Suze was kind enough to track down the report on homeschooling (pdf) prepared by undergraduate students at the University of Iowa for Iowa lawmakers I discussed last week. Honestly, I was a little disappointed in the final product. The professor guiding the “non-partisan public policy undergraduate research group” says of the program:
“I am telling students, legislators’ time is precious,” Rice said. “You can’t give legislators a 15-page report. You need to boil it down.”
Most reports range from two to five pages, but they are dense and heavily footnoted should someone desire additional information, Rice said. press-citizen.com
But this “dense and heavily footnoted” report contains all of six footnotes, four of which are to HSLDA’s legislative summaries.
This is neither here nor there, but I wonder if perhaps we have too many laws when lawmakers have to ask a group of undergraduates at a state university to check up on the homeschool laws in the state they represent. A few clicks on HSLDA’s website would have easily given any lawmaker the information provided in this report, probably in less time than it took to request the study in the first place. A look at a recent editorial in a major newspaper probably could have even scored the “but under current regulations we can’t really know what is going on in every homeschool” undertone of the final paragraphs:
Success of Homeschooled Students
While literature can be found reporting higher success rates for homeschooled students at the college level than average public school students, much of this is produced by organizations which support homeschooling. Broad, relevant, and unbiased information on academic comparisons of homeschooled students and public school students is difficult to find.
Difficult, but not impossible. The problem is, to gather this kind of information, you probably are not going to find it in a fifteen minute internet search. You are probably going to have to spend some time with your librarian tracking down education and social science journals and then requesting them through your schools’ interlibrary loan service. But as a researcher, that is the kind of research that sets your report apart from what a lawmaker can do on his or her own over a cup of coffee between meetings. And I might add that it is quite normal for a good deal of available research on any given topic to be done by biased groups with a vested interest in the results. While this certainly should be taken into account when reviewing their data, it would be more helpful to analyze the research methodolgy of these reports than to cast suspicion on them merey because they were conducted by groups which advocate homeschooling.
Enforcement
Little data exists on how often homeschooling laws go unenforced. Anecdotal evidence shows some online homeschooling forums provide advice on how to avoid meeting requirements of a given state’s laws. In states that require no notice of intent to homeschool, it is difficult to accurately determine the number of homeschooled children in a given district, so any curricula requirements appear to be unenforceable. Furthermore, many states have no way of knowing if the information given by homeschools is accurate. For example, in Iowa there is no way to know if the attendance records are being accurately kept.
Anecdotal evidence shows that some online forums can give you advice on a wide array of illegal activities. This is hardly evidence that stricter monitoring is needed or that all of us need to be treated like criminals. Nor even that children in these homeschools are at any increased risk of educational neglect because the parents feel that, for whatever reason, they should not have to report their education plans to the state. And so long as the states themselves are lowering standards and decreasing transparency to make it appear as if their students are meeting the targets of No Child Left Behind, they don’t have a lot of room to criticize the accuracy of the information homeschoolers turn in to the state.
The real question that remains completely unaddressed is this: Is there evidence that educational neglect is widespread enough to warrant additional monitoring? Since the best argument proponents of stricter regulation seem able to come up with is “but we can’t really know what is occurring in every homeschool,” I suggest such evidence is lacking.
Why don’t the substitute “homeschool” with a variety of other real crimes to show how many real criminals are getting away with real crime? Lots of laws go unenforced for a variety of reasons. Our own country isn’t even enforcing federal laws (illegal workers to name 1) very well and they want to make homeschooling a point of contention. That’s because homeschoolers aren’t a big problem and therefore are an easy target for the roosters to puff up over when they “crack down” on crime…the crime of educating our children without moronic interference. Iowa’s not my state, but what happens in one part of the country can have rippling effects on all other parts.
Plus you have the delightful sound bite of being able to do something “for the children.” Of course this is without real regard to what might actually be of benefit to real life children.
I’d substitute nutrition and exercise for homeschooling. The gov’t can’t provide clear evidence as to whether or not the nation’s children have a balanced diet and are participating in adequate exercise in order to avoid diabetes and heart disease. One could argue that the state has a vested interest in a healthy population (especially if they plan to take over healthcare) just as they claim that their vested interest gives them the right to make families accountable to the state for their child’s education.
I was also disappointed with the report. It read like a night before jam session instead of a thoughtfully researched paper. If these kinds of reports are the basis for legislation, no wonder what is proposed is often nonsense to the citizenry the legislation affects.
Two things, from a policy argument POV:
First, it’s not about mocking these students or their university’s inadequacy! That is both objectively and subjectively the wrong way for home education advocacy to receive this report imo.
When our opponents caricature our kids and criticize the inadequacy of their teachers (us) to score cheap political points for public education, we rightly object. Let’s not start doing it to them now in return.
Also, consider that in this worldwide meltdown moment, home education advocacy needs to recalibrate our arguments to the rapidly changing ideal, from individual autonomy to responsible community engagement. If this is an about-face in the regulatory environment, we’d better recast our favorite arguments to fit the changing narrative and stop sounding like rebel warriors ready to shoot the evil revenoors coming for our mountain moonshine stills.
Over the years I’ve used the same analogy sunniemom makes to good effect, between free learning and free food decisions, but unfortunately we’re at a juncture where corporate excess and governmental ideology has taken even that “too far” (as Mrs. C puts it.) Our food laws, systems and politics actually DO make an apt analogy to education but in the opposite way we would hope! Even food presently appears to have been under-regulated, or at least badly regulated and inspected; kids and families have been harmed as a result.
I don’t really see this as mocking the students or the university. But I really did expect more than a brief review of a few websites which pop up on any quick search for information on homeschooling. Apparently, the purpose of the report was to summarize national trends and laws regarding homeschooling, which it covers in the first two pages.
And I disagree that our arguments necessarily have to change. A wise person I know arguing for greater educational freedom in Europe warned against the dangers of anyone trying to control the debate.
Current arguments for homeschooling have gotten us to a certain point and tend to find favor with certain groups. Probably why, on average, conservatives are much more accepting of homeschooling than liberals.
Different arguments may need to be found to persuade other groups, but we shouldn’t do that in such a way that we alienate those who already support homeschooling.
In fewer words: I think the discussion needs to broaden, but not necessarily change.
Maybe reread some of the comments in your earlier thread about this, if you don’t hear the jeering.
Maybe we just define change differently, Dana, and your broadening is the same thing as my pragmatic response. But who said anything about ” anyone trying to control” the debate? You don’t think that’s what I was suggesting, do you?
Not necessarily, but when you talk about certain arguments sounding like they are coming from “rebel warriors ready to shoot the evil revenoors coming for our mountain moonshine stills,” it does sound as if we want some people to just crawl back in their holes and be quiet.
And I agree that when we comment on these things, we need to be aware of a broader audience than just other homeschoolers. I can make a sarcastic remark that will be well understood by other homeschoolers but at the same time confirms stereotypes of the public.
I always thought HSLDA’s pre-programmed responses were annoying until I saw what kinds of things people sent their legislators. Starting off calling your representative a communist doesn’t score many points for your cause.
Certain arguments do sound that way. That’s a fact. I can stay in MY hole and be quiet about it, or suggest more effective alternatives.
Thanks for the followup, Dana!
~Luke
I’m sure those who criticize students and their colleges feel the same way. But they are speaking mostly to those who agree with them.
In deference to JJ, I shall not jeer. But this does raise the question: With what weight did legislators receive this report? Did they receive it at all, or was it just a “practical application” assignment? Did they say “This is an informed report that we will use to write laws” or “This is a great exercise for students learn more about research and what affects our laws”? Not to insult the students, who are learning and they have to start somewhere, but if the legislature took this as an authoritative report, they are doing their constituents a disservice.
Only tangentially related, but I’ve often wondered what constitutes “attendance” at homeschool.
Dana, all the audiences are important, you’re right. It all matters, how we homeschoolers seek to persuade ourselves and each other, also April’s point about ways to persuade legislators. This discussion sent me back to last summer when I wrote a long comment about such things, which I hope you don’t mind if I paste in here as food for thought. I really want everyone not just to talk, but to say what they really mean and to be heard, and to make a positive difference. But it’s not home education we should be researching then, it’s communication and cognitive psychology — and this stuff is HARD!
_____________________
It’s about power of story. This story about the Big Bad Wolf of Government is very powerful with homeschoolers, including me (well, my lizard brain anyway.)
But you can’t beat it in your own mind or anyone else’s by arguing with it or asking for proof. You need to tell a different, better story that comes at the issues a whole other way — over and over and over until it too starts to take hold in the cultural unconscious.
For example, maybe this one. . .:
Obama’s family and Obama’s own life itself obviously then, would have been an actual CRIME in Virginia — home of Thomas Jefferson who literally created some similar, um, cross-racial children also unable to be raised in an optimum family environment. Never mind optimum educational opportunites, which as I recall the Supreme Court has changed the story on many times as well. Brown v Board of Education was decided the year I was BORN btw — did it affect my birthright then? Or anyone else’s? I’d answer that yes and yes but my main storyline would be changing the entire culture we would grow up in and inherit, not merely how we would be schooled and what we would pay in taxes to help pay for those changes.
The storyline of the above might (even as they protest) cross-connect for conservatives with their beliefs about parent sovereignty and privacy and family freedoms; those who believe the public should butt out of our families and let us define our own values and goals, craft our own characters and live with our own choices without interference from the public.
UPDATE – here’s something homeschooling surely can learn from! We are about twice as small a minority in the current culture, as interracial marriages are, after 40-plus years of protected and explicit legality throughout the nation. No wonder we’re still misunderstood, suspected as misfits, stereotyped, etc.
Does anyone really believe that homeschoolers will be changing that with moral superiority, much less by brandishing our educational facts and evidence, any time soon? If you do, you just aren’t looking at the irrefutable evidence that these are cultural stories our brains are collectively reluctant to let us rewrite. . .
Rebecca, that crossed my mind. After all, if my kids aren’t in attendance at least 180 days of the year, there is a serious problem.
But I think they are thinking of hours of formal learning.
Having taken a quick look around, I can’t find any actual attendance record keeping requirement. The number of days of attendance required seems to relate to a dispute between a school district and a family that withdrew children to home school. The district rejected the parents home school arrangements and referred them for criminal truancy prosecution. Clearly, the legislature thought it necessary to correct the Supreme Court finding in favor of the parents thus a change to quarterly attendance requirements. The actual reporting requirements appear to be a statement of a plan to provide instruction the proper number of days. If portfolio assessment is used, then a lesson plan book or diary of work is required and would serve to document “attendance” I suppose.
fwiw, there is an “attendance requirement” for private homeschoolers in California. In fact, my daughter and I used to do roll-call every morning – just for jollies.
The list of required records to keep on hand:
1. A copy of yearly “Private School Affidavit”
2. List of faculty members and qualifications
3. Attendance records for each child
4. California School Immunization Record
5. Outline of student’s curriculum
Interesting posts and discussion.
We have an attendance requirement, but not a record-keeping requirement.
I think the important debate for the homeschool community on this issue, isn’t between homeschoolers and random university studies or governmental regulators…but within our community on how we ourselves support a varied home education movement. Is there only one model, the HSDLA supported one? Or are we “allowing” and supporting other models? As the leader of an inclusive group in my community, it’s a constant battle to keep HSDLA modeled homeschoolers from “attacking” more moderate even liberal homeschoolers for a variety of reasons; their methods, their lack of the right faith, their parenting styles, etc. etc. etc.
For me, as a “homeschool leader”, my chief and only reason I remained involved in homeschool support is to make sure that secular and liberal homeschoolers are completely aware of their options and are actively supported and encouraged in whatever manner we’re able to muster that support..and so my conversations are always aimed at other homeschoolers, trying to get them to see the need to allow more diversity within their ranks and not fear homeschooling supporting a worldview they can’t agree with.
I think the food analogy is still valid- there is a vast difference between making sure food is free of bacteria and other contaminants, and crafting legislation that creates a set of standards for nutrition to be applied to families with children. We are talking about criminalizing Fruit Loops and Happy Meals and baby fat. Which is very analogous to how many view education- as a gov’t concern instead of a private function of the family.
I don’t subscribe to the idea of living according to cultural values- I endeavor to live by a core of virtues and principles that remain unchanged, regardless of the Recommended Selections from the Cultural Fad of the Month Club.
The idea of a home educator having to keep attendance records cracks me up. I even have problems with the hourly requirements- there are so many things that we do to learn in a natural environment that keeping track is mind-numbing and quite frankly, a waste of my time. Ditto providing a list of textbooks to the state. Do they even know how clueless they sound? They are the ones behind the times in educational opportunity and methodologies.
I don’t know a thing about the kids that crafted this report, but I stand by my opinion it was shallow, and I’ve graded enough reports when I was teaching full-time to recognize a night before rush job when I see one. It’s a pity of these stuff is taken seriously by legislators who are ‘too busy’ to read a well-researched paper that would provide them the needed information to govern the citizens to which they are accountable.
“I don’t subscribe to the idea of living according to cultural values- I endeavor to live by a core of virtues and principles that remain unchanged, regardless of the Recommended Selections from the Cultural Fad of the Month Club.
”
What’s the smilie for at the end of this um, home education PR? Meant to say you don’t really mean this like it sounds, or that you DO mean it but want the cover of claiming it was just a harmless joke?
I’ve seen no recommendation among home education advocates that we should toss our values and and principles to live according to cultural currents. I am only recommending we ARGUE with more cultural intelligence.
“Do they even know how clueless they sound? They are the ones behind the times in educational opportunity and methodologies.”
I rest my case.
JJ,
A smilie is a smilie, and it doesn’t mean that I don’t mean what I say or that I am trying to cover anything up. I am a happy person who uses smilies alot. Try not to read more into that than it is.
I gave my own view of the difference between living according to cultural norms or according to principle. Sometimes these are complimentary, and sometimes they conflict. When they conflict, principle should win. I understand the idea of knowing one’s audience when one is presenting a persuasive argument, but who exactly am I supposed to be persuading? The gov’t to observe Constitutional rights of citizens to live their lives in freedom? That children deserve the best education their parents can provide for them without burdensome gov’t regulation and restrictions on school choice? That people should sometimes mind their own business when others are living their lives and not doing anything immoral, illegal, or fattening? (just kidding about the fattening part) How does ‘cultural intelligence’ affect any of these arguments that are principle based issues, not cultural issues?
I don’t know what you are resting your ‘case’ on- I wasn’t even aware you were making a ‘case’- but do you object to my stating that I think our educational system and those who critique homeschooling are behind the times in educational opportunity and methodologies… that I used the word ‘clueless’…? FWIW, I don’t communicate regularly with anyone in or out of the homeschool community who sounds like “rebel warriors ready to shoot the evil revenoors coming for our mountain moonshine stills.” Maybe I should come hang out in your neck of the woods and meet some of these folks- I bet it’s entertaining if nothing else- I used to love Li’l Abner.:D
I should send you some links. . .
I have a link to share.
I forgot about this until the library discussion, but it is a great quote nonetheless:
She [Sally Reed, National President of Friends of the Library] said something interesting that I think applies to homeschooling as well as libraries. Her comment was that when we advocate we don’t necessarily want people to become library users but library supporters. She said she had her own epiphany in a Rotary Club meeting where the speaker was presenting info about the city’s bus system. She was expecting him to get up and tell about how many bus routes they had and how many people rode the bus and how efficient it was and that sort of thing. Instead he got up and spoke about how much the bus system was saving the city in terms of reduced traffic; how many more parking lots and street lanes they would have to add if all the people riding the buses started driving, environmental impact, etc.
I believe talking about rights and limitations on governmental power are important to talk about. But people listen more when you aren’t just some fringe group asking for tolerance. We do benefit our communities and I think articulating some of those reasons is a good way to advance our arguments.
Oops…that was from an article I wrote some time ago for Heart of the Matter.
Terrific point, Dana. Not only do we benefit rather than harm our communities but we ARE those communities, good-citizen parents living in the same culture with the same families we love as any non-homeschooling mom, and library cards and grocery shopping or laundry to do, etc.
I despair at how counterproductive it is, when we set ourselves apart and draw battle lines because we’re so leery of being subsumed into public schooling.
If any homeschooler reading this feels NOT part of the culture and local community, I suggest it’s not the actual home education that makes them feel so different and apart, but their own religious and political beliefs. This is the elephant in the homeschooling living room, that most home education debate is more about religion than education. (Even the discussion about the public library as educational resource for the whole community has been surprisingly — to me — more about cultural Christianity and behavior/morals, than knowledge and ideas and education freedom.)
My local homeschool list is currently confusing religious freedom with home education and parent rights again, because of this WND article:
YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK
Judge orders homeschoolers into public district classrooms
Decides children need more ‘focus’ despite testing above grade levels
Posted: March 11, 2009
11:25 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
[Notice that in all the court cases mentioned, from CA to NC to Germany, religion is the central concern plus mental fitness to parent, not academic education.]