The Homeschool View
To Pass or Not to Pass … That is the Question
By Hunter Fell

October 14, 2010

I received an email from Barb Weathers (who may or may not be my aunt) loaded with questions about homeschooling. Among them, she wondered how homeschoolers know if/when we pass a grade level. This has an easy and a complicated answer, but here it goes...
The easy answer is that my mom decides whether to pass or fail me based on how I complete and absorb the curriculum she has chosen for that year’s course requirements. In Pennsylvania, certain subjects must be covered in the elementary and secondary years, but what curriculum you use, how you cover it, and if and how you are graded, is up to each homeschooling family.

What IS required; however, is proving that an “appropriate education” is taking place with “sustained progress in the overall program” … in other words, that you’re getting smarter as the years go by. Proving this; however, is the more complicated part of this question’s answer and something I will address in my next week’s column.

It may seem odd to someone who has always been in the traditional school system, NOT to receive an overall grade for a subject, but this is not uncommon for homeschoolers who tend to immerse themselves into a subject rather than just teach to the tests. My mom chooses to grade certain subjects to “prove” (mainly to herself) that the material is being understood; however, graded or not, if an area is not comprehended, we would stick with it before moving along in a course. Therefore, at the end of a school year, I may be perfectly ready to begin 10th grade math, needing to review 8th grade spelling (not a strength of mine), but able to move ahead to 11th grade science. I have homeschooled friends who have been held back whole grades or skipped whole grades, but many of us are grade mutts - varying in course skills within a grade level.

So, it still comes down to my mom’s decision of whether I pass or not, but she doesn’t have ALL of the control – at least not in PA where there are checks and balances; but again, that’s the more complicated answer which gets into homeschool laws and will be covered next week.

Until then, if you - like my Aunt Barbara - have questions or topic ideas, please feel free to email me at dillsburgbanner@dillsburgbanner.net and tune in each week to get my Homeschool View.