Utterly Meaningless

Here is the current law

§ 22.1-254.1. Declaration of policy; requirements for home instruction of children.

C. The parent who elects to provide home instruction shall provide the division superintendent by August 1 following the school year in which the child has received home instruction with either (i) evidence that the child has attained a composite score in or above the fourth stanine on a battery of achievement tests which have been approved by the Board of Education for use in the public schools or (ii) an evaluation or assessment which, in the judgment of the division superintendent, indicates that the child is achieving an adequate level of educational growth and progress.

In practice, we can use any nationally normed test, because no such list actually exists today.

VHEA traditionally has been very on top of this type of stuff. I don’t what is going on this year.

HB 1767 and HB 1770 were requested by VaHomeschoolers due to evidence of need.

“Are parents currently allowed to choose any nationally normed test?” In *theory,* homeschoolers can submit results of any nationally normed tests. However, local school superintendents can refuse to accept any particular test(s), or refuse to accept a portfolio evaluation or an independent assessment. It is left to the local super’s discretion. Therefore, there are no tests or evaluations that a division *must* accept.

The intent of HB 1770 is to “expand the number of testing options” through creation of a list of tests that the local divisions *must* accept. They can, of course, accept others in addition.

VaHomeschoolers’ legislative information is readily available to Virginians and others at its Announce list at:
groups...nounce
One need not subscribe to read the archives.
Legislative Updates that include info on these two bills are at:
groups...ge/177
and
groups...ge/178

Thanks for clearing that up, Shay.

Silly me, I’ve been checking the website for updates. I must have fallen off the email list – I was on it for years but now that I think about it I haven’t seen one in quite a while.

Are there a significant number of cases of homeschoolers having problems with testing? What if we don’t like the list they come up with? We are proposing to trade the judgement of a local official for the judgement of a state official. The flexibility of the local official could be seen as a plus or a minus, however now there will be no flexibility at all. The list will be the list.

I hope it’s a list we can all live with.