Our Year-End Reports

Yesterday, Leah asked about our year-end reports: 

"A slightly unrelated question regarding the end of year reports you have to do. In my state, we don't have to do a report but I'd like to do something for my own records. Is yours a narrative, a list or a form? I'd like your ideas on it since you've been doing it for awhile. I think it would help me put away the old year and start on the new."

Leah, this is a great question, I'm so glad you asked!

In my state (Massachusetts) there are four options for evaluating a homeschooled student: standardized testing, year-end reports, a portfolio of work samples, or progress reports. The town superintendent and the homeschooling parent must agree on one of those four choices.

I have always chosen to submit a year-end report because I write this up for myself anyway. I like to write - it helps me process - and I feel it's the best way to truly show what and how we did through the year. The report is mostly a narrative piece, but it's organized in a very particular way. I've followed the same format every year we've been homeschooling - and we start our 12th year next week!

{Now to be honest, I may be a bit rusty - to the best of my knowledge, this is the current law in my state. Massachusetts homeschoolers, if I'm off-base, please feel free to chime in!}

So our reports look something like this:

End-of-year Report, 2011-2012

Bookworm

{I begin with a brief introductory paragraph, a general comment on the overall year. For example, this year I talked about Bookworm's SAT scores.}

Math

Language Arts

History

Science

Etc.

(Etc. includes art/music, foreign language, any interesting learning experiences, volunteering, activities and clubs)

Underneath each heading I talk about the resources he used and how he progressed: Bookworm continues to enjoy his Saxon Math curriculum. He is looking forward to starting Calculus in the fall. I also mention anything we added that was not part of the original plan: Bookworm joined a monthly British Literature discussion group. Please see reading list below ...

Because our town is very "pro-testing," I make sure to mention any testing (aka evaluating) we did as part of our curriculum: Every 10 lessons Bookworm took a cumulative test. Any errors were reviewed and corrected before moving forward.

When I sit down to write the reports, I refer to the ed. plans I filed the previous summer. Then I go through our weekly file folders, the classroom in-basket, my monthly calendar, this blog, etc. to remind myself what we did differently than, or in addition to, our original plans.

I always use the previous year's reports as a framework (just saving them as a new documents and then changing up the information). It really doesn't take long to do - I always think it's going to take me forever, and so therefore, I procrastinate - but then in just one focused day I'm done with it all.

And as Leah said above, it does help me put the old year to bed and start a new year feeling fresh. It's also a nice way to remind myself that even when it seems like we didn't get enough done - or what we meant to get done - once I start writing I realize just how much we accomplished!

So I'm finding these reports (and our ed. plans) to be very helpful. When the boys were younger I shared the reports with family members who wondered just what we did with our time. (That was another reason why I started this blog!) And recently I used the reports to work up a high school transcript for Bookworm when he applied for dual enrollment at a local college. Using the end-of year reports and the yearly ed-plans it was pretty easy to pull one together.

I keep a hard copy of the reports on file as well as a digital copy on my laptop. This year I'm hoping to be a bit more proactive by sitting down each week to jot down a few notes. In fact, my current lesson planner has a page specifically devoted to this weekly reflection. I think it would make my year-end reporting easier and more accurate.

So I hope this post has helped you a little Leah ... please let me know if you have any other questions. I'm happy to help when I can. :)

Blessings to all my readers ... enjoy the rest of your day!

I will see you all again very soon ...

❤