Is anyone here in TN and NOT planning to take the TCAP??

[Gingerbread Mama]

This is our first year homeschooling. I am going through Homelife Academy as our umbrella, HA is (I think I understood this correctly) basically considered a Christian school. I am not homeschooling for religious reasons, so I didn't really look into that aspect. Would that exempt their students from standarized tests?

 

TCAP time is coming up and I would prefer NOT to have my kids tested. I have a variety of reasons, but the biggest is that I don't want them to have to sit for the test at their old PS or have their scores come back to the PS.

 

I don't know anyone with a child 3rd grade or up who is homeschooling here, so I don't know how to find out if there is a way to NOT take the standarized test. Anyone with experience?

 

I'll call HA today, but the other time I called (about something else) they basically said "We have a website, check there." I've already done that but can't work out the answer to this situation.

[TN Mama]

Homelife Academy does not require testing. We registered with a local umbrella school when we lived in TN and took the Stanford 10. You only have to take the TCAP if you're registered with the school district. Hope that helps.

[Mandy in TN]

If you are registered with a CRS, that body determines whether or not your child participates in testing. Also, if you are registered with a CRS, you would not be taking the TCAP. You would be taking the standardized test offered by your CRS.

 

From the HomeLife Academy website's FAQ:

 

Do I have to give standardized achievement tests?

 

It depends on the state in which you live. In TN, FL, and CO the answer is No. As a private (or "non-public") school the voluntary rule for testing of HLA students has been set by our Board of Directors for reasons listed below.

[Dmmetler]

Homelife Academy doesn't require testing or report scores to the PS system for Elementary. If you're in the Memphis area, Classical Conversations and Veritas both offer the SAT-10 as a group test in May (open to anyone, not just CC or Veritas students) with scores reported only to parents-or you can just plain not test at all. We tested with CC last year and will probably test with Veritas this year just due to scheduling. I like having SOME record that DD has completed a grade, just in case she has to go back to public school in the future.

[MorningGlory]

No, your kids do not have to take the TCAP. No TN umbrella school would require this...unless I am very much mistaken. I have many friends who homeschool under Homelife, and their children have never taken any year-end or achievement test of any sort. Some have chosen to take the SAT 10 achievement test when offered locally just to expose their kiddos to a standardized test environment (in prep for the future ACT/SAT/PSAT tests), but this opportunity is purely optional.

 

I homeschool under a different umbrella...one that does require yearly SAT 10 achievement testing. But NEVER the TCAP...that is a public school test.

 

HTH!

Jetta

 

P.S. Your kiddos will probably enjoy "missing out" on TCAP testing!

[Gingerbread Mama]

Thank you! So you don't HAVE to do anything, but the Stanford 10 would be helpful if we had to re-enroll them (Heaven forbid) in a school later? We wouldn't EVER do public school again, I'd go with private or charter if we absolutely had to....do you think we'd need it then? Or would my records with HA be enough?

 

ODS will be happy to miss it, DD will be sad because she is only 4th grade and she still thought it was great fun to do all the prep work (themed) they did for it. She's a weirdo, but we love her anyway :tongue_smilie:

[Dmmetler]

The SAT-10 is what almost all the private schools use, so both private and public schools (and charter schools, in TN, are so restricted that they're often no better, if not worse, than a neighborhood school in a middle income neighborhood) accept it. From what I've heard, HLA records are usually accepted for placement in K-5 in public schools as long as you're asking your child to be placed at their chronological age, but that this isn't necessarily the case after 6th grade. Most private schools in the Memphis area require at least some testing, even with SAT-10 scores or TCAP scores, but are likely to streamline the process if you have said scores. But no, you don't NEED to test if you don't want to do so-at worst, if your child goes back to school they might be required to do some testing at the school proper to validate their placement, especially if they're at the young end of the age-range (and some private schools in Memphis have much, much earlier unofficial cutoffs than the official ones-one I considered for DD required kids to be 5 by the June before they'd start K, for example-so a child who met the October 1 deadline that PS uses, but had a birthday after June would be considered to be very young and probably come under a lot of scrutiny if they were to attempt to transfer in later).

Edited March 22, 2012 by dmmetler

[Gingerbread Mama]

Hmm, interesting. ODS and DD are May and July babies, respectively, and had just turned 5 when they entered school so I guess in some cases they could be considered "young". YDS, though we held out from K until he was almost 7... I wonder how he'd be placed? I think DD would pass any placement test, no problem, ODS would likely test into a year behind his current grade level (which is how I'm hs'ing for the most part, anyway) and YDS would not test anywhere near to his current grade level at this point. We are still trying to determine what his issues are so we know how to address them.

 

Which, is, pretty much why I never plan to put them in a traditional classroom setting.......like I said, only if circumstances drastically changed. Still, things to ponder. What if I didn't test this year, since we have just STARTED trying to remediate problems not addressed in PS, but then DID do a Stanford next year? Would not having one for this year be an issue?

[Mommy22alyns]

We hs through HLA and don't test. We previously used another umbrella school and again, didn't test. I'm going to give Rebecca the CAT this spring just for kicks.

 

If you're just now remediating, I wouldn't test this year. I really don't think you'll have a problem not having a current test for one year.

[JennyD]

How old is your oldest child? I am in TN but registered with our local LEA, and my oldest is only in first grade. However, I was recently rereading the legal info on homeschooling and it seems as though while registering with a CRS exempts children through grade 8 from testing, grades 9-12 have to concurrently register with a LEA and do some sort of testing (I cannot quite figure out what it is from the state website) in grade 9.

 

Summary: http://www.tn.gov/education/homeschool/

 

Requirements, including testing, for non-CRS homeschoolers, which seems to apply to high schoolers with a cover school as well: http://www.tn.gov/education/homeschool/requirements.shtml

 

Presumably this is why some people take the satellite school/Jeter memo option in high school, in which you basically set yourself up as a branch of a private school, even though it doesn't qualify as 'homeschooling' for other purposes.

[Dmmetler]

I don't think it would hurt anything to skip a year.

 

If you're remediating, you might want to consider doing the DORA and DOMA (both available for $15/each from HSBC). It's more open ended-it starts a year below your child's grade (or kindergarten, if you want to start at the beginning) and adapts to what the child does, until a child misses enough in a row to indicate that they're at their ability level in that particular subskill, up through whatever the top of the test is (Math tops out at the end of 5th grade (there's a separate test for pre-algebra and algebra), reading through 12th) The score report is very broken down in skills and can also be viewed by state or national standards for a grade level range. It's a LOT more useful, IMO, than the SAT-10. I'm guessing it wouldn't be accepted for placement purposes by itself, but at least would also give schools an idea of where to start.

[Gingerbread Mama]

How old is your oldest child? I am in TN but registered with our local LEA, and my oldest is only in first grade. However, I was recently rereading the legal info on homeschooling and it seems as though while registering with a CRS exempts children through grade 8 from testing, grades 9-12 have to concurrently register with a LEA and do some sort of testing (I cannot quite figure out what it is from the state website) in grade 9.

 

Summary: http://www.tn.gov/education/homeschool/

 

Requirements, including testing, for non-CRS homeschoolers, which seems to apply to high schoolers with a cover school as well: http://www.tn.gov/education/homeschool/requirements.shtml

 

Presumably this is why some people take the satellite school/Jeter memo option in high school, in which you basically set yourself up as a branch of a private school, even though it doesn't qualify as 'homeschooling' for other purposes.

 

I hadn't read that, so I'm glad you posted it. My oldest is just now seventh grade so it looks like I have some time to figure this out. Hopefully, by this time next year he will be closer to where he needs to be and we can just do a Stanford or something.

 

I don't think it would hurt anything to skip a year.

 

If you're remediating, you might want to consider doing the DORA and DOMA (both available for $15/each from HSBC). It's more open ended-it starts a year below your child's grade (or kindergarten, if you want to start at the beginning) and adapts to what the child does, until a child misses enough in a row to indicate that they're at their ability level in that particular subskill, up through whatever the top of the test is (Math tops out at the end of 5th grade (there's a separate test for pre-algebra and algebra), reading through 12th) The score report is very broken down in skills and can also be viewed by state or national standards for a grade level range. It's a LOT more useful, IMO, than the SAT-10. I'm guessing it wouldn't be accepted for placement purposes by itself, but at least would also give schools an idea of where to start.

 

Thank you, I had never heard of those tests. They sound like exactly like what I'd like to give, though, just for my own knowledge. I have a similar test for ODS that I had done through the public school, but the evaluator was absolutely hateful to him so I wondered if he performed as well as he could have. I think for $15, we can check that out :) We won't be going back into school unless something drastic and awful were to happen, but it's good to know what our testing options are. I wouldn't have a problem with him testing next year (although I think they are pointless), but since we *just* started hs'ing, and we know they need to be brought up to speed in some areas, it just seems silly to test now, KWIM?