Archive for the ‘Homeschooling’ Category

After our recent discussions about the adequate yearly progress or AYP standards established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act  — see yesterday’s media conference call with Arne Duncan on how it might change –  Jordan sent me this note:

I find it fascinating (especially after your most recent article) that very few people are aware how AYP calculations punish heterogeneous schools. The more diverse your school, the more sub groups you have. The more sub groups you have, the more you have to meet. It’s almost as if No Child Left Behind encourages schools to segregate. That hardly seems in line with the spirit of American education.

So too, the SWD (students with disabilities) affect AYP in poorly designed ways.

“Federal law requires states and local districts to improve the performance of students with disabilities on standardized assessments. The current measure typically being used to calculate an achievement gap uses the percentage of nondisabled students performing …

Continue reading FYI on AYP: Federal law makes it harder for diverse schools »

With all the comments on unschooling from the interview I did with the author of new book on the movement, I decided to post this ABC “Good Morning America” clip on “radical” unschoolers. This interview spurred a lot of comment from unschoolers.

Continue reading Here is interesting video on unschooling in the extreme »

Should Georgia mandate that public schools open their after-school activities to any child in the community, no matter where they go to school? AJC photo.

I exchanged e-mails with Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, one of the co-sponsors of Senate Bill 55, and asked if I could share his explanation of why he sees a need for this legislation.

SB 55 is one of two bills — SB 34 is the other – that open public school after-school extracurriculars to children who don’t attend the school. However, I wasn’t clear which kids each of these similar bills was representing. (See earlier blogs for background. This one is about 55. This one is about 34.)

Were the bills designed to let any children, whether enrolled in private, charter, magnet or homeschooled, to join after-school clubs and teams at the local public school?

As far as SB 55,  Sen. Shafer said that he signed on because the bill “would allow home and private school kids to participate in public school extracurricular activities. …

Continue reading Value in non students joining public school teams, clubs? »

Many school clubs depend on fund raising rather than taxes. (AJC file)

Take a look at Senate Bill 55 and Senate Bill 34, both of which require public schools to allow children who are not enrolled to participate in extracurricular activities.

I understand the impetus and the impulse, but at some point, don’t schools have the right to ask: How much more can we do?

Schools can barely meet the needs of their own students, and now Sen. Chip Rogers and the Georgia Senate want them to open their doors to non students?

These bills would mandate access to all after-school clubs, sports and programs to students outside of the school. (Neither bill speaks to private school students yet, but that is probably soon to come.)

Consider that many after-school activities are financed by parent fund-raising and staffed by the parents themselves. Some after-school clubs depend on teacher volunteers. There is little taxpayer money going into most after-school activities.

How can the Senate …

Continue reading Should non students be able to join school clubs, teams? »

The Sunday AJC is full of good education stories, but the one that will get people talking is an investigation into the fallout to APS teachers who report cheating on state high-stakes tests.

(If you don’t get the AJC on Sunday, this would be the day to pick up a newspaper as there is a lot to read, long story on how SACS works, a news piece on APS accreditation, an editorial on APS and two columns on education issues.)

As is often the case with whistle blowers,  APS teachers told the AJC that they experienced push back and recriminations for coming forward, although many still work for the Atlanta schools.

One of the common tactics in discrediting whistle blowers is to turn the focus on them and their job performance. It’s also an effective means to intimidate other employees from ever coming forward.

Teachers in the story allege that is what happened to them in Atlanta.

According to the investigative piece by AJC reporter Alan Judd and Heather Vogell: (Please read the full …

Continue reading APS whistle blowers: Their credibility came under attack »

As expected, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission approved the four charter schools recommended by its interviewing panels. It also raised the per pupil funding for online schools, a move that is likely to lure more virtual enterprises to Georgia.

I have read a lot about virtual education, but still think we are in the discovery phase of whether online learning is effective, especially for younger students. To me, the models depend in great part on the willingness of the parents to essentially co-teach.

In its 2009 meta-analysis of studies on online learning, the U.S. Department of Education noted that online learning was effective, but cautioned: An unexpected finding was the small number of rigorous published studies contrasting online and face-to-face learning conditions for K–12 students. In light of this small corpus, caution is required in generalizing to the K–12 population because the results are derived for the most part from studies in other settings (e.g., …

Continue reading More virtual schools likely for Georgia. Good news? »

As a New Jersey native, this story about the Rutgers freshman who committed suicide after his roommate filmed him in a sex act and posted it online caught my attention last night. It is a depressing story that raises questions about both morality and the invasive nature of today’s electronic toys.

Police believe Tyler Clementi jumped off the George Washington bridge last week after two students filmed him in a private sex act and posted it.

I am not sure what to say except people can be cruel and that cruelty has a price. How we are raising our kids today that they would think it was funny to videotape another teen in a sexual encounter and post it for the world to see?

But, we have become a nature of voyeurs, whether it’s gawking at the poor woman caught picking her nose on camera this week or a TMZ-surprise attack on some celebrity eating an ice cream cone with his kids.

A friend of mine who threw herself a birthday bash was stunned when a guest posted photos from the party …

Continue reading Sex, death and videotapes: College student’s suicide exposes the ugly side of our show-all society »

As a longtime fan of advice columnist Dear Abby, I valued her practical answers, especially about raising children. However, one question stumped her years ago, and she threw it out to her readers to answer: Should children who hate piano lessons be forced — even kicking and screaming — to continue because they may eventually find joy in it and even decide that music is their passion? Abby’s mail was split. Readers wrote that they hated every second of their childhood piano lessons, and the experience soured them forever on music. Others wrote to say that they were now with the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music or the Boston Pops and were forever grateful that their parents held their ground.

One mom maintained that parents force kids to do many things, including bathe, brush their teeth and eat their vegetables. Why should music be any different? Her son begged to quit piano when he was 10. Today, she said, he was a noted conductor and music professor.

But another mother …

Continue reading Parent’s passion: Keep playing that piano. You’ll thank me someday. I hope. »

We all say that we don’t care about these lists of best schools, but then we frantically search to see if our schools are on them.

Start searching as Newsweek is out with its best high schools issue.

Georgia is not represented in the top 20. Our first appearance is slot No. 79 and that is Cobb’s usual high scorer, Walton.

Newsweek picks the best high schools in the country based on advanced placement college-level courses and tests. Just over 1,600 schools— six percent of all the public schools in the U.S.– made the list. In the list of 1,600, there are 55 Georgia high schools, most from metro suburban systems.

Critics discredit the methodology used to assemble the Newsweek list each year, but I still would have liked to have seen my local high school earn a spot in the very top tier.

Was yours on the list?

Continue reading Newsweek list of top high schools: 55 Georgia schools among 1,600 »

Writer Laura Brodie once received this sage advice from a preschool teacher: “Don’t worry about tears at drop-off time. Was your child crying when you picked her up?”

Frustrated with testing and rigidity in the classroom, Laura Brodie home schooled her 10-year-old for one year and chronicled the experience.

Brodie remembered those words when her oldest daughter Julia struggled in elementary school and came home desolate. A dreamy child with a unique learning style, Julia grew increasingly unhappy with the relentless test prep, drills and worksheets.

So Brodie, a professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia, decided to home school Julia for fifth grade, cutting down her own college teaching load to become her daughter’s teacher.

Brodie chronicles the challenges and rewards of that year in her new book, “Love in a Time of Homeschooling.”

The book is not a paean to home schooling, which Brodie says she could never embrace full-time, calling herself a public …

Continue reading Home schooling as a respite rather than a retreat from public schools »