According to the U. S. Department of Education an estimated 2.9% or 1.5 million children in the United States are home-schooled. This number is up from 1.7% about a decade ago in 1999. The ratio of home-schooled boys to girls has changed from 49% boys and 51% girls in 1999 to 42% boys and 58% girls. Home-schooling is predominantly selected by higher-income families with 60% earning more than $50,000 per year. In Virginia, the number of home-schooled children jumped 9% statewide in one year. Notably the number of white families choosing to home school nationwide has doubled in the past decade and the number of college-educated parents home-schooling is up from 4.9% to 6.8%.
The reasons parents choose this course of action are varied: 36% say their decision was to provide “religious or moral” instruction; 21% cited school environment and culture; and only 17% cited “dissatisfaction with academic instruction.” Let’s explore these in more detail.
First, the religious basis for home-schooled choice: The religious foundation of our country that served as a basis for public instruction a century ago is well documented. The religious limits concerning contemporary public school education are also well documented. This basis has been clearly redefined by the judicial branch of the federal government. The Supreme Court of the United States established a “wall” of separation concerning church vs. state teachings in public schools dating back to the 1950’s and this guidance has served as the basis for the past sixty years of litigation and hence public school curricular development. Therefore, Parents who want their children to benefit from an education that favors a particular religious perspective have two choices: send their children to parochial/private schools or teach them at home. We cannot fulfill a religious function in the public arena to the extent that many parents would like for their children. Our ever-increasing diverse and forward-thinking society is required to tolerate extremes in lifestyles, freedom of expression and personal choices never thought imaginable just a few decades ago. These values often run contrary to specific religious beliefs.
Second: School environment and the culture of our schools is a direct reflection of societal attitudes in the community and strongly correlated to the norms of that community. The total investment in school facilities and the resources utilized in public schools is directly related to the the conditions in the locality supporting the schools. Two decades of litigation in a dozen states concerning school funding formulas involving “adequacy and equity” formulas have failed to change this over time. Therefore, the ability and willingness of a community to invest in its public schools connects to how the community values its core mission to provide a free and appropriate education for all. According to Fuller’s “Savage Inequalities” the disparities in capital investments in public education are extreme and much in need of attention nationwide. In resource-starved communities where schools are less than desirable places for children to be all day long, the home-schooled option seems obvious. This also may explain why so many charter schools have blossomed across the country. Finally, the heterogeneous clientele present in American schools is problematic for some families who prefer a much more homogeneous environment for their children, so the 21% who said environment was a factor in their decision is understandable.
Third: Academic instruction is the area that 17% of parents cited as reasons for home-schooling. While I can accept this rationale on the surface due to the fact that many parents want their child to be challenged and pushed to higher limits, many feel they can do it better and more effectively at home rather than the institutional model for schools and current standards established state-to-state. However, research does not support the fact that home-schooling produces any better results than public schools. While home-schooled children hold their own on standardized tests for intelligence, they are not socialized to the extent that children exposed to diverse learning styles are in public schools. The need for American children to compete internationally in many different arenas over the next century speaks volumes for the need to teach our young tolerance and respect for individual and cultural differences. The shelter of a home-schooled environment protects certain children from exposure to other children who may contribute varied perspectives in the learning environment and this may be detrimental in the long run to the home-schooled child.
Perhaps most compelling reason why public schools contribute to the well-rounded development of young people is the learning that is offered by specialists in public schools. By the time a child graduates from a public high school he/she will have had as many as sixty to seventy different teachers. These professionals will present children with positive models of effective teaching and learning that can only benefit children and young adults as they formulate opinions about their own education. How many parents are prepared to teach advanced subject matter such as Chemistry, Biology, AP Calculus or have the advanced equipment at their disposal to conduct scientific or mathematical research? Let us not also discount the variety of subjects and experiences that occur outside of the four walls of the classroom such as activities, athletics, and the arts, and the rich experiences children learn through collaborating with others in public schools.
We who serve in public education respect the choice that parents make regarding their preferences for home-schooling here in Virginia and nationwide. Parents who choose this path feel that they can provide a targeted and specific education for their children and have total control over the content and form of teaching and learning. If the resources are in place to deliver rigorous educational exposure and the parent is prepared to accept the full responsibility for a comprehensive curricular experience then we are compelled to approve of this approach.
In conclusion, I said this to Jay Scarborough of the Petersburg Progress-Index in May of 2009, “We are preparing children today for a global experience tomorrow. Children have to be flexible and adaptable and they’ve got to be ready to modulate and function in a world without borders. What public education does well is bring disparate, socio-economically deprived children into the same classroom as privileged children and educate them and prepare them for a role in the world.” Let us not forget the role America’s public schools played in creating the great democracy we live in today. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. The challenge will be to adjust and change to meet the technological challenges that the new century presents for us in order to produce the creative, intelligent, and thoughtful future citizens America deserves.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
The Role of Educational Influence and AASA in American Policy
As chair of the Region I Superintendents in Richmond, Virginia, I am privileged to serve with several of my colleagues on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Association of School Superintendents(VASS). As a member of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) my fellow superintendents and I have become increasingly more active in political advocacy for education and for all of the American children we serve in our great country. AASA has clearly led the effort to step up this level of advocacy at the national level of government.
The Executive Director of AASA, Dan Domenech, met with the VASS executive board and membership in Roanoke, Virginia this morning May 6, 2009. Dan is a well-rounded educator (formerly superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia) who clearly sees the “big picture” and is an outspoken leader committed to promoting the influence of AASA in educational decision making at the highest federal levels of government. I applaud Dan’s efforts to collaborate with the United States Department of Education and with the Obama administration in Washington, D.C., for embracing AASA.
For far too many years educators have been excluded in policy decisions at the highest levels of our government. The period of the past eight years have been very difficult for public education as critics of American schools appeared to have the upper hand in Washington, D.C., and the voices of the professional organizations representing education purposefully excluded from any substantive discussion (AASA, ASCD, NASSP, NAESP, NSBA, NEA, to name just a few). That day has past.
Dan Domenech reaffirmed this concept today in his remarks to the leadership of the Virginia Superintendents. Dan announced that AASA has a prominent place “at the table” since President Obama took office, and shared with us how this began to take shape during Obama’s transition to the presidency. Dan suggested that the shift in political power in Washington has opened a new era for educational policy in this nation. Most encouragingly, Dan confirmed that the Obama administration was actively listening and engaged with AASA as future educational policy decisions are being formulated in our capitol.
This is very god news for professional educators across America and a huge shift from the former administration. The federal government is increasingly moving forward to be a key player in educational decision making, an area that is relatively new in the history of this country. Absent any federal role as defined by our federal constitution, the power to establish and regulate educational policy has been left to the states. With a renewed interest in globalization and international standards, we can expect the federal government to step up its role in the formulation of standards for American education.
It is imperative that AASA and parallel organizations representing the educational community be present for these important policy discussions. Dan Domenech affirmed that President Obama’s administration is committed to pursuing the broad educational objectives defined during the political campaign in 2008 and is now in the process of engaging our professional organizations in conceptualizing a new direction for American education.
The challenges are formidable for all of us in education. While critics at the national level like to place blame on the educational system for a perceived failure to perform, what they lack is a thorough understanding of the dynamics of American education and all we are attempting to accomplish. International comparisons are valuable, as they continue to remind us that expectations must be raised and the stakes are extremely high in a global age of collaboration and cooperation. But international comparisons are not quite what they appear to be as many countries are clearly not as diverse as America nor committed to educating 100% of their children. This is particularly true in India and China, two countries we are constantly compared to.
In fact, many countries have homogeneous populations or implement tiered and exclusionary approach to moving students along an educational continuum, rendering statistical comparisons less than valid or reliable. So what does this mean? What is important for us to do in America is to strive for the best system of public education and promote what is in the best interest of all our children. Dan Domenech said it best today when he reminded us that we did not become the world power America is today with less than adequate public education. The real challenge for us is to articulate what works in American education and what we still need to do to improve the system for the enormous diversity that exists in the American school population.
Finally, the measures of success for educating a populace must not be limited to a snapshot or single standardized test (my own thoughts) but a true “motion picture” of how we are teaching young people to think, assess, analyze and act about the world they will occupy in future years. The correlation between poverty and academic achievement is so powerful that this is the single most important challenge for us in American culture at this moment. It will take strong educational leaders to mitigate the effects of socio-economic depravation on the children we serve, but we are up to this task. This is why educational “influence” is so important at the highest levels of American government now and in future years.
We as educators are capable of solving any of the challenges we embrace now and in the future, and these solutions will require an unprecedented amount of stakeholder input and discussion at every level of government. Reforms begin at home in local communities and are realized at the state and federal levels once we all speak from the same page and establish common understandings about what America’s schools are accomplishing and want to accomplish in future years. This is exactly what professional educators are trying to do at this moment to effect the necessary changes in policy and influence at all levels of government. I am proud of the unified voice AASA brings to state superintendents and proud of the work the Virginia superintendents have accomplished to articulate the need for progress and reforms in a new era of internationalization. Let’s be glad that President Obama is listening and committed to our efforts for the good of all our children.
The Executive Director of AASA, Dan Domenech, met with the VASS executive board and membership in Roanoke, Virginia this morning May 6, 2009. Dan is a well-rounded educator (formerly superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia) who clearly sees the “big picture” and is an outspoken leader committed to promoting the influence of AASA in educational decision making at the highest federal levels of government. I applaud Dan’s efforts to collaborate with the United States Department of Education and with the Obama administration in Washington, D.C., for embracing AASA.
For far too many years educators have been excluded in policy decisions at the highest levels of our government. The period of the past eight years have been very difficult for public education as critics of American schools appeared to have the upper hand in Washington, D.C., and the voices of the professional organizations representing education purposefully excluded from any substantive discussion (AASA, ASCD, NASSP, NAESP, NSBA, NEA, to name just a few). That day has past.
Dan Domenech reaffirmed this concept today in his remarks to the leadership of the Virginia Superintendents. Dan announced that AASA has a prominent place “at the table” since President Obama took office, and shared with us how this began to take shape during Obama’s transition to the presidency. Dan suggested that the shift in political power in Washington has opened a new era for educational policy in this nation. Most encouragingly, Dan confirmed that the Obama administration was actively listening and engaged with AASA as future educational policy decisions are being formulated in our capitol.
This is very god news for professional educators across America and a huge shift from the former administration. The federal government is increasingly moving forward to be a key player in educational decision making, an area that is relatively new in the history of this country. Absent any federal role as defined by our federal constitution, the power to establish and regulate educational policy has been left to the states. With a renewed interest in globalization and international standards, we can expect the federal government to step up its role in the formulation of standards for American education.
It is imperative that AASA and parallel organizations representing the educational community be present for these important policy discussions. Dan Domenech affirmed that President Obama’s administration is committed to pursuing the broad educational objectives defined during the political campaign in 2008 and is now in the process of engaging our professional organizations in conceptualizing a new direction for American education.
The challenges are formidable for all of us in education. While critics at the national level like to place blame on the educational system for a perceived failure to perform, what they lack is a thorough understanding of the dynamics of American education and all we are attempting to accomplish. International comparisons are valuable, as they continue to remind us that expectations must be raised and the stakes are extremely high in a global age of collaboration and cooperation. But international comparisons are not quite what they appear to be as many countries are clearly not as diverse as America nor committed to educating 100% of their children. This is particularly true in India and China, two countries we are constantly compared to.
In fact, many countries have homogeneous populations or implement tiered and exclusionary approach to moving students along an educational continuum, rendering statistical comparisons less than valid or reliable. So what does this mean? What is important for us to do in America is to strive for the best system of public education and promote what is in the best interest of all our children. Dan Domenech said it best today when he reminded us that we did not become the world power America is today with less than adequate public education. The real challenge for us is to articulate what works in American education and what we still need to do to improve the system for the enormous diversity that exists in the American school population.
Finally, the measures of success for educating a populace must not be limited to a snapshot or single standardized test (my own thoughts) but a true “motion picture” of how we are teaching young people to think, assess, analyze and act about the world they will occupy in future years. The correlation between poverty and academic achievement is so powerful that this is the single most important challenge for us in American culture at this moment. It will take strong educational leaders to mitigate the effects of socio-economic depravation on the children we serve, but we are up to this task. This is why educational “influence” is so important at the highest levels of American government now and in future years.
We as educators are capable of solving any of the challenges we embrace now and in the future, and these solutions will require an unprecedented amount of stakeholder input and discussion at every level of government. Reforms begin at home in local communities and are realized at the state and federal levels once we all speak from the same page and establish common understandings about what America’s schools are accomplishing and want to accomplish in future years. This is exactly what professional educators are trying to do at this moment to effect the necessary changes in policy and influence at all levels of government. I am proud of the unified voice AASA brings to state superintendents and proud of the work the Virginia superintendents have accomplished to articulate the need for progress and reforms in a new era of internationalization. Let’s be glad that President Obama is listening and committed to our efforts for the good of all our children.
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