Do homeschool programs offered by the public school count in the public schools success results?

Great Question...Changing the location and not the curriculum helps for several reasons

-some kids are distracted at school by

fear of personal safety,

friend problems,

noise from classmates

-some kids perform poorly because of negative peer pressure-it's not cool to be smart

-some kids thrive from personal attention in their studies

-some kids are bored, finish their work early and either tune out or become behavior problems

One reason schools are jumping on the bandwagon is because they want the money. If they lose students-they lose funding and they need that money to pay for buildings and administrative staff.

They also may be joining in because homeschooling is becoming a huge trend. In many states, private companies are picking up the "new business" and the public schools are looking for ways to attract and keep students.

Free Market at it's finest. This is awesome! Everyone benefits and kids can learn in the best environment for them.

Warm Regards,

Jana

http://www.purehomeschooling.com/

I think that the scores from children going to "independent study progams" that are funded with tax payer dollars are counted in the school's scores and should be. The public school decides on the curriculum and most of them have tax funded teachers that are available in varying degrees to work with the students/parents. Since this is one option that the school is offering and paying for, I think that whatever results are obtained from them should somehow be reflected in their score. How else would they determine if they should continue offering it.

As for why they are doing it; I think the reasons vary. In some cases, I think they are doing it for the best needs of the students. There was one school district near Santa Cruz, CA, that offered a Waldorf based homeschool environment, but parents could really do it how they wanted. They offered many classes as well that people could choose to attend or not to attend. They even had a full clay lab for the students and parent to use. This is one of the few public school programs where I have seen the district fully support the parents in how they wanted to approach learning.

I think some school districts are doing it for the money. There have also been some Charter schools founded by less than ethical people, who were in it for the money. The amount they pay for the curriculum is not what they are receiving from the state.

I also think some school districts offer these types of programs because they want to keep control. They don't believe that parents should be able to teach their own children and feel threatened by it. This is their way to keep the children "in the system."

I do think that changing the location can make the difference. Instead of being in a classroom of 25 other students, all with their own needs, a child at home can have 1:1 tutoring. The parent can also alter the schedule and give more directions that help the particular student.

Having said all that, I think we need to make a distinction between this form of education and true homeschooling. To me, homeschooling, is where the parent is the one who chooses what is to be used and how it is to be used. Of course, each state differs somewhat in how much freedom is given to the parent. Even with some tax funded education, this freedom differs. In some charter "independent study" schools, the parent is given more freedom on which curriculum is used (with the exception of religious curriculum.)

Personally, I would not go through a tax supported program at this point, but did when I was first beginning the journey. I do not want the local school involved in my children's education, and I do think in some ways, the existence of the tax supported charter schools can in the future limit other homeschoolers freedoms.

I think location makes a difference in terms of delivering children from a potentially negative social environment, but I'm not so sure it makes a difference academically.

I saw a study that showed virtual school at home programs were not as successful academically as traditional homeschooling. (I don't have time to look for it at the moment, but you can find using google). Therefore, I hope they are counted in the public schoool numbers, and I'm pretty sure they are since it IS public school.

I think schools have several motives - #1 - money and #2 - control. I do think these programs are generally better than going away to traditional school, but there are many disadvantages:

http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/virtual-sc...

I guess we'll have to wait to see what happens...

I think that their motive is to try to recooperate the thousands of dollars that are lost when a child is homeschooled. They can provide the virtual education (including compter and internet access in some cases), and still make money. It also saves them a lot of money because less actual teachers are needed-in fact, that probably evens out the portion they pay on the virtual education.

I believe that if this is successful, they will count it in their school report cards. I bet if it is unsuccessful, they would establish a separate category for it-but I doubt that will be the case. Even without devoted parents, I can not help but think that virtual schooling would be academically better for most students than a traditional classroom so they will perform better. The lax parents that are part of the problem for the students in public schools, are more than likely still going to send their children there-because it is a free babysitter. (Not saying that all public school parents are lax).