STANDARDIZED TESTING

 

Georgia Law requires that students are to take a standardized test at least every three (3) years, beginning in the third grade.  Parents may give these tests yearly, if desired. Parents are NOT required to send in test scores to the county or to the state. In fact, school officials do not even want to see them. Keep them in a file designated as a permanent folder for each child. Tests may be obtained from our list of test suppliers.

Qualifications

In most circumstances, the test publishers require that these tests be administered by qualified examiners. Qualified examiners are usually those people who hold a baccalaureate (B.A., B.S.) degree from any college or university in any subject area. You do NOT need to be a certified teacher to test students. Some test publishers allow parents to administer tests to their own children; some allow this practice with other restrictions. Contact the testing service for their guidelines.

Restrictions

In order to ensure the reliability of their standardized tests, test publishers are very strict about who can purchase their products. For this reason, these publishers will only sell to distributors who closely regulate these tests. Certain conditions must be met in order to administer these tests. Groups or individuals who administer the tests must agree to meet these conditions.

How will I know which test to use?

Georgia law allows homeschoolers to use a variety of nationally standardized achievement tests. Your choice will most likely depend upon what is most available to you and what fits the needs of your students. The scores are more helpful if you consistently use the same test from year to year.

The subject matter and skills covered by the tests is standardized and, for the most part, quite uniform. Content is checked against widely used curriculum. Both textbook publishers and testing companies tend to contain fairly uniform content (they’re standardized!).  The curriculum you use should not make a significant difference in the outcome of your child's scores.

Where do I obtain a standardized test?

Please refer to our page of test suppliers to purchase standardized tests.