Parents who homeschool bear a responsibility that no institution bears for them. In a school, teachers are supervised, programs are reviewed, and outside agencies conduct evaluations against published standards. In a homeschool, the parents are the administration, the faculty, and the review board at once. This is not a weakness of homeschooling. It is its nature. However, it raises a question every serious homeschooling family must eventually face: How do we know whether we are doing this well?
Most parents answer that question by feel, or by comparison with public schools, with other homeschooling families, with the anxieties of the moment. None of these is a sound measure. Public school norms were not designed for the education we are pursuing; other families’ practices tell us nothing about our own principles; and anxiety measures only itself. What is needed is an examination conducted against the right standard: the principles of classical Catholic education that a family has actually committed to uphold.
The CLAA Homeschool Self-Evaluation provides that examination. Its standards are drawn directly from the Complete Guide to Study in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, organized into eight domains covering the whole life of a homeschool: the governance and philosophy of the parents; the order, habit, and discipline of daily study; the student’s growth in independence and responsibility; the curriculum and its rigor; faith and moral formation; vocational discernment; records and credentials; and the lifelong pursuit of wisdom. Under each domain, parents rate a series of indicators on a four-point scale — from “Not Evident” to “Very Evident” — recording the evidence that justifies each rating. The evaluation concludes with the identification of three Noteworthy Practices to be preserved, three Areas for Improvement to be deliberately addressed, and a simple improvement plan. Families who wish to track their progress over time may also calculate a CLAA Homeschool Quality Score, a single number that allows this year’s evaluation to be compared with last year’s.
This is a family evaluation, not a student assessment. It does not test children, rank them, or compare them with anyone. It examines the practices of the household — what the parents require, correct, maintain, and model — because in a homeschool, the quality of the education and the quality of its governance are the same thing.
The evaluation is also entirely private. It produces no grade from the Academy, confers no certification, and is never submitted to anyone. Its value lies wholly in the honesty with which it is completed. Parents who rate themselves generously will produce a flattering document and learn nothing; parents who rate themselves candidly will see, perhaps for the first time in writing, exactly where their homeschool is strong and where it needs work — and will have, before they finish, a concrete plan for addressing it.
We recommend completing the evaluation once or twice each year, keeping the completed copies, and reading them side by side. A homeschool, like a student, improves through steady work, honest correction, and perseverance over time. This tool exists to make that work visible and that correction deliberate.
The self-evaluation is most profitable to families who have read the Complete Guide to Study in the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, from which its standards are drawn.
If you have any questions or need help using this tool, please contact me.
God bless your studies,
Mr. William C. Michael, O.P.
Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
