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 [...]
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, [...]
Continue reading about Race to the Top Final Application Released
Iowa City Superintendent, Lane Plugge says, “If you want a diploma, you have to go to school here:”
Continue reading about 1st Reading New Iowa Homeschool Rules
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 [...]
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 [...]
Continue reading about Questioning the Wisdom of New, Common Tests
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 [...]
Continue reading about Homeschoolers and Texas Drop-out Rate
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 [...]
Continue reading about Mainstream Perception of Homeschoolng
The compelling argument which high school teacher Christopher L. Doyle makes about kids and freedom suggests so. In an Education Week Commentary, Growing Up Scripted
And Losing Freedom Along the Way he suggests that few of his students think they will grow up to lead a free life. After exploring the state his students find themselves [...]
Continue reading about Can Teachers and Homeschoolers be Allies?
In Different Perspectives: The Daily Illini Opinion Blogs, homeschooler turned college student, Colleen Lindsay addresses longer school hours, improved test scores and the lives of our children.
Lagging far behind the rest of the world academically, American schools have been struggling to catch up. Now, we take action!
The proposed solution is longer hours of schooling per [...]
Review-’WRITE THESE LAWS ON YOUR CHILDREN’
WRITE THESE LAWS ON YOUR CHILDREN: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling By Robert Kunzman
The book was released in August of 2009 and published by Beacon Press of Boston.
A Review by Susan Ryan, Illinois Homeschooler
In one of Robert Kunzman’s interviews with six “strongly conservative” Christian homeschooling families, a California homeschooling mom related her kids [...]
Continue reading about Review-’WRITE THESE LAWS ON YOUR CHILDREN’