A Homeschooler's Guide to Standardized Testing - Our Experience

We have been homeschooling for 11 years, but this is the first year that we have been required to do Standardized Testing. I wanted to share our experience and what I have learned with you because I know there are many others testing for the first time this year. As always, be sure to research your local homeschool laws to be sure you are in compliance. Because we have never tested before, I wanted to test in the Fall. I am not one to procrastinate so I did not want to find myself approaching the end of the school year and stressing about trying to fit in testing. I also wanted to give our children an opportunity to retest at the end of the school year. I suspected that some of our children with learning disabilities and anxiety would not test well, and I wanted them to be able to retest in the Spring to show growth and progress. I also wanted to have time to research and choose different tests if these did not work out well (which, thankfully we had no problems administering the tests).

With 8 kids, we cover a broad range of ages and grades. Working off of the list of nationally-recognized norm-referenced tests provided by the Arkansas Department of Education, I narrowed my choices down to online tests that I could proctor from home. I did not want them to have to take the tests at a school, nor did I want to have to deal with mailing in paper copies of tests. After some research on social media and talking to other parents, here is what we used this year. 

EARLY ELEMENTARY: K-2

For our little learners, we used the NWEA Map Growth at Homeschool Boss. There were two parts to the test: Math and Reading. There are additional tests you may add on. You have the option when you sign up for the test to select if your second grader is a pre-reader. For all pre-readers, the test questions will be read to them. They can take the test on a computer or iPad. A touch screen made this a frustration free testing experience. The test is adaptive, so as they answer questions correctly the difficulty will increase, and when they answer incorrectly the difficulty decreases. The test aims for your student to get about half of the questions correct. Some of the questions will be above their grade level to give more accurate results. The test time is short. Our student finished each section in approximately 30 minutes, but it says to plan for 45 minutes. The report is available in just a couple of days and includes their percentile ranking, Lexile reading scores, and pages of recommendations that you can use to adjust your homeschool curriculum. I believe the testing scores accurately reflected our student's current knowledge level. 

Summary of NWEA MAP GROWTH:

*Short and sweet

*Accurately assesses current knowledge level

*Online

*Reads questions to pre-readers

LATE ELEMENTARY and MIDDLE SCHOOL: 3-9

For our late elementary students and middle schoolers, all the way through our 9th grader, we went with the Stanford10 from Seton Testing. For a first-time tester, this test can be a little overwhelming. It was over two hours of testing, two days in a row. By the end, all of us were exhausted. The morning of testing, you will receive an email that begins with "grab your coffee", and they weren't kidding, lol. You need to download an app or special browser to take the test. I loved that it tested not only reading and math, but also spelling, language, social studies, and science. I also loved that it is untimed, which relieves some testing anxiety and gave our dyslexic learners time to carefully read and think through the questions. It gives a detailed report, that includes Lexile measures, percentiles, and grade equivalent. I am not sure how accurate the grade reporting is. The test does not adapt to the student's answers, so it is possible to get a 100 on the test. While the grade may report "Post High School", I do not believe that to be necessarily true. I know our students would have some serious gaps in knowledge if they were to skip ahead to the grades reported. However, it did provide insight into what subjects we could move a little bit faster through or increase their workload in, and where we need to make some course adjustments. All of our children tested very well in the math and sciences. I am planning some adjustments to our language arts and history curriculum to fill in some of the gaps. 

At one point in the testing our computer completely froze up! I panicked! However, should this happen to you, know that more than likely things will be ok. I called into the help line and they were very kind, helpful, and understanding. After a forced restart of the computer, we were able to re-enter the test and the answers were saved. 

Summary of STANFORD10:

*Online and untimed

*Lengthy - 5-6 hours total test time divided between 2 days

*Comprehensive

*Detailed Report

HIGH SCHOOL: CLT10

Our high schoolers took the CLT10 which is a nationally normed college preparatory exam with scholarship opportunities. While this test is only one day, it is very rigorous. It only tests math and reading. It has an optional essay portion that can be used for college admissions. After seeing the results and report, we decided that we will administer both the CLT10 and Stanford10 to our high schoolers to receive a more well-rounded report and measure of their progress. Unlike the Stanford10, the CLT10 does not lock out the screen on your computer so it is possible to accidentally close a browser or click out of the test. This did happen to our daughter. Again, don't panic. I did call into the help desk, but you can simply re-enter the test and the answers are saved. 

The verse that guides our homeschool is Luke 2:52: "And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." We want our kids to be growing and learning each year. We want to be in good favor with God and man. We obey our government officials and teach what we believe is a well rounded education. However, I do not believe that test scores accurately define whether we are succeeding or failing in our homeschool mission. Academics is just one piece of the pie when it comes to raising our little arrows. So as you review the test results, remember your mission and your why. I am thankful for the insights and information it gave, and am certainly thankful for these little learners we are raising and the freedom to homeschool them.

Field Trip - Plantation Agriculture Museum

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Every once in a while I hop on the Arkansas State Parks website to check out upcoming events. We were reading about the invention of the Cotton Gin in history this week, so I tickled to see a "Cotton Gin Demonstration" was being held at the Plantation Agriculture Museum in Scott, AR. I called ahead to verify what time we needed to be there and was told to come on down at our convenience and they could do a demonstration anytime.

Wow! What a fun and interactive demonstration of the cotton gin. The parks guide was so knowledgeable, patient, and engaging with our crew. 

He encouraged the kids to all feel the cotton and to try to remove the seeds by hand. After seeing how cumbersome it would be to have to hand remove each little seed, he brought out the cotton gin, opened it up, and explained just how it worked. 

Then he encouraged each of the kids to take a turn at the crank. They were delighted when the cotton gin started spitting out the seeds. 

He then briefly talked through some of the other exhibits (like the grading of cotton), before letting the children explore on their own. We had fun guessing how many t-shirts, dollar bills, and pairs of jeans could be made from a bale of cotton. 

We pumped water for the "mules" with a hand pump, discussed all the foods seed oils are found in and how that influenced the standard American diet. We had conversations about how much the laborers picking cotton were paid, along with child labor and slave labor. The cotton gin sure revolutionized the agricultural industry, but not necessarily all in a positive way. They also had exhibits on the boll weevil and the shifting of agriculture in Arkansas to rice. Since we are also studying Homestead Science this year, it all tied together very nicely into our studies.

Once we left the main museum, we toured the Dortch Gin Exhibit which housed a very large 1916 cotton gin. Can you imagine how loud, how, and dusty it would have been working in there. It also would have been very dangerous with all the large moving belts.

Then we toured Seed Warehouse #5. The kids especially liked the auger system and were fascinated by the fire prevention information. The seeds would heat up, sort of like composts, and hot spots could quickly cause a devastating fire.

And of course our boys loved seeing the railway cars and checking out the Historic Tractor Exhibit. 

Highly recommend stopping by to check out this little gem of a State Park if you are near Scott, AR. Just down the street is the Plum Bayou State Park (previously called Toltec Mounds) that we have visiting on several occasions when studying early Native American History and Arkansas History.

For more homeschool fun and inspiration be sure to click on the Homeschool Tab, or if you are interested in other interesting places to visit click on the Travel Tab. Let's connect on Instagram @pocketful_of_treasures. 

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