NUMBER OF HOME SCHOOL STUDENTS EXPECTED TO INCREASE

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

The number of students home-schooled in Arkansas is expected to increase this year following an established trend of growth of enrollments in the state, according to Melissa Savary, director of The Education Alliance, an association of home schools.

A final enrollment count for the 2006-2007 school year, the latest number released by the Arkansas Department of Education, indicates there were 15,012 Arkansas students home-schooled that year, up from 10 years ago at 6,420.

“The home-school laws changed in ’97 and there was a huge spike in ’97-’98, then the law changed again in ’99 and there was another spike,” Savary said.

Final July enrollment numbers reported by the ADE jumped from 6,420 in 1997 to 11,038 in 2000. Savary explained that before the legislative changes it was illegal to home-school a child with special needs.

Under the old policy, the state received home-schooled students’ standardized test results and if they determined a child was eight months or more behind in academic progress, the student was given six months to catch up. Those who did not catch up, were required to enroll in a public school, added Savary.

Under the new system, standardized test results are reported directly to the parents of home-schooled children and the state is no longer an enforcer of academic progress standards, she continued.

Kris Durham, a former public school teacher, has been home schooling for more than 20 years and has found that “home-schoolers” in general tend to relate to adults and a variety of ages well without the pressure of cliques present in schools.

“I went to a home-school convention before my son was school age. We were interested in the possibility of being able to put the good things in him that we wanted to see him grow in and not have the challenges of the negative elements that we saw in public schools,” Durham said.

Some of the benefits of home schooling she has observed in her four children are a respect for authority, individualized education, a positive atmosphere and having a teacher who is deeply interested in the outcome of their education.

For the first time in 20 years, Durham will have only one student at home this year, her second grade daughter, Faith. It is the amount of one-on-one attention that Faith will receive that many close to home schooling believe is the key to its success.

“There are very few regulations once they have filled out the (home-school enrollment) form. They are still supposed to take standardized tests and scores are supposed to be reported back to the parent, but there aren’t any accountability measures on what kind of scores have to be made,” said Julie Thompson, communications director for the ADE.

Public school students may apply to attend the school district of their choice and would be allowed to do so if certain conditions are met such as not upsetting racial balance. However, criteria for school choice may soon change, Thompson said.

Some have speculated that some students’ inability to attend the school of their choice in the future may cause an increase in home-school enrollment.

Nikki Ferren, a local home-school mother, said she has noticed more interest in home schooling lately and has observed an increase of about 25 percent in the number of students at Liberty Academy, an association of home-school families, in the past few years.

The academy offers classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she said, allowing the students to learn from different parent-teachers with specific subject knowledge.

“I don’t know of anything that’s not covered either one year or another,” Ferren said of the course offerings.

Like Ferren, many of the teachers have teaching degrees or educational backgrounds in the subjects they teach.