How the NEA's Resolution on Homeschooling gets nearly everything wrong.

Yesterday, I saw a discussion on Twitter that the National Education Association (NEA) had attacked homeschooling in their 2014-2015 Resolutions. I decided to investigate and look at the actual resolution on homeschooling myself and was very upset with what I read. This will be a very long post that will deal exclusively on the one NEA resolution on Homeschooling. If you would like to see the other resolutions, you may view them by following the link above.

The NEA Resolution on Homeschooling

The NEA's Resolution on Homeschooling reads in its entirety as follows: 

B-83. Home Schooling

The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements, including the taking and passing of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress. Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.

The Association also believes that home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools.

The Association further believes that local public school systems should have the authority to determine grade placement and/or credits earned toward graduation for students entering or re-entering the public school setting from a home school setting. (1988, 2006)

As the title of the post says, my goal with this post is to show that nearly every point in this resolution gets it wrong. However, I did say "nearly" every point, so let's talk about what I don't find objectionable first.

Points of Agreement

There are two points made in the NEA Resolution I can find agreement with in broad terms. 

Assessment of re-entering students

First, I think it is reasonable for public schools to be able to assess students re-entering public schools to allow them to work with a student to place them where they can be most successful. For the majority of homeschoolers, this assessment would show that they are at or above grade level in every subject area^{1, 2}. In the instance a student may be behind, assessment would help the public school work with the student and their parents most effectively to get them caught up as quickly as possible. I do see a potential danger with this point, however, if a school were to decide to make an example of a homeschooler in not working with them adequately to most efficiently overcome deficiencies. 

Financial responsibility

Second, I am not against all of the cost of homeschooling being borne by the homeschool families themselves. Unfortunately for most homeschool families, this means they are paying for education twice as they are still paying taxes that support public schools. Some states are beginning to offer tax credits to homeschool families, but these have been challenged in court³. However, this double burden is less than it may seem as homeschooling uses resources much more efficiently than public schooling. The average cost per student for homeschooling is around 1/10th the cost per student of public schools. Additionally, the gap in test scores between homeschools spending the least and homeschools spending the most is very small, with the average of even the most frugal homeschools still well above national averages¹.

Points of Disagreement

Now, on to the remaining points which form the majority of the NEA Resolution. I will address these points in two categories: 1) curriculum and 2) social interaction and extra-curriculars.

Curriculum

To begin, I am disappointed that the NEA did not provide any defense for beginning their resolution by stating their belief that "home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience." This statement needs evidence showing that it is in fact true, especially since their recommendations lose credibility if it is not true. These recommendations regarding curriculum are:

1. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements,  including the taking and passing of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress.
2. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency.
3. A curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.

These recommendations seem to make sense on the surface and give the facade of ensuring uniform educational quality, but they do not hold up to scrutiny when used as a criticism for homeschooling programs chosen by parents.

I have already mentioned that homeschoolers score well above average in every subject area when they take standardized tests, so they are already displaying adequate academic progress based on existing assessments. The NEA's other points drastically fall apart when you combine this fact with findings that the education level of the homeschooling parents and the education regulations and standards of the various states have no impact on the success of homeschoolers^{1, 2}. For example, this means that parents who are licensed teachers and parents with no higher education achieve the same above average results when homeschooling. Furthermore, it also means that homeschoolers in states that impose minimal or no curriculum requirements on homschoolers achieve the same results as states with greater homeschool regulation that require the use of state curriculum. Thus, even though the NEA believes homeschools cannot provide a comprehensive education when parents make choices regarding curriculum, homeschoolers employing parent chosen curricula are outperforming public schoolers, and they continue to perform better through college in attendance and graduation rates. In fact, many colleges actively recruit homeschoolers².

Furthermore, if we look at education in Finland, which is considered a global powerhouse in education, we see another example of how freedom in curriculum produces positive results. The Finnish National Board of Education does set broad guidelines, but this is what their website says about what curriculum implementation looks like in schools:

The education providers, usually the local education authorities and the schools themselves draw up their own curricula for pre-primary and basic education within the framework of the national core curriculum. These curricula may be prepared for individual municipalities or institutions or include both sections⁴.

The Finnish approach to curriculum and parent chosen homeschool curriculum both produce results because they allow customization to optimize learning for specific students. These existing successes seriously undermine the NEA's recommendation that homeschools in the USA need the extremely strict curriculum regulation recommended in the resolution. Homeschool parents, even when they have no formal educational training, have shown that they understand their own children well enough to make decisions within very broad guidelines that guide their children to comprehensive educational success--whether the NEA believes it or not. 

 [Side note: I have seen some critics of the NEA and increased government curriculum regulation in education argue that recommendations such as these are less about ensuring academic success for all students and more about societal thought control. This is certainly a cynical view, but the NEA's unsubstantiated belief regarding homeschooling, combined with their recommendations regarding curriculum, surely does nothing to help their case against this criticism.]   

Social interaction and extra-curriculars.

In this category, we have two more points to address:

1. Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family.
2. Home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools.

Both of these points result in forms of isolation of homeschool families. This is strange considering a pervasive criticism of homeschooling in the public view is a perceived lack of socialization. I emphasived perceived, because while people like to believe homeschooling falls short regarding socialization and life-preparedness, a long-term study conducted in Canada actually found homeschoolers showed greater social engagement as adults than their non-homeschooled peers⁵. One might argue that excluding homeschoolers from extra-curriculars is justified due to limited resources until one remembers that most homeschool families are still supporting public schools with their taxes just like everyone else. They would not be taking resources they did not contribute. In the instance of additional fees beyond funding from taxes, they could pay these fees just like every other participant.

From an educational standpoint, we can look to Finland again for why isolation is exactly the wrong approach in recommendations for homeschool education. In Finland, play breaks and play-based active learning are considered an important and main part of education. This approach flows from the principal of freedom regarding what is the most effective way for specific students to learn⁶. Extra-curricular activities are a major way large group play occurs in the USA, so it does not make sense to exclude a number of children who are residents in the community from this opportunity for children to play and learn to problem solve together. Furthermore, the isolation of having each homeschool family only teach immediate family also doesn't make sense considering Finnish teachers employ extensive collaboration and teamwork to problem solve any educational difficulties, even though they already teach small classes of students⁷. Cooperation among closely located homeschool families not only allows greater opportunity for parent collaboration, but also greater opportunity for play among the children as part of the school day.

Finnish Education: Why the NEA should learn from homeschooling rather than criticize it 

I've already mentioned Finnish education a few times in this post. In recent decades, Finnish schools have consistently been considered some of the best in the world based on global assessments. They slipped slightly in recent evaluations, but are still well above the USA, and they think the slide may be the result of complacency and stagnation in the face of global praise. As we should as well, Finland are trying to learn from the hard work of the Asian countries that outscore them⁸. Yet, Finland is still an excellent illustration in doing more with less.

Over the last few years, I have seen articles lauding Finland's education approach pop up here and there, some of which I have already referenced in this post. Each time I read the descriptions, I was struck at how the Finnish approach to education shared many things in common with what I have seen in the homeschooling communities in the USA. I am not the only one who has made this observation. For example, here is an article by a blogger with connections to both the USA and Finland: Homeschooling and Finnish education. Unfortunately, I have yet to see American education groups make this connection so obvious to those with connections to homeschooling. Instead we have groups like the NEA attacking homeschooling.

To help illustrate what I mean about how obvious the similarities are between Finnish education and homschooling, here is a list of tips ending a blog post on Finnish education on a blog called Weareteachers.com talking about how to imitate Finnish education in their classrooms⁹:

• Ask for help! Finnish teachers aren’t afraid to reach out to their colleagues and ask for help. When faced with a particularly challenging student or class, they help each other succeed. The whole system encourages cooperation, not competition. So don’t be afraid to ask other teachers or administrators for advice. The people you work with are some of your most valuable resources! And ditto for the parents. If you need help, a student’s mom may be your best ally!
• Get outside! Give your students a breath of fresh air … literally! In Finland they take their students out of the classroom often. “We do work in the field,” said Ms. Brander. “We go to riversides, eskers, city centers, forests, marshlands.” She even takes her students on a yearly sailing excursion! And when you’re outside, you can take advantage and use natural resources to enhance your lessons. Sticks, rocks, blades of grass can all be used to teach anything from math to spelling to science!
• Get to know your students! In Finland many teachers have the same students year after year and they spend a lot of time and energy to get to know their students. The more you understand your students, the better you’ll be at teaching them. If you really get how a student thinks, you’ll be more effective and able to tailor your lessons to her learning style.
• Implement more play time! Kids in Finland spend more time playing than students in pretty much any other nation. But it doesn’t hurt their results a bit. So try to give your kids more play time during the day! Even if you can’t send them out for extra recess due to regulations, take a break every hour or so and have the kids jump up and down or play a game of Simon Says. If they get a moment to unwind, get their wiggles out and recharge, they’ll be ready to sit still and get back to work.
• Think outside the textbook! In Finland, teachers are given free rein to use all different kinds of methods and materials to teach—whatever will get their kids to learn. Here in the US, we don’t have as much flexibility. We have standards to meet and tests to prep for, but try to breathe some life into your lessons. Think outside the books!
• Keep learning yourself! If you have a passion for learning, it will rub off on your students. Ask any adult who their favorite teacher was in school, and they’re bound to name the teacher who had a true passion for her job. So keep it interesting for you, too! Encourage your administration to invest in professional development for the teachers and take time to learn the latest and greatest info in your field. “Learning is a life-long adventure,” said Ms. Brander. “As a teacher it’s important to keep learning all the time!”

As you look at this list of tips, the parallels between homeschooling and Finnish education should become clear. In homeschooling, children can learn on their own optimal schedule incorporating play breaks, they can do schoolwork outside or in various places in the house or even when out and about living daily life, they are taught or supported by their parents year after year (and who knows a child better than his or her parents?), and they can customize their resources to maximize their individual learning styles. Also, most parents who care enough to homeschool seek out resources and support groups to give them ideas, and they model to their children everyday what it looks like to care about and value education as they help them learn.

Going deeper, another advantage of a model like this that allows for flexibility and customization is it helps harness the motivation of individual students. Homeschooled students typically have to become active participants in problem solving and brainstorming ways to overcome difficulties when they don't understanding a particular curriculum or have floundering attentiveness. They learn to ask questions and seek out various resources to help direct them to a fuller understanding of something they don't understand. They learn the skill of having to find answers for themselves through research and critical evaluation. They are given freedom to learn to start their own projects and follow them through. They work hard because they find learning interesting and see the value in learning and want to learn to further their interests. They learn how to learn.

I'm sure the NEA dreams of a public school system that sees every student regardless of race, income, or other social factors achieve the same level of educational success. I eagerly await the day when American education groups like the NEA stop viewing homeschooling as a problem that needs to be solved and begin to see it as an example of an educational approach that has already allowed students from every race, income level, or social background to achieve equal educational success and thrive^1,2. From this we learn that the solution to education lies not in standardized curriculum and assessment, or additional technology or money, or government trained teachers, or longer school days or school years, but lies within the students themselves. Homeschooling works because the students are given freedom to make it work themselves with the help and guidance of their family. The NEA wants to stifle that freedom, so I had to speak up to point out their mistake. As a union promoting public schools, it would be a hard thing to do for the NEA to admit that they can learn from homeschooling, but hopefully they provide an example to their students and admit the many faults with their views about homeschooling and learn.
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1. See Academic Statistics on Homeschooling at HSLDA.org
2. See Research Facts on Homeschooling at NHERI.org
3. See Education Tax Credits at HSLDA.org
4. See Curricula and qualifications at oph.fi
5. See HOME-SCHOOLING: Socialization not a problem at washingtontimes.com
6. See How Finland Keeps Kids Focused Through Free Play at theatlantic.com
7. See Teacher Collaboration: The Finland Example at researchnetwork.pearson.com
8. See Finland Used To Have The Best Education System In The World — What Happened? at businessinsider.com
9. See Finland's A+ Schools at Weareteachers.com