Should a home schooling curriculum be standardized, publicized and required.?

Question

In order to insure that the quality of education for home schooled individuals remains above a minimum level, should an age/grade appropriate common curriculum be required and followed.?

Answer 1

No. No. No.  Did I say it? NO.     There is such a variety of homeschool philosophies, children's abilities, disabilities and educational needs that have to be addressed on an individual basis.  That is why we homeschool.   We are trying to get OUT of the box.

Answer 2

I recently read a news report which stated that 1 and 10 public high schools are "dropout factories" in which 50% of those who enter as freshman do not graduate.  Apparently whatever standards public schools have are not producing quality education, so I do not think it would be helpful to extend those standards to home schools.

In some states, homeschooling is highly regulated and in others, it is not regulate at all.  However, research has shown that the level of government regulation has no effect on the performance of homeschoolers.

http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/mi/2007103...

Also, the teaching parent's level of education has no bearing on academic performance.

http://www.hslda.org/docs/GetDoc.asp?Doc...

In addition, homschoolers consistently out perform public schooled students academically.

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/comp2001...

Answer 3

If not, then why should teachers be required to be certified?

Think about that.

Answer 4

A) Not necessarily

B) Yes

C) Not unless state legislatures decide to make it a requirement.

A) There could be more than one available curriculum, so long as those minimum standards are included.  Therefore, standardization wouldn't be necessary, at least not outside of state lines.

B) By all means post the curriculum/curricula on the state board of education website and keep a copy in every public library.

C) I think the state board of education should review a lot of curricula packages, pick two or three for recommendation to a legislative committee, explain VERY CAREFULLY to the committee just why they like those particular packages, then sit back and wait for the wheels of approval to turn.

In the meantime, the current sorta-kinda-loosely structured collection of laws and regulations governing home schooling is as good as any, and maybe better than the a rigid web of red tape.

Answer 5

Definitely not. Studies have shown that the curriculum used has no correlation to academic performance.  There are homeschoolers who do not even use curriculum. They use whatever resources are needed to learn & they score very high. There are others that receive curriculum from accredited schools & do poorly. I saw a study a few years ago that said on an average homeshcoolers are 2 years above their age level compared to the state tested students.

Answer 6

Absolutely not. That completely defeats the purpose of home schooling. Home schooling is NOT a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all system like public school. People home school so they have the FREEDOM to choose the best possible methods and curriculum and recieve the best, most appropriate education possible. This does not happen in public school. The standards DO NOT insure a quality education for every student. Some students are more advanced than others and aren't challenged enough. Others have difficulties and need to take things slower, differently, or at their own pace. Some people learn best by doing. Some by reading. Some by hearing information given to them.Some need an interest based curriculum in order to really get into learning. If you standardize homeschooling...well then you might as well go to public school because you wont get any better at home. A ridiculous idea, I think. Yes, there need to be some homeschool laws (and there are).. But the government can only get so involved before the purpose is defeated.

Answer 7

No

It defeates the purpose and sets up a centralized poltical, compromized dictatorship and we already have that.  It's called the Public schools and they are failing on the world standard.

The US is in the bottom 50% of primary and secondary education.

We are BELOW some 3rd world countries.

This is a FACT

America has one of the BEST college systems because they are totally independent and autonomus.

TEACHERS in college create their own programs and pick their own texts.

The school just sits back, supervises the enrollment, quality and performance and provides a room.

If the college is not impressed they won't ask the teacher back next year.

If the college IS impressed, they'll give the teacher a second course and set them on the road to becoming a full time Lecuturer and potential Associate Professor.

Answer 8

Since the state does not pay for my kid's homeschooling, the state should have no say in the curriculum.

However, the state I live in does require yearly testing of homeschoolers, and my kids always score above the 90th percentile, the national average is the 50th percentile.

I don't really think I *should* even be required to do these tests... but if I wasn't my kids would still be learning the same amount.

Homeschoolers in general, care about their children's education.  They don't have to be required by law to do a good job, they do a good job because they love their kids.

Now, look at the Public schools and the number of kids who are just not learning... that is where to focus the legislation and regulations, if you ask me.

Answer 9

I do not believe in a standardized curriculum at all. Not even for public schools. Not how it's applied now, in any case. Think back to how things were run in schools in the 1800s--there was perhaps a standard curriculum but the students worked through each subject at their own pace. They moved on when they were ready, not because it was the end of the year and it was time to move on.

And what has a standardized time-frame curriculum done for public schools? It doesn't ensure quality education at all!!!!

Furthermore, there is no standardized curriculum across the US or Canada. Why should homeschoolers, who have decided to not avail themselves of the government schools, have to meet their local standardized curriculum? It's standardized not because it's the best thing to do but so that the government can keep tabs on it all. Do private schools have to follow a standardized curriculum? No. How are homeschoolers any different?

Answer 10

Yes.  AND, formal and legal teacher **certification** by the state should be required of all home-schoolers, IN the subject areas that they are to teach.  Without that, the children should go to an accredited private or public school.

Answer 11

no. it should not. If wanting the best for your child does not motivate you to provide a rich and engaging course of study for your child, then one should not homeschool.

The basic premise behind homeschooling is exercising one's freedom to raise their children the way they want.

BUT, however, I think your idea should be applied to public schools to insure that their students receive a quality education and all public schools remain above a minimum level.

Answer 12

No way :)

Were anyone to force me to follow a standard curriculum, I would simply homeschool under the radar.

When they start ensuring the quality of education in the public schools (and private schools too), then maybe I'll listen.

Answer 13

Allow me to rephrase the question ... and then I will answer.

* Should home schooling curriculum be determined by a civil servant bureaucrat or committee of bureaucrats in D.C.?

These civil servants are ultimately answerable to politicians.  

Would someone sitting in an ivory tower, even after spending $BigMoney on studies, really be able to dictate to millions of very unique individuals - each with their own special talents, interests and needs - what consititutes an "age / grade appropriate minimum level" of quality education?

Ummm.....

No.

Answer 14

Not at all. First, no one has the right to interfere with my household on such a personal level. Second, the reason I homeschool is because the cookie cutter method of teaching was not working for my child. The third reason is basic; If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The vast majority of homeschoolers are having no trouble finding academic success without any meddling.

Answer 15

Only if they do the same thing for public schools. If you actually saw the number of mistakes in public school curriculum, you'd run screaming.

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/2001...

In fact, I think it was in Tx that knew that there were something like 800 factual mistakes in their curricula.

quote

Textbook publishing is a highly competitive industry, though, and publishers follow dramatically different approaches in the learning materials they publish.  

unquote

In addition, there are dozens of publishers, and there isn't the same standardization that you expect from district to district, how could you argue for a standardization across the country?

If publishers who are providing this to public schools are allowed to arbitrarily choose materials and opinions to publish, then why would it be different from home schooled children? In fact, most homeschoolers score above public schoolers in standardized testing, so it seems amusing that anyone would want to apply similar standards.

ahem. Teachers are certified because they are taking tax payer dollars and educating OTHER peoples kids. It does not make them more capable of teaching. end ahem.

Answer 16

Absolutely not.  Otherwise, it's just "school" without the government employees.

Answer 17

no.  the whole beauty of homeschooling is educating your children the way you choose.  you sound like a communist.