Another Reason to Home School Especially if You Live in Oregon

Can’t read, can’t write, can’t add, can’t subtract? That’s OK. The Oregon Department of Education just voted unanimously last Thursday, October 19, to confirm students don’t need to prove mastery of reading, writing or math to graduate. They cited “harm to students of color” as the reason.

To learn more about this decision, read the article written by Sami Edge, the higher education reporter for the Oregonian here.

What is remarkable is the scrutiny applied to home schoolers transferring into public high schools or applying to public colleges. The unspoken assumption by the gate keepers appears to be that home schoolers have under-educated their children. In light of the board’s decision, I don’t understand what “under educated” could possibly mean.

For families with elementary and middle grade students, we have tools to help you know and prove your student is making satisfactory progress as defined by standards by schools, both public and private, that were put in place decades ago.

Check out our Essential Learning Objectives for a list of learning objectives for students K-8. 

For short tests to enable you to prove your student has a grasp of the concepts typically taught and learned at their grade level, get a grade-specific copy of our ELO Quick Assessment.

Finally, we recommend testing annually with a nationally-normed (not state or locally normed) achievement test. Testing is an objective way to show you’re doing well enough to be left alone.

Thanks for reading!

Curt Bumcrot, MRE