good because it gives us homeschoolers a HUGE advantage.
We have the privilege of assessing our kids and documenting their growth in meaningful ways that actually impact their academic excellence in a far more profound way than we typically see in the school system.
A Simple Plan for Homeschool Assessment
There’s good news. You DON’T have to sit your kindergartner down with a standardized test, believing it’s the only way to truly show her knowledge (even though deep down you know what she knows). In fact, it’s quite silly to do this.
Standardized tests show very little and are rather inaccurate. Now, don’t get me wrong, they have their place. You just have to KEEP them in their place! My goal here is to help you see options for more appropriate assessment methods for each age level.
Preschool to 1st Grade Homeschool Assessment
- Checklists
- Rubrics
- Anecdotal records
The biggest mistake people make at this age is rushing, expecting, and comparing. STOP that right now. These years show the biggest growth in your kiddos, and it’s NOT the same with each child. I strongly recommend not starting formal school until at least 1st grade. Before that time, play a lot, read a lot, and talk about literally everything.
Manufactured worksheets can NEVER replace that kind of learning, which is why so many schools are calling to start kids earlier and earlier. Without parents investing time talking to their kids and playing with them, kids cannot learn the basics as quickly.
During this time, be super patient. It’s great to note your child’s progress, but remember the foundation for academic learning is social, emotional, physical, and even spiritual. Look for ways your child is progressing in areas like fine motor skills (i.e., using scissors). Look for ways they are progressing in playtime interactions with others, negotiating, and demonstrating a willingness to share. These are even more important than their knowledge of the alphabet.
I DO NOT recommend any kind of testing at this age. One way to document progress is to keep anecdotal records. That literally means you write notes telling about how your child is progressing in various areas.
While these can be very helpful, I prefer checklists as a primary measure of progress. We have one for life skills, literacy skills (reading), and math skills. In K-5 and 1st grade, we use running records to show progress in reading and comprehension. (That’s just a fancy term for tracking the accuracy of your child’s reading.)
You can find checklists all over the Internet, but I know how frustrating that process can be. To help, we’ve created a complete assessment pack for the early years covering life skills (physical, emotional, and spiritual), literacy skills, and math skills. Everything you need up through 1st grade is included in our Primary Student Homeschool Planner. It has a comprehensive skills assessment included in the planner.
2nd Grade to 6th Grade Homeschool Assessment
- Open-book unit tests
- Introduce the grading scale
- Portfolio
The upper elementary years are when to start introducing your child to traditional assessment methods. Just remember to do it lightheartedly. During these years, I begin assigning things like chapter or unit tests, but they are often done open-book.
I also begin assigning some sort of “mark” to their work. In 2nd through 4th grade, I typically use the ESN scale. That is: Excellent, Satisfactory, or Needs Improvement. Then we move up to letter grades since that is a standard measurement.
Grades are important because we want to show our children that their work quality matters. I assign these grades based on accuracy and neatness. When I was a classroom teacher, I would always remind the kids, “If I can’t read it, I can’t mark it right!”
We also keep a portfolio during these grades. It’s important to keep work so you can show growth. This post on How to Create a Homeschool Portfolio or Notebook will show you step-by-step how we set up our portfolios and what we keep in them.
Many years ago, I created a Student Homeschool Planner which is now available for all age levels. My kiddos still use it every single year to help us track every aspect of our homeschool so we can see growth. Of course, it’s also great for accountability should anyone question our homeschool.
7th to 8th Grade Homeschool Assessment
- Unit/chapter tests
- Portfolio
- Rubrics
- Practice standardized testing
Most people see the middle school years as a practice ground. They’re right, but practice doesn’t mean nothing matters. In middle school, we are setting the stage for the high school experience, whether good or bad. If we create good habits and expectations, the yield is fruitful. But don’t be fooled—we can also create bad habits and expectations that end up hurting our kids in high school.
During these years, focus on helping your kids succeed with unit/chapter tests. Teach them to study for tests, including various methods for making study guides. It’s not nearly as important that they learn a particular subject as it is that they learn to STUDY that subject in a way that helps them retain and apply the knowledge!
Middle school is also a great time to use rubrics for projects and papers. Rubrics are simply a list of requirements with an assigned score for each item. This will help your student understand what is expected on assignments that don’t have multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank answers. My friend Marianne has an excellent post to help you develop a rubric. As a bonus, she has adaptations for kids with dyslexia!
You can also find writing rubrics on Teachers Pay Teachers. Just keep in mind these are written for the classroom and may need to be adapted.
Finally, we take a standardized test in these years as practice. Notice how many years it took to get here? And again, it’s only practice at this level. I don’t report this anywhere. I simply use it to help them get used to the environment they will be required to test in during high school. You can do this by purchasing the test yourself online (I buy the CAT Survey from Seton Testing).
You can also call your local public or private school and ask if you can test with them. Our local college has a testing center that offers many tests to homeschool students, including middle school-level standardized testing. (Call around your town because there is likely a facility near you.)
I also continue using the portfolio listed above, as well as recording “grades” on a bi-annual report card or progress report. The Student Homeschool Planners include the forms we use for this.
9th to 12th Grade Homeschool Assessment
- Exams
- Portfolio
- PSAT, SAT, ACT
- Rubrics
- Transcript
Once we reach high school, it’s time for the big dogs. Believe it or not, it’s an easy transition if you’ve kept the right perspective all along. Like middle school, I use progress reports and the portfolio to keep track of our homeschool. These are still the most valuable tools to me as they show far more than the number on the scantron.
But now it’s time to take those tests. First, you really begin to focus on taking “exams.” That’s just a collection of chapter or unit tests. If your student is college-bound, teach them to study topics with an exam in mind. Then teach them how to study. You have the ability to make exams only a small part of their grade, as you are the teacher, but I would highly recommend starting the process of teaching them how to do this.
Don’t forget to use rubrics to assess projects and writing assignments. This is the perfect way to help the student who isn’t a good test taker show how knowledgeable and talented they are. There are plenty of great paying careers that don’t involve Harvard, an engineering degree, or 1600 on the SAT. (But that’s another post for another day.)
Next up are the big tests. We take a standardized test at a local testing center for 9th grade, usually the CAT-9 or IOWA. In 10th grade, your student should take the PSAT. P stands for practice. It’s a great way to feel out the formal environment and gauge the areas that need work. You can take this test at a testing center or call the local public school and ask to be included. Legally, they are supposed to offer this test to homeschoolers for free.
Of course, during your junior and senior years, it’s time to take the SAT or ACT. I could fill 5 or 6 posts on that topic, but this is really supposed to be about the big picture, so I’ll save that for later. One thing to remember: Tests are just one piece of the puzzle. If your student is college-bound, it’s important to take the time to do your best with this, but it’s not the whole picture. I’m encouraged to see colleges today acknowledging that test scores don’t seem to indicate college success. (Imagine that!)
This brings us to the most important part of high school: building your transcript. If colleges are finally admitting that students aren’t defined by test scores, this makes the transcript all the more important. Think through how you can truly reflect the many facets of your student’s success.
Remember that it’s not just about science and math but also their interaction with other disciplines such as music, art, and even things like horsemanship! Capitalize on what your student loves and write a transcript that makes them shine for it!
Through practical tools & Bible-based resources, Kim Sorgius is dedicated to helping your family GROW in faith so you can be Not Consumed by life’s struggles. Author of popular kid’s devotional Bible studies and practical homeschooling tools, Kim has a master’s degree in education and curriculum design coupled with over 2 decades of experience working with kids and teens. Above all, her most treasured job is mother and homeschool teacher of four amazing kiddos.
Thank you for sharing your recommendations. When I chose my College, I also made various plans for assessing the hostel and the level of education. This is very important because often, for the hostel also need to pay. Students often have several options:
– To live in a hostel, and to be content with those conditions which are, to be near College.
– Or rent a separate apartment. That of course not everyone can afford + there is a chance to be much further from College, will have to get every day.
Therefore, it is very important to immediately assess all the pros and cons of the future place. To your choice was conscious:)
Do you have a post that teaches different study methods for tests? I always just crammed for things in public school because of a good short-term memory. I would like my kids to have more options than that!
No, but that’s a good idea of something we should write! 🙂 We use several things. My favorite is really simple. We fold the paper in half longways (hot dog) style. Then list terms, ideas, etc on one side and the answer on the other. You can flip it back and forth to study. Saves a TON on flash cards and just the act of writing it out goes a long way!
The blog post is great. The article looks at a simple plan for homeschool assessment by grade level. Homeschool assessment is important for people to improve their learning. The article says that ‘Most parents didn’t even know where to begin with the process of assessing and documenting the progress of their children.’ The article will help homeschool families feel comfortable documenting progress devoid of the extremes and without feelings of failure.
I homeschool our kids and our state requires testing or an assessment done by a certified teacher that is currently working as a teacher in that state. My husband is a certified teacher teaching in our state so I have often wondered if he can asses them since the state doesn’t say anything about it.
Hi,
Do you know of any achievement test that access the current grade level in math, reading, writing? I’ll be pulling my son out of school at the end of this school year and want to provide material for him that will be at his level. Thank you!
Most achievement tests should give you a general idea of what grade level he is in these subjects though even within the same subject there is some room for variables.
Both the Iowa and the Stanford achievement tests (along with others I’m sure) are recommended among homeschoolers.
Suzanne@NotConsumed
Is there a 3rd-6th grade assessment pack or just the primary one for PK-2?
Just for primary levels. For grades 3+ there are different methods of assessment, this is explained later in that post.
Suzanne@NotConsumed
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