Helen

[This is forwarded from our Washington state list:]

>From: "Kathleen McCurdy" <kathleen@...>
>
>HOME EDUCATION UNDER ATTACK
>Who Should Control the Measuring of Educational Progress?
>
>It was in April of 1985 that Washington's then governor, Booth Gardner,
>signed into law a bill making homeschooling legal in this state. Choosing to
>follow a trend that was sweeping across the country, the state legislature
>wrote a fairly liberal law with a few qualifications for parents to meet, as
>well as a few duties, and no real teeth in it. Lobbyists had persuaded
>legislators and the public alike to trust parents to know what is best for
>their children.
>
>Many legislators insisted that "tests" must be required, and so it was
>ordained. Yet no mechanism was devised to enable this requirement. And no one
>foresaw that this item might become a potential downfall for the movement.
>
>As other states across the country enacted legislation, Washington's testing
>requirement was often imitated. Many states now require standardized
>achievement tests as a measure of accountability or for determining if
>children are really being taught. Some states have a minimum percentile
>ranking students must achieve, but most seem only to expect that parents will
>use the test scores to determine if changes need to be made in the homeschool
>program. Not all states require testing.
>
>Then too, parents often want to know how their homeschooling is progressing,
>and standardized tests are an easy way to compare their children to those in
>public school. Since most homeschooled students score well above average
>(depending on how long they've been homeschooled), the test scores can be a
>source of encouragement and affirmation.
>
>In view of the movement's rapid growth, strong showing, and the rather dismal
>state of things in the public schools, the avowed opponents of homeschooling
>have had to bide their time. But now it appears they have found a chink in
>the strong armor of the movement's ongoing success.
>
>When Family Learning Organization started a testing service in December of
>1987, there were probably a dozen little testing services around the country
>catering to homeschoolers. Kay Elam in Georgia, a pastor's wife in Arkansas,
>Seton School in Virginia, Christian Liberty Academy in Chicago come to mind.
>Some had sold tests to parents for years. Emporia State University's Bureau
>of Educational Measurements seemed anxious to help the fledgling movement.
>They sent a letter offering to make tests available to any organization that
>could meet their criteria.
>
>But not everyone was happy that homeschooling parents wanted to test their
>own children. Trouble came from some whom we thought were our friends. Within
>a few short months FLO received an angry letter from one of the test
>publishers demanding that we quit sending tests to parents. FLO explained
>that our state law required homeschooling parents to provide an annual test
>or assessment and that it was our intention to help parents comply with the
>law. Shortly, we received an almost identical letter from another publisher,
>and this one conveyed to us the name of our accuser-a homeschool leader that
>was at that time associated with another Washington homeschool organization.
>
>While the test publishers avowed not to sell tests to FLO, we continued to
>order them from other sources such as Emporia University. But it didn't take
>long for the publishers to discover who were selling tests to parents, and
>one by one they were put out of business. Even Emporia ceased to offer their
>services and the national homeschooling community was virtually left without
>a source of tests.
>
>At this time Michael Farris at Homeschool Legal Defense Association went to
>one of the publishers (eventually other publishers went along) and persuaded
>them to allow Bob Jones University to offer the tests with the understanding
>that only teachers or specially trained persons with a Baccalaureate degree
>would be allowed to administer the tests. While this seemed to be a salvation
>for the homeschooling community, it appeared to FLO and others as a dangerous
>sellout-and a short step away from requiring all homeschooling to be
>supervised by persons who were teachers or who held degrees.
>
>So FLO changed tactics and began reusing test booklets and creating our own
>answer forms and finding other ways of making tests available to parents who
>did not wish to be dependent on teachers for tests. The idea of changing the
>law's requirement for testing was considered but, as OSPI director Barbara
>Mertens pointed out, the risk of opening up the law was too great and we
>decided there were other solutions to explore. One solution was to create our
>own school for the purpose of ordering tests. Ms. Mertens encouraged this
>idea and in fact approved the paperwork we submitted. Our school had a
>certified teacher and her two homeschooled students... and we ordered
>hundreds of tests! Thousands of parents were thus able to test their children
>"in their normal learning environment", as the test instructions recommend.
>
>But alas, Riverside Publishing Company has decided to leave off the posturing
>and nasty letters we have fended off all these years, and has finally made
>good on their threat: Family Learning Organization, our teacher of record
>Margaret Donovan, and Kathleen McCurdy have been charged in federal court
>with various charges including copyright infringement and fraud. Previously,
>Riverside demanded that all tests be returned to them, along with a list of
>all our customers. If FLO had complied, no charges would have been filed. But
>here are the reasons we chose not to go along with their demands:
>1. Homeschooling families have the right not to have their names divulged,
>and FLO has and will staunchly defend that right.
>2. Should one publisher succeed in getting us to quit using their materials,
>soon all the others would follow-and homeschoolers would be left without a
>means to comply with the law and of comparing their student's progress to
>that of the national average.
>3. If parents must rely on teachers to administer the test (generally in
>group settings and in strange surroundings that put the homeschooled student
>at a disadvantage), it will be a small step to further demand that
>legislatures make teacher supervision mandatory for all homeschoolers.
>
>Not everyone feels that testing is important. Nor does everyone agree that
>parents are the best teachers of their children. But if we start down the
>path of requiring professional supervision for all, where will it end?
>Sometimes it can feel like the little Dutch boy with his finger stopping the
>hole in the dike! With the federal government looking to pass measures that
>guarantee homeschoolers admission into the military on the strength of a
>diploma issued by parents, and on the same basis allowing them to receive
>federal grant money for college tuition, is it not right that we defend a
>parent educator's right to have access to standardized tests?
>
>If you want to help us fight this battle, write to Riverside Publishing,
>Itasca IL 60143-2079 or www.riverpub.com (cc to FLO please). You may send
>contributions to the FLO Legal Fund. All who contribute will be kept informed
>of the progress of this case. Even if we win, we lose-unless the publishers
>are required to allow their tests to be used by parent educators. This will
>be costly.
>-KSM
>
>