Onerous? Not really. The ones we took took a whole Saturday and $60 per child. A decade ago. It can be a considerable expense. Now I think some homeschoolers were permitted to take the assessment that the local schools gave but most of us chose to take a different test that we thought was better (1 day as opposed to 3, and more focused on assessment).
I do have a knee jerk reaction against more regulations but I’m more in favor of once a year or less testing than of anything else.
$60 each?? Good grief!
I do think that if homeschoolers are required to take a test, they ought to be given the option of taking the one the local district takes at no charge.
In my state, we oppose testing, too, because what our children study can be completely different than what schoolkids their age are studying at the same time.
For example, one of my sons started at a higher level math and worked backwards. He learned algebra at age six before he learned to tell time and count money. Unusual? Yes. But every child is unique.
It is ironic how teachers and teachers’ unions fight against testing and the NCLB, but for some reason they believe homeschoolers need to be brought in and tested. As you pointed out, we homeschoolers do test our children and sometimes pay to have them tested independantly. We’re being responsible for our own families. The public schools need to be held accountable to us because we pay their bills, not the other way around.