Teaching tools are scattered all over the internet:  spelling word lists, math squares, and even blank book report templates.  Search for an item, print it off, and hand it to your home school child to complete, right?  Well…right and wrong.  “Right” because sometimes you need a “ready-made” teaching tool to accomplish a task.  “Wrong” because before you can decide on what tasks your child needs to tackle, you need to assess his skills.  Remember that an authentic classical education involves teaching three skills to mastery:  language, thought, and communication.  Don’t put the cart before the horse.  First decide what skills need work, and then decide what tasks (like solving math square puzzles) will help your home school child master the skill.  Standardized achievement tests provide a snapshot in time of your child’s progress and needs by:

• demonstrating knowledge
• tracking progress
• highlighting strengths and weaknesses
• clarifying curriculum choices

Standardized tests like the IOWA and Stanford brands typically include questions in the areas of language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, and reference sources.  In developing the test by grade level, professional educators have identified certain basic knowledge or “content standards.”  When your homeschool child takes one of these standardized achievement tests, his responses are compared to the correct answers.  The resulting report shows (1) the total number of questions in each category, (2) the number of questions your child attempted to answer, (3) the percentage of questions your child answered correctly, and (4) the percentage of questions that all other children answered correctly nationwide.

Handy bar charts and statistics quickly tell the parent what areas need attention.  For example, math computation for the 9th grade IOWA test includes line items called integers, decimals/percents, fractions, and algebraic manipulations.  Each line item includes a detailed analysis so that the parent can quickly see that the homeschool student has completely mastered fractions but still needs work with decimals.  Does the test say that your child scores in the college grade equivalent for a certain category or with a national percentile rank of 95% or higher?  If so, this could be one indicator that your child has mastered spelling; you can drop the spelling work and move on to mastering another skill.  As a teaching tool, the achievement test results can guide you in planning the tasks that your child needs to tackle in order to master the three skills of the classical trivium.

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Have you completed my parent workshop called “Classical Education 101” yet?  This free parent course will give you another teaching tool to help you determine your own child’s skill mastery and come up with a strategic semester plan for teaching the three skills of the classical trivium.