It depends on where you live. In my state, homeschoolers are not required to test, but many still do. Because my son has learning differences (highly, almost profoundly gifted but also dyslexic) and because we don’t follow the public school scope and sequence, I won’t be testing him until the end of 6th grade. By then, he will have covered everything that’s taught in our public schools as well as much more.

Our kids are required to go through the SAT/ACTs for college, and they are eligible to CLEP or AP test out of any subject for college credit. Because of this, we generally do start testing them at least by Jr. High so that they will know what to expect.

Elementary kids in homeschool tend to be all over the board in their abilities, as they are usually allowed to develop at their own pace instead of whatever the school board requires, so many elementary homeschooled kids are not tested unless their state requires it.

Hope that helps!

Because every State is different in their requirements, you are going to get a lot of different answers.

So here is an answer from the State of Florida….. by law we do NOT have to subject our children to the tests that are taken in the School System ( unless they are in a Virtual or Umbrella School) and the ONLY exception to that rule is the SATs towards the end of High School as they need those to get into College.

I have made sure that I know what I’m talking about by checking the laws…repeatedly. I also was stressing over the fact that my little girl would have to sit for the FCAT at the 3rd grade level and as she has autism issues that hinder her reading (she CAN read it just takes her forever), I was worried. Come to find out that I was stressing for no reason since she doesn’t have to take the FCAT as long as I homeschool thru High School (one less thing to worry about).

My daughter does get evaluated every year and I do test her monthly on her subjects and she takes weekly mini-tests, but since we don’t have to worry about the Public School or Private School stuff….we go our merry little way.

Depends entirely on where they live. Some places have testing, others don’t. I’m 14, am home educated and have never taken any exams or school tests or anything. I haven’t yet decided whether I’m going to bother doing the HSC/TER or not (my country’s equivalent of the school leaving certificate/University entrance exam: the Bac, Lise Diplomasi, Abitur, Matura etc – it would make it heaps easier if I knew where in Europe you lived then I could use just the terms local to your culture!).

I have siblings who have chosen to take the school leaving certificate and others who chose not to and we’re all going great so no, for this homeschooling family (it’s probably more accurate to call us a family of “unschoolers”), exams are not a part of the homeschooling experience.

It depends upon the state homeschool laws, which vary from Idaho where parents are simply required to provide an alternate education in which the child is “otherwise comparably instructed” to New York where laws specify what subjects are to be taught, require annual notification, annual assessments and that records of immunizations, schoolwork and attendance be kept.

Many states require that testing be done at certain grade levels, but only a few require annual testing.

It completely depends on where you live and sometimes how you do the homeschooling. Typically, the exams are the same standardized tests given in schools. If you are doing some sort of home-study or online program, then they’ll be typical of school exams.

As many have said, it’s not required in every state. Each state has it’s own requirements, but in fact, the only standardized test that really matters is the ACT. That’s the one that gets you into college, and the admissions faculty won’t see the exams from along the years.

We plan on having our son take the PSAT through the Duke University program, and then analyze his weaknesses during high school, and work through his strengths before he takes the ACT.

Some states require them, but not ours.

We personally do not test our children until about high school age (16).

Over the years we see their progress, and if they do not know the material we stick with it until they do.

Testing rarely applies to home schooling unless it is in math, reading and language arts.

Our children/students learn at their own pace; meaning they do not follow the regular school scope and sequence, and often we have subjects that are not even offered in the conventional schools.

How would you test that?

You can purchase a CAT, or IOWA Basic’s test and see where your children are at if that’s important to you, but the testing for our children comes in the form of placement, SAT,and ACT tests to enter college; that’s all they need.

The exams for kids in in elementary and jr high are the same tests taken in public schools. Some areas give the option of taking the CAT or the IOWA. Public schools take the CAT. In high school, it’s different. There really is no end of year testing. I was homeschooled until 11th grade, then went back to public school, and depending on the state, I had to Clep every high school class for 9th, 10th, & 11th, before I was allowed back in public school. It was a pretty tiring ordeal, so if you’re not going to homeschool all of high school or at least until the last part of high school, I wouldn’t recommend homeschooling in high school at that level.

Yes. they are the same exams that are given to kids in public schools

depends on where you live, but most generally, the answer is no if you are referring to standardized state tests. The public schools use them for funding, so it is not necessary in homeschooling. But a lot of parents I know use them to gauge progress, basically as a “let’s not go below this”