STANDARDIZED TEST

Your Home School's Chief Administrator is required to give a standardized test to all of their students each year. Once the Home School has filed its Notice of Intent with DNPE, every student must be tested within the first 12 months of your home school's opening date. This date is shown on your Registration Approval email from DNPE and this date can also be found by logging into the DNPE Portal. All students must continue to be tested once during each consecutive 12-month period - regardless of the student's age or abilities. It is recommended that students are administered the test each year during the same month valid comparison purposes,.

 

There are many standardized testing options available.  Just like selecting a curriculum, parents get to choose the testing option that works best for their family and student. Each test covers English grammar, reading, spelling and mathematics. There is an out of pocket cost for the test and DNPE does not provide funding or any sort of reimbursement.
If needed, some vendors may "loan" a test to you.

 

North Carolina does not prevent parents from administering tests to their own students, if the test publisher allows this practice. Some tests may be administered within the home and others require a certified administrator with specific credentials. Depending on which test you choose - testing can be done online or by paper and can be a timed or untimed test. There is not a minimum score requirement on any nationally standardized test for any home school student. Administrators should not mail test scores to DNPE unless specifically requested to do so. However, a place is provided on the DNPE Portal for your Chief Administrator to record the date of annual testing if desired. No scores are reported in this log, only the date testing was conducted and the type of test used. The test results must be kept on file at the Home School for at least one year; however,  DNPE recommends to never discard any test scores.

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 Below is a list of standardized test that Home Schools in North Carolina use most often; however, there are many others available to choose from. It is the responsibility of the parent to confirm that a test meets the state requirements. It's recommended to pick the grade that your child will be going into the next year for testing.

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• *ACT (with Essay Optional)
  ACT Practice Test: https://blog.prepscholar.com/complete-official-act-practice-tests-free-links
  The ACT & PreACT are composed of English, Reading, Math and Science, as well as an optional Writing Test.

• BASI  

• *Brigance  - Parents can rent and administer this test at home, good option for special needs students .

• *CAT - California Achievement Test (For all states, not just California)
  This is one of the most popular testing choices, it's simple & inexpensive. You can choose an online or paper test. The online test will give results quicker. You can choose the timed or untimed version of the test. There is approximately five sections that can be broken up over five days with the untimed test. Practice test are available. This test can be ordered from,
  Family Learning Organization: https://familylearning.org/testing/cat5-survey
  Christian Liberty Press: https://www.shopchristianliberty.com/special-service/
  Academic Excellence: https://www.academicexcellence.com/achievement-tests/

• CLT

• CLT3-8

• CLT10  

• *IOWA (ITBS) - Iowa Standards (Form E)
  The IOWA Test is easy to administer at home. It's inexpensive and simple to order the materials.
  This test can be ordered from: www.Setontesting.com

• *MAP  - Another commonly chose test. Can be ordered from: https://homeschoolboss.com

• PASS

• *SAT (with Optional Essay)
  The SAT & PSAT tests are composed of Reading, Writing and Math.
  Practice SAT Test: https://blog.prepscholar.com/complete-official-sat-practice-tests-free-links

• Stanford  

• Terra Nova  

• Test Point  

• WIAT  

• *Woodcock Johnson
  This is another popular test choice as it provides more feedback. The test is administered one on one by a trained administrator. There are no bubbles to fill in on an answer sheet and many oral sections that don’t require writing by the student. The test starts low on each sub-test and then keeps asking the student questions until they can no longer answer. This helps identify the student’s strengths and weaknesses.
  The Woodcock Johnson test can be selected from: https://www.smarttesting.net/

• WRAT
   

 While there are other standardized testing options available, this is just a comprehensive list of nationally
known tests. It is the responsibility of the parent to confirm that a test meets the state requirements.

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This link provides a list of vendors whom you can purchase the test from.

https://www.doa.nc.gov/divisions/non-public-education/home-schools/standardized-testing

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