School Choice is Good For America; round 4

[Muda69]

The KKK's Push for Compulsory Schooling and a Federal Education Department: https://reason.com/2023/01/23/the-kkks-push-for-a-federal-education-department/

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"The greatest duty of America today is to build up our educational system." That sentiment probably seems anodyne, like something you might have heard on the campaign trail in the recently concluded midterms. A century ago, it represented the top priority of the Ku Klux Klan.

"Throughout the boom years of the early 1920s," the historian Adam Laats notes in a 2012 History of Education Quarterly article, "every local Klan group made education reform a leading goal of its public activism." Eventually, Laats writes, a push for compulsory public schooling overseen by a federal cabinet agency became the "linchpin" of the organization's agenda.

Why the Klan's sudden interest in education policy? First and foremost, because of the KKK's virulent nativism and anti-Catholicism. Most private schools at the time were associated with the Catholic Church, while most public schools were openly, if unofficially, Protestant. By requiring all children to attend the latter institutions, Klan members thought they could strip Catholic parishes of an income source, reduce the Catholic hierarchy's ability to indoctrinate the next generation, and secure their own right to inculcate values instead.

The effort to shutter parochial institutions altogether would soon be halted. In 1922, Oregon passed a law requiring every child to attend a local public school. Supporters including the KKK admitted the aim was to drive all private schools in the state out of business. But before the law went into effect, the U.S. Supreme Court deemed it unconstitutional.

Undeterred, the Klan continued pursuing its education agenda in the public sphere. Members bullied Catholic teachers and principals into vacating public school jobs. They made donations of (Protestant) Bibles and agitated for mandatory (Protestant) prayer and religion classes. And they lined up behind the National Education Association (NEA), the country's largest teachers union, as it lobbied over more than a decade for the establishment of a federal Department of Education.

The groups wanted an Education Department that would provide funding to schools across the country, thereby promoting literacy and patriotism. An influx of immigrants had raised concerns that pockets of the country were not being assimilated into the American way of life. Compulsory education was meant to build national unity, ensuring the country's future workers could speak the same language and preparing them to be productive members of society.

Supporters of this effort often portrayed it as a grand humanitarian crusade. "We must have a compulsory education system to reach and uplift every future citizen," national Ku Klux Klan leader Hiram Evans said in 1924. If the campaign was successful, "all our humanity might live in harmony."

The cruelly coercive nature of the proposals nevertheless was apparent. "We will be a homogeneous people," Evans told a friendly audience in 1923. "We will grind out Americans like meat out of a grinder." Or as an early Progressive education reformer chillingly put it in 1902, "The nation has a right to demand intelligence and virtue of every citizen, and to obtain these by force if necessary."

As the NEA and KKK pushed to federalize education funding, they met opposition from Catholic institutions. The National Catholic Welfare Council, a U.S. body of Catholic bishops and staff, worked diligently to oppose bills that would have elevated an Interior Department bureau collecting education statistics into its own cabinet agency. America, a Jesuit magazine, editorialized against the legislative proposals as well. Fearing that federal funding of education would lead to federal control of education, Catholic leaders argued that parents must be allowed to determine what kind of schooling was right for their kids.

History was on the Catholics' side. Education in America had always been a state and local issue. Although the Founders "wanted a nation of virtuous, informed citizens," wrote Kevin Kosar, then of the R Street Institute, in 2015, "almost nobody saw educating them as the federal government's job. The Constitution didn't authorize the federal government to make schools policy."

In the 1920s and '30s, opponents were successful at preventing the establishment of a standalone cabinet agency. But the push for a centralized education authority didn't go away even when the Klan did. Lawmakers in Washington began appropriating school funding in the decades that followed, and a federal Department of Education was officially created in 1979.

An interesting read.  That this nation's government schools system was built on the back of racism and anti-Catholicism.

[Muda69]

Biden Wants Schools That Please Politicians, Not Parents: https://reason.com/2023/01/25/biden-wants-schools-that-please-politicians-not-parents/

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The Biden administration is frequently accused of hostility to school choice—or at least to choice for families that can't afford to pay private tuition on top of taxes for government institutions.

In their defense, the president's allies claim they favor options but want to ensure that such schools are accountable for the dollars they spend and the results they produce. But Biden and company show their hand by dismissing the role of parents and students who are best positioned to assess education offerings; they prefer rules that make educators responsible to the government instead of to families.

For evidence of the president's opposition to school choice, you don't have to look far. On the campaign trail in 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden said, "When we divert public funds to private schools, we undermine the entire public education system. We've got to prioritize investing in our public schools, so every kid in America gets a fair shot. That's why I oppose vouchers."

"Why are unions and Democrats so opposed to giving poor children a choice in schooling?," The Washington Post editorial board, usually a Biden ally, asked last year. It warned of the peril faced by federally funded scholarships to send struggling D.C. children to private schools in "House Democrats and the Biden administration quietly laying the groundwork to kill off this worthy program."

"I am not a charter school fan," Biden insisted about the publicly funded but independently managed schools, "because it takes away the options available and money for public schools."

More recently, the administration had to backtrack on proposed rules for federal grants to charters that would have given traditional school districts virtual veto power over the competition. The final rules are less draconian, though still intrusive.

When pressed, Biden and company frame the hurdles they place in the way of alternatives in terms of making voucher recipients, charters, and private schools responsible for their conduct and results.

"In the context of these rules we've really focused on three goals, right, the first is how do we think about fiscal responsibility, accountability, and transparency," Roberto Rodriguez, assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education, explained at a recent Brookings Institution charter school conference. "Those regulations include new efforts to support data-driven community needs assessments."

"The rulemaking that we've proposed is not an effort to tear down the charter school sector," Rodriguez insisted.

Charter schools and, presumably, other alternatives are fine then, so long as they justify their existence to the education bureaucracy. But that misses an important point: All learning options are already accountable, or should be, to the people who see them in action every day.

"16.6 percent of all parents chose new schools for their children within the past year, 11.3 percent considered new schools, and 25.8 percent are currently considering new schools," the National School Choice Awareness Foundation announced in a survey published this week. "In total, 53.7 percent of parents considered or are considering choosing a new school."

On display in such figures is the constant process of parents assessing their children's education and holding learning institutions accountable by considering alternatives. What kind of alternatives do parents consider? Take your pick.

"Nearly half of parents (45.6 percent) said they considered traditional public schools within their neighborhoods, while 38.2 percent considered public schools outside of their district or zones," the survey found. "31.5 percent of parents considered public charter schools, 29.1 percent considered private or faith-based schools, 22.9 percent considered homeschooling, 20.8 percent considered full-time online schooling, and 4 percent considered microschooling or pod learning."

Parents don't need distant bureaucrats trawling through data to assess "community needs" when they're making their own decisions on the fly and determining their own needs. What many of them need, by the way, is more choices: "48.1 percent of parents, including majorities of Hispanic parents (52.8 percent) and young millennial parents (53.4 percent), said their community does not offer enough education options for families. Only 3.7 percent of all parents said their community offers too many education options."

That desire for more education options and the act of moving kids from one school to another is a better indicator of community needs than you'll ever get from a Department of Education white paper. Besides, substituting accountability to the feds for family preferences isn't just presumptuous, it's impossible when you consider the varying reasons parents have for rejiggering their kids' educations.

"In the 2018–19 school year, 36 percent of students had parents who indicated that they had considered multiple schools for their child," reports the federal government's own National Center for Education Statistics. "Among these students, 79 percent had parents who indicated that the quality of teachers, principals, or other school staff was very important. Other factors that a majority of students' parents indicated as being very important include safety (including student discipline) (71 percent) and curriculum focus or unique academic programs (e.g., language immersion, STEM focus) (59 percent)."

"Thirty percent of students in public assigned schools had parents who reported that they had considered other schools for their child," adds the NCES.

That constant reassessment of how schools perform is real accountability in action. Parents may be generally happy with their children's education—research finds overall satisfaction among homeschooling families, private schoolers, charter schoolers, and public schoolers alike. But they're constantly considering options. That's why, despite their satisfaction, somewhere around 70 percent of the population consistently voices support for the school choice of which Joe Biden is so leery.

Politicians tell the truth when they argue that the barriers they place in the way of charter schools, vouchers, scholarships, and other options are about accountability. But those barriers are about thwarting accountability, not promoting it. Real accountability comes when people can decide for themselves what works and what doesn't and choose accordingly.

Educators should be responsible to parents and students, not to the government.

 

[Muda69]

To Increase 'Equity,' This California High School Is Eliminating Honors Courses: https://reason.com/2023/02/21/to-increase-equity-this-california-high-school-is-eliminating-honors-courses/?itm_source=parsely-api

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One California high school has eliminated honors classes for ninth- and 10th-grade students. While school officials claim that the change was necessary to increase "equity," the move has angered students and parents alike.

"We really feel equity means offering opportunities to students of diverse backgrounds, not taking away opportunities for advanced education and study," one parent who opposed the change told The Wall Street Journal.

Starting this school year, Culver City High School, a public school in a middle-class suburb of Los Angles, eliminated its honors English classes for ninth- and 10th-graders. Instead, students are only able to enroll in one course called "College Prep" English. The decision, according to school administrators, came after teachers noticed that only a small number of black and Hispanic students were enrolling in Advanced Placement (A.P.) courses.

"It was very jarring when teachers looked at their AP enrollment and realized Black and brown kids were not there. They felt obligated to do something," said Quoc Tran, the district's superintendent. According to an article by The Wall Street Journal's Sara Randazzo, data presented at a school board meeting last year showed that Latino students made up 13 percent of 12th-grade A.P. English students, despite comprising 37 percent of the student body, while black students made up 14 percent of A.P. English students while comprising 15 percent of the student body.

"School officials say the goal is to teach everyone with an equal level of rigor, one that encourages them to enroll in advanced classes in their final years of high school," Randazzo notes.

However, parents—and students—disagree. "There are some people who slow down the pace because they don't really do anything and aren't looking to try harder," Emma Frigola, a ninth-grader at the school, said. "I don't think you can force that into people." She added that the curriculum has been made easier to accommodate less advanced students.

"For a unit on research, Emma said her teacher gathered all the reference sources they needed to write a paper on whether graffiti is art or vandalism and had students review them together in class," Randazzo wrote. "Her sister, Elena Frigola, now in 11th grade, said prior honors English students chose their own topics and did research independently."

Despite school officials' concerns about equity, it's worth noting that despite teachers' concerns, black students were almost exactly proportionally represented in A.P. courses—just one percentage point off. It's also possible that part of the reason why Latino students are underrepresented in A.P. courses is that the data don't differentiate between students who are and aren't fluent in English.

According to Education Data Partnership, an organization that works with the California Department of Education to provide data on state schools, 36 percent of students at Culver City High School did not speak English as their primary language during the 2021–22 school year. While only 5 percent of students were classified as "English Learners" (80 percent of whom speak Spanish), it's worth considering that a significant portion of students deemed "fluent" English speakers might nonetheless feel unprepared for an A.P. English course. With most English learners being Spanish speakers, it's possible that the percentage of Latino students taking A.P. courses would be much more proportional to the percentage of Latino students in the grade if the data only considered those students who speak English as their first language.

However, even if some ethnic groups are still underrepresented, nixing advanced courses is not the solution.

"I just don't see how removing something from some kids all of a sudden helps other kids learn faster," one education researcher told The Wall Street Journal.

When schools eliminate educational opportunities for gifted students, those who are most hurt by the change are disadvantaged, academically talented students. While wealthier families can move to a new school district or enroll their children in private school, low-income parents—and their kids—are stuck. While getting rid of honors courses was supposedly designed to help black and Latino students, it will deprive opportunities of many of the same kids it was intended to help.

"I was born in Cuba," said one parent, "and it doesn't sound good when people are trying to achieve equal outcomes for everyone."

That is our government education system everybody.  I giant race to equity, errr mediocrity.

 

[Robert]

5 hours ago, Muda69 said:

To Increase 'Equity,' This California High School Is Eliminating Honors Courses: https://reason.com/2023/02/21/to-increase-equity-this-california-high-school-is-eliminating-honors-courses/?itm_source=parsely-api

That is our government education system everybody.  I giant race to equity, errr mediocrity.

 

Our whole system is different, yet we compete well in the world.

[Muda69]

11 minutes ago, Robert said:

Our whole system is different, yet we compete well in the world.

Define "compete well"

U.S. Education Rankings Are Falling Behind the Rest of the World: https://www.thebalancemoney.com/the-u-s-is-losing-its-competitive-advantage-3306225

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The United States is not investing as much in human capital as other developed countries are. As a result, its comparative advantage is falling behind. For example, U.S. students' math skills have remained stagnant for decades.1

 This means the country is falling behind many others, such as Japan, Poland, and Ireland, which have greatly improved. In fact, U.S. test scores are now below the global average. 

The Program for International Student Assessment tests 15-year-old students around the world and is administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2018, when the test was last administered, the U.S. placed 11th out of 79 countries in science. It did much worse in math, ranking 30th.2 

The U.S. scored 478 in math, below the OECD average of 489. That's well below the scores of the top five, all of which were in Asia: Singapore at 569, Macao at 555, Hong Kong at 551, Taiwan at 531, and Japan at 527. China was not included in this ranking, since only four provinces participated.3

In science, the United States scored at 502, above the OECD average of 489. The top five highest-scorers were Singapore at 551, Macao at 544, Estonia at 530, Japan at 529, and Finland at 522.

When analyzing the U.S.'s results over the years, it's clear that the scores have been stable over time. While not declining, there aren't any signs of improvement, either. In fact, there's been no detectable change in U.S. students' math scores since 2003 or science scores since 2006.4

...

 

[Robert]

22 hours ago, Muda69 said:

Define "compete well"

U.S. Education Rankings Are Falling Behind the Rest of the World: https://www.thebalancemoney.com/the-u-s-is-losing-its-competitive-advantage-3306225

 

Our best and brightest are just as good as the best and brightest anywhere.  We don't test and send kids to different kinds of schools as in some countries, we throw them all into the same pool. 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Robert

[Muda69]

12 minutes ago, Robert said:

Our best and brightest are just as good as the best and brightest anywhere.  We don't test and send kids to different kinds of schools as in some countries, we throw them all into the same pool. 

Why?  How is that successful?  Why do the "best and brightest" have to waste their time in classrooms filled with mediocre to downright bad student peers?

[Robert]

44 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Why?  How is that successful?  Why do the "best and brightest" have to waste their time in classrooms filled with mediocre to downright bad student peers?

That's our system.  We don't only send high-aptitude students to the local college prep high school, we send everyone.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Robert

[Muda69]

21 minutes ago, Robert said:

That's our system.  We don't only send high-aptitude students to the local college prep high school, we send everyone.

Then frankly the system needs to change.

And not every student is cut out for "college prep" or for that matter a traditional 2-4 year college/university education.   They are just are not, and I believe you and most other teachers know that.  So why is this the farce still perpetuated?  

 

[Robert]

34 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Then frankly the system needs to change.

And not every student is cut out for "college prep" or for that matter a traditional 2-4 year college/university education.   They are just are not, and I believe you and most other teachers know that.  So why is this the farce still perpetuated?  

 

Politicians.  Codes.  Laws.  Statutes.  Policies.

[Muda69]

17 minutes ago, Robert said:

Politicians.  Codes.  Laws.  Statutes.  Policies.

The ISTA/NEA as well.

 

[Robert]

2 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

The ISTA/NEA as well.

 

I would have to check on that.  I'm sure most of it is from people simply not doing the right thing to begin with. 

[Muda69]

2 minutes ago, Robert said:

I would have to check on that.  I'm sure most of it is from people simply not doing the right thing to begin with. 

So have you or will you ever tell a student "Johnny, you need to consider that a 4-year college may not be the best path for you after high school. Have you considered a trade/vocational school, or maybe the military?" 

[Muda69]

Randi Weingarten Only Taught for 3 Years. She's Getting 15 Years of Public Pension Anyway.:  https://reason.com/2023/05/23/randi-weingarten-only-taught-for-3-years-shes-getting-15-years-of-public-pension-anyway/

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Randi Weingarten has spent only a small portion of her career in the classroom despite leading the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the second-largest national teachers union in the United States. Trained as a lawyer, Weingarten taught full-time for just three years and was a substitute teacher for three more.

However, according to a report by Freedom Foundation, a think tank, she will collect over 15 years' worth of public pension when she retires. That sum could total well over $200,000.

Weingarten worked as a per diem substitute between 1991 and 1994 and then became a full-time teacher for three years. Weingarten was also employed as legal counsel for United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Sandra Feldman until 1998, after which Weingarten became union president.

But according to public records, Weingarten is listed as having collected over 15 years of "service credit" as a teacher—meaning she can expect the pension benefits of someone who worked in the classroom for well over a decade longer than Weingarten has.

How has Weingarten earned 15 years' worth of pension benefits? Per Freedom Foundation's Maxford Nelsen, it's due to the UFT collective bargaining agreement, which allowed her to have over 11 extra years counted toward her "service" even though she wasn't in the classroom. This likely came from "time spent…on union leave as treasurer and then president of UFT from 1997 until her election as AFT president in 2008," Nelsen notes.

"Employees who are officers of the Union or who are appointed to its staff shall, upon proper application, be given a leave of absence without pay for each school year during the term of this Agreement for the purpose of performing legitimate duties for the Union," the collective bargaining agreement said. Public records from November 2022 show that Weingarten was one of several dozen such "teachers" out on union leave.

While Weingarten's union leave is unpaid, the New York City Department of Education used tax revenue to pay her pension contributions for over a decade.

Weingarten wouldn't have been eligible for a pension in the first place without the extra service credit from her union years, as teachers need five years of service credit to be eligible for a pension. Including 12 months of credit she received from substitute teaching, Weingarten only had four years of service credit from her time actually spent teaching.

It's unclear how much taxpayers will shell out for Weingarten's pension. Assuming her average salary was $60,000 (public records show that her last salary as a New York City teacher was $64,313) and she collects her pension for 15 years, taxpayers could end up paying Weingarten $230,000 total, Nelsen estimates—not including any cost-of-living adjustments.

Weingarten has disputed this, telling the New York Post that his calculation is "completely wrong," adding that "I would have to check with UFT and TRS [Teachers Retirement System] on the other or find a quarterly statement, none of which I have right now." UFT did not respond to a request for comment.

Students are hardly Weingarten's top priority. Despite recent attempts to rehabilitate her image, Weingarten was a vocal supporter of extended COVID-related school closures, advocating for such ridiculous policies as forgiving all teacher student loan debt and suspending teacher evaluations as requirements for "safe" reopening.

"Weingarten's case is a prime example of how government unions around the country have managed to force taxpayers to subsidize their extreme, one-sided political advocacy," Nelsen wrote, "and it's high time federal and state lawmakers stand up to union influence."

While Ms. Weingarten's collecting such an extravagant pension for such few years actually teaching children is corrupt and wrong,  the statement about student's not being her top priority is correct.   The head of a labor union, by it's very nature, should have it's members as the top priority.  Frankly students should be an afterthought.  That public sector unions like the AFT love to crow "they are in this for the students'  is disingenuous at best, and outright lie at worst.

   

[Muda69]

ACT test scores for US students drop to new 30-year low: https://apnews.com/article/act-college-admission-test-score-optional-99f80b26696a92c78e2680873a3df68c

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High school students’ scores on the ACT college admissions test have dropped to their lowest in more than three decades, showing a lack of student preparedness for college-level coursework, according to the nonprofit organization that administers the test.

Scores have been falling for six consecutive years, but the trend accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students in the class of 2023 whose scores were reported Wednesday were in their first year of high school when the virus reached the U.S.

“The hard truth is that we are not doing enough to ensure that graduates are truly ready for postsecondary success in college and career,” said Janet Godwin, chief executive officer for the nonprofit ACT.

The average scores in reading, science and math all were below benchmarks the ACT says students must reach to have a high probability of success in first-year college courses. The average score in English was just above the benchmark but still declined compared to last year.

Many universities have made standardized admissions tests optional amid criticism that they favor the wealthy and put low-income students at a disadvantage. Some including the University of California system do not consider ACT or SAT scores even if submitted.

Godwin said the scores are still helpful for placing students in the right college courses and preparing academic advisors to better support students.

“In terms of college readiness, even in a test-optional environment, these kinds of objective test scores about academic readiness are incredibly important,” Godwin said.

At Denise Cabrera’s high school in Hawaii, all students are required to take the ACT as juniors. She said she would have taken it anyway to improve her chances of getting into college.

“Honestly, I’m unsure why the test was ever required because colleges can look at different qualities of the students who are applying outside of just a one-time test score,” said Denise, a 17-year-old senior at Waianae High School.

She’s looking at schools including the California Institute of Technology, which implemented a five-year moratorium on the standardized test score requirements during the pandemic. Denise said she knows the school is not considering scores but she doesn’t want to limit her options elsewhere.

About 1.4 million students in the U.S. took the ACT this year, an increase from last year. However, the numbers have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Godwin said she doesn’t believe those numbers will ever fully recover, partly because of test-optional admission policies.

Of students who were tested, only 21% met benchmarks for success in college-level classes in all subjects. Research from the nonprofit shows students who meet those benchmarks have a 50% chance of earning a B or better and nearly a 75% chance of earning a C or better in corresponding courses.

....

Great job, government schools.

 

[temptation]

On 10/13/2023 at 1:27 PM, Muda69 said:

ACT test scores for US students drop to new 30-year low: https://apnews.com/article/act-college-admission-test-score-optional-99f80b26696a92c78e2680873a3df68c

Great job, government schools.

 

Yep and the schools with the most disadvantaged students stayed closed longest during the pandemic which made the achievement gap even larger.

All in the name of “science” and “saving lives.”

Dumb asses.

Edited October 16, 2023 by temptation

[Muda69]

Oregon Is Removing a Requirement for High School Students to Show 'Essential Skills' Before Graduating: https://reason.com/2023/10/25/oregon-is-removing-a-requirement-for-high-school-students-to-show-essential-skills-before-graduating/

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Last week, the Oregon Department of Education unanimously voted to remove a requirement for Oregon high schoolers to demonstrate basic mastery in reading, writing, and mathematics in order to graduate. The requirement, which was most often met using students' standardized test results, has been paused since 2020.

According to state documents, the "Assessment of Essential Skills" benchmark is typically met when a student meets a cutoff score in a statewide standardized test, though alternatives can be used for students who opt out of the test, such as samples of classroom work or scores from other tests like the SAT or ACT.

While score cutoffs have been unavailable since the pause in 2020, a state guide from the 2016-2017 school year lists the cutoff for one popular test, the Smarter Balanced test, which student take in their 11th grade year, as a score of 2515 for reading and 2543 for math. Based on score percentile data from 2017-2018, assessments would put those scores roughly in the 25th and 45th percentiles respectively (assuming no major changes in student performance over one year). 

While the math cutoff in particular might seem high, both ranges would barely put test takers just a few points into the "Level 2" range in Smarter Balanced's 4-level scoring range. Level 2 scores are defined by the testing organization as meaning that a student has a "partial understanding of and ability to apply the knowledge and skills associated with college content readiness," adding that a student in this level would need "support" to be ready for college.

While not every high school graduate can or should go to college, if a high school student can't even demonstrate "partial" understanding of the subject matter of their classes, letting them continue on to their senior year and graduate high school without additional intervention is clearly irresponsible.

However, critics have framed the extra remediation many low-performing Oregon students receive as damaging. Department of Education officials opposed the policy in part because "higher rates of students of color, students learning English as a second language and students with disabilities ended up having to take intensive senior-year writing and math classes," extra remediation that "denied those students the opportunity to take an elective," according to The Oregonian. 

Valuing electives over basic skills seems like a strange set of priorities. Ensuring that students graduate with basic academic competencies should surely take precedence over their ability to take an elective course.

The strongest evidence supporting ditching the competency requirement is a 2021 report from the state's Higher Education Coordinating Committee, which found that the additional requirement didn't lead to improved outcomes for Oregon students in their first year of community college or 4-year university. 

However, this isn't necessarily the slam dunk supporters of removing the standard think it is. The existing benchmarks only ask students to prove basic mastery of reading, writing, and math. Students who fail to meet those standards—and are thus flagged for extra help—are definitionally struggling with simple high school concepts. And if you're struggling to grasp high school-level instruction, you're probably not going to be enrolling in college after graduation.

 

This is something that the report itself acknowledges. "Potential reasons for the lack of findings include the level of skill demonstrated being too low to improve postsecondary outcomes," the report's executive summary reads.

Removing Oregon's Assessment of Essential Skills requirement could make it even harder to identify which students need extra help before graduating. By removing an objective measure of student achievement—especially when compared to ever-inflating student GPA—high school graduation in Oregon risks becoming functionally meaningless as a measure of educational attainment. 

More evidence of the race to the bottom in government education.

 

[Muda69]

https://reason.com/2023/11/01/homeschooling-has-increased-by-over-50-percent-since-2018/

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Homeschooling has ballooned since the advent of the pandemic, growing by more than 100 percent in some states, according to new data from The Washington Post. While the number of children being homeschooled has declined slightly from its pandemic-era peak, the growth in the educational option has proven stable—and dramatic. 

The Post collected data from 32 states, as well as the District of Columbia, and 7,000 school districts—a dataset comprising around two-thirds of the nation's schoolchildren. 

Nationally, since the 2017-2018 school year, homeschooling has increased by 51 percent—while private schooling has only increased by 7 percent. Based on the available data, the Post estimated that there are now between 1.9 and 2.7 million homeschooled children in the United States. 

But many states and districts saw truly staggering growth in their homeschooling population. Notably, many of these places had schools that were closed the longest during the pandemic. D.C. and New York both saw homeschooling increases of more than 100 percent, while California saw an increase of 78 percent. In Brooklyn, homeschooling in the borough's school districts saw increases that ranged from 197 percent to a whopping 492 percent (though the total number of homeschoolers remained under 1,000 students per district.)

 

This growth has helped transform homeschooling into a racially and ideologically diverse movement. According to data analyzed by the Post, homeschooled students were three-quarters white in 2019. By summer 2023, less than half were white. Homeschool parents are now roughly evenly split between conservatives and liberals, while those homeschooling before the pandemic overwhelmingly identified as Republicans.

Such a rapid growth in the number and diversity of homeschooling families indicates that more and more American parents are dissatisfied with their children's education in traditional public schools—and deciding to take matters into their own hands.

"Families who choose homeschooling less for ideological reasons and more for matters of circumstance and what meets the needs of their child in the present moment will help change our conception of what it means to be a home-schooler," Robert Kunzman, a professor at Indiana University's School of Education and director of the International Center for Home Education Research, told the Post.

However, not everyone is so excited about these changes.

"Policymakers should think, 'Wow — this is a lot of kids,'" Elizabeth Bartholet, an emeritus professor at Harvard Law School told the Post "We should worry about whether they're learning anything."

"I can tell you right now: Many of these parents don't have any understanding of education," added one school board member. "The price will be very big to us, and to society. But that won't show up for a few years."

While it's reasonable to want every child to get a solid education, fear of under-regulation in homeschooling makes a key faulty assumption: that children are somehow guaranteed to receive an education if they attend local public schools, or that low-performing public schools are held accountable for failing their pupils.

While allowing homeschooling carries a risk that some parents will educationally neglect their children, what often goes under-considered is that a shockingly high percentage of public schools are just as neglectful as subpar homeschool parents.

 

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress Test, also called the Nation's Report Card, only 32 percent of fourth graders could read at a "proficient" or higher level. Thirty-nine percent landed in the lowest score category "below basic." In math, 35 percent of fourth graders scored proficient or higher.

The lows are even lower for some districts. At 23 Baltimore public schools, not a single student scored at grade level on a recent state math test. Forty percent of high schools in the city had no math-proficient students. 

While data around the academic performance of homeschooled kids has obvious reliability issues, existing standardized testing data tends to show significantly higher performance among homeschooled students.

While all children deserve a comprehensive education, sending a child to public schools is hardly a guarantee this will happen. It's good news that more parents are taking their children's educational futures into their own hands, and public school advocates' fears about educational neglect are overblown and misdirected.

 

[swordfish]

On 11/3/2023 at 10:31 AM, Muda69 said:

https://reason.com/2023/11/01/homeschooling-has-increased-by-over-50-percent-since-2018/

 

Not at all surprised.  Parents, forced to be isolated with students during the pandemic, found they were able to be a huge part of their kids education and felt empowered being able to positively affect students' attitudes and personal attributes without their kids being exposed to extremely left or right wing leaning teachers that are everywhere in the system.  Now the NEA are certainly concerned about that......