The Testing Grounds

by Jill Miller Zimon

Across the United States, millions of kids go to public school, but millions of other kids don’t. In Ohio, more than 220,000 children attend nonpublic schools, compared to over 1.7 million in public schools. When parents entrust a child to private or parochial schools, or to themselves for home education, how do they gauge what their kids should be learning and whether they’re learning it? Do some parents and kids outmaneuver the assessment wave that’s washing over our public schools, or is it a necessary component for imparting knowledge to future generations?

According to Karin O’Neil, executive director of the Ohio Independent Schools Association, most of Ohio’s independent private schools use the state’s academic content standards and model curriculums, particularly for grades 6 through 9, because their students must pass the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) in order to get their high school diploma. "The OGT is where the rubber meets the road," says O’Neil. Even so, she adds, the schools take a variety of approaches. "Some schools have gone through their curriculum line by line to make sure the information is in there. Others take a more broad stroke approach and do a two or three week review session for the OGT," she says.

Public schools gear their material toward state exams and hope to get a good local report card in order to stay out of trouble with the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind. But independent schools construct their programs around a mission statement. Holly Scott, executive director of the Cleveland Council of Independent Schools, says that private schools let faculty and division directors create a body of work that reflects the students at the school.

Although exclusion from Ohio’s third through eighth grade tests lets these schools avoid being labeled with performance designations that range from Excellent to Academic Emergency, the schools do seek approval from the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS), an organization that accredits schools through a seven-year process. ISACS demands that its members meet specific standards and observe two fundamental principles: 1) disclosure of their mission, philosophy, program, staff qualifications, procedures and services, and 2) congruence between the school’s stated mission and its actual program and services. As described by Scott, the process culminates in "a massive written piece about the school, its strengths and areas where it could be improved; [this written piece] is viewed as a valuable tool for future planning."

The final judge of how well an independent school operates is its constituency. In contrast to public school districts that are legally required to educate kids and receive funding based on who lives in their area, private schools rely on tuition, often lots and lots of tuition. If parents and schoolchildren aren’t satisfied, the school’s very existence, not just its reputation, can be jeopardized.

Of the more than five million students nationwide who are educated in nonpublic settings, nearly 85 percent attend either a Catholic or other religious school. Like nonsectarian private schools, Catholic and other religious educational institutions that are chartered by the Ohio Department of Education cannot grant a high school diploma unless the student who wants to graduate passes the OGT. To implement state standards, parochial schools ground them in their religious philosophy and purpose, much like independent schools align standards with their mission statements.

Toni Marquard, associate principal for academics and curriculum at Saint Joseph Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school in Cleveland, says that her school embraces accountability. "We require each academic department to revise its courses of study to meet the state standards. They have been updating them for the last two years and continue to do so. To ensure accountability, we also require each department to give an end-of-course exam in each subject. Exam questions must test the objectives in the graded course of study. After exams are given and scored, each department analyzes the results and submits them to the administration for review," says Marquard.

Parochial schools often pursue accreditation as a way to demonstrate their commitment to accountability. Catholic schools report to the Ohio Catholic Schools Accrediting Association, an entity that requires its members to participate in a six-year cycle. Other religious schools, like Valley Christian Academy, a non-denominational K-6 grade school in Aurora, go through the accreditation process with the Association for Christian Schools International or any one of numerous other Christian-oriented associations.

While educators at public and chartered nonpublic schools must decide how their curriculums will incorporate Ohio’s academic content standards so that their students can pass the OGT, parents of the 60,000 Ohio children who are home schooled never have to make such decisions, unless they want to. Without the context of standards or accreditation expectations, how do homeschoolers know what their kids should be learning and whether they are in fact learning?

Generally speaking, home schooling involves very individualized, child-centered and child-led decision making, from the subjects that kids explore and investigate to the way they demonstrate mastery of that knowledge. Homeschoolers honor the belief that each child has different talents and will have different successes. While some parents may present material in a structured, subject-by-subject way to their child, others may see the home school experience as an extension of living life. Regardless of the methodology, Ohio law insists that, for informational purposes only, home schooling parents supply superintendents with information on what will be taught and what will be used to teach those subjects.

When it comes to assessing what a child knows, resources such as Home Education Magazine encourage parents to "discover what they [the children] are learning by spending time with them and observing the growth in their understanding. A standardized test cannot give you the kind of valuable information you will get simply by spending time with your children and observing them carefully." Parents often will know that a child is ready to move on when he or she asks for more, home schooling parents claim.

Despite this conviction, Ohio law requires parents who home school their children to submit assessment information via one of three techniques:

• Nationally-normed, standardized tests such as the Iowa, Stanford, and others

• A written narrative, also called a portfolio, that indicates academic progress aligned with the child’s abilities and is composed by an Ohio certified teacher

• Any other tool agreed upon by the parent and the superintendent of schools for the child’s district

The superintendent then has discretion to determine whether, based on the chosen assessment method, the child is demonstrating reasonable proficiency, needs remediation or should have his or her excuse from attendance at the public school revoked.

For better or worse, no matter the setting or the mechanisms employed – public schools and standards, nonpublic schools and philosophical statements, or a child’s home and personal portfolio – being subjected to an accountability system is a standard requirement of education in Ohio.

Jill Miller Zimon lives in Pepper Pike with her husband and three children. She can be reached through www.jillmillerzimon.com.