Episode 89: The Quiet Revolution in Learning and the Homeschooling Advantage

This episode is a journey through the heart and soul of an educational revolution that's taking the reins from conventional classrooms. Imagine a world where over 2.5 million children learn in the comfort of their homes, their curricula tailored to their unique needs and aspirations. I delve into the academic prowess these students often display, challenging the status quo and raising the bar for personalized education. I'll take you through the varying state regulations, the financial commitment it entails, and the rising trend of hybrid schooling and learning pods that signal a new era of learning post-pandemic.

But let's talk about playgrounds and peers, shall we? The social component of homeschooling is often questioned, yet in this heartfelt discussion, I illustrate how parents are turning the tide by fostering rich social environments through community engagement and extracurricular activities. From the dedication it demands to the resources that make it possible, homeschooling is a commitment to your child's future—and I'm here to help guide you through it. Whether you're a parent pondering this path or simply someone who cherishes the evolution of education, this episode promises to be an enlightening exploration of homeschooling's place in the modern world.

Listen to this episode on your Alexa-enabled device!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the micro discriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system, I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. On today's episode, I'll be discussing homeschooling, the future of homeschooling and the different formats of homeschooling.

Speaker 1: 2:03

Very few children in the world are not homeschooled in one way or another. From birth until children enter kindergarten, parents are their first teachers. Even children who attend public school will have spent some time in the early years at home, before reaching school age and during the school years, they will spend roughly 75% of their waking hours outside of school and largely under parental supervision. Homeschooling has advantages and disadvantages and it's becoming more diverse. Let's get started. Let's define a working definition of homeschooling. It's the education given to children by parents, tutors, private teachers or other individuals outside of school, where at least one of the parents takes responsibility for the education of the child. There are approximately two and a half million children in the United States who are homeschooled roughly 3.3% of the country's school-aged children. Homeschooling is a small but integral part of the educational system in the United States. Because there are so many differences and restrictions on homeschooling families, this creates much of the debate around homeschooling. For example, alaska, idaho and Michigan have the fewest restrictions on homeschooling families, whereas Washington, new York and Pennsylvania have the most regulations for families that homeschool their children.

Speaker 1: 3:47

It can be difficult to pin down the academic achievement data on homeschoolers. However, for those that go to college and pursue post-secondary education, the research indicates that there's no meaningful difference between homeschoolers and their more traditionally educated peers in academic achievement or the emotional and social transition into college. About 60% of homeschoolers are white, 39% live in suburbs, 29% in cities, 22% in rural areas and 10% in towns. 8 in 10 homeschoolers live in households with incomes above the poverty level. What unites homeschooling families is their motivation to homeschool. One of the reasons that families are motivated to homeschool, beside the reasons that I'll mention later, is to avoid vaccinating their children.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Alternative education formats existed even before the COVID pandemic, which changed how school was conducted. These alternative educational formats included hybrid schools, which are schools where children attend formal class in the typical brick and mortar school for part time or for part of the week and then learn from home for the rest of the week. Pods or homeschool co-ops, which are small collections of families choosing to work together to create a school for their children. Micro schools, where schools are limited to 15 students or fewer, as well as good, old-fashioned homeschooling. These all existed at least as early as the 1990s.

Speaker 1: 5:41

According to surveys conducted in 2022, there's a growing interest in learning arrangements that allow children to do more of their learning at home. This was especially true as an outcome of schooling during the pandemic. About half the parents in the survey indicated an interest in their children learning from home between one and four days per week. Black and Hispanic parents viewed these alternative arrangements more favorably than white parents. Parents indicated that they would be willing to pay about $400 to $500 per month for learning pods. Although parents showed interest in the alternative education format, cost remains an issue, as well as regulatory hurdles. External sources of funding are crucial to ensure that all families who want to homeschool their children will have access to the resources they need. These resources include technology, curriculum supplies and enriching experiences. Four lessons emerged from these surveys Demand for new, flexible options in the education system. The presence of large equity opportunities, especially given the demographic differences in demand for new education models. Cost is a factor. And the existence of severe supply constraints, including homeschooling regulations, seat time requirements and zoning restrictions.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Hybrid homeschooling gives families the gift of time. They get the best of homeschooling, like personalized attention, a supportive environment, more controllable what's learned and the best of traditional schooling that includes community socialization expertise and extracurricular activities. It's important for parents and teachers to work together in a hybrid homeschooling environment so that they are on the same page. Funding for private hybrid homeschools are usually tuition driven and frequently caused between one-third and one-half of local private school tuition. Public charter and traditional public school districts participate in hybrid homeschooling models and are usually reimbursed based on state law, with some states, like Colorado, providing 50% funding for students who are enrolled part-time, and other states reimbursing on a course-by-course or instructional hour-by-instructional hour basis.

Speaker 1: 8:25

Hybrid homeschooling parents are people who want to spend more time with their children, who want to have a school scheduling calendar that sleeps with the rhythms of their family life, who want their children to have more individualized attention and support, and who are looking for community of like-minded adults to work with while they raise their children. They can be found all across the country, in urban and rural communities, on the east coast and the west coast and everywhere in between. They are religious as well as secular, they are rich and they are poor. It's a big mix of people. Organizations like University Model Schools International supports a network of hybrid homeschools. Social media can also be helpful, especially Facebook groups for homeschooling families. A 2021 public opinion poll conducted at Ed Choice indicated that more than 40% of parents said that they would prefer some kind of school schedule that had a mix of at home and in school instruction. Hybrid homeschooling is certainly one of the formats to consider for the future of education because of how they use time, how they get parents and teachers to work together and how they feel community would help benefit the family and this could all shape how schools look going forward.

Speaker 1: 10:02

Homeschooling requirements often vary state to state. Some states require homeschoolers to submit information about their curriculum or lesson plan, whereas other states require only certain subjects be taught. Curricula can be obtained from a wide variety of secular and religious sources, and many families choose to use a variety of resources to cover the required subjects. Some states even offer public school at home programs. A number of factors led to increasing in homeschooling, and these factors include school safety, negative peer pressure, on-campus behaviors, including drug use, dissatisfaction with the academic instruction, the desire to provide religious instruction and the increase in the political agenda of certain fringe groups and communities.

Speaker 1: 10:57

There are several advantages to homeschooling, including control of curriculum. The pace of learning basically how long the child spends on a given subject is up to the parent's judgment and the child's capability. Freedom from external problems and situations like bullying and peer pressure. Control over diet or what the child eats every day. And flexibility of curricula schedule. But there are disadvantages as well. These include the amount of time that homeschooling can absorb from a parent's time. Financial restrictions, especially in the reduction in family income, too much togetherness, limited involvement in team sports and other extracurricular activities, and lack of social interaction.

Speaker 1: 11:52

Homeschooling is not a static entity. The diverse families who choose the homeschool are taking several innovative approaches to redesigning education forming partnerships with districts, organizing themselves into collaboratives and finding ways to promote equity. The nature of homeschooling is changing and the number of families opting out of traditional public schools is becoming more diverse and it's growing. Black families are increasingly rejecting traditional district schools in favor of homeschooling. Many of the Black families that choose the homeschool cite racism and a lack of opportunity for Black students in the traditional classroom. Additionally, these families note that the marginalization of African-American family engagement is another key factor driving Black families out of public schools. In 2019, there were 132,000 Black homeschooling families in the United States, which equates to 8% of the total population of homeschoolers. Homeschooling is even more prevalent among Hispanic families, with over 400,000 families who choose the homeschooling in the United States identified as Hispanic, representing 26% of the total population of homeschoolers. Worth noting is that homeschooling communities also include Muslims and Jewish families, military families, families of gifted students and those with special needs.

Speaker 1: 13:28

Technology and evolving state policies have changed the nature of how parents choose schooling for their children. They can now choose to customize their involvement with other parents and public schools. Some of the choices that parents now have available to them include online resources, co-ops, district extracurricular participation, homeschool assistant programs and micro schools. Every state has an organization that manages information and resources online for homeschool families. These organizations help to connect families to curriculum, to field trip opportunities and to one another. There are similar resources in the networks for homeschool families who share a common race, religion or teaching approach. For example, national Black Home Educators allows Black families around the country to access information and connect with other Black homeschool families.

Speaker 1: 14:27

Homeschooling can also happen outside the home. Homeschool families of all types are farming cooperatives to increase opportunities that are available for their children. An informal cooperative of black families in Georgia, for example, serves as support group for parents to catch up on and share ideas about curriculum. In another cooperative example, this time in San Antonio, texas, students attend daily classes taught by parents who are paid, at a local church. This arrangement resembles a traditional school, but it allows parents to maintain control over the level of their children's involvement. Some parents want the flexibility of homeschooling combined with the opportunities of the traditional school.

Speaker 1: 15:15

In this model, students attend school one or two days a week and then a homeschool for the rest of the week. The schools are located around the country and are designed to give students the best of both worlds. Students gain experience of learning in the traditional classroom while also reaping the benefits of individualized home education. In many states and districts, homeschool students can choose to participate in sports, theater, art and other curricular activities offered by their local school district, while completing core educational curriculum at home. An example of a homeschool assistance program is the Olympic Regional Learning Academy, which is run by the Olympia School District in Washington State. This program allows homeschool students in kindergarten through 12th grade access to courses taught by licensed teachers free of cost. Students and their families choose which courses they are interested in attend on campus and spend the remainder of their time being homeschooled. This program also provides access to guidance counselors who can assist students with the high school to college transition.

Speaker 1: 16:33

Micro Schools a topic which I'll be exploring in an upcoming episode is technically not homeschooling, but they do embrace the principles of homeschooling as part of the innovative new models for education. These types of schools tend to be small, sometimes enrolling as few as 20 students, and they often have technology, personalized instruction and a high level of family and community engagement in order to create a customized experience for each student. For example, quantum Camp provides math and science courses to homeschool students in the California Bay Area one day a week, and this setup is similar to a homeschool co-op. Home school regulations vary from state to state. In New York, for example, there is no dual enrollment option, and the state expressly prohibits home school students from accessing district courses, outside of a few narrowly tailored programs. New York home school students are also ineligible to participate in school sports and activities, although exceptions to this policy can be made at the district level. In contrast, home school students in Iowa may choose to duly enroll in their home district, and this allows them to take courses as well as participate in extracurricular activities that the district provides Additionally.

Speaker 1: 18:08

A home school family's obligation to assess their child annually varies from state to state. A few states require standardized testing, others give parents a range of assessment options and the majority require no demonstration of academic progress or achievement. There is a common assumption that home schoolers lack sufficient soft skills. This, however, has not been proven in research. Soft skills are one of the necessary life competencies that are useful in enabling children and adolescents to become active and productive citizens, as well as to continue lifelong learning. They are not necessarily connected to a specific task, but they are necessary in any position in order to maintain relationships with other people involved in the workplace.

Speaker 1: 19:02

The specific soft skills that are often asked of home schoolers applies to their social skills development. Recent research conducted with adults who are homeschooled as children found that homeschooling did not hinder their ability to navigate social situations. Children who are homeschooled just have to work a little bit harder to find opportunities for them to socialize with people outside the family. These opportunities are often created through extracurricular and social activities sports, cultural visits, travel, community activities, hobbies, private courses, as well as family relationships. The acquisition of social skills in homeschooling is primarily dependent on the child's parents' approach toward homeschooling and their main objectives for adopting this method of educating their child. The results of this 2023 study indicated that homeschoolers had strong prioritizing skills, time management skills, communication skills, a learning and growing mindset, logical reasoning, empathy, optimism and positive attitude, personal responsibility and situational analysis skills. Schools tend to develop soft skills mainly through various life experiences. In other words, their social skills seem to be honed through interactions with people of different ages, provided that the family allows opportunities to interact with other homeschool children and other peers of the same age, usually provided from traditional schools.

Speaker 1: 20:46

In addition to teaching their children at home, a homeschool parent sometimes brings in experts or tutors to provide additional material for certain lessons. This lends itself to an open and flexible curriculum system that's adapted to agreements between children, parents and the tutors. Homeschooling aims to develop creativity, thinking skills and personality of students according to their unique strengths. Another example of a Black homeschool co-op would be Engaged Detroit. Established on August 25, 2020 in Detroit, michigan. This homeschool co-op was launched to help Black families who are interested in homeschooling take control of their children's learning. The co-op supports a culturally relevant educational approach that helps families educate the children based on their goals and values, including project-based, hands-on and real-world learning, supplemented by extracurricular and enrichment activities. Engaged Detroit serves 36 children between the ages of 2 and 17, and families participate in weekly group meetings as well as individualized coaching sessions. An additional 300 families have been provided with homeschooling resources and supplies since the inception of the group. Currently, families don't pay to be involved in Engaged Detroit. Leadership of the co-op helped to secure a grant from the National Parents Union, which allowed them to hire coaches, provide computers and other supplies and offer families opportunities for enrichment.

Speaker 1: 22:39

Engaged Detroit has been the subject of several national news stories covering the rise of Black homeschooling in the United States, for its entrepreneurial origins, mutual support model and commitment to helping families. Critical to the success of Engaged Detroit is the role that coaches play, because they provide the moral support and encouragement to parents and allow them and help support them to believe in their abilities to lead learning. Because some parents who hadn't finished college questioned their self-efficacy to educate their children. The coach's main goal was to help parents tap into their children's innate interests and make learning a joyful lifelong endeavor. Here are the action steps you can take regarding this topic.

Speaker 1: 23:37

If homeschooling seems to be out of the question for your family because of financial concerns, you might want to consider a hybrid approach, if it's allowed in your state or district. In the hybrid approach, your child could attend school one to two days per week, and they could be homeschooled for three days per week, making any adjustments as necessary. Homeschooling does require a significant amount of your time, so consider this situation wisely and in its entirety. Homeschooling is hard and the decision to homeschool is not one to be taken lightly. There are certain benefits to it, given the exposure of children to all kinds of situations that now occur in typical public school systems. There are homeschooling networks that can answer any specific questions that you may have, and it may be worth it to investigate these options in your local community. You can also look into the examples that I provided, like National Black Home Educators and Engaged Detroit, for more information. Also, high-quality curriculum resources are available online for free. These include Core Knowledge Foundation and Khan Academy. Additionally, brainpop, common Lit, learnzillion and others provide engaging lessons, videos and quizzes for free. Here are this episode's takeaways.

Speaker 1: 25:19

Homeschooling is a small but integral part of the educational system in the United States. Because there are so many differences and restrictions on homeschooling families, this creates much of the debate around homeschooling. Homeschooling requirements often vary from state to state. Some states require homeschoolers to submit information about their curricular lesson plans, whereas other states require only certain subjects to be taught. The nature of homeschooling is changing and the number of families opting out of traditional public schools is becoming more diverse and is growing. Black families are increasingly rejecting traditional district schools in favor of homeschooling. Also, hispanic families are increasingly turning to homeschooling. Hybrid homeschooling is certainly one of the formats to consider for the future of education, because of how they use time, how they get parents and teachers to work together and how they feel part of community, and this could shape all schools going forward.

Speaker 1: 26:42

If you don't want to miss out on any other content that I have provided and what I will provide next, then be sure to subscribe to my podcast and do me a favor. Remember to share this episode with anyone that you think would find it valuable. Be sure to tell your friends, family and community about my podcast. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle, and be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode, I'll be discussing micro schools. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.