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For 28 Years The Teaching Home Has Been Providing Families
Information, Inspiration, and Encouragement from a Distinctively Christian Perspective.
Cindy Short and Sue Welch, Co-Editors
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 At the age of 16, Patrick
was kidnapped by pirates and taken to Ireland
as a slave. There he found God while herding
pigs. After escaping, he returned to his home
in Roman Brittan. Later he returned to
Ireland as a humble and brave missionary. • Read more about
Patrick in the online
article, "Will the Real St. Patrick
Please Stand Up?," the story of St. Patrick's
life taken from his Confession, which
concludes: "By the time of his death, Patrick had
baptized tens of thousands and established
hundreds of churches throughout Ireland. Within a century, this once pagan land
became predominately Christian, possessing
such a vigorous faith that Ireland in turn
sent out missionaries to Scotland, England,
France, Germany, and Belgium. "As an old man, Patrick looked back in
awe. "'Those who never had a knowledge of God
but worshipped idols and things impure, have
now become a people of the Lord, sons of
God.'" • Read a shorter
account online
for children of Patrick's life—how he
was not Irish nor Catholic, and how he used
the shamrock to explain the Trinity. • St.
Patrick's Breastplate: Read
this poetic prayer, listen
to and see it sung in an Irish setting, and
study
the vocabulary, geography, and comprehension
questions. • Free 23-Page
E-book from
Living Books Curriculum, St. Patrick's
Day Holiday Helper. This e-book has a biography, rare
illustrations for picture study, a recipe for
soda bread, and an essay you and your
children won't want to miss, "The Real St.
Patrick," which begins: "Most American Christians are unaware of
the true story of St. Patrick. He was
one of
the greatest missionaries of all time,
evangelizing all of Ireland, and then training up
leaders who went to a Europe that had fallen
into the Dark Ages after the collapse of the
Roman Empire. Patrick's disciples
re-evangelized all of Europe." • More
information and activities: Annie's
St. Patrick's Day Pages and Love
To Learn Place.
• Confession
of St. Patrick. Read the
complete work online,
or order and view the video, "Confession of
St. Patrick," from Audio
Memory. March Is Irish-American Heritage
Month |
In March we acknowledge the contributions
of Irish-Americans to our nation (see the President's
proclamation). You may want to celebrate with an Irish
meal:  • Bake
Irish soda bread. • Make
Dublin Coddle (an easy and hearty stove-top
casserole). See the book How
the Irish Saved Civilization by
Thomas Cahill.
Order
Easter tracts now to use in spreading the
good news of our Savior's death and
resurrection. "He was delivered up for our
trespasses and raised for our justification."
(Romans 4:25)
Learn more about a major convention
in your state by linking to the sponsoring
organization's website below. States A-HAL:
May 9-10;
AK: April
17-18; AZ:
July 17-18; AR:
May 15-16;
29-30; CA:
April 24-25 / July 9-11; CO: June
18-20; CT: June
12-13;
FL:
May 22-23; GA:
April 30-May 2 States I-MID:
June 12-13; IL:
June 4-6; IN:
April 3-4; IA:
June 5-6;
KY:
July 19-20;
LA:
April 24-25; MD:
April 17-18; MA:
April 24-25; MI: May 15-16; MN:
April 3-4; MS:
May 15-16; MT:
May 15-16 States N-O
NE:
March 27-28; NH:
May 22-23; NJ:
May 29-30; NM:
April 16-18; NY:
June 4-6; NC:
May 21-23; ND:
Mar. 19-21; OH:
June 25-27; OK:
May 1-2; OR:
June 12-13; States P-WPA:
May 8-9; RI:
April 4; SC:
June 19-20; TN:
Various Dates; TX:
Various Dates; VA:
June 11-13; WA:
April 23-25; WV:
May 29-30; WY:
May 15-16 Canada
AB:
April 17-18; MB:
March 27-28;
NB:
June 5-6; ON:
April 24-25;
QC:
May 1-2 We trust that you find this newsletter
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Always-Relevant
Teaching Home Back IssuesFifty-one back issues are offered online
or by mail order. The information, inspiration, and
encouragement packed into
each back issue never goes out of date. They
are always
relevant, applicable to your needs today. Order securely online. A Matter of Facts
After discussing the difference between
fact and opinion and identifying both, our
7-year-old seemed to have grasped the
concept. A few weeks later, after an especially
fruitful day, I told our 7-year-old and our
4-year-old, "You two are the best daughters
in the whole world!" With a matter-of-fact look on her face,
our 7-year-old replied, "Now, that's an
opinion!" Submitted by Trava M., Texas. Send your humorous anecdote to publisher@teachinghome.com.
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schedule online at TeachingHome.com.
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Because we have been separated from God by
sin, Jesus Christ died in our place, then
rose to life again. If we trust Him as our
Savior and Lord, He will forgive our sin and
give us eternal life. "For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish, but have
eternal life." (John 3:16) "The Lord ... is patient toward you, not
wishing for any to perish but for all to come
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In This Issue
Achievement Tests, Part 1
Help Your Child Get His Best Score!
• Standardized Tests
and the Christian Worldview
• What Achievement
Tests Can and Cannot Do
• Common
Standardized Achievement Tests
• 3 Ways To Prepare
Your Child for a Test
Recommended Resources
• Hewitt Homeschool
Resources: PASS Test
• Common Sense
Press: Great Science Adventures
• Christian Liberty
Academy School System
• Beyond Phonics:
Word Pattern Stories
Greetings,
It's not too early to start preparing for
your children's yearly
achievement tests! Home-school parents who work closely with
their children every day usually know quite
accurately where their children are
academically and in many other areas. Standardized achievement tests, however,
can affirm both your child's learning
progress and your teaching ability. This
objective evaluation can encourage both of
you, as well as provide confirmation of your
success to other family members, friends, and
the state, where required. Contact your state
home-school organization or Home
School Legal Defense Association to check
your own state's laws and confirm: •
If your child is required to be tested and at
what ages or grade levels. •
What tests are acceptable and who can
administer the test. •
If and when you need to report your child's test
scores. •
If there is another method of evaluation
permitted, such as a portfolio of your
child's work or
an educator's appraisal. We trust that the information in this and
our next newsletter will help you make wise
decisions in this area of your child's
education. May the Lord bless you and your family for
His glory.
Cordially,
The Pat Welch Family, Publishers
Pat, Sue, Heather, Holly, and Brian
The Teaching
Home is a home-school, family-run
business operated in our home since 1980.
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In-home, Parent-administrated,
Low-stress,
Untimed Alternative for Achievement
Testing
|
Hewitt Homeschool Resources Offers
The PASS Test for Grades 3 - 8
The PASS Test (Personalized
Achievement Summary System) was developed for
home schoolers and includes many great
features in addition to being
parent-administrated, low-stress, and
untimed.
Get complete information on our website
or call 1-800-890-4097, M-Th,
8:00-4:00 Pacific time.
|
Standardized Tests
and the Christian Worldview
The ACSI/SAT Custom-Made Test
Steve Deckard, Ed.D., Assistant Professor,
Institute for
Creation Research states, "One aspect of
education where
evolutionary theory has had a stranglehold is
standardized
testing. This is especially true for
standardized science
achievement tests. "These tests have been written from a secular,
humanistic, and evolutionary world view.
Because of this inherent
bias, young people educated in evangelical
Christian private or
home schools which teach creation science are
at a distinct
disadvantage. "This situation is changing. Association
of Christian
Schools International, in cooperation with
the developers of the
Stanford Achievement Test series, introduced
in the fall of 1995
a special Christian School Edition of the
Stanford Achievement
Test. "The ACSI/SAT Christian School Edition is
known as a
custom-made test. The non-core questions use
a Biblical
and traditional-values approach with
illustrations, examples, and
stories." Also included in the ACSI/SAT is a
Bible Assessment
subtest. (Read
more.) Home-school families may have access to
the ACSI/SAT by: • Testing at a ACSI-member
Christian school. • Your support
group can become an ACSI member if it has a
paid administer and meets other criteria
(call 800-367-0798)
and can then order the tests.
Recommendations
Inge Cannon, of HomeSchool
Transcripts, observes, "As the culture
moves in the direction of secularism and away
from any
demonstration of Biblical values, Christians
will find the gap
between what they are teaching and what the
tests measure to grow
increasingly wider." Inge goes on to recommend that home
schoolers: • Take only the
basic battery (reading, math, language arts)
and avoid the additional tests that make
up the complete
battery (science, social studies, and at
lower levels, the
environment) if they must take a
standardized achievement
test. • Strive to
change state home-school laws to reflect this
option or to allow for other forms of
evaluation.
Great Science Adventures
Make Learning Relevant and Exciting
|
The Great Science Adventures
books contain activities and basic content
appropriate for grades K-8 – perfect
for multilevel teaching!
With excitement and creative illustrations,
each book includes everything you need for 24
lessons.
Nine Books are available:
• Atoms, Molecules, and
Matter • The Ocean
• The Human Body
• Earth's Landforms
• Light and Sound
• Plants • Tools
and Technology • Space
• Insects.
Learn
more: View Table of Contents, Sample
Lessons, FAQs
|
What Achievement Tests
Can and Cannot Do
Remember that a standardized achievement
test cannot
measure the sum total of your child's
progress. It is only one
assessment tool with limited value.
What Achievement Tests Can Do
• Measure your
child's ability to recall certain facts, basic
skills, and concepts common to the grade
tested. • Compare your
child's scores with other students' scores. • Assess your
child's year-to-year development of learning,
if the same test is used for several
years. • Help you
determine your child's academic strengths and
weaknesses, as well as the effectiveness
of your curriculum,
teaching methods, or emphasis, when
results are combined
with your own observations.
What Achievement Tests Can't Do
• Tell you if
your child has achieved academically to the level
of his ability. • Measure your
child's intelligence or the many other skills
and abilities not on the test. • Replace your
own informed evaluation of your child's
knowledge and skills, gained from your
daily observation of
his work and more thorough and frequent
review questions.
 Christian
Liberty
Academy
School
System
Can Help You Succeed in Homeschooling!
Since 1967, CLASS has provided families
with a flexible, affordable program –
offering Godly education and academic
excellence for K-12.
Our CLASS
Plan includes: • Books
• Teacher manuals
• Tests and answer keys
• Grading services and report
cards • Diploma and
transcript.
See our CLASS and Family Plan Comparison
Chart. Both plans provide
curriculum best fitted for your child based
on achievement test scores and other academic
information, as well as a math
email helpline, and an algebra
tutorial, at no extra cost.
|
Common Standardized
Achievement Tests
Following are the most commonly used
standardized
achievement tests. For more information
about each test, see the
test publisher's website links below. Check with your state or local home-school
organization for
local sources of tests and testing
services.
1. California Achievement
Tests (CAT/5, CAT/6) Published by CTB/McGrawHill. California
Achievement Tests, Fifth Edition (CAT/5)
and TerraNova,
The Second Edition • California
Achievement Test, 1970 Edition (more
demanding than recent editions) is available
from Christian
Liberty Academy School System.
(CAT/6)
2. Iowa Test of Basic
Skills (ITBS). Published by Riverside
Publishing. • ITBS and other
tests and assessments available from Bob
Jones University Press Testing and
Evaluation.
3. Stanford Achievement
Tests (SAT), Tenth Edition. (Not to be
confused with the SAT college entrance exam.) SAT 10 and Stanford 10 - Abbreviated Battery
are now published by Pearson. • SAT and other
tests and assessments available from Bob
Jones University Press Testing and
Evaluation. • ACSI/SAT 10 may
be available from ACSI or ACSI-member
schools. (See "Standardized Tests and the
Christian Worldview" above.)
Comparison of the Stanford
and Iowa Achievement Tests BJU Press notes that both tests are
top-rated, nationally standardized tests that
evaluate thinking, and neither is more
difficult than the other. • Stanford
evaluates listening skills through grade 8;
Iowa through grade 2. • Stanford tests
are administered untimed; Iowa tests are
timed.
4. Personalized
Achievement Summary System (PASS) Tests The PASS Test was developed specifically
for home schoolers. As other achievement
tests, it estimates student achievement in
the subjects of reading, language, and math. Parents may administer this untimed test
in their own home. A pretest places your
child in the correct test level. • Available from
Hewitt
Homeschooling Resources.
5. Comprehensive Test of
Basic Skills, TerraNova (CTBS). Now
called TerraNova CTBS. Published by CTB/McGrawHill. • Available from
The
Sycamore Tree.
6. Metropolitan
Achievement Tests, Eighth Edition (MAT
8). Previously published by Harcourt
Assessment (see note in #3 above).
Revolutionary Language Learning!
Beyond Phonics Word Pattern Stories
|
It's Not Too Late for Poor Spellers!
All your children can catch up
or accelerate Spelling, Fluent Reading
and Vocabulary . . . quickly and painlessly with character-building,
phonics-based word family stories for all
ages.
Just one textbook covers grade levels 1-12;
remedial for all ages. Compatible with
all curricula and all learning styles.
Christian and general versions available.
Examples: ie -
"Natalie ate her cookie as she
walked on the prairie with her
collie";
ey - "We didn't have the
money to keep the monkey, so we
took the trolley ..." See
more samples.
|
3 Ways To Prepare Your Child
for a Test
It is wise to prepare your child for a
test and teach him
some basic test-taking skills.
1. Teach Subject Matter
The desire to do well on a year-end test
can provide added
accountability and motivation for learning
throughout your school
year. You will choose the material you teach
your child based on
more important criteria than passing a test.
In fact, much of
the most vital information you want your
child to learn will not
appear on a standardized achievement test. (See Newsletter
#81 about setting spiritual, academic,
social, and life skills goals and
objectives.) However, be sure to include all
information the test will
cover in your curriculum. • Create or buy
study aids for teaching and reviewing key
facts and information that needs to be
memorized such as flashcards,
checklists, outlines, and summaries. • Check out the
audio resources carried by Sing 'n
Learn that help your children learn and
review basic information.
2. Provide Perspective
• Don't overplay
the test's importance. • Help your child
approach his test with confidence and a
positive attitude of doing his best. • Explain that
this test is to show how much he knows and
that he is not expected to know everything on
the test, although he might know most of
it.
3. Administer Practice Tests
A practice test will increase your child's
self-confidence
and reduce his test anxiety. • Use a practice
test to familiarize your child with testing
formats, directions, strategies, and sample
questions (not exact questions) similar to
those found in the test. • Use the
practice test written specifically for the
test your child will be taking.
Benefits of Practice Tests
A reader writes, "I have found it not only
helpful, but
almost essential to go through practice tests
with our children
well in advance of the test itself. "We always find something just a little
different from what
we studied, and this gives us time to
prepare. "Two different tests are even better, for
the same reason,
and help children become more at home with
different wording and
formats."
Sources for Practice Tests
Practice tests are available for various
standardized tests
at different grade levels from the following
suppliers. • "Achieving Peak
Performance" by Curt
and Jenny Bumcrot • "Test for
Success" and "Better Test Scores" Bob
Jones University Press Testing &
Evaluation • "Spectrum Test
Prep" from Timberdoodle
Company • Various
products from Sycamore
Tree
(see "Test Preparation" under "Store
Directory") • Free Online State
Practice Tests
Selecting a Testing Administer
A reader writes, "Our children do very
well in a private
testing situation in the administrator's
home. "Ask your local Christian home-school
support group leaders
who is qualified to administer standardized
tests in your area. "Arrange a brief get-acquainted interview
in the
test-giver's home. Look for someone who is
patient and kind with
young children and who believes in home
education. Then make an
appointment for the test. "Have your child take his test early
enough to retake it if
necessary after you see the results."
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