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Hearing - June
20, 2002
State Board of
Education's Homeschool Testing WAC
The State Board of Education (SBE)
has scheduled a public hearing for the purpose of adopting WAC
180-52-070, Approved Standardized Tests for Use by Students Receiving
Home-based Instruction - Examples - Assistance (language included
below). The notice is posted at the Washington State Office of
the Code Reviser web site, http://slc.leg.wa.gov/wsr/2002/10/02-10-089.htm.
Hearing Location: Senate
Hearing Room 4, John A. Cherberg Building, 304 15th Avenue S.W.,
Olympia, WA 98504-0482, on June 20, 2002, at 8:30 a.m.
Please, attend the adoption hearing.
The Washington Homeschool
Organization (WHO) opposes this WAC. The homeschool law 28A.200.010
Home-based
Instruction -- Duties of Parents states, "(3) Ensure
that a standardized achievement test approved by the state
board of education is administered annually to the child by a
qualified individual or..." (underlining mine). The
language in the testing WAC that the SBE is moving to adopt stipulates
"normed standardized achievement tests." By
adding the word "normed" the SBE is proposing language that creates
a different standard for testing than the law specifies.
Because WACs act as laws, the SBE is, in effect, writing
law without legislative process.
"Normed" creates a criteria
for testing that is more stringent, less flexible and more expensive
for the homeschooling parent than the law requires. If and when the
SBE approves standardized tests for use by homeschoolers, it would
allow parents to inexpensively administer and evaluate
test results in their homes. Currently all SBE approved
tests are normed standardized achievement tests.
As I have stated, WHO opposes this
WAC, and this will not prevent its adoption.
The homeschool community must be heard from on this issue.
Below is the contact information for the SBE if you wish to
communicate with them on this or any issue.
It may be even more effective to
communicate with your state representatives on this issue, and ask for
their support. Washington State Senators and Representatives are
sensitive to the issues involved when agencies rewrite law
without legislative process. Your representatives may be willing
to act on your behalf concerning this issue.
Submit Written Comments to:
Rules Coordinator, State Board of Education, P.O. Box 47206, Olympia,
WA 98504-7206, Patty Martin, Associate Director, fax (360) 586-2357, by
June 13, 2002.
(Note: This WAC does not effect the
annual non-test assessment option in the homeschool law.)
Please pass
this on!
For Homeschoolers,
The WHO Advocacy Committee
If you support
the work we do, join
us!
NEW SECTION
WAC 180-52-070 Approved standardized tests for use by students receiving home-based instruction -- Examples -- Assistance. (1)(a) Pursuant to RCW 28A.200.010(3), the state board of education will provide a list of examples of normed standardized achievement tests that a parent may use to assess and determine whether their child is making reasonable academic progress.
(b) Tests on the list are approved by the
state board of education on the basis that they are normed
standardized achievement tests.
(c) Parents may contact the state board of
education office for assistance in determining if a test of their
choosing that is not on the list of examples is normed and
standardized.
(d) Parents may use a test that does not
appear on the list of examples if it has been determined to be
normed and standardized based on an evaluation by an organization
recognized by the state board of education.
(2) The list of examples of normed
standardized achievement tests shall be:
(a) Made available on the web page of the
state board;
(b) Included in the following publication
of the office of the superintendent of public instruction, "Washington's
State Laws Regulating Home-Based Instruction;" and
(c) Provided on request.
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