Ever wonder if your kids are getting a good education by homeschooling?

My daughter wants to join a charter school for the last 3 years of high school. Yesterday we went to the orientation meeting and learned an interesting fact about the Ca High School Exit Exam. Passing this test is required by the State to earn your diploma. It's called CAHSEE for short.

I learned that a person has up to 6 TRIES to pass the CAHSEE and only a 55% mastery is required. MY GOODNESS They practically GIVE it away. 55%?? The test only covers work up to 8th grade level as it is but you only have to pass 55%? It sounds like even the below average student could pass. Soooo, this somehow assures the Government that our kids have a basic education? It means they DON"T understand almost half of what was taught up to this point.

I don't know about you but I require 70% mastery on my kids' quizzes or tests here at home. Anything below 70% is a redo.

So if you ever wonder if you are doing the right thing homeschooling, just remember the low standards the State sets.

 

I expect a 90% or above on everything, and even then you redo any you got wrong.

 

The more I learn about homeschooling, the more reasons I have for doing it! I started out just b/c my DS was a dec baby and not quite ready for K. Now I think I'm in for the long haul! (and I love it!)

 

Rachael took the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) and passed with flying colors. I'm not sure score is required to pass, but it is pretty low. But they ARE increasing it each year! For example, if they want all kids to have 80% on it, they know that's not going to happen right now. So year one the passing score is 60, year two it's 65, etc. But you're right...pretty dismal!

 

That is terrifying. I mean, really. "Hey, we have to have your kids in school, but don't expect to teach them anything!" ARGH!

 

I don't bother with tests when I'm teaching. Either my student knows the material, or they don't, and since we're working one on one, I have a very good idea of what they know. I think testing is fairly useless in a direct teaching situation. Standardized tests are only really helpful when you are teaching large numbers of children, and you can't assess them each individually.

I have no issue with kids being able to retake the high school exit exam multiple times. That just gives them another chance to learn the material they may have missed. Which is a great idea! And I have no issues with setting the bar so low, since this test has nothing to do with the individual students or what they've learned.

Because, there are serious practical considerations around the idea of setting the bar higher (to 70 or 90 percent). What the school authorities are hoping to achieve with this test is a basic level of minimum competency on graduation. They're not looking to turn out academic high achievers. Sure, that might be OUR goal is as parents and homeschoolers, but that's not our society's goal.

Raising the bar for a high school diploma would mean accepting that MANY kids would drop out of school, since they've got no hope of passing. But our society wants to keep kids in school and off the streets. We're not prepared to gainfully employ a whole bunch of teenagers, and we certainly don't want them roaming around unsupervised.

So we promise them a diploma, if they stay in high school for four years. Then they're qualified for that minimum wage job they were always going to get anyway. Or that apprenticeship. Or that college career, depending on which courses they chose to take in high school. ALL of these kids, from future burger flippers to future nuclear physicists have to be able to pass the same high school exit exam. So whether you can read at 55 percent of an 8th grade level, or at 100 percent of a post graduate level, you still get to graduate. Because, really, the bare minimum our society requires is someone who can read a hydro notice, balance their check book, and hold down a job.

(Me, I'd like to see more apprenticeships, magnet schools and co-op placements, and less testing in high school. Why does everyone have to learn Algebra or a foreign language or English literature, when not everyone's going to use it?)

 

this just confirm my thinking of "i CAN'T do worse than what ps did for my dds.

but at the same time - it's sad!!!!!!!!!!


good health and happiness.

 

MegCanada: Thanks for some perspective. I didn't think about it like that. So with that dipolma a person should be qualified for a wide range of jobs-from minimum wage to professional, depending on how much effort they put into their high school career. The 55% is the bare minimum accepted. Good point.

 

I like to keep that in mind myself.

 

i understand it gets kids stay in school instead of running loose and better than drop out so to speak. but why are we shooting low when we believe we can be anything and anyone, if we wanted to be.....
ok 55% is the lowest not the highest but honestly which kids don't aim for the lowest and be done with school kind of thinking? especially they dislike school?
instead they should figure out how to get kids interesting in learning and have desire to reach their full potential in life.

of course that's my perspective.

good health and happiness.

 

I think it's because an academic education isn't everyone's "full potential" in life. One of the biggest problems with the school system as it exists today is that we try to force everyone into the same mold, and make them all learn the same subjects, regardless of aptitude or interest.

And I don't believe most kids do aim for the lowest, however much they'd like to be done with school. That test won't get them out any faster! Most students probably aren't thinking about the high school exit exam at all, except for those kids who've just failed it on their first try. The other kids are thinking about the grade they're getting on an assignment they've just handed in. They're worried about their upcoming report card. Some of them are trying to get into honors classes and gifted classes and IB classes. Some of them are worrying about university admissions. Some of them are just trying to pass, and having a heck of a time of it. And some are just counting down the days until they can go work for their uncle who builds motorcycles for a living.

 

"Like"!!!!

 

Yes, electricity! I didn't realize it wasn't called that in other places. :lol:

 

Thanks for the reality check on these. My neice just took hers (in 7th grade), apparently in PA you can take certain ones early - she just finished Algebra, so she was able to take the Math one? Something like that.

I don't know yet if it pertains to homeschoolers. Any PA folks know the answer? I wonder if HSLDA knows.

My oldest is just going into 7th, but if I can let her take them incrementally instead of all at once, I'd like that much better. We'll see!!!

 

I bet there are a lot of those! It's fun to hear what different things are called!

 

If I was an 8th grader in CA I would like to take the stupid test and just be done with school! I wonder how many kids don't pass it? I know my sis had a hard time with the final test in Texas when we were growing up, because she is dyslexic but it took her twice to pass it.
I make my kids redo anything they miss, and if it is below a 90 then we go through the material again. I know that my kids know the material, but they will take test all their life and want them to be used to taking them. Yes there are several companies I interviewed with that required me to take test ( like math test, abilities exams. etc) So while I don't think that they are great measures of knowledge, I do think they need to know how to take them well.

 

When I first took my oldest child out of public school (in 7th grade), I told my husband, "Well, being homeschooled sure won't be any worse than public school. She might even do better." As it turned out, I was right. When she was 16, after finishing grade 10 at home, she took a Math and English Placement Test at our local community college. The college advisor told me, "She did BETTER than MOST (public) high school graduates" on these tests. After hearing that, all worries about homeschooling fled.

 

I LIKE this comment very much. This is exactly how I feel, but I did not start out feeling this way.

I started out homeschooling with these pipe dreams that my son would all of the sudden like academic learning. Why he might even win a geography bee or go on Jeapordy!!

Oh silly me. My son is a great kid and I shouldn't try to change him.

If it was up to me to change the whole educational system, I would give the students much more choices in high school. I would make sure they learn the basics, but I would not push the higher subjects on students who have other pursuits in mind. There are so many different things to do in this world, why do we only value some skills sets and not others.

That being said, I am having my son do algebra. Why? Because he wants to join the military and one of the parts of the ASVAB uses algebra and I think Geometry. I even told him the other day, "I don't do this to torture you, I am trying to help you reach your goal."