Mark on November 19th, 2009

Dr. Yvonne Fournier answering questions from a homeschooling family which moved to a testing state. Some highlights about the inherent tension between homeschooling and achievement tests:

Hassle-Free Homework: Achievement Tests Contribute To America’s Decline
By Dr. Yvonne Fournier,
U.S. School System Discourages Divergent, Creative Thinkers
In a world that begs for divergent thinkers (people who can think “outside the [...]

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Mark on November 13th, 2009

Homeschoolers compete in a lot of different kinds of contests:
From the Lincoln County Record, Pioche, NV – Established September 12, 1870

Panaca’s Cookie Crumb Trail Contest
By Angela Musser
The Christmas Tree Ornament Contest for Panaca’s Town Tree is now open to public and home school students.

Argus Leader – Sioux Falls, SD

Home-school team wins annual quiz bowl
For the [...]

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Mark on November 12th, 2009

Nothing directly impacting homeschoolers yet, but.. But what really?
There are powerful forces at play with a vested interest in the institution of education. Couple calls for legislative reform with the common standards initiative, mix it up with the mad dash for the money, and homeschoolers can not afford to ignore these reforms, panic about them, [...]

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Mark on November 10th, 2009

Iowa City Superintendent, Lane Plugge says, “If you want a diploma, you have to go to school here:”

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Mark on November 10th, 2009

If you are concerned about homeschooling your kids you can find encouragement in this story from The Ukiah Daily Journal:

Mathematics, Meyer Style
By Carole Brodsky
Ukiahan making waves in academia and cyberspace
For the Daily Journal
Holiday shoppers can thank Dan Meyer and his Ukiah High instructors for helping them shave precious minutes off their waiting time in crowded [...]

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Mark on November 5th, 2009

In formal remarks at James C. Wright Middle School in Madison Wisconsin, President Obama outlined the federal government’s 4.3 billion dollar Race to the Top awards. His presentation defined “four challenges that our country has to meet for our children to outcompete workers around the world, for our economy to grow and to prosper, and [...]

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Mark on November 4th, 2009

In a Letter to the editor published online and in print, Maryann Klaus, with 40 years experience as “teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent” questions testing:

Why, when all of the research points to gains made by a focus on teaching and learning, formative assessment, teacher collaboration, and strong leadership, is the government looking to increasingly restrictive [...]

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Mark on November 4th, 2009

This disturbing piece is from May 2001 and re-published yesterday online. Counts don’t add up, by Lucy Hood, Edmund S. Tijerina and Sharon K. Hughes. Some excerpts:

To assess the extent of the dropout problem, the newspaper last fall began to track the 1,053 freshmen who enrolled at Holmes in the 1997-98 school year. Holmes was [...]

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Mark on November 3rd, 2009

In an article titled If School Is Cool, We Win, Author John Lewis takes us through his family’s first day of the school year through their approach to homeschooling. A few enlightening takes on the usual questions. Why we homeschool:

My wife Anne and I have been homeschooling our children for the past two years. [...]

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Mark on November 2nd, 2009

While homeschoolers will continue to live their lives according to their beliefs and convictions, public perception of homeschooling can make life easy or much harder.
With that in mind, NBC’s Housewives series has written homeschooling into their script. From this week’s online summary:

Reading, writing and respect: When Juanita lets a swear word fly in her school [...]

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