Buried in an article on The Block Island Times website about school budgets is this section on homeschooling:

Home-schooling requests

A policy developed last year requires parents who seek to keep their children out of school for more than six consecutive days to apply to home-school them.

Hicks noted he has received a number of such requests.

McGarry asked Hicks if he approved of the policy, and Hicks acknowledged that initially he was skeptical about it. However, he said that he came to understand the need for parents to take vacations during the school year because they must work throughout the summer season. The policy began to make more sense to him, he said, because “it forces families to come and see the superintendent and the teachers and to think seriously about the academic program.”

He submitted requests from three families: the first was from Gail and Jeff Ballard for home-schooling of their child from February 3 to 12; the second from Kate and Shea Butcher to home-school their children from February 1 to February 12, and the last was from Jennifer Brady Brown to receive permission to home-school her child for two days running up to the February vacation. All requests were approved.

It may be accurate, given the Iowa’s “home-school assistance programs” to call tis homeschooling but it is a problematic use of the term ‘homeschool’. Yet, there it is, schools being sensitive to the needs of families. Good for school families, bad for blurring the lines between homeschooling and public school.

Source article.

A lot of issues come to the fore in this piece, which as I read, is at the top of the site’s “Most Viewed Stories” list ahead of ISU beating Nebraska, a plane crash, and a shooting of a mountain lion. That is interesting in itself.

Some excerpts from the piece that caught my eye:

Legislative leaders created “home-school assistance programs” two decades ago to keep the government’s foot in the door of what was then a controversial form of education.

Most of Iowa’s estimated 30,000 home-schooled students do not want the help. They believe the government has no place in their schools. But nearly 5,000 parents, including Fidei’s mother, appreciate the assistance.

~~~

“I think some people mistakenly think if there are no home-school assistance programs these children would come back to public schools, and that’s just not true,” said Mid-Prairie Superintendent Mark Schneider.

~~~

Home-schooled students who receive taxpayer support are not required to take standardized tests, like their public school counterparts.

The children also are not considered public school students in the eyes of the law, which sets Iowa apart from other states.

“We believe that home-schooling works best when parents are truly in charge,” [Scott] Woodruff said. “The defect of the home-school assistance program is that the public school is, in fact, in charge.”

That distinction has driven a wedge between Iowa’s “public” home-schoolers and their private counterparts.

Read the article here.

Writing for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Daveen Rae KurutzIn portrays the disctinction between homeschooling and cyber charter schools right.

“The advent and success of cyber charter schools has had a huge impact on our students,” said Charles Machesky, superintendent of Uniontown Area School District, where homeschool enrollment dropped by half in five years. “We’ve got six or seven cyber schools sending us bills, and some of those are in place of homeschooling.”

Homeschooled children are taught using a curriculum the parent fashions. The state Department of Education does not consider children enrolled in cyber schools as being homeschooled.

While “homeschooling” comes off a bit odd in the title, (In-home schooling popularity slipping across state), research tying homeschooling to standardized testing is cited and a few mythical assumptions are made, it is still good to see this article.

Oh, yeah. The numbers make more sense too. But that seems to follow getting the distinction right.

Read the entire article here. Read more about NHERI research here.

The title and subtitle tells us what the article is about.

Online High Schools Test Students’ Social Skills

As Digital Learning Programs Grow, Educators Hope to Prevent Teens From Feeling Isolated

Online high schools are growing more popular. Roughly 100,000 of the 12 million high-school-age students in the U.S. attend 438 online schools full-time, up from 30,000 five years ago, according to the International Association for K-12 Learning Online, a Washington nonprofit representing online schools. Many more students take some classes online, while attending traditional schools. The National Center for Education Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Education, says 1.5 million K-12 students were home-schooled in 2007, a figure that includes some who attended online schools. That is a 36% increase from the 1.1 million in 2003.

The part that caught my eye was how homeschooling was used in this line of reasoning:

Most online high schools are relatively young, and there has been little research on cyber students’ academic performance or social adaptation. But education experts say that studies looking at home-schooling suggest that students educated in nontraditional environments perform as well academically as their peers at conventional schools.

“When you look at home-school students compared to public or private school students, we have some reliable evidence to show that students are doing about the same but not better [in home school],” said Luis Huerta, a professor of public policy and education at Teachers College at Columbia University.

Researchers affiliated with home-schooling cite their own studies showing that home schoolers outperform their conventionally educated counterparts on standardized tests.

So readers are reassured that, as public education moves towards online schooling, we do not have to be afraid because homeschoolers are academically normal. I would argue we are ahead of the curve on thinking about kids and learning. But, isn’t it implied by this reassurance that homeschoolers are leading the way?

From this piece in the WSJ to a recent WaPo piece on a longer school year, the language surrounding reform has a familiar ring. The big difference is on the substance of assessment. Too bad so much effort and emphasis was put into those “researchers affiliated with home-schooling” who purposefully tied us to outperforming “conventionally educated counterparts on standardized tests.” If the same amount of effort had been expended on the message that we should trust parent and children with their own education we would be in much better shape to handle the push for Common Core Standards that will help drive a new round of reform.

I purposefully skipped the headline issue because concern about socialization is such a non-homeschooling issue. If you haven’t resolve the socialization issue for yourself the comments to Glader’s story are interesting. You can also search this site for more thoughts on the subject. Here is a place to start: The “S” Word.

An article in The Kansas City Star by Tim Engle is worthy of note and a thank you too. Engle starts his story, Virtual kids: Actually they’re real, but they go to school online describing the school day of eleventh-grader Philip Marten.

Marten’s second-hour class is orchestra. But first hour, third hour, fourth hour and the rest of his school day are spent not at school but at home in Shawnee.

Philip takes orchestra at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School because otherwise he wouldn’t be able to audition for all-state orchestra. But in his 16 years he has rarely darkened the door of a school building. Before high school, his parents homeschooled him.

Having been told that Marten’s day has a flexibility familiar to homeschoolers and now knowing he had homeschooled, I was not sure where we were going. The next subhead brought a bit of a surprise – a reporter getting the distinction between homeschooling and enrolling in a-school-at-home program right!

It’s not home school

The state of Missouri runs a virtual school, the Missouri Virtual
Instruction Program (www.movip.org), now in its third year. MoVIP, as
it’s known, started with 2,000 students and grew 30 percent its second
year. But this school year, enrollment is off about 20 percent thanks
to a $1 million state budget cut, says Curt Fuchs, Missouri’s
coordinator of educational support services. “We are now stalled
because of money,” he says.

But what exactly is a virtual school?

It’s not a home school — parents are the teachers and control the
curriculum in home schools — although like Philip, some home schoolers
have transitioned to virtual school. Virtual schools employ
state-certified teachers, who typically meet in “live” online sessions
once a week with classes. Teachers might use webcams or just microphones.

Thank you Tim Engle and The Kansas City Star.

In too many conversations I have found myself weighing the risk of sounding shrill against letting a misconception about homeschooling and public school program stand. We need more of these. Read the entire piece here.

A new pilot charter school has been approved in Indiana. “The home-school effect” came up in the Journal Gazette, just as it often does in much of this educational trend’s media coverage, potential vendors’ marketing points, along with many legislators’ concerns.

Charter schools set for online trial run The Journal Gazette

by Niki Kelly Published: July 19, 2009
Legislators included a significant restriction on the student population that could save money.

It says at least 75 percent of the students enrolled in the pilot had to be counted in the public-school enrollment the prior year. This means the state is already funding those students in some school district and the money will simply shift to the new charter school.

But if children who are currently home-schooled enter the program, they will cost the state additional money because those students aren’t covered by state funding now.

One legitimate defense is that homeschoolers do save the state money with our education/funding accountability. That might not be significant to those who want the control, but fiscal conservatives like the notion.

Former elementary school principal and current Sen. Connie Sipes finds the charter school curriculum satisfactory for homeschoolers.

It will be a good curriculum for home-schoolers,” said Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany. “We aren’t paying for them now, so it will cost us more money.

It might be a good curriculum for some homeschoolers, but certainly not all. We can be flexible in fitting the learning around our kids and their particular best education practice styles.

Lynette Quinn presides over the Indiana Families for Public Virtual Schools, and independent homeschoolers can appreciate the “Public” noted in the name. There leaves no doubt who is accountable for the education, financing and accountability.

Lynette Quinn, president of Indiana Families for Public Virtual Schools, discounts the home-school effect, saying many of those families want a Christian-oriented education with flexibility in curriculum that a public school – even a virtual charter school – can’t provide.

She also noted those students would then have to take the state ISTEP+ test.

But it appears that Senator Sipes has a more significant concern (to her); school socialization.

“Call me old-fashioned, but I just think it’s important for kids to be around other kids,” she said. “Learning to interact with one another, to tolerate differences, is part of going to school. I want kids and people in general to learn how to get along with each other.”

History lessons would surely show that socializing was fairly successful in the years before modern public education was conceived. Learning to interact with others, tolerate differences and learn how to get along with each other could be a more likely possibility when you’re not in a classroom surrounded by classmates of the same age and within the bounds of the community.

That is a “home-school effect” that has more possibilities in promoting free-range living and learning.

The off-handedness of the “home-school” reference in this AP piece on the New Jersey’s gubernatorial race caught my eye. More promises that increasing educational standards will lead to a quality education and a “home-school program” is in the mix.

A twist in education stances in NJ governor’s race

CAMDEN, N.J. – As it usually does, education is emerging as a key issue in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race.

But in 2009, there’s a twist , as seen by the candidates’ appearances Monday.

Republican Chris Christie was in Camden, the state’s poorest city, addressing a graduation ceremony for students who said with pride that they’d grown up in “the ‘hood.” Meanwhile incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine appeared in a suburb with U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Typically, a New Jersey Republican would play to suburban audiences, while a Democrat would focus on inner cities. But in this case, the venues mirror where the candidates’ key education policies play best.

Christie has been talking about failures of many urban school districts, while Corzine is promoting the state’s overall school system as among the nation’s best. In many ways, national data on school quality support both positions.

Christie is promoting state-funded vouchers that students in failing schools could use to pay tuition at private schools or at public schools in other communities. He also wants more charter schools to open in the cities.

“These kids are trapped in what everyone would agree is a failed school district,” Christie said after the ceremony at the Camden Educational Resource Network, which recognized about 200 students who had completed a home-school program. Most of the students previously had gone to Camden public schools.

That quote in the header was from a Cook County (Chicago) Circuit Court summary judgment in favor of the Chicago Virtual Charter School (CVCS).   Why were they talking about homeschooling in a virtual school judgment?  This week, the Chicago Teachers Union lawsuit claiming Chicago Public School/IL State Board of Education authorization illegalities was dismissed.  The well financed union claimed that the Chicago Virtual Charter School was actually “home based” homeschooling.

It’s been an ugly row, and somehow the Illinois homeschooling name seemed to be in the middle of this issue.  Both of these parties (the Chicago public schools, along with the CTU President, Marilyn Stewart) talked a good bit about “home schooling”.

Virtual charter school can receive public funds Chi Town Daily News June 12, 2009
BY ADRIAN G. URIBARRI

Marilyn Stewart, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, says the difference was not enough to merit public funding. Since students of the virtual school spend most of their time learning at home, she says, they are essentially home-schooled.

“For someone to take public funds to home-school their children is not right,” she says. “It should not be on the backs of a majority of our students who are in our public schools.”

As I read the excerpt below, Judge Riley seems to have made a solid, factual decision based on Illinois charter school statutes:

From a K12 Business Wire:

The judgment ensures the continued lawful operation and funding of CVCS.

The Court concluded that the Plaintiffs arguments fail as a matter of law. The Court determined that CVCS is not a “home-based” school and therefore not in violation of charter school law, and that the school is in full compliance with the Illinois School Code.
In the ruling, the Court emphasized the differences between the model of instruction employed by CVCS and traditional home schooling, stating:
“Home schooling is a well-known and established means of education.While the form of home schools may vary, the underlying substance of the education is decided by a student’s parents.Home schools do not have to teach according to ISBE’s [Illinois State Board of Education’s] mandated curriculum, nor are the students required to take standardized tests to meet the State’s requirements for basic skills improvement.CVCS, however, is required to teach according to the ISBE curriculum.CVCS students must meet the State’s requirements of the No Child Left [Behind] Act.CVCS is subject to fiscal oversight by the ISBE and CBOE [Chicago Board of Education].And, unlike home-schooled students, CVCS students are graded by certified teachers.”

The Chi-Town Daily News quoted the CVCS head:

“There are differences between the way we do education and traditional home schooling,” says Bruce Law, head of the Chicago Virtual Charter School. “On that difference — that’s where we were making our case.”

In this case, it was necessary for them to show that their school is different from homeschooling.  K12 is providing the CVCS curriculum, and the Virginia based company is also lobbying in our state capitol for a state-wide virtual school.  In 2002, K12′s chair made this case below about his hope that independent homeschoolers would put up and shut up.  (Bennett was also the Reagan administration’s Secretary of Education):

How William Bennett’s Public E-Schools Affect Homeschooling-Larry and Susan Kaseman
November-December 2002

The major differences between Bennett’s goals and those of most homeschoolers can be seen clearly in Bennett’s comments during an interview by Mark Standriff on WSPD radio in Toledo, Ohio, August 16, 2002.

Standriff: What kind of opposition have you folks found?

Bennett: We found opposition from both sides of the political spectrum. Some of the homeschooling people have opposed us.
Standriff: Oh really, I would think this would be right in line with their thinking.
Bennett: Well it should be. Frankly, I’m disappointed. I’ve been defending homeschoolers for twenty years. But the principle I’m defending, Mark, is school choice, parental choice. The objection they have is that it shouldn’t be involved in public funding, at all. It shouldn’t be involved with government schools, as they say. But, I’m not prepared to relinquish $400 billion and just say, well never mind, this is not money that I’m entitled to. Parents are paying that money in taxes, they should have an option within the public school system that gives them a chance to educate their children at home, but be publicly accountable as all public schools should be.

The Chicago Public Schools attorney had this explanation in a 2006 Chicago Tribune article about the Chicago Virtual approval:

Illinois law states that charter schools must be “non-home based,” which the teacher’s union argued would restrict the state from approving the virtual school. State Supt. Randy Dunn recommended the board deny the virtual school’s application based on the law’s language. But board members and proponents of the virtual school said that charter school laws enacted in the 1990s did not anticipate the growth of technology that has made virtual schools possible. Rocks, the attorney for Chicago Public Schools, said the restrictions on”home-based” charter schools mushroomed from concerns that home schools were trying to become charter schools simply to get public dollars. He presented letters from state lawmakers who voted on Illinois’ charter school law, and said their intent was not to block Internet-based schooling.

The legislators might have been been worried that Illinois homeschoolers were looking at public monies, but I have seen little evidence of that.

The union voice from Ms. Stewart is harsh.  Chi-Town Daily News: Teachers union pans virtual classroom plan July 17, 2006
BY JENNIFER KOONS

“For them to think they can address the social and emotional issues of a child without being in the same room as that child is ludicrous,” Stewart said. “You can only adequately address these issues in a classroom where you have necessary peer support and peer interaction.”

Stewart expressed concern about a lack of interaction between students and educators.

“Qualified teachers are only providing 20 percent of the lessons,” Stewart said. “Who are the certified professionals who will supervising the students when they are off-line?”

She wasn’t done there.  The Southwest News Herald had a 2006 article (not available online) quoting her union concerns about children learning at home via the Chicago Virtual Charter School:

“How are students to model behavior with a computer screen,” said Stewart.

They’re in their home, dear.  The 8 year olds don’t need to model their behavior after the 8 year old in the next door desk.

But everything, including grading, she said, is being done virtually. And Stewart is unhappy that there is “no direct supervision.”

What, Stewart asked, if there are three or four children in a household enrolled in the virtual school? Are there going to be three or four parents watching the children?

“And who are these parents or guardians that are helping the children — their grandparent who barely speaks English, or a work-at-home parent?” asked Stewart.

She loves parents….I was feeling that.

That “S” word doesn’t seem to go away.  Socializing is a bit different than School Socialization.  Apparently, the Chicago Virtual families chose getting together in their community, as opposed to the same room as folks like Marilyn Stewart.

This short piece, headlined by the latest NCES study, turns out to be an interesting read. While the NCES study is pointed to, this article steps well beyond the norm of the reporting I have seen so far. In it the complex and changing reasons families choose to homeschool is highlighted, anecdotal evidence on the scope of the movement to homeschooling is reported, pressures on the brick and mortar school model are articulated and the future of education is forecast. Worth the read.

OSWEGO COUNTY, N.Y. — Sam Kiesinger is a sophomore at SUNY Oswego. College is the first time he’s been in a classroom with other students since the third grade when his parents decided to have him homeschooled.

“Initially it was because of religious reasons, but after awhile, they realized it was the best option personally for me as a student,” said Kiesinger.

“Over the last several years, I think improvements in technology, accessibility of curriculum online is making home instruction more attractive to parents,” said Mexico Central Schools superintendent Nelson Bauersfeld.

Bauersfeld has seen a small increase of homeschooled students in the Mexico school district.

They will learn better in a customized environment,” said Kiesinger.

A customized environment that is moving the classroom off school grounds and into the living room.

Homeschoolers should take note because we will feel the impact of changes in public schooling.

~~~

Homeschooling on the rise

http://news10now.com/content/all_news/473821/homeschooling-on-the-rise/

A Montgomery family sued the Elmore County Board of Education and the Alabama State Board of Education in order to keep their 2 children out of the school and have school assignments done at home.  Despite the misleading headline below, they wanted their children to remain enrolled in the public school.

Family Sues to Home School Because of Swine Flu ABC 33/40 News 05/02/09

Blevins said his sons, who are only named by initials in the lawsuit, are susceptible to colds and flu. He said he does not want to take a chance on them being exposed to swine flu.

“If there’s a cold or flu bug out there to catch, they will seek it out and find it and catch it,” Blevins said.

The lawsuit says school officials have told the Blevins their sons would have to repeat the grades they are currently in if they miss the remainder of the year and exceed the number of allowed absences. The lawsuit also says the parents have been told they could be prosecuted under truancy laws if they do not send their sons to school.

Montgomery County Circuit Judge Charles Price heard the case yesterday and determined he didn’t have authority to rule against the school. He advised homeschooling (the real thing), if the parents are concerned.

Judge Dismisses Elmore County Parents’ Lawsuit About Swine Flu WSFA 12 May 4, 2009

Spud Seal is the Elmore County School system’s attorney. He tells WSFA 12 News, “Our issue was whether he had the right to withdraw the children from school and then us provide services for the children, which we had no obligation to do.

Jerry Blevins responded to the suit by saying, “Hopefully this issue’s over, but if the circumstances change, we’ll be back to square one, removing them again. We’ll be back in court again, maybe next time federal court.”

Jerry Blevins is a determined dude.

Dana at Principled Discovery had a few thoughts about the subject: Homeschooling and the Great Swine Flu Pandemic of 2009

The Home Education Magazine Editorial blog posted more from around the blog world, along with a welcome sign:
H1N1 Homeschooling

If you’re one of those looking for information about homeschooling in these troubled times, welcome. We have a lot to offer, and plenty of it is free. Start with our Getting Started with Homeschooling section and progress to our HEM Back Issue Archives; after that you should be grounded enough to just poke around and see what might work for your family. Homeschooling isn’t difficult, doesn’t need to be expensive, and can open a whole new way of thinking about your children, your relationships, and your world. I think, in the coming weeks and months, we’re all going to be looking for different ways of looking at the world.