Above is a pic of my youngest daughter and me.
My Husband, My brother in Christ
I'm not going to be popular in Oklahoma...
We lived in Oklahoma before we came to Arkansas. The homeschool laws are... well, there aren't any. This is not even good for those who actually do an excellent job of homeschooling their children. Why? Well, because I was talking to a young lady that is close to our family that has been homeschooled all her life. She said she wished that she would have done more testing because of her experience with the ACT. Since she was not exposed to alot of state testing, she was overwhelmed by the ACT. Now this is a smart young lady. So is her friend that made straight A's throughout homeschooling... but could barely, after many attempts, make a 20 on the ACT. The college she was trying to get into thought that her parents must have falsified her grades because of her ACT scores...
I doubt it. But what needs to be factored in is that even if someone is intelligent, if they are not exposed to state testing, including the nervousness that goes with it, than they are not going to be as prepared for college.
I also witnessed way too many children who fell through the cracks and were not actually being homeschooled in Oklahoma. When my husband finished his OU residency program in anesthesia after several seemingly endless years of pre-med, med school, internship and finally residency (all in Oklahoma), we were faced with where he was going to practice. We always thought it would be in Tulsa so we could go back to our church family there, pastored by Dennis Gundersen. But the Lord SHUT that door completely. One day after my husband prayerfully accepted an offer in Arkansas, where we are now, he got a call from a Tulsa hospital... one day too late. But this served as a confirmation that the Lord had other plans for our family.
All that to say, I was initially not too terribly excited about coming to Arkansas even though my husband and I went to college in Siloam Springs. Why? Because of the homeschool laws. I was nervous. Arkansas requires annual testing using the Iowa Test and this is the first year that my children would be tested by anyone but me. Also, Arkansas changed their law just this year to not only test in math and language arts, but in everything.
My children were nervous as well. But I did everything I could to prepare them. My husband is a fantastic tester, unlike me, so he gave the boys excellent tips. (actually I would consider my husband a professional test taker... if you only knew how many tests that man had to take... yikes)
It was 3 days of testing and they did it... *shew*... finally. And you know what? It was not that bad at all. As a matter of fact, even before I got the results back I realized the benefits of such testing. One of which is that testing is a reality. They will have to do it throughout their education. The good thing about Arkansas homeschool laws is that they are well balanced. Some states go WAY overboard... others, like Oklahoma, do not do enough in my opinion. Nope. That is not going to be popular at all. But I have been told I should have been a lawyer... so I guess being popular is not that important to me. I think other states need to look at Arkansas homeschool laws as a model for what to do. Not to say they are perfect, but I have experienced the other extreme and have witnessed the consequences of not having some sort of accountability.
As far as the results of the testing, it was wonderful to see where my children's strengths and weaknesses are. Some of which, on both sides, I really had no idea. What was discouraging, quite honestly, was to see the national averages. Wow, were they ever low. There was nothing above a 67% and quite a few were in the 50% range. I had no idea it was this bad. America has a public education dilemma, of which I have no wise answers to offer. It actually goes beyond a dilemma. It is a failure evidenced by these scores. Homeschooling and private schooling is not an option for so many. So there are children stuck in this failing system. Now, I don't want to completely lump every public school into a big wad... but for the most part, this is true.
One thing that might be helpful is to implement year round schooling in the public school system. I have heard that there are several states trying this out. We do year round homeschooling and have seen the benefits of it. Through the school semsters, we homeschool 4 days a week. In the summer we go to 3 days a week. We also take longer Christmas and Spring breaks and can go on family vacations anytime we want to. This takes pressure off of the kids and off of me for it allows for more, in my opinion, smaller necessary breaks to be refreshed so there is far less burn-out. Another benefit to year round schooling is that there is far less back track review time to get the year started and is far more time efficient.
Anyway, this experience with testing my children has been beneficial in many ways. One of which is making me more aware of the need to pray fervently for the American public education system.
Comments
I don't believe it, Lisa! Finally, something we disagree on! :-) Well, sort of, at least.
We also used to live in OK (Lisa knows that, but others may not) and now we live in AL, where the homeschool laws are quite similar to Oklahoma's. My husband and I greatly enjoy the flexibility that the relaxed laws give us. Testing is not required here, as in Oklahoma.
The part that I disagree with is where the responsibility lies for making sure your child(ren) are prepared for real life situations, such as taking tests. Eight of our 11 children are from other countries and English is their second language. This makes test taking much more difficult for them than it might have been if English were their first language. However, we strongly feel that it is our responsiblity to make sure our children are prepared for these challenges rather than the state being responsible. There are many opportunities for us to choose from in having our kids tested, if we feel the necessity. Throughout the school year we receive many emails from our umbrella group telling of testing that we can participate in. Since their future plans vary widely, some of our kids need to be taught test taking skills more thorougly than others. We also have computer programs that help our kids learn test taking skills, at least to a certain degree.
As an example, our oldest son is now studying for the GED. We adopted him at the age of 13 and he was a very poor student up to that point (in Russia). Since coming to the US he has made major strides, although he really, really struggles with test taking, due mostly to language and comprehension issue. Taking the GED test is going to be a huge undertaking for him, but his focus for this year will be learning how to take that test.
In a nutshell, I feel like it is the parent's responsibility to ensure their children are prepared for what real life will bring (such as testing situations) rather than the state. It is indeed sad to know that many parents do not prepare their children for situations like that. However, I wonder if having state laws requiring testing would make a real difference in the teaching styles of those parents?
Now, keeping Monday's post in mind, I assure you that this post is made with the utmost respect for you and your beliefs, Lisa. :-) We share a deep love for our friends in Oklahoma, after our love for the Lord.
Blessings
Sheshe
Posted by: Sheshe | July 31, 2006 02:51 PM
Hey Sheshe, my dear friend.
I think you and I agree far more than disagree. And I can certainly see your perspective. But there are parents not preparing their children for the reality of testing within the American education system that we, as home educators, are still stuck in and I can't think of a better way to hold them accountable to get this done.
If there is a better way, really for the sake of the children, than don't hesitate to let me know. The girls I mentioned in this post were quite frustrated that they did not have such an experience with testing throughout their homeschooling. And I know of one young lady in particular that is very embarassed and upset with her mother that as a Senior in homeschool high school, she still could not read, though she was more than capable, evidenced by the fact that she is working hard to learn and doing very well.
Yes, these things are hard to write about. No, they are NOT the norm for homeschooling. They are the exception. Most homeschool parents work very hard to educate their children and prepare them for testing. State testing in Arkansas encourages communication for said challenges that you mentioned regarding your adopted children and graciously take that into consideration. Yes, there are those in the public system that would jump at the chance to dog homeschooling and create impossible laws. That is a pride issue and their motives are not for the good of the student, but for the profit of the failing public school system.
No easy answers here.
MUCH love to you sheshe. Always good to hear from you.
Posted by: 4ever4given | July 31, 2006 04:21 PM