While I was serving on the committee to re-write the homeschooling regulations in Maine, one of the issues was the standards that would be used to evaluate homeschoolers.

 

They suggested testing, so I asked what the child’s test results had to be for parents to be  considered “okay."

 

They said they couldn’t give a number. I insisted that if there were no number, then it could not be enforced.  They countered that classroom   teachers have to decide who gets promoted to the next grade level, so somehow homeschoolers should be held to the same standard.  I asked again, “What is that standard?”   No answer.

 

Then I produced the results of a five-year study from another state that showed the minimum score for all children advanced to the next grade level by their public school teachers was the 18th percentile.  I told them homeschoolers could not be held to any higher standard than the public schools.

 

The issue was dropped, and to this day, testing for Maine homeschoolers is not required.