An editorial in the May 13 Houston Chronicle revisits the article earlier this week:

Is home-schooling among Texas high school kids growing by leaps and bounds? The numbers look fishy, and we’re suspicious that really, something ugly is happening.

According to the Texas Education Agency, more than 22,620 high school students stopped showing up for class in 2008 but weren’t listed as dropouts. Instead, their schools filed paperwork declaring that those students had left to be home-schooled.

If those kids really are being home- schooled — if their parents are actively guiding their studies — then we have no complaints. Home schooling can be a great way to get an education.

But is that what’s really going on? Based on anecdotal evidence and other fishy numbers, child advocates suspect that some school administrators are using home-schooling to hide their high dropout rates.

Continue reading Are Texas high schools hiding their dropout rates behind home-schooling in the Houston Chronicle.

Experts: Home-schooling doesn’t add up across Texas.

More than 22,620 Texas secondary students who stopped showing up for class in 2008 were excluded from the state’s dropout statistics because administrators said they were being home-schooled, according to Texas Education Agency figures.

But that’s where the scrutiny of this growing population seems to end, leaving some experts convinced that schools are disguising thousands of middle and high school dropouts in this hands-off category.

While home-schooling’s popularity has increased, the rate of growth concentrated in Texas’ high school population is off the chart: It’s nearly tripled in the last decade, including a 24 percent jump in a single year.

And, I get a chance to agree with Dr. Brian:

“That’s just ridiculous,” said Brian D. Ray, founder of the National Home Education Research Institute. “It doesn’t sound very believable.”

Officials are looking into the numbers:

Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, and HISD Superintendent Terry Grier are among the officials who were unaware of the large increase in home-schooling withdraws from Texas high schools. They agree that the figures need to be scrutinized.

“Home-schooling is something I’m 100 percent behind,” Shapiro said. “When it becomes a scapegoat for dropouts, when it becomes a bucket to not have to list this type of student, I’m absolutely adverse to that. I think it’s wrong.”

Shapiro, chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said she plans to delve deeper into the figures.

To assess the extent of the dropout problem, the newspaper last fall began to track the 1,053 freshmen who enrolled at Holmes in the 1997-98 school year. Holmes was chosen for the study because it is one of the most diverse high schools in San Antonio and, with 3,000 students, represents a typical large urban school in Texas.

The school district cooperated with the Express-News and provided the entire student roll for the research, including students’ names and addresses. The newspaper agreed to keep students’ names confidential, unless they agreed to be quoted in interviews.

The newspaper and school district compared names with enrollment and transfer records and attempted to track down students who transferred more than once. Reporters also knocked on doors to find missing students and sent a survey to the reported address of every student who wasn’t enrolled, sometimes following up with a second and third mailing.

When it hit a dead end with the missing students, the newspaper hired private investigator Manuel Alfaro to track down those who could not be found. Alfaro, a San Antonio investigator for 12 years, located 46 students.

The study found that many of the dropouts had been out of school for several years, had no diploma and had not enrolled in an alternative program. In some cases, they said they would attend home school, but they never did. Others said they were transferring to another Texas school, but they never showed up.

Home-schooling is one of 24 exemptions from the dropout rate permitted by the state. The TEA also lets schools exempt students who enrolled in a certified GED program, who are in jail or state child-protective custody or who reported their intent to return to their home country.

An accurate dropout figure is important, he said, because “you don’t know which schools are doing well and which schools are doing badly until you count them properly.”

Outside of the content you have to wonder why this eight year old piece was dredged up now? Anre Duncan maintains he is big on data, so should we conclude that we will be counted?