In an article for the July 8th issue of Education Week titled Conservative Candidates Take Aim at Federal K-12 Role, Alyson Klein writes:

The conservative currents roiling the 2010 midterm election season bring with them a new group of Republican congressional candidates who are outspoken about their desire for a limited federal role in education policy and funding.

For many, the prime target is the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic-stimulus program passed by Congress in February 2009, which provided some $100 billion for public education.

And in some cases, candidates have taken a page from a decades-old conservative playbook, pushing policies that would strengthen the rights of parents to homeschool their children—and even urging the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education, a position once favored by President Ronald Reagan’s administration.

Read the entire article at the link above.

Strengthening Rights?

Education Week published a couple different takes on the standards debate. Here is the incontrovertible logic:

U.S. Common-Standards Push Bares Unsettled Issues
Familiar Themes Emerge in Resurgent Debate
By Sean Cavanagh

It is one of the simplest ideas in American education–and one of the most confounding: Elected officials and educators have been talking about establishing national, or common, academic standards for at least a half-century.

On its face, the logic of that goal seems incontrovertible.

Why should students in one state be introduced to a topic such as fractions as 1st graders, to cite a common example, when their peers in other states won’t cover that mathematics topic until later? More broadly, why does the United States–a mobile society in a globally competitive era–maintain an education system that tests students, trains teachers, and churns out textbooks and classroom materials based on the myriad and often idiosyncratic demands of different states?

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Unlike many of the standards efforts of the 1990s, the bulk of today’s “common core” process is not being led by major professional associations, but rather by groups that represent or work with state leaders–the CCSSO [Council of Chief State School Officers], the NGA [National Governors Association], and Achieve–and by college testing and placement groups, the ACT and the College Board.

To read all of U.S. Common-Standards Push Bares Unsettled Issues you need to register (free).

Common-Standards – Incontrovertible Logic?

It is hard to say exactly what the direct effect on homeschooling the current push for more school data will have but the organizational power and money behind the effort says all parents should watch closely. An article published by Education Week gives us a look into the workings and thinking of eductional research:

New Head of U.S. Research Agency Aims for Relevance
By Debra Viadero

If improving the “rigor” of education studies has been the watchword for much of the work carried out by the U.S. Department of Education’s key research agency over the past seven years, “relevance” and “usefulness” seem to be shaping up as twin themes for the half-dozen years ahead.

At least that’s the message John Q. Easton, the new director of the department’s Institute of Education Sciences, is communicating as he speaks to national groups around the country. Five months into his six-year term, the 60-year-old Mr. Easton has perfected what he calls his “five-bullet talk” on his plans for the $617-million-a-year agency, founded in 2002. While not yet a hard and fast agenda, his presentation outlines his own goals for the direction the government plans to take in shepherding federal education research.

In their upcoming column Countering Problems Created by Research on Families (Jan-Feb/10) Larry and Susan Kaseman write, “most studies support the idea that parents and families are the problem and professionals and institutions are the solution. Such a conclusion arises NOT because it’s accurate but rather because research is financed and heavily influenced by a power structure that has much to gain by maintaining and expanding the roles of experts and large institutions.”

With that in mind another excerpt from the Education Week article:

Under Mr. Whitehurst, the institute’s first director, the agency moved early to increase funding for studies using randomized controlled trials and other rigorous methods in response to widespread dissatisfaction among policymakers and practitioners with the quality of education research.

The agency also created the What Works Clearinghouse, which vetted the research evidence on education programs and policies and made the results widely available on a user-friendly Web site.

Those and other efforts improved the agency’s reputation with federal policymakers from what it had been during the institute’s previous incarnation as the Education Department’s office of educational research and improvement.

But the studies issued by the IES yielded some disappointing results. Most of the education strategies tested were found to produce little, if any, effect on student learning.

In his talks, Mr. Easton, a veteran of the education research community in Chicago, has said that the field needs to know more than “what works.” Educators need to develop a better understanding of schools as organizations and how improvement happens in them, he believes.

Read the entire piece here. Follow Education Week’s Eye on Research here. And don’t miss the Kaseman’s column where they not only talk about the research industry’s impact and influence, but also points to research that supports families and the importance of parents.

Education Research

A Fordham Institute’s report, Stars by Which to Navigate: Scanning National and International Standards in 2009, has brought The Common Core State Standards Initiative back into the news.

Proposed National Academic Standards Sidestep Debate
By Nick Anderson

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, as it is known, is an attempt to fashion de facto national standards for math and English without calling them that. President Obama praises it as an effort to raise what are now wildly uneven benchmarks from state to state. His administration might provide money to help states develop tests aligned with the standards — if they are adopted. But the Education Department is not drafting the standards, and Congress will have no vote on approval.

National standards not led by Federal Government? Then led by who? Education Week has extensive coverage of the Common Core Standards:

Standards Aren’t Enough
By Susan H. Fuhrman, Lauren Resnick, & Lorrie Shepard

Before anyone objects to a Washington takeover of the elementary school down the street, it’s important to note that the standards effort was initiated by two organizations of state leaders: the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Forty-eight states are participating in developing the standards. The standards are voluntary, however, and not even all of those states are likely to embrace them.

Nonetheless, the Obama administration will probably have leverage to nudge states to get on board. States will apply this winter for $4.35 billion in federal education money as part of the Race to the Top initiative that’s meant to encourage innovations, such as programs to turn around the most troubled schools. Even though the federal government did not develop these standards, only those states that embrace them are expected to be eligible to receive the money.

At this point the Common Core Standards are not a homeschooling issue. However, given the driving forces behind this initiative, the research, the resources, plus a new administration, there is a very good chance you will see these Common Core Standards being debated in your state soon.

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You’ll need to register to read Standards Aren’t Enough. You can also read more about The Common Core State Standards Initiative at the Standards site: http://www.corestandards.org/.

Common Core Standards in the News

Education Week News, Bethesda, Maryland, 19 December 2006, Unschooling’ Stresses Curiosity More Than Traditional Academics

As yellow school buses rumble through Nicole Puckett’s Spokane, Wash., neighborhood, her eight children are often asleep in bed. When they wake up, instead of heading to school, they go downstairs to begin another day of “unschooling,” an educational approach that is the subject of much debate among home-schoolers and traditional school advocates.

If it’s one thing I don’t see much of any more on the homeschooling discussion lists I’m on, it’s “debate” about unschooling. Unschoolers seem to do their thing, and everyone else does theirs. Most of the interaction between list-members focuses on resource sharing, and daily logistics, not how everyone else learns at home, although hints do come out in conversation.

The article has a large, pleasant selection of unschooling vignettes, and quotes from unschooling advocates such as Patrick Farenga and Sandra Dodd, as well as homeschooling advocate Brian Ray. Still, the whispering voice of doubt is woven through from top to bottom.

• Risks Involved But critics, including some of those who opt for more-structured home schooling and proponents of “child centered” classrooms in regular schools, say that there are risks involved, and that learning deficits can result from letting children basically learn whatever they want.
• Of course, those from more traditional education circles worry that such free-form education could make it difficult for a child to adjust as an adult to the more structured world of college or work.
• But some educators, even within the home-schooling world, argue that unschooling can leave children with a lopsided education.
• Mr. Kohn said “there’s no question that unschooling leaves behind most of the bad stuff in a lot of schools. The question is whether some good stuff or potential good stuff is missing.”

Then there is just a hint of a sneer.

The term “unschooling” was coined by the late John Holt, one of the godfathers of the home-schooling movement, who wrote a stack of books about alternative ways of educating children.

Nothing you can actually put your finger on, but the scent lingers.

With the progress through society of the professionally-unproctored experiment of not only homeschooling but also unschooling, I have to wonder if the officials see this social experiment in the same light as the professionally overseen experiments in classroom teaching in schools?

Exam question: Is it one thing to have professionals conduct social experiments, but another for the people involved in the actual living to do so? Compare and contrast.

My sister and I, both the subjects of never-professionally-repaired elementary school classroom experiments in math instruction, and who still both find manipulating numbers a challenge, have strong opinions on the subject. Dad worked in Air Force comptroller offices, and was later a bookkeeper, so our innumeracy wasn’t wholly genetic (if that can be a factor). In our homeschooling talks together, she and I wonder if we would have had better checkbook balancing skills if Dad had been given the job of teaching us math (yes, I had business math in high school, as well as algebra and geometry).

It is nice that Education Week noticed unschooling and published a report on it, but one has to wonder if the magazine had existed when the public schooling experiment began, would writers have labeled it risky, too? Or even in today’s hothouse success climate with young people under the educational microscope, is less formal schooling even considered something valuable? Probably not: “Paying Attention Earlier On”.

posted by Valerie

Unschooling … a little bit of ‘don’t try this at home’

Education Week has published an article about unschooling, ‘Unschooling’ Stresses Curiosity More Than Traditional Academic by Michelle R. Davis. You may have to have a membership to sign in (it is free) to read the December 20th report, but it is worth taking the time to register.

Ms. Davis first tells us about Nicole Pucket’s family of Washington state:

On a typical day, Ms. Puckett’s childrenwho range in age from 4 to 17 and have never gone to a traditional school might watch a few hours of television, read the Bible, amuse themselves with video games, play with their siblings, practice the violin, or learn Russian. On many days, they’re out of the house visiting museums, going to concerts, or attending theatrical plays.“I believe that each child is gifted, but each has different gifts,” said Ms. Puckett, who sees it as her job to help facilitate the learning that her children choose. “When I see them veering toward something, I guide them toward it. If they’re showing no interest, then we don’t do it.”

This child-led method of home schooling means that what children do during a typical school day is entirely up to them. In an era of increased standardized testing, top-down curricula, and the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, unschooling is attractive to some parents, who say learning should be a more organic, curiosity-inspired exercise. Advocates say it allows children to become passionate about, and invested in, their own learning.

Ms. Davis also addresses some of unschooling’s critics. Here is just one:

Risks Involved
But critics, including some of those who opt for more-structured home schooling and proponents of “child centered” classrooms in regular schools, say that there are risks involved, and that learning deficits can result from letting children basically learn whatever they want. Nel Noddings, an education professor emeritus at Stanford University, describes herself as an advocate of child-centered education when it is done right. But she said unschooling raises many questions of concern.

You can also listen to an interview Ms. Davis conducted with Jane Powell, a Bowie, Md. unschooler.

All in all I think it is a fair report.

Posted by Mary

Education Week’s ‘Unschool’ Article