Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Home Schooling - The CO's findings
Home Schooling
According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, there are four basic levels of state oversight and regulation in regards to home schooling:
“State with high regulation: State requires parents to send notification or achievement test scores and/or professional evaluation, plus other requirements (e.g. curriculum approval by the state, teacher qualification of parents, or home visits by state officials).” Some of the states in this group include MA, UT, ME, WA, WV.
“States with moderate regulation: State requires parents to send notification, test scores, and/or professional evaluation of student progress.” Some of the states in this group include FL, GA, HI, SD, CO, NH
“States with low regulation: State requires parental notification only.” Some of the states in this group include MT, CA, MS, NV, WY, and KS.
“States requiring no notice: No state requirement for parents to initiate any contact.” TX, CT, OK, MO, ID, NJ.
Please not that at this time of the day, my ability to edit at all complely evaporates.
Roughly two percent of American children are home schooled. Or about 1.1 million children. This figure actually surprised me with all the attention given to it; I fully expected the number to be closer be up over 5% and edging in on ten. That said, nearly one million children in absolute terms is still a lot.
According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, there are four basic levels of state oversight and regulation in regards to home schooling:
“State with high regulation: State requires parents to send notification or achievement test scores and/or professional evaluation, plus other requirements (e.g. curriculum approval by the state, teacher qualification of parents, or home visits by state officials).” Some of the states in this group include MA, UT, ME, WA, WV.
“States with moderate regulation: State requires parents to send notification, test scores, and/or professional evaluation of student progress.” Some of the states in this group include FL, GA, HI, SD, CO, NH
“States with low regulation: State requires parental notification only.” Some of the states in this group include MT, CA, MS, NV, WY, and KS.
“States requiring no notice: No state requirement for parents to initiate any contact.” TX, CT, OK, MO, ID, NJ.
Requiring no notice to me seems like a recipe for child abuse. True, it does allow the parent the most freedom, and maybe it is just a product of my up bringing that I automatically suspect poor parenting when parents behave in erratic ways. On the flip side, getting a child out of a school where there is staff abuse, or peer violence is a good thing. According to every study, I have heard of, home schooled children regardless of race, family income, or geography scored higher on the same standardized testing as public school children. Moreover, the longer a child was home schooled, the better they did.
Academically, although the results are still scanty I think that home schools may just be the best choice. It remains to be seen how well home schooled children are equipped in a social manner. I’m not aware of any study that tracks crime, pregnancy, or other indicators based on home, private, public and charter school education.
Please not that at this time of the day, my ability to edit at all complely evaporates.
