Annual Evaluation

The portfolio should illustrate the activities carried out by your child during the year. We recommend keeping it short, around 10 pages.

The portfolio can be printed or digital. Check out our Resources, for examples of portfolios submitted by our members. 

You can choose a few examples of activities or work carried out during the year. For example: written traces, photos, videos of a personal project, certificates, or any other document showing that your child has carried out activities or used resources. 

You can include items for which you don’t have a physical trace; you can describe one or more examples where your child has demonstrated his or her learning (for example, the fact that he or she regularly calculates change when buying things at the convenience store). 

Depending on the materials or examples you use, an example may combine one or more of the competencies or subjects/disciplines.

The law doesn’t define what a portfolio is or what it should include. We believe that parents should be able to choose the format that suits them best.

According to the law, the child’s progress must be commented on in the reports. There is no mention of progress also being discussed in the portfolio. Nor is there any mention of dated work, or of commenting on the educational intent of each activity. 

There is no mention in the law that the portfolio must include comments from the child. These requirements derive from DEM’s internal guidelines. According to AQED, since the parent is the evaluator of the portfolio, he or she should be able to choose the format and content of the portfolio in order to fulfill this requirement.

The DEM asks that: 

• Comments from the child be included.
• All traces are dated and should reflect current skills and abilities.
• There are three traces per subject.
• The parent’s educational intention is indicated for each trace presented for context.
• The parent provides an assessment of the child’s progress. 

The DEM has created a guide called Homeschooling Requirements: Guide for Parent-Educators, which includes  what is expected in terms of the portfolio. It can be found on the Secure Site. 

Ministry exams will be administered at any location deemed reasonable by the SSC or SB, according to its own procedures. For example, some SSCs or SBs group homeschooled children together in a room on their premises. In this way, all homeschooled children are together. In other SSCs or SBs, homeschoolers are integrated into neighborhood school classrooms, alongside students attending the school. You should find out what your service center or school board offers, and discuss it with them if you feel their proposal is not optimal for your child or your situation.

For students in grades 4, 6 and secondary 2, there is no impact on their educational journey if they fail. They can continue learning at home. The Ministry exam is one of the evaluation methods, and probably the least representative of what they have learned. 

If, on the other hand, your child plans to enter the school system, you’ll need to consult the school or school service center/school board to see if failure will affect his or her placement. Many young people in the school system fail the Ministry exams and continue their educational journey.

At the end of the correction period for Secondary 4 and 5 Ministry exams, a transcript is mailed to each student. The results can also be consulted in the Student Online Services. If your child fails a grade, a note to that effect will appear on his or her transcript. The note will explain your child’s options, which may include repeating the course, contesting the grade or retaking the exam.

For more information on single-test results, visit the Ministry’s website.

The Ministry has also produced a Parent Guide (FR) (please note this page is in French but English PDFs are available for the relevant exams in English).

Unlike the exams administered in grades 4, 6 and secondary 2, the exams administered in secondary 4 and 5 have an impact on whether or not your choice is to obtain a high school diploma (SSD) for your child.
For more information, please refer to the section on homeschooling in high school.

Yes, anyone with a valid teaching license in Quebec can evaluate a child, including their own child. 

In this case, it doesn’t seem necessary to write an evaluation report by the evaluator, since the parent and evaluator are the same person. The parent’s (and therefore the evaluator’s) observations are already included in the completion report.

AQED provides its members with une liste d’enseignants a list of teachers who are willing to offer this service and who are familiar with homeschooling. You can also ask anyone you know who has a teaching certificate or teaching license.

Yes, the DEM must verify that the evaluator is qualified. You must therefore provide the name, date of birth and license number of the teacher.

Typically, parents pay between $150 and $200 for an evaluation, and the price may increase slightly for the addition of siblings. Be sure to ask the service provider for details, as some can charge two or three times the amount you’ll find elsewhere.

The teacher’s report describes the child’s learning progress. It substantiates what has been observed in relation to the end-of-cycle outcomes. Are these expectations being met, or have they already been mastered? It can highlight the skills the child has developed and the challenges he or she faces. The evaluation document is usually one to three pages long.AQED provides its members with a template to help teachers write their evaluation