Teaching homeschool students is easy as compared to figuring out just how much they have retained what you have taught them. One of the tools to check if your homeschooler is doing well is a Standardized Test. The homeschool parent has a number of options available in this. Here are some which you can look into having your homeschool student appear for.
- California Achievement Test (CAT)
- Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS)
- Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS)
- Stanford Achievement Test (Stanford-10 or SAT, not to be confused with the College Board SAT).
- PASS test (from Hewitt-standardized but not nationally normed)
- Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT)
Advantages of Standardized Testing
In regular school the students undergo testing as part of the curriculum and their educators and parents get a good idea about the competencies that the students have gained in a specific subject. In the homeschool environment, the homeschooling parent may not always have a clear picture of the child’s capabilities even if they are setting them regular tests at home.
By having the homeschool student take a standardized test, the homeschool teacher gets a clear look at the ability of the student. The results can be compared to peers of the student and accountability can be taken for just how much the student has learnt in the homeschool set up. Since the tests are set by someone else, the teacher has no way to coach the child to do well. This brings in a very objective result in terms of what the student truly knows.
Disadvantages of Standardized Testing
The homeschool student will feel an undue amount of pressure when undergoing standardized testing. Not every parent has done formal testing for their child and going into such a situation can be quite stressful. The child can feel nervous and anxious. This in turn can affect their performance in the test. It is up to the homeschool parent to ensure that the child does not read too much into the result of the test. To make them understand that it is merely a tool which lets them understand what needs to be improved.
