A Cyber Evaluation is a fast, easy and economical way to comply with Florida Law regarding annual homeschool portfolio evaluations. With a cyber evaluation there is no need to travel to meet with the certified evaluator or have the evaluator come to your home. As a result, the costs are much less because it saves you and/or the evaluator time travel time and fuel costs.
Sounds great! How do I get started?
1. Send the evaluator samples of your child’s homeschool portfolio. This can be done several ways:
- making photocopies and mailing the photocopies to the evaluator
- scanning the samples and emailing the samples to the evaluator
- taking digital photographs of the samples and popping your camera card into your computer and emailing the photos to the evaluator.
The basic idea here is that the evaluator has to see that work has been done by the student and progress has been made. Therefore, samples of work from the beginning and the end of the school year are necessary so that the evaluator can make a comparison and see the student’s progress.
2. Set up a time for your child to have an interview with the evaluator. This can be done several ways:
- by phone
- by Skype
- by Google Video or Voice Chat
The goal here is for the evaluator to speak with the student and ask questions about their work, favorite subjects, etc. This should be an easy, informal conversation. If the student is in the elementary grades, the evaluator may ask the child to read a few paragraphs from their favorite book or piece of writing.
3. Make sure that you have provided the evaluator with the following information:
- Student’s name as he/she is registered with the county
- Address on file with the county
- What county you are currently registered with
The best way to do this is by clicking on this link and filling out our easy online form: http://www.homeschool-evaluations.com/evaluation_request.htm
4. Pay for the service. Cyber evaluations cost $20 per child. This can be done several ways:
- Paypal (ccurtistucker@gmail.com)
- Check or money order (mail to: P.O. Box 65938, Orange Park, FL 32065
- Cash (mail to address above)
After these four easy steps are complete, then the evaluator will send you a copy of the portfolio evaluation letter via email. If you need, and the county allows, he can also email a copy of the letter directly to the county.
Tags: annual homeschool portfolio review, cyber evaluation, homeschool evaluation
Here are some quick tips to answer your questions about how to send samples of student work via email.
First of all, to accomplish this you will need a scanner, or if you do not have a scanner, a good digital camera.
If you are using a scanner, you have to choose what file format the scanner will output the image to. The best format to send samples is .PDF. This file format makes very neat, legible copies of the work and also keeps the file sizes low so that you can attach several files to an email at a time.
Most newer scanners will have the option to output the file as a .PDF via a button on the scanner, or in the scanner program itself. If your scanner does not have this option, then the next best file format to use is .JPEG or .JPG.
The JPEG is an image file and can tend to be a large file. DO NOT reduce the quality of the image to conserve memory, however. Doing so will only make it harder to see the work.
If you do not have a scanner, you can still produce JPEG files of your student’s work by using your digital camera. Take sharp, close-up photos of the work, one page at a time, using lots of light to make the images very visible. The most important thing is to make sure that the photo is nice and sharp.
Because JPEG images can be quite large, the best way to send the images is in batches. For example, send 5 – 10 images of math work in one email, then 5 -1o images of language arts in another email, etc. This also helps keep things organized and is a good idea no matter what file types you use.
If your student samples are easy to read and well organized, this will cut down the turn-around time for your evaluation. Missing work or work that has to be re-scanned will make the cyber evaluation take longer.
Tags: homeschool portfolio samples, how to scan samples of work
If you would like me to perform a Cyber Homeschool Portfolio Evaluation for your child, the following is necessary:
- Three dated samples of your child’s work from the beginning of the year for each subject studied, e.g. math, language arts, science, etc.
- Three dated samples of your child’s work from the end of the school year, for each subject studied, e.g. math, language arts, science, etc.
- A completed “Evaluation Request” form or an email with the following info:
- Your name and phone #
- Child’s name as registered with county
- Child’s address as registered with county
- Child’s current grade completed
- County you live in
- Any other info pertinent to your homeschool, such as instructional method, learning disabilities, curriculum used, etc. Whatever you think you is necessary for me to perform an accurate assessment.
- If the child is in the primary grades a phone interview is optional. During the phone interview I will ask your child to read aloud a paragraph from their favorite book or reading material.
You can either mail me the work samples or you can scan them and attach them to an email. You can even take some digital photos of the work and attach those to an email. Whatever is best and easiest for you. My email address is ccurtistucker @gmail.com.
In the state of Florida any certified professional teacher can perform a homeschool portfolio evaluation. Many counties ask that the teacher provide their certificate number on the evaluation letter. We suspect that this is so they can check to see if the teacher that performed the evaluation is currently qualified to do so.
In the state of FL it is possible for parents to also check online to verify that a teacher’s certificate is current. You can search by the teacher’s name, or by their Florida DOE number. Go to the following page on the Florida Department of Education website:
Florida Department of Education Certificate Lookup
Checking a certificate will save you time and aggravation later if it turns out that the teacher that evaluated your child does not have a current certificate. We have never heard of this happening, but it’s nice to know that this feature is available if you do need to use it.
Tags: certificate look up, fl teaching certificate, florida certified teacher
Portfolio evaluations have become more streamlined yet still effective with incorporating the Internet into the process. Besides making it very easy to find an experienced and competent evaluator by going to sites like Home School-Evaluations.com, the Internet is also helping us all save some time and money on traveling to various locations to do the annual portfolio reviews.
Scanning and emailing samples from the portfolios and then having an interview on Skype.com with the students makes the annual portfolio evaluations much more convenient and inexpensive. These types of portfolio evaluations are what we call a Cyber Evaluation.
Be sure to have your children to write their name and the date clearly on their work . You will also find some of the on-line curriculum/educational websites also lend to making the portfolio reviews streamlined and effective with the record keeping being done by the computer programs.
“All day long he is showing favor and lending; and his children are for a blessing.” Psalm 37;26
Tags: annual homeschool portfolio evaluation, annual homeschool portfolio review, home education, homeschool testing, homeschooling, homeschooling evaluation