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  • UH-OH IDAHO

    Filed at 11:21 am under by dcobranchi

    Izzy today blogs a tale out of Idaho about overreaching edu-crats. One line in particular is noteworthy (although all four proposals stink):

    This is what the Blue Ribboners are recommending in this so-called draft:

    1. Mandatory registration and oversight of all home schoolers with their local school districts;

    2. Required testing of all home schoolers on the Idaho Standard Achievement Test (ISAT);

    3. Forced remediation and reassessment of any home school student failing to score at grade level as required of public school students; and

    4. Truancy and juvenile criminal prosecution of students and parents failing to comply with these requirements.

    Proposal 2. is a direct violation of federal law (NCLB).

    Part E, Subpart 1, SEC. 9506 PRIVATE, RELIGIOUS, AND HOME SCHOOLS.
    (b) APPLICABILITY TO HOME SCHOOLS- Nothing in this Act shall be construed
    to affect a home school, whether or not a home school is treated as a home
    school or a private school under State law, nor shall any student schooled
    at home be required to participate in any assessment referenced in this Act.

    Izzy predicts that this won’t go far. I tend to agree.

    3 Responses to “UH-OH IDAHO”


    Comment by
    Michael E. Lopez
    June 25th, 2003
    at 5:16 pm

    Is the ISAT an NCLB-mandated test? If not, if it’s simply something that Idaho has in place to measure student performance, then the NCLB provision ia simply a limitation on itself, and not on any independent act of Idaho “edu-crats.”

    In fact, it would be unconstitutional for the NCLB act to forbid states from testing homeschoolers on their own. What the act *is* saying is that the NCLB act can’t be used as a lever for the states to push their testing agendas on homeschoolers. That doesn’t mean they can’t do it without the NCLB act.

    The flip side of that, of course, is that even if the ISAT is something designed to comply with the NCLB, Idaho can be pretextual about it.

    -Michael


    Comment by
    Daryl Cobranchi
    June 25th, 2003
    at 6:10 pm

    As I understand NCLB, the states had to designate tests by name which would be used to comply with the testing requirements. I believe the ISAT is their designated test. If so, they would not be able to force homeschoolers to take it.

    Of course, Idaho could mandate homeschoolers take some other test. But, at least that one wouldn’t be tied to the state curriculum standards.


    Comment by
    Anonymous
    March 30th, 2004
    at 5:46 pm

    not so cool