We've received official word from K12 about Eve's and Marie's school schedule for the 2007-2008 school year. I was very apprehensive when they took the placement tests. Nevada law doesn't require homeschoolers to take standardized tests so I've never had that as a gauge to look at their progress. Would they do okay? Have I taught them as I should? Would they test at the correct grade level for their age? The waiting is over. I can breathe a huge sigh of relief. I'm fairly pleased about what classes they'll be taking and what grades they've been put in.
Marie -
Literature 5
Language Skills 5
Spelling 5
Math 5
American History Before 1865
American Art A
Science 5
Exploring Music
Eve -
Literature 7
Language Skills 7
Pre-Algebra A
World History A
World Art A
Life Science
Music Concepts B
I guess I feel that it's more of a verification on my efforts in schooling them. Here's to the next school year!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
K12 for 2007-2008
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9 comments:
I so admire you and the determination you have put forth in homeschooling your children. I contemplated home schooling with my children but opted against. I am happy now but sometimes I wish that I had given it a chance. But kuddos to you!!!
Phew! How nice to know your efforts have been rewarded. I look forward to hearing about your experience with K12.
Congrats to the girls and you.
It looks like they did very well indeed.
I was pleased with L's results. The placement teacher told me that most children who take the tests do not place in their grade level.
why don't most kids (who take the tests) place in their grade level? is it because the K12 program is academically demanding and competitive?
which reminds me. i need to get cracking on that list of homeschool books. i'll email the list to you first to see if you would like anything before i post it on my blog.
Calandria - The placement specialist told me the same thing.
Athena - Yes, K12 is supposed to be more demanding/advanced. We'll see I guess. I'd love to see what homeschool books you have!
I have a love/hate relationship with standardized tests...they are oh-so interesting to interpret, and fun to administer, but I've always been struck with the realization that they are unfair in the way they are scored--making one small oversight can drop a child's grade equivalency dramatically, and the child may actually be able to do a similar problem correctly but the tests don't usually offer a second chance. Other kids just aren't good test takers but may know the material really well, and for others a "snapshot" test one day could be thrown off by a rough morning, or not enough sleep.
I'm glad the education world is moving toward curriculum based measurements/instructional assessments instead-and it seems like they would be much more applicable to homeschool as well--probably more in tune with the types of measurements homeschooling parents do with their kids already--looking at how the child is doing the problems & where the mistakes are ocurring, rather than only at the answers themselves the way a standardized test does.
Regarding grade levels-I'm not sure whether K12's placement test is a standardized test per se, but in the case of the standardized tests I've given, the average range (standard scores 85-115) overlaps from about 2 grade levels below their age-expected to two grade levels above. A significant percentage of children could still be considered learning appropriately without actually placing on "grade level."
When you consider that many parents choose to homeschool children who are having difficulties in public school, it makes sense that many would fall below grade level without being so low that they would have been on the "Special Education Concerns" radar at school. And the companies making web-based curriculums are under significant pressure to create challenging programs with integrity admidst some research results that suggest drawbacks to web-based learning. Those are two pretty significant factors in keeping K12's placement test scores from being inflated.
That's my $.02....don't second guess yourself Montse, Since you are the one working with your kiddos day after day, I'm sure you probably already had a really good idea of what they could do, better than a snapshot test could tell you!
Excellent! You've got things rolling along so nicely - your kids are blessed to have you!
You should feel very proud of yourself and your children!
Actually, I think the K12 curriculum is only more demanding in grammar. At least when I compare it to my children's other public school curriculum, I didn't see a big difference except in that area.
I think what happens is that for K12 the child is expected to have 80 percent mastery. If they don't achieve this, they don't move on. This is often not the case in other schools. They move on regardless of their mastery leve.
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