Doing Well Enough To Be Left Alone?
Did your student make a year’s growth academically?
If so, how do you know that, and can you prove it?
Decades ago, here in Oregon, the rules for proving academic growth by means of an achievement test were rolled back. Previous to the rule change, an annual achievement test was required at all grade levels. It was changed to requiring testing only at grades 3, 5, 8, and 10.
Prior to the rule change, the Oregon Department of Education was tracking and publicly reporting home schooling test scores. To no one’s surprise, home schoolers were achieving well above their public school peers.
They were doing well enough to be left alone!
But since the rule change, our Department of Education stopped tracking and stopped reporting test scores.
Because the data used to support the competency of parents and the exceptional record of home school academic achievement is now decades old, it’s time for a new study. This time, a nationwide study.
Basic Skills Assessment and Educational Services is partnering with Home School Freedom, the National Home Education Research Institute, and several state home school organizations to gather new testing data that can be used to defend our home schooling freedoms. This data, in the form of aggregate nationwide test results, will be communicated to policymakers, legislatures, homeschool support organizations, and the general public.
All data collected is anonymous. Participation in the study is optional. The greater the participation, the more valuable and compelling the study results will be!
How To Participate
Register to Test: If you’d like to participate in the study, the first step is to register for one of our remote group tests. http://www.basicskills.net/testing On the registration form you will see a place to create a student ID for each student you are testing. Once you have completed the registration form and have decided you want to participate, go to NHERI and complete the questionnaire. Here’s their link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/homeschoolsurveyBasicSkills
Complete the Questionnaire: National Home Education & Research Institute (NHERI) is a trusted and longstanding leading research group that has served state homeschool organizations across the nation, homeschool families, scholars, the media, courts, policymakers, and the general public for over 32 years. NHERI will collect data for analysis and summary through a brief anonymous survey. No student’s or family’s personally identifying information will be released to NHERI. Your responses will be kept confidential. Names will not be used in reports or publications for any individual state study or multistate study. As mentioned above, research reports based on the data may then be presented to outlets such as homeschool organizations’ websites, legislators, policymakers, the homeschool community, or scholarly journals.
The survey only takes five to ten minutes to complete per student. Participants should plan to complete the survey after setting up their student’s testing ID number and before their student takes their test. If you have already registered to test remotely in a group, you may refer back to your completed test registration form and complete the questionnaire. Again, here’s the link to the questionnaire: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/homeschoolsurveyBasicSkills
Test: Basic Skills will create reports provided to NHERI with student score data identified only by the student ID you have created. There will be no personally identifying information for the students or families. By completing the Research Agreement & Survey Questionnaire and providing your student’s ID number, you are agreeing to allow Basic Skills to work with NHERI to create group reports that will be used for blind studies. Only families who complete the anonymous survey and include their student’s ID number will be included in the Basic Skills Test reports provided to NHERI.
Thank you for your willingness to join in this research tool to support homeschool freedom for the next generation!
Curt Bumcrot, MRE
