David Esch's List: Essay 2

• Good introduction to the benefits of homeschooling. - David Esch on 2010-02-15

• Talks about how home schooling can benefit a kid and make them a better person. - David Esch on 2010-02-15

• Carless gives reasons for why home schooling is a good thing. - David Esch on 2010-02-15

• But timid and sporadic enforcement of the law's minimal requirements has been exploited by some unscrupulous parents hiding abuse or educational neglect.

• perfect example of how the system can be abused. Good emotional appeal. - David Esch on 2010-02-15

• Doug Oplinger and Dennis J. Willard.
• Some home-schooled students score higher than public-school peers on standardized tests, and some are admitted into prestigious universities.
• Only a few states require that home-schooled children be tested. The nation's second most populous state, Texas, and many other states require nothing -- no registration, and no academic accountability.
• Home School Legal Defense Association
• Home schoolers are highly effective in grass-roots politics and lobbying.

3 more annotations...

• I can use this study to build my knowledge about both sides of the home schooling issue. - David Esch on 2010-02-15

• there are huge, untested segments of the home-school population that may be failing, according to many researchers.
• Representatives of the SAT and ACT college testing services said their annual reports are being misused and don't prove that home schoolers are smarter.
• Home-schooling parents say that because they accept no tax dollars, they should be free of oversight.
• Most of those states don't require the parents to show the scores to school officials.
• many of the country's largest states have no requirements for parents wanting to home- school.
• DUBIOUS CONCLUSIONS

  • ended here

4 more annotations...

• Lots of counter arguments against loose laws. Shows how system could b exploited. Counters arguments that say that home schooled kids perform better. - David Esch on 2010-02-15

• our own homeschooling would be much more difficult. We'd be more limited in what we could do.
• undermine our confidence in our ability to choose an approach to homeschooling that will work for our family and follow it.

• this is ridiculous. the only reason they give for pushing for more homeschooling freedom is, "our own homeschooling would be much more difficult. We'd be more limited in what we could do." - David Esch on 2010-02-18

• oversight is unnecessary, disruptive, and a violation of their rights
• , a Stanford University assistant professor of political science, is one such critic. In a paper entitled "Testing the Boundaries of Parental Authority over Education: The Case of Homeschooling
• Kim and George Bryant, homeschooling parents, endured a seven-hour standoff with police officers and social service employees merely because the Bryant children—teenagers Nicholas and Nyssa—declined to take a standardized test ordered by the Department of Social Services.
• Connecticut "the only law on home schooling requires parents to let local school districts know that they plan to teach their children at home."
• in Oklahoma, where there is no requirement for parents to initiate contact with the state if they choose to homeschool their children.
• no evidence exists indicating that state regulation improves homeschoolers' performance, legislators continue their campaigns to control and restrict home education

4 more annotations...