Homeschooling parents are generally exquisitely in tune with their children’s academic progress, and I’m happy to meet with you and your children for an end-of-year evaluation, as my own homeschooling and work schedules allow.

An evaluation, which is one alternative to submitting standardized test scores, satisfies Virginia’s Home Instruction Statute requirement for annual evidence of progress.

Parents I have provided evaluations for have told me they and their children look forward to the experience and find value in our process, beyond just meeting the state requirements. I always enjoy learning something from each family.

Various Homeschooling Methods
I provide evaluations for homeschoolers who use a wide range of approaches to homeschooling, from those who use a formal curriculum to those who focus on living a learning lifestyle.

How Does it Work?
You contact me, and I send you an introductory packet of information. After reviewing the information, if you’re interested in scheduling an evaluation meeting, I send you an e-form that you complete and email back to me, detailing the educational progress of each child. We set a date to get together, so I can review your child’s work and educational progress with you and your child.

Following our meeting, I write a letter outlining your child’s progress. You are responsible for submitting the letter to your school division by August 1.

My process is for parents who want an authentic evaluation, who appreciate that my approach is high-touch, and who understand that I will take considerable time in crafting a personal letter of evaluation for each child. In other words, I am not providing the fast food version of evaluations.

Schedule an Evaluation
I schedule nearly all evaluation meetings each year in March, April, May, and June.

Evaluation meetings can be conducted in or near your home or in my community. Travel fees apply when I come to you unless you live in Greene County, Charlottesville, or parts of Albemarle County — or unless you arrange to meet me in the Richmond area when I already have business scheduled there.

Frequently I can do evaluations for a number of families at or near the same location or along the same route, and the travel fee can be split among all the families who participate.

Your homeschool group, co-op, or friends may want to work together to set up an evaluation day with me at one family’s home or at a park or community center to reduce the per-family cost.

We might also be able to schedule a homeschool workshop in conjunction with your homeschool group’s evaluation day.

July Evaluations
July meetings are difficult for me due to family travel and the impending August 1 deadline for submitting evaluation letters — I’m busy reviewing homeschoolers’ documentation and writing letters during the few weeks I have available in July. To accommodate the rush, I charge $50 extra for evaluation meetings conducted during July, since I do understand that sometimes the need for an evaluation comes up unexpectedly. However, I am not always able to meet with all those who seek a July evaluation. It’s worth checking with me, but the best advice is, schedule early!

Online/Computer Documentation, E-Portfolios, Blogfolios, and E-valuations
Homeschoolers today often use blogs, Goodreads, and other forms of electronic documentation to keep track of their children’s educational activities and progress for the purpose of evaluation. I am happy to work with homeschoolers who choose this form of documentation, including conducting virtual evaluation meetings.

If you use online documentation of your child’s work, it’s important that your way of documenting is user-friendly for the evaluator (me). If you plan to submit an online portfolio for a future evaluation with me, it’s best if you consult with me ahead of time, so I can suggest how you should structure your blog or use other online tools. I may not be able to use your online portfolio as an evaluation tool if it does not provide the information I need in a format I can use. Please ask before you spend a year “blogging” in a way that does not result in documentation that works for an evaluation. I’ll be glad to help.

If you do use online documentation, you will still need to complete a little electronic “paperwork” for me, but you will not need to recreate a portfolio on paper.

At this point, most homeschoolers using computer documentation are choosing a “hybrid” form of evaluation, using online documentation (such as with a blog) but an in-person meeting.

If your homeschool group has members interested in creating online blogfolios, consider scheduling me for my workshop “Blogfolios and E-valuations,” so lots of you can learn at once about how to create an effective electronic portfolio.

By the way, these electronic portfolios can be made with free blogging software, and it’s a really satisfying experience even outside of the end-of-year progress requirement.

Special Needs Children
I do not have expertise with special needs children other than a layperson’s understandings of some common learning disabilities and attention challenges. Please consult an educational psychologist if you need your child to be screened for learning disabilities in order to receive accommodations or services. I recommend parents of children with severe or less common disabilities seek an evaluator with training and experience in special needs.

On the other hand, as a homeschool evaluator, a homeschool parent, and a former college faculty member, I’m comfortable working with children, teens, and adults who have a variety of learning styles, attention proficiencies, interests, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

My goal is to appreciate each child as an individual and express his or her progress and learning activities with detail and clarity.

Read more about my evaluation process at my personal blog here. (I will move some relevant evaluation content here to the Engaged Homeschooling blog in the future).

For additional information, to inquire about fees, or to schedule an evaluation, please use the contact form below. Please tell me

• when you want an evaluation (year or month/year)
• where you live
• how many children you want to have evaluated
• the children’s grades or ages
• and, if you want, a little about your homeschooling