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This Memphis mom has a Thanksgiving message for Joe Biden

Special to redefinED November 26, 2020

Special to redefinED

A recent initiative of the grassroots Powerful Parent Network was raising money to meet with all of the 2020 presidential nominees to lobby for parental empowerment and education choice.

Editor’s note: This post from former teacher, school board member and passionate education choice advocate Erika Sanzi features a powerful message from a fellow school choice advocate. The commentary appeared earlier this week on Education Post.

Sarah Carpenter, executive director of Memphis Lift, spent much of the 2020 primary season bringing her message—her plea—for liberation from failing schools to all who were in the fight to become the next president of the United States. Miss Sarah is a fierce advocate for children and parents—she doesn’t have any preferences when it comes to district schools, charter schools or private schools. She just wants the children of North Memphis—and all children—to have access to a good school.

Sarah appears in and narrates the video below on behalf of the Powerful Parent Movement and her message to president-elect Biden is clear.

She, and all the members of the Powerful Parent Movement, know that self-determination comes with having the freedom to choose the right school for your child. Let’s hope the president-elect is willing to listen.

https://educationpost.org/one-memphis-mom-and-grandma-has-a-thanksgiving-message-for-joe-biden/

November 26, 2020 0 comment

Commentary and Opinion Coronavirus / COVID-19 Customization Education and Public Policy Education Choice Education Equity Education Politics Featured Parent Empowerment Parental Choice School Choice Tax Credit Scholarships

Faced with needs, voters unsurprisingly chose school choice

Special to redefinED November 17, 2020

Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This commentary from Ben DeGrow, director of education policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Mich., published Monday on The Hill.

The once-forecasted political “blue wave” offered labor leaders and their partisan allies the hope of rolling back educational choice, but that wave never arrived. With Democrats unable to take over new state levers of power, they and union officials instead may be facing a torrent of new initiatives to give students and families more opportunities.

In this most unusual year, the coronavirus pandemic has opened many parents’ eyes to the brutal shortcomings that pervade K-12 education, and voters returned to office more policymakers who are willing and able to take a stand on parents’ behalf. Labor leaders and bureaucrats accustomed to running the school system should brace themselves for a jolt of parent power.

Using emergency CARES Act funds, some states already have revealed new strategies to fund students directly during the pandemic. For example, Texas and Ohio authorized $1,500 microgrants to families to help them supplement the special education services their disabled children receive while in-person instruction is unavailable.

Friendly leaders in the nation’s capital have demonstrated an unprecedented level of backing for choice over the past four years. It’s one issue that increasingly resonates with voters across the political spectrum — almost 70 percent favor expanding choice.

Ten years ago, a “red wave” handed over the keys to many state legislatures and governors’ mansions to a political party not beholden to teachers unions. That fresh burst of lawmaking energy turned 2011 into the Year of School Choice, as state leaders across the country adopted 18 new voucher, tax-credit scholarship and education savings account programs. Many thousands of students experienced new opportunities as a result.

This month, dozens of pro-school choice officials won election in a number of key states, according to the American Federation for Children. A growing and diverse coalition of frustrated parents may prompt these lawmakers to open new approaches to help children succeed. They could expand private school choice programs like the ones formed a decade ago, and add fresh kinds of aid that enable families with lesser means to work directly with teachers in setting up learning pods.

Parents’ hopes are also backed by a powerful legal precedent. Last June’s groundbreaking Espinoza ruling at the U.S. Supreme Court bars state courts from using archaic constitutional provisions to block parents from choosing private, religious schools when they use publicly funded scholarships. In fact, the state where the Espinoza case originated soon may be part of the vanguard. The election of a new Montana governor places state control entirely in Republican hands, opening up possibilities for more robust programs than the small 2015 scholarship initiative that triggered the case.

As states take up the cause, choice supporters should look to Florida to see where legislative work could lead. A statewide nonprofit there recently handed out the millionth scholarship to a low-income K-12 student, in a story that stretches back nearly 20 years. Those scholarships are funded by corporate donations that receive tax write-offs, the result of a 2001 law adopted under then-Gov. Jeb Bush. The scholarships help many academically struggling students rise to the educational level of their more advantaged peers.

The votes of Black mothers whose children benefit from Florida’s K-12 scholarships put Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over the finish line during the 2018 election. With lawmakers from both parties, he has worked to deliver more choice to families in a state where accessible education options already are common.

While a few states may be ready to follow in Florida’s steps, school choice survived an onslaught in a different state. The union-supported “Red for Ed” movement aimed to scale back one of the nation’s most robust array of educational choices in Arizona. Yet voters, who appear to have narrowly rejected both the president and the incumbent Republican U.S. senator, also dashed Democratic hopes of taking over either chamber of the legislature.

Across the continent, in a state President-elect Joe Biden won easily, New Hampshire completely reversed a 2018 Democratic takeover that, last year, prompted efforts to squash a smaller version of a Florida-style scholarship tax-credit program. With the proposed repeal now on ice, a fresh batch of legislators soon will have the chance to expand educational opportunity in the Granite State.

Newly energized by students and parents in need, reform-minded policymakers across the nation are poised to expand the bounds of learning opportunities. If their actions make possible a new wave of successful students and satisfied parents, they could transform education in the U.S. for decades to come.

November 17, 2020 1 comment

Commentary and Opinion Demographic Research Education and Public Policy Education Choice Education Spending Featured Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Private School Scholarships School Choice

Florida’s tax credit scholarship saves taxpayer dollars and helps students succeed

Special to redefinED November 6, 2020

Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This guest editorial written by Florida Sen. Joe Gruters, who represents District 32 and serves as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, first appeared in the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

In her Nov. 1 column, (Herald Tribune opinions editor) Barbara Peters Smith wrote that she welcomes a debate on school vouchers – as do I. But she describes a very different education landscape than the hard facts reveal. Two decades of data demonstrate that Florida’s Tax Credit Scholarship program has benefited the low-income students it is aimed at.

First, we need to put to rest the idea that private schools improve outcomes because they “weed out” students less likely to succeed. The truth is students who choose the FTC – 68% of whom are Black or Hispanic, with an average annual family income of about $25,755 – are among the lowest-performing students in the public schools they leave behind.

According to research by the Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University, new scholarship students scored roughly 5 percentile points lower in math and reading than scholarship-eligible public students in the year before they started on the scholarship. A 2013 report described the difference this way: “Scholarship participants have significantly poorer test performance in the year prior to starting the scholarship program than do non-participants … These differences are large in magnitude and are statistically significant.”

If that is “weeding out,” then private schools are doing a poor job of it – they’re taking the kids who have the biggest mountains to climb academically.

And yet, standardized test score analyses of FTC students consistently show that even though scholarship students were, on average, the lowest-performing students in their prior public schools, they’re now making the same annual learning gains as students of all income levels nationally. In other words, the average scholarship student has moved from falling further behind grade level each year to gaining a year’s worth of knowledge in a year’s worth of time.

That has led to long-term success. In its 2019 report, the Urban Institute found that FTC students were up to 43% more likely to enroll in four-year colleges than their public school peers, and up to 20% more likely to earn bachelor’s degrees. For those who used the scholarship four or more years, the outcomes were even stronger – up to 99% more likely to attend four-year colleges, and up to 45% more likely to earn bachelor’s degrees.

All these improved outcomes are coming at far less cost than the alternative. According to a 2019 analysis by Florida TaxWatch, the average amount for a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship was $6,447 in 2017-18, while the average per-pupil funding for Florida district schools was $10,856. That puts the value of the scholarship at 59% of the average, per-pupil cost in district schools.

It’s not just private school students who are benefiting from scholarships. A report this year from the National Bureau of Economic Research found as the FTC program expanded, students attending public schools most affected by the increased competition from private schools experienced higher test scores, reduced absenteeism and lower suspension rates.

Meanwhile, during this two-decades growth in tax credit scholarship enrollment – and education choice in general – Florida overall has made impressive strides in academic achievement. Florida ranks No. 3 in the nation in K-12 achievement, its highest position ever. The state also ranks No. 1, No. 1, No. 3, and No. 8 on the four core tests of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

So much for choice dragging down Florida public schools.

The results are indisputable positives for Florida students, particularly low-income students. That’s why education choice supporters like me welcome a debate on scholarship programs: We have the facts on our side.

November 6, 2020 0 comment

Advocate Voices Commentary and Opinion Coronavirus / COVID-19 Education Choice Education Equity Educators Faith-based Education Family Empowerment Scholarship Featured Florida Tax Credit Scholarship McKay Scholarship Parental Choice Private School Scholarships School Choice Voices for Education Choice

Commentary: Now more than ever, families need choices in education

Special to redefinED October 28, 2020

Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This column by Shannon Dolly, principal at Mount Moriah Christian Fundamental Academy in St. Petersburg, first appeared in the Tampa Bay Times. Thirty-eight students at Mount Moriah attend on a Florida Tax Credit Scholarship and eight attend on a Family Empowerment Scholarship.

As a single mother who raised a daughter with special needs, and as the principal of a private school in St. Petersburg with mostly low-income students, I understand the obstacles many families face finding the best learning environment for their children.

COVID-19 has only added to those struggles, for them and for many more families who suddenly have found their options limited. Now more than ever, they need choices in education.

Growing up, I never thought about alternatives to traditional public schools. My mother was a public school administrator, and I went through the public school system. But when I had my daughter, Taylor, I felt I had to do better for her.

I tried to get her into a district magnet school, but we were shut out of our top five picks. The only alternative was to send my 5-year-old on a 45-minute one-way bus ride from the southern part of Pinellas County to a school in the northern part.

That was out of the question.

That’s when I learned about the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship for low-income students, which enabled me to afford tuition at a private school closer to home that best met Taylor’s needs. The scholarship carried her from kindergarten through eighth grade.

She then received a McKay Scholarship for students with special needs that allowed her to attend high school at LiFT Academy in Seminole. She graduated in 2018. Her academic success would not have been possible without the scholarships providing us with real choices.

I’ve also seen the value of choice from the other side.

Since 2015, I’ve been principal at Mount Moriah Christian Fundamental Academy, a middle school with 38 students on the tax credit scholarship and eight on the similar Family Empowerment Scholarship. Mount Moriah offers these children what they can’t find in other schools, and the scholarship provides them the means to attain it.

That has become especially important during the pandemic. When schools shut down because of the virus, in-person learning was denied to those who wanted — and needed — it. Many families struggled with online learning from home. Parents became frustrated with their lack of options.

At Mount Moriah, we have parents who want their kids in school, and others who don’t. So, we have offered them three preferences: Some students attend the brick-and-mortar classroom full time; some do online learning full time; and some do a combination of both.

Our parents love that they have a voice, that we listened to that voice, and that we accommodated that voice.

The pandemic has opened parents’ eyes to the virtue of choice and has made them understand they don’t have to settle for what is handed to them. Now they’re forced to think outside the box, to ask: What else can I do? In these unusual times, they are more willing to look for options beyond what has been considered normal. Recent polls show that parents increasingly want more choices in their children’s education.

The pandemic has demonstrated that families must have multiple options available because they never know when they might need them. It also has reaffirmed that education choice should not be a privilege only for those who can afford it. It’s a right — for everyone.

October 28, 2020 1 comment

Courts Education and Public Policy Education Choice Featured News School Choice Unionism

Appeals court sides with state in school reopening fight

Special to redefinED October 9, 2020

Special to redefinED

News Service Florida

TALLAHASSEE – Saying that “nothing in the emergency order requires any teacher or any student to return to the classroom,” a state appeals court Friday overturned a ruling that said Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran violated the Florida Constitution when he issued a July order aimed at reopening schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal, in a 31-page decision, flatly rejected the conclusions of Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson, who in August sided with teachers unions that challenged Corcoran’s order. The unions argued, at least in part, that the order violated a constitutional guarantee of “safe” and “secure” public education.

The appeals court said the plaintiffs in the case lacked legal standing and were asking courts to decide “non-justiciable political questions.” Also, the panel said the union’s arguments would require courts to violate the constitutional separation of powers and that they failed to show Corcoran’s order was “arbitrary and capricious.”

In addressing the standing issue, the appeals court said the plaintiffs “have not shown a causal connection between their alleged injury and implementation of the emergency order.”

“Their alleged injury — being forced to return to the classroom — stems from decisions made by school districts,” Judge Lori Rowe wrote in a decision joined by Judges Thomas Winokur and Harvey Jay. “School districts decide whether to reopen schools for in-person instruction. School districts assign teachers to classrooms and approve or deny their requested accommodations. And school districts decide whether to offer students the choice of online instruction.”

Rowe also wrote that Dodson’s ruling “reveals the perils of judicial decision-making in this policy-laden arena.”

“To measure whether the public school system is ‘safe’ and ‘secure,’ the trial court would need to identify standards to make that measurement — beginning by evaluating the risks posed by COVID-19,” Friday’s decision said.

“And even if the trial court were qualified to isolate and weigh the safety risks posed by the virus, whether it is safe enough to reopen schools is not a binary question answered with a simple yes or no based on the latest public health metrics on COVID-19. The court would still need to consider many other factors to determine whether the state met its obligation to provide for safe and secure schools.”

Corcoran issued the order as he and Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed for schools to reopen after being shuttered in March because of the pandemic. Students in the spring were shifted to online learning, but Corcoran and DeSantis argued that students and families should have a choice of in-person or online learning during the 2020-2021 school year.

The Florida Education Association statewide union and other plaintiffs, however, argued that teachers could be placed in unsafe situations if required to return to classrooms. Plaintiffs filed two lawsuits, which were subsequently consolidated, that challenged the constitutionality of the order.

A key issue in the dispute involved part of the order that dealt with the way public schools are funded. The order effectively conditioned a portion of money on school districts submitting reopening plans that included the use of brick-and-mortar classrooms, in addition to offering online alternatives.

In his Aug. 24 ruling granting a temporary injunction, Dodson said the order left school districts with “no meaningful alternative” about reopening classrooms.

“An injunction in this case will allow local school boards to make safety determinations for the reopening of schools without financial penalty,” Dodson wrote. “This is what the local school boards were elected to do. Every witness testified that any decision to reopen schools should be based on local conditions.

Reasoned and data-driven decisions based on local conditions will minimize further community spread of COVID-19, severe illness, and possible death of children, teachers and school staff, their families, and the community at large. Such local decisions unequivocally serve the public interest.”

But Rowe in Friday’s decision wrote that the state “presented multiple rational reasons for reopening schools, including evidence that many students would suffer educational, mental, and physical harms if they were unable to return to the classroom.” Also, the decision backed Corcoran on the financing issue.

“The offer to provide increased state funding to school districts that reopen for in-person instruction is also rational,” Rowe wrote. “Without action by the Legislature or statutory waivers under an executive order, school districts would receive funding under existing statutes and rules that tie funding to student enrollment and offer lower reimbursement for online classes. But because the commissioner exercised his discretion to provide waivers from the funding statutes and rules, school districts were eligible to receive increased funding. Even if student enrollment decreased and the number of students enrolling in online classes increased.”

Amid the legal battle, classrooms have opened at schools throughout the state, while many families have opted to have their children learn online because of the pandemic. The appeals court decision said Corcoran’s order gave school districts discretion about how to handle the situation.

“Nothing in the emergency order disturbs a school district’s discretion to determine when to reopen schools and whether to offer in-person instruction,” Rowe wrote. “In fact, the emergency order does not require school districts to do anything. Rather, school districts retain the discretion to continue to offer students the choice of in-person instruction, to require teachers to report for duty under their contracts, and to determine teaching assignments. And so, whether a school district assigns them to in-person or online instruction is a matter between those teachers and their employing school districts.”

October 9, 2020 0 comment

Commentary and Opinion Coronavirus / COVID-19 Education and Public Policy Education Choice Featured Parental Choice School Choice

Opinion: All families deserve school choice; the pandemic has shown us why

Special to redefinED October 5, 2020

Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: This piece from Fort Lauderdale city commissioner Heather Moraitis appeared Sunday as a special to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Coronavirus has exposed cracks in our society and changed the way we interact with the world. From our dependency on foreign countries for medication and medical infrastructure, to our acceptance of “work from home,” and our new reliance on hand sanitizer, masks and mobile orders — things are changing right before our very eyes. And perhaps one of the greatest cracks exposed, and industry most in need of new options, is our education system.

Children across the country had their schooling interrupted, altered, and in many cases postponed after summer break. And while Broward County Public Schools plan to start back in the classroom this week, families should have more options. Many childcare facilities remained open during the pandemic, and our schools could have followed similar guidelines to reopen sooner and provide in-person K-5 education.

The reality is our families and their economic well-being depend on in-person supervised learning for children too young to stay home alone. In fact, only 40% of our workforce was able to transition to working from home, making the supervision of young children at home for remote learning even more difficult.

When you consider that families with means were able to switch to other educational opportunities such as independent schools, homeschooling, education “pods” or online education platforms with a tutor, one starts to see systemic inequality in our education system. In the district I represent in Fort Lauderdale, there are four large private schools that already opened this school year. This equates to nearly 5,000 students in my district going to campus for class every day. Parents with the necessary means and resources have taken advantage of this, and in fact, new students have enrolled in these private schools for the chance to participate in on-campus learning.

Unfortunately, most families were not able to send their children back to school due to Broward County Public Schools’ decision to remain closed. While I am proud that our city is stepping up to provide supervised e-learning centers at four community centers in the city for K-5 students, this should have been done by public elementary schools in the city and county for all families who needed in-person K-5 learning.

The bottom line is this: It is wrong when only families with means and resources are able to choose an education program that’s best for their child. All families should have that right.

It is time we start to view education differently. Educational opportunities and choice should be available for all, not driven by your zip code or financial standing. And while there are some programs, such as McKay, Step Up, and Family Empowerment Scholarships that enable families to choose the best school for their child, this statewide opportunity shouldn’t be limited to just a few programs or just a few students.

I know firsthand how powerful having a choice in education can be. I went to college on a Pell Grant, and the opportunity changed my life forever. But that funding came along with the option to go to the college of my choice. Similarly, parents should also be given the option of sending their children to the school of their choice.

Later in life, as a mom trying to provide a good education to my kids at a reasonable price, while staying at home with them, I became a champion of school choice. I worked with my church to create a co-op program that integrated students into a private school part-time and at home the rest of the week. It worked for our family and is another example of educational choice that can and should be provided to all families.

So let’s take a fresh look. We can do so much with school vouchers, where the money directly follows the child. Parents are given the resources to choose the best program for their child — whether that be charter, public, private or homeschooling. When funding is funneled to students rather than institutions, parents and students are put in the driver’s seat to make decisions.

We live in a modern, virtual and customizable society yet our education system reflects an outdated, one-size-fits-all approach. America has spent the past 40 years working to close the achievement gap and despite spending more than a trillion dollars just at the federal level, the gap has only widened. It’s time we modernize and adapt so that each student can succeed and every family has the ability to do what’s right for their child.

October 5, 2020 0 comment

Commentary and Opinion Coronavirus / COVID-19 Customization Education and Public Policy Education Choice Education Equity Education Legislation Education Savings Accounts Featured Homeschooling Parental Choice School Choice Unionism

If schools can’t — or don’t — reopen, help families pay for at-home teaching with CARES Act, education savings accounts

Special to redefinED September 8, 2020

Special to redefinED

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced in July the allocation of $32 million from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund to create one-time grants to help parents pay tuition for their children at the state’s private schools.

Editor’s note: This commentary from Katherine Kellett Bathgate, a senior policy adviser for State Policy Network and CEO and co-founder of SchoolForward, first appeared on The 74.

The American Federation of Teachers recently made headlines when it passed a resolution expressing support for any chapter that wishes to strike over schools reopening. Since then, there have been increased rumblings about possible strikes in several states.

I sympathize with teachers who are afraid to return to work, especially those who are not using the threat of strikes to achieve political goals, as some unions have done. I feel for school administrators having to make tough decisions about student and staff safety.

But if schools don’t reopen, whether because of a strike or a state or district decision, the taxpayer money that funds those schools should go to the impacted students and families.

A recent nationwide poll of 1,000 parents of K-12 children commissioned by State Policy Network showed that in the spring, during school shutdowns, families spent on average $200 total and 10 hours a week supporting their children’s education. It also revealed that 40% of parents believe their children are behind academically because of those school closures.

America cannot afford to have children fall further behind as we ride out this pandemic, and families can’t afford to continue subsidizing their children’s education like they did this spring.

Districts are announcing new closures and delayed starts every day, and parents are still grappling with whether they feel safe sending their kids back to their schools (the same poll showed only one-third to be comfortable under current conditions). As a result, some parents have turned to ideas like learning pods, where a handful of families team up to hire a teacher together or share the responsibility of homeschooling.

As this entrepreneurial idea has taken hold, and as mom Facebook groups are exploding with ideas about pods and requests to join, some have rightly questioned how equitable this is. What happens to students whose parents don’t have the financial means to hire a teacher? Or who have working parents who can’t help homeschool?

The answer has been around for nearly 10 years. It’s been tested and implemented, and all we need to do is act.

Education savings accounts, first passed in Arizona in 2011, allow families to spend a portion of their child’s state education funding on qualifying education expenses. This could be used for homeschooling, online tutoring or even chipping in to hire a teacher for a neighborhood learning pod.

Support for this idea is high, with 63% of parents in the poll saying they support passing “emergency” or “pandemic” ESAs and 35% saying they would be very or extremely likely to use a program like this if available in their state.

The challenge will be how to make ESAs a reality fast enough for families. Historically, states have taken a year or more to implement these programs once they’re passed into law. Families don’t have that kind of time right now.

But there are other ways. One example is using CARES Act funding. In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster recently announced a $32 million SAFE Grants program to give low-income families up to $6,500 to fund their child’s education. As every governor has discretion to use education funds under the CARES Act, there’s no reason other states could not follow suit and direct this money to families as an ESA instead of a grant program.

States could also use special sessions to pass one-time emergency or pandemic ESAs to give a portion of each student’s funding back to the families.

Every parent of school-age children in the country has tough decisions to make as we head into the fall. As a working mom with two kids and another on the way, I empathize greatly with what parents are going through right now. We must adjust public policy to meet these needs and lighten the burden families are facing.

Now is the time to be bold and act quickly, lest we lose another year of education for millions of students.

And as someone who works in education policy, I know that we cannot afford to lose another year — or even a half year — with our children’s learning. Achievement gaps will widen further and too many kids will fall behind, especially in low-income and underserved areas. Every family, regardless of their means, should have the ability to choose the education path that is right for their child, especially this year.

So, teachers unions: Go ahead and strike. School districts: Go ahead and decide not to open. You may have legitimate health reasons for doing so. But don’t be surprised when there’s a groundswell of parents asking for their money back.

September 8, 2020 0 comment

Commentary and Opinion Coronavirus / COVID-19 Customization Education Choice Featured Homeschooling Parental Choice School Choice

A message of hope for parents navigating rough waters as a new school year begins

Special to redefinED August 31, 2020

Special to redefinED

Editor’s note: Kevin Currie-Knight, who authored this commentary, is a teaching assistant professor at East Carolina University’s College of Education. Currie-Knight’s research focuses on history, philosophy, and the politics of education.

These are strange and hard times. Across the world, schools are moving away from their temporary summer hiatus with no end in sight to COVID-19.

As a professor in a college of education who is quite familiar with research on how kids learn outside of conventional schools, I can offer six bits of advice to parents struggling with how to deal with children learning from home in either 100% virtual or hybrid settings. Before I give that advice, I have to carefully stress my awareness of how different this situation is from homeschooling (let alone unschooling or homeschooling without formal curriculum).

Most parents navigated the summer, and are now entering the new academic year, dealing with kids who are home from school not by choice but by necessity. For the past six months, schools and districts have fully expected their children to be learning and completing schoolwork. But this has not been, nor is it now, in any proper way been homeschooling.

Now that I’ve said that as carefully as I can, here are six points the literature on homeschooling and unschooling can nevertheless offer to families struggling with this new learn-at-home situation.

First, as tempting as it is, you might not need to stress as much as you think.

I know this one will be hard to hear, especially for families whose schools are expecting students to maintain a rigorous school schedule at home. Families are experiencing great pressure to replicate school at home and to make sure their kids are learning everything they can lest those kids fall behind.

Yet, there are four studies I know of that show that despite not learning in any “schooled” way, kids turn out fine in life. (Here, here, here, and a study summarized here.)

They get into college when they apply. They find decent jobs. All without the benefits of a traditional school education.

This is an admittedly small number of studies, and the studies themselves are small, but the results are quite consistent. Kids who don’t attend traditional schools tend to grow into adults who aren’t very distinguishable from their peers who learned in brick-and-mortar settings – and they certainly are not deficient.

It’s clear that families in this current crisis can’t treat it as a “just let them learn what they want” experience. But my message is more humble: For all of your anxiety about your kids’ sudden hiatus from in-person school, try not to stress about what will happen if you can’t replicate school at home, or what will happen if your child doesn’t learn everything your district expects to the standard children would have at brick-and-mortar school.

If these studies are to be believed – and I think we should believe them – your kids will almost certainly turn out fine. They will go on to be able to learn or relearn what they need when they need it.

Second, your job should be to ensure your children are learning, not necessarily to teach them.

A second source of stress for parents appears to be the idea that, without any warning, they now are supposed to be teachers. I would suggest that their job instead is to make sure their children can learn things. These two are (deceptively) different ideas.

To teach someone math means you become an expert in math and then convey your math expertise to learners. But to facilitate learning means to help the learner learn – to help them find resources and to ask them questions that might help them learn: “Well, what do you think went wrong? How can we figure out what went wrong? What resources can we use to figure that out?”.

In fact, this unfortunate hiatus from in-person school might be an interesting opportunity to empower kids to take more charge of their learning. Instead of having to learn things from and at the pace the teacher sets, parents can help their children find resources – books, friends or relatives who could help, online resources, anything – children can use to take more ownership of their own learning.

Yes, you can teach your kids too, if there are subjects you feel you know quite well that you can share with your children. But your main job is to help them learn in whatever ways you can, not necessarily to teach outright.

Third, kids don’t have to be learning all the time.

The important thing is simply that they learn, not the amount of time they spend learning. I’ve been reading a book called Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, by business writer Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. The author surveys literature that indicates contrary to what we often think, people tend to perform better when allowed time for rest.

And by rest, Pang means not only the type of passive rest most of us think of (watching television, sleeping) but active rest (pursuing hobbies and activities just for fun). As he puts it, “measuring time is literally the easiest way to assess someone’s dedication and productivity, but it’s also very unreliable.”

I see no reason why the research Pang cites wouldn’t also hold true for kids doing schoolwork. In fact, it is in line with what I’ve heard from both homeschoolers and unschoolers. Homeschoolers often start out thinking they will replicate school (and its daily schedule) at home but gradually find they get the best results by doing a few hours of academic work in the morning and allowing kids the rest of the day to pursue what interests them.

Unschoolers tend to report that a good amount of their (or their kids’) time is spent “doing nothing” before the learner finds something that really interests them. And once that happens, learning often will be quite rapid. A lot of learning is compressed into a small amount of time with ample opportunity to do things besides learning.

Again, parents are encouraged to take this advice only to the extent that it fits with the expectations of their district. But the lesson should be that you care more that they are learning, not how much time they spend learning, or that the time be equivalent to how much time they spend in school.

Fourth, more choice is better than less choice.

Obviously, most parents can’t let their kids have unlimited choice over what they learn, because schools and districts expect children to learn specific things. But a lot of research (here and here) shows that choice (autonomy) is a huge motivating factor in learning.

Try to give your kids as much choice as possible given the expectations of your school district and your own comfort level. Even if your district is giving your children large packets of work to complete each day or week, you can give them choice over the order in which they do it, the resources they use to complete it (maybe instead of using the textbooks or teacher’s slides, they can use YouTube or the Internet), and what times they do their work.

Fifth, learning doesn’t just happen in school-like ways.

School inadvertently gives us all the impression that learning is something that generally happens in school. (I’ve written about this before, cautioning that we think of math, science and history less as school subjects and more as ways of thinking.)

In traditional school settings, students learn math and history in math and history class, using math and history textbooks. But homeschoolers and unschoolers learn from a host of other sources. They can learn mathematical concepts while cooking, playing video games that use point systems and such, or playing with LEGOs. They can learn history by finding interesting documentaries or historical dramas to stream, calling relatives who have interesting stories to tell, or listening to podcasts.

And sometimes, learning even the most school-related stuff will just be a byproduct of unplanned activity, where children stumble across something that is interesting to them.

Most important, try to enjoy the time with your children.

Having kids unexpectedly home all day can surely be stressful. But it is also a great opportunity to develop connections with them that are less possible when they are in school (and we are at work) all day. And just as parents are stressed during times like these, so are kids. Now is a time where parents get to have conversations with kids, share their interests and allow them to share theirs.

This study of parents who don’t send their kids to traditional schools shows that a whopping 57% of those parents felt in retrospect like “family closeness” was a highly valuable part of having their kids home with them. Of course, those are families who chose (parents and kids) to not send the kids to school. Nevertheless, these families can teach us how parents and children can learn to see each other as allies and resources rather than adversaries.

So, we can take these strange times to get to know our kids in ways we couldn’t before, allow those of us who are working from home to see what their parents do all day and play (and learn) together.

It is true that we are not all homeschoolers and unschoolers now. To claim that we are would be like saying those displaced by natural disasters have become campers and outdoors enthusiasts. But just as veteran campers might have some words of wisdom for people navigating displacement, the literature on homeschooling and unschooling could have something to offer parents struggling in this difficult environment.

August 31, 2020 0 comment