That is the question!  But what is the answer?  As with most homeschool questions, the decision whether or not to test may be different for each family or even for each child within a family.  In the homeschool community there are advocates on both sides.  To be honest, I have been on both sides of the question!

As a young homeschool mom, I was concerned about whether or not my children were learning everything that they needed in order to be successful, and so in the spring of 1997, I tested my two oldest daughters with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. What I remember from the score reports was that there were no surprises.  The girls scored high in their strong areas and lower in their weak areas.  Because they didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know, I chose not to test my children on a regular basis.  But, while the test results didn’t surprise us, I also remember the relief I felt when I received them.  The test results confirmed that our girls were progressing just fine in their academics, which gave my homeschooling confidence a bit of a boost.  Reason #1 To Test – To put your mind at ease.

In addition, with standardized test results in hand, I also had acceptable documentation for the naysayers in our family.  Even though homeschooling is increasing in popularity across the nation, and national test results show that home educated students score better than 30% higher than public school students on standardized testing, there are sometimes still those relatives who aren’t convinced that homeschooling is best for your student, and our family was no exception.  I come from a family of teachers and school administrators who didn’t understand homeschooling, and they were concerned for our daughters. Standardized test results that showed our daughters were working at or above grade level helped the relatives to have confidence in my ability to teach the girls.  Reason #2 To Test – To alleviate Grandma and Grandpa’s anxiety.

But what if your child is one of those whose test results are not shining and positive?  What then? One option is to use the scores as a tool in planning your child’s education and curriculum.  Homeschool veteran and owner of Home School Testing Plus, Linda Nikkel says, “If your child should test weak in an area, you will know exactly what area his or her weakness is in.  This knowledge will take the guess work out of your instruction time; you will know exactly where to direct your energies and how to best help your child be successful in all areas of academic achievement.”  With focused attention on your child’s weaker areas, future test results will show improvement and help build your child’s confidence.  Reason #3 To Test – as part of a student’s individual education plan & Reason #4 To Test – to document a student’s progress and build their confidence.

Up to this point, I have been talking mainly about standardized testing, but what about general testing throughout the school year, the end of the chapter tests?   While I agree that tests are necessary tools for evaluating a classroom of students, because I worked one on one with my daughters and always had a pretty good idea of what they were and were not understanding, I rarely used written tests to evaluate and grade the girls.

When our oldest daughter Macia had completed her freshman year of college, Greg and I asked her what we needed to do better in order to prepare her sisters for college.  She answered that there were two things; first, they needed to write more (see last month’s article What’s Your Writing Attitude?) and second, I needed to give more tests.  The number of tests and quizzes given in college classes varies by professor, but my daughters tell me that in any given semester they are taking quizzes on a weekly basis and will be tested every other to every third week in at least one of their classes.  If your student is going to go to college, they will have to take the ACT or SAT exams for college admissions, and they will need to be prepared to study for and take various types of tests, including multiple choice, fill in the blank, short answer and essay tests.  Reason #5 To Test– to prepare your students for college admissions and college level classes.

With all this said, there are also reasons not to test.  There is no question in my mind that some students are good testers and others are not.  In our home, two of our daughters excelled with testing and one stressed on every test. I have wondered if having regular tests would have changed that, but four years of college where she has taken at least one quiz or test every week didn’t help her to relax with testing.  If regular testing brings on feelings of failure and stress, they may be doing more harm than good.

Another reason not to use regular testing is that they can encourage students to memorize material for the sake of passing the test and then forget the material once the exam is done.  I call this ‘memorize, regurgitate and erase your brain learning’.  It is common in a test and grade driven educational system but doesn’t equate to real learning.  Unfortunately, many students who regularly pass end of the chapter tests are really disconnected from their learning.  An example of this is a student who can pass an examination on the rules of punctuation but is unable to use commas correctly in his or her own writing.  If a student can recite names and dates of historical events but not explain the cause and effect, has he really learned anything?

Finally, tests have a limited ability to measure what a student is learning.  There are attributes that homeschoolers strive to teach their children that are not measured on standardized tests. Things like responsibility, work ethic, kindness, patience, and perseverance in the long run are more important than academics.  If you are still undecided on whether to test or not to test, I would recommend remembering why you began homeschooling in the first place.  If you are teaching to mastery and your child is being successful and consistently moving forward in his or her studies, does it really matter what the test scores say?

Looking back at those 1997 test score reports today, I laugh.  Eight year old Megan, now a college senior honors student with a Creative Writing major, scored highest in vocabulary usage and expression and lowest in punctuation.  (See Meg’s contribution to last month’s article, What’s Your Writing Attitude? for her take on punctuation.) But before you take this as evidence that the standardized test can predict a child’s academic future, you should know that Meg also scored above grade level in all the Mathematic categories and  went on to struggle all the way through high school math, but that’s another story.

Happy Homeschooling!
Jeanne

Additional Information on Testing

Homeschool Progress Report – HSLDA report showing that across the nation homeschoolers score higher than their public school counterparts on standardized testing.

Home School Testing Plus – veteran homeschooler and educational consultant Linda Nikkel MA provides testing, evaluation, counseling and consulting to the West Michigan homeschool community.