Kolleen

From today's New York Times--



Augmenting a Home-School Education

January 2, 2002

By RICHARD ROTHSTEIN




HELENA, Mont. -- About 2 percent of American students are
now taught at home. Educators are confused about how this
growing practice should be regulated, and also wonder
whether children who are not fully enrolled in school
should nonetheless get some public services. The issue
shows how blurred the line between public and private
education can become, even when that private education is
delivered at home.

Probably about half the parents who teach at home are
religiously motivated and use lessons by mail (or Internet)
from church schools. Perhaps an additional fourth have
philosophical doubts about public education, think schools
are unsafe or feel that their children have special needs
that regular schools don't meet. In some cases, parents
home- school to evade compulsory education; they do minimal
teaching while having older children care for siblings or
work in home businesses.

Although children often learn well at home, weak
regulations in most states mean that officials rarely
challenge or monitor parents who say they are
home-schooling. With growing frequency, however, public
schools offer services to the home- schooled. Districts may
permit them to enroll part time, for instance; educators
fear that otherwise these children could later return full
time with serious academic weaknesses, and in any case some
districts wanting to qualify for state aid can benefit from
part-timers filling empty seats.

Here in Helena, Mary Brown has taught her 12 children at
home while manufacturing clothing there in her nonteaching
hours. Mrs. Brown says her motive is to give more training
in basics (like phonics) than public schools offer. Most of
her curriculum is from a church school, with tests returned
by mail.

Two years ago her seventh child, Andrea, wanting to join
regular athletic programs, enrolled at Capital High School.
Andrea soon changed her mind and resumed home study. But
she had liked gym and chorus, so Mrs. Brown asked that she
be allowed to continue in them while taking other courses
at home.

The school board then voted to permit home- and
private-school students to attend public school part time.
About a dozen do so. Andrea, now a junior, is taking chorus
and pottery; others take French, English, chemistry or math
courses that parents don't feel able to teach or that
private schools don't offer.

Some board members feared an exodus in which a flood of
regular students would take only some classes and claim to
be studying the rest at home. The worry turned out to be
unfounded.

Bruce Messinger, Helena's superintendent of schools, said
he had supported Mrs. Brown's request, partly to get more
state aid but also to unite the community, keeping the 5
percent of Helena students in private- school or home
settings from being seen as a separate camp.

Julie Mitchell, the board's chairwoman, noted that the
policy let the district expand its efforts to serve the
needs of individual students. For instance, Helena, like
many districts, already had dropouts gaining diplomas
through independent study. Other students attend an
alternative school with mental health services and fewer
students per teacher.

The Helena experience is one of the varied accommodations
made to home schooling nationwide. Montana asks
home-schooling parents to register but regulates no
further. Nebraska requires them to be qualified teachers.
Maryland home-schoolers must file study plans, which
districts evaluate to ensure nominal conformity with public
school standards.

Iowa requires parents teaching at home to give standardized
exams or hire a regular teacher to test proficiency;
parents of children who fall in the bottom 30 percent must
file a remediation plan or seek help from a public school.
In Des Moines, teachers will visit home-schooled students
every two weeks to offer advice if parents request it; each
teacher serves about 45 students, and the district gets
state aid for the program.

Every state now recognizes a right to teach at home. To
bind the community together, as Dr. Messinger said, it
seems wise to let home- schooled children come to public
schools for chorus or chemistry lab.

But where should lines be drawn?

In California,
home-schoolers organized into a charter school to get state
funds.

And Andrea Brown is now taking a home biology course in
which the teaching of evolution is optional. Should Helena
be rounding out the home program of students like Andrea
with attractive in-school electives, giving them an
incentive to remain at home and evade standard curriculums,
whether for religious reasons or out of simple neglect?

There are many controversies - about charter schools,
vouchers, federal aid, private contractors or home
schooling - where lines between public and private
education have become fuzzy. The reason is that there is no
consensus about how private education, whether in
institutions or in homes, should be regulated. While
accountability in public education grows, so do
quasi-private options - like home schooling - with little
accountability. That contradiction has yet to be addressed.


E-mail: rrothstein@....

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/02/education/02LESS.html?ex=1011004659&ei=1&
en=c942e99c962bbdb5