Working With Certified Teachers

Homeschooling families who wish to remain in compliance with Chapter 130, the regulations governing home education in Maine, must provide for an annual assessment of the educational program of each of their homeschooled children.  In our support group many families choose to work with certified teachers because, like the parents themselves, they come with a multitude of educational philosophies and are generally supportive of home education.  Also the alternatives are less appealing (academic examinations or an advisory board assembled by the local school superintendent).

The two certified teacher options for assessment are:
(3) provisions for a review and acceptance of the student's progress by an identified individual who holds a current Maine teacher's certificate....
(4) provisions for a review and acceptance of the student's progress through, but not limited to, a presentation of an educational portfolio on the student to a local area home-schooling support group whose membership for this purpose includes a currently certified Maine teacher or administrator....

In the first option parents seeking to work privately with a certified teacher locate one who understands and hopefully applauds their style of home education and make an arrangement with the teacher to sign a paper which in some way attests to the child's "progress."  For instance, the statement might read: "This is to declare that (name of child) has had a successful year of home education."  The teacher also includes a sentence or two describing the means of assessment.  This might be from personal knowledge of the child or from other means.

In the support group option parents may instead submit a portfolio to their local support group in which a certified teacher is in attendance for "review and acceptance" of portfolios for the purpose of annual assessment.  This should be a simple, positive experience for participants but in some groups it is unfortunately rather harsh, judgmental, and counterproductive.  It all depends upon the policies and procedures of the group and the educational philosophy of the certified teacher.

In looking for a teacher to participate in the assessment process support groups need to first determine their assessment philosophy and the process by which they will implement portfolio review.  MHEA members have asked us many questions.  What kind of portfolio must it be?  What are the expectations of support groups?  Are there any guidelines?  Should there be guidelines?  Can there be radically different kinds of portfolios?  Are all of them acceptable?  Who decides?  Is the teacher a participant or a leader in the process?  As always there are no clear and definite answers to most of our questions.  We must do some thinking for ourselves.

Put simply the state hopes that the annual assessment will answer basic questions: "Are families being responsible with the education of their children?" and "Does it seem to be working?"  Since it is difficult enough to find a generally agreed upon definition for the word "education," questions about home education have always presented problems for authorities, so it makes sense for the state to ask teachers rather than administrators to resolve these questions.  There are lots of teachers, and, according to the rationale behind their certification, they are supposed to be professionals - knowledgeable beings capable of independent thought.

If we must remain accountable to somebody who has been authorized by the state, teachers might be just the right people for us and for the state.  Teachers, most of all, are the people in the system who, as individuals, can be the most flexible about their responses to what they encounter.  Some teachers may turn out to be unreasonable and difficult, while others will be far-sighted and accommodating.  Most will remember that they became certified because it was a job requirement, not because it brought them any special wisdom, and they will rely more on common sense than on what they have been taught.

Some years ago when a Maine state advisory board made up of homeschooling parents, teachers, and administrators reviewed annual assessment portfolios the tendency of the board was always to give families the benefit of the doubt.  While the language of Chapter 130 is very schoolish, the state has avoided being narrow and dictatorial about the portfolio review process now that it is in the hands of local support groups.  Support groups and the certified teachers who work with them should strive to be at least as open-minded as the state.

Some portfolios are more schoolish than others.  They are from families who adopt and practice the traditional school models for their home education programs.  They are concerned with "grade level" and with demonstrating regular academic progress.  Other portfolios may seem more confusing because they ignore any reference to grade levels.  They may describe the many interesting and educational things that a child has done that year without reference to academic achievement as measured in tests and workbooks.  Some portfolios may consist chiefly of photographs and slides and craft projects and cookies.  There is no need for the support group to go on a quest in search of hard evidence of progress.  Provided that the portfolio is assembled and presented in good faith, in most cases it will be possible to determine that the child is learning, and no fuss need be made if it is not in the same way and at the same time that every other child is learning.

What if the portfolio demonstrates that the child has not learned very much at all in a particular subject, say arithmetic?  Well, sometimes that's how it goes, both in classrooms and in kitchens.  The child may be "ahead" of his or her peers in one area and "behind" them in another.  The support group is not required to decline to approve a portfolio on the basis of a lack of progress in one or more academic subjects or of not achieving "grade level" status in any academic subject.  Support groups who reject portfolios for these reasons are committed to rigid and harsh assessments that go far beyond the requirements of Maine regulations.  According to my conversations with state education officials, the support group portfolio review process is intended to be an opportunity for parents to be helpful and supportive to one another.  If your group is zealously judgmental you may wish to find or form another support group.

Somewhere between being overzealous and picky on the one hand and making a mockery of the process on the other, there is a middle ground where everybody can meet and feel reasonably positive about what they are doing.  If the support group encounters a portfolio which is inadequate beyond even the broadest interpretation of the regulations, perhaps nothing more than a scrap of paper, then it can politely decline to accept it.  This simply means that a family has not yet supplied enough information to satisfy the comfort level of the support group and the certified teacher who is working with the group.  If possible the terms should be explained and the family should be given a chance to come back with more material.

Support groups that plan on accepting portfolios should encourage discussions of the portfolio review process among member families and with the participating teacher or teachers.  Although the presence of a certified teacher is a required part of the assessment process, the teacher isn't automatically "in charge" of the process.  Ideally the group reaches a consensus about policy and implementation, and the teacher is an equal partner in developing that consensus.  Of course the teacher needs to feel comfortable about what he or she is doing, and the support group may need to help the teacher understand that portfolio acceptance is not intended to guarantee that a child is at grade level and knows everything that is taught at that grade level.

Homeschoolers and participating teachers should be aware that Chapter 130 does not require that elementary school students and high school students study and be responsible for all required subjects at all times.  Some of the academic subjects outlined in Chapter 130 are requirements for only a small part of the many years a child would normally spend in school.  For instance, both English and library science are listed among the requirements in the "elementary course of study" but while children are expected to be continually engaged in the study of English, there is no expectation that they will continually study library science.  According to the secondary school program requirements, the state allows that the learning of computer skills may take place as early as grade 7 or 8.  However this does not mean that there must then be evidence in every portfolio for the next 5 or 6 years that the child is still studying computers.

Finally, both parents and support groups should remember the interconnectedness of learning.  Many areas of academic study can be found together in one activity.  For instance a child may use a computer keyboard to write a letter to his friend about his interest in reptiles.  This single effort may involve scientific research, library skills, computer skills and language arts.  We can recognize that learning is not restricted to course work, and we can understand that learning that takes place outside of traditional schooling methods is not amenable to traditional assessment methods. 

When a portfolio has been reviewed and accepted by a support group, the group should then present the family with a document attesting to that fact.  It can be a simple statement, signed by the certified teacher, which acknowledges that the portfolio has been reviewed and accepted by your support group for the purpose of annual assessment under Chapter 130.  The teacher should include his or her Social Security number or note that it is already on file with the Department of Education.  The family makes photocopies of the document and sends one to the Department of Education, Department of Curriculum, State House Station 23, Augusta, ME 04333-0023 (Attention: Home Education Consultant).  Another copy goes to the local school department which files it away for informational purposes only, and the family keeps a copy for their own files.  This completes the process of annual assessment under Chapter 130.

If you don't care for the attitude of your support group toward portfolio assessment and there is no way that you can get it to modify its approach you can shop for another support group, or you can begin a local alternative support group, or you can make private arrangements with a certified teacher.  If there is no support group in your area offering portfolio review, then you may wish to join a support group outside of your area for this purpose.  If that is impractical then perhaps you and a few other isolated homeschoolers could pay a certified teacher to meet with you and others in your area for a portfolio.  For example if four or five families chip in to pay a teacher $100 for a portfolio day visit, it seems a real bargain for everybody concerned.

An alternative is for your family to make a private arrangement with a certified teacher.  The details of this arrangement are entirely dependent upon the agreement that you have with the teacher.  All that is required is for the teacher to be satisfied about the home education program and to sign a paper with words to the effect that your child has had a satisfactory year or has progressed to the next grade level. 

When members of our support group, the Southern Maine Home Education Support Network, meet each May for the annual portfolio assessment review, we have a wonderful time.  We ask that parents do not bring their children because we are there to learn from each other, not to inspect kids.  We are also there to celebrate and share our homeschooling adventures of the past year as well as to meet our annual assessment obligations under Chapter 130.  We do not get anxious about grade level or about anything else because we are not there to pass judgment on each other or on the lives of our children.  We know that these portfolios are only a small sampling of the experiences of our children and do not represent the totality of their lives.

As parents arrive they settle into small groups and immediately begin chatting and sharing the things they have brought with them.  Some people bring nothing but bookwork and others bring everything imaginable except bookwork.  The room is always noisy with talk and laughter as parents pass things from hand to hand and share their experiences.  At some point a certified teacher visits each group to sit for a while and chat with parents and look at the interesting and wonderful things they have brought with them and then signs the assessment paper for each of them.  One of the members collects a few dollars from each parent so that we can express our thanks and appreciation to the teacher for spending this time with us.  Afterwards we all go home feeling glad to have our paperwork finished for the year and inspired by the time we spent together.

Whether your arrangement with a certified teacher is private or in the support group setting you may wish to remind them that when they sign for the assessment they are not putting themselves or their certification at risk in any way.  The state is not asking the teacher to guarantee that your "fifth grade" child knows all state mandated fifth grade material by heart, but rather is asking the teacher to make a reasonable estimation that the child is receiving a broadly equivalent education.  Portfolio review is not meant to be an anxious experience for any of the parties involved, kids, parents, or teachers.

As long as homeschoolers are required by regulation to have oversight from the education community I believe that certified teachers are the best choice.  We can approach them as individuals, and we can choose from among them the ones who most closely agree with our education philosophies.  Also, the more that teachers get to know homeschoolers the better they can see the value of home education, and this can only help us politically.  Despite the posture of the National Education Association, individual teachers who have taken the time to personally know homeschooling families have become their warmest advocates.  As time passes, more Maine teachers are going to learn more about home education, and, best of all, they will come to know our children.  Once they know our children they will have no need to look further for the benefits of home education.

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