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 half homeschool half high school (currently 1,036 views) |
| jandig |
| Posted on: December 29th, 2005, 8:27pm |
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I have not homeschooled my kids, but my eldest, age 18, is starting at NM Tech this semester, having taken the GED without finishing her last semester of high school. This is partly because she is advanced beyond our local high school, having gone to Sandia Prep for two years (and just being that way, the S-word!), and partly because we are so poor that she needs her scholarship (from high SAT/ACT scores) right now, and to be independent.
The GED has not hindered her at all. The ACT/SAT serve to place her in classes and they also are sufficient, at least at NM Tech, to get her a scholarship. Tech has not even looked at her high school grades.
The above is relevant to the discussion about GED and homeschooling for high school.
Now I have a question to ask. I have two 9th graders who have their idiosyncracies and I have reasons for wanting some flexibility in the high school thing. For instance, we'd like to have less high school in order to have the time for personal endeavors, otherwise known as "homeschooling".
The high school here allows homeschoolers to do a half high school day but has heretofore told them they must take only core classes (required English, Math, PE, etc.) during that time, completely undoing the boon because of course homeschoolers are homeschoolers because they have problems with core requirments, not with electives! At least 4 other high schools in New MExico, whom I called, allow homeschoolers to go a half day or more and do not make a requirement about which classes they can take.
The high school has since admitted that my kids could have the same flexibility, since they talked to a state official, Annette Larkin, but only if they are homeschoolers. And
according to them, homeschoolers must be going to high school no more than 50% of the day!
I talked to Ms. Larkin and I believe her understanding has to do with family school,
which is something different. At least one of the high schools I'd talked to previously, said that they allow homeschoolers to take anywhere from 50% - 100% of the day of high school classes.
These issues should be of interest even to all-day homeschoolers, because the schools should be a source of educational resources to homeschoolers, not a
hindrance: High schools nowadays accept homeschoolers in order to get
funded for them. High schools also claim that they badly need parental input and
participation in children's education. Yet, when I claim that I want my daughter not
to take a certain class, and thus exercise my parental right of judgement over her
curriculum, they place obstacles in the way.
In fact, if people viewed high school a little more like college and added and dropped
classes depending on their value, high school classes would probably improve.
I understand that my local school board has the right to decide what they want to
offer to homeschoolers. However, this particular school doesn't have a policy so the school is accepting input from the state, which is giving the wrong information, I think.
Does anyone know what the state rules are about half high school as it applies
to the issues I've raised here?
Thanks
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| jandig |
| Posted on: December 29th, 2005, 8:31pm |
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Replying to my own post: I want to try to state it more simply:
A state education department official told me that
that a half-highschool half-homeschooler is a child who is taking 50%
or less day of classes at high school. I know that a homeschooler must
take 50% or MORE of the day at high school in order for the high school
to get funding for him. However, their interpretation, which means that
homeschoolers must take EXACTLY 50%, makes no sense...
What do you think?
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| LadyJessica |
| Posted on: December 30th, 2005, 11:05pm |
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I don't know that this will help you any, but this is what I know about requirements for APS high schools. When I was attending high school, (graduated in 97) you had to be attending atleast 3 classes to be enrolled in a traditional school. I am assuming the reason for this is the money issue of the child needing to be taking atleast 50% of their classes there to receive funding for that student. This was always a minimum number of classes and you could take 3, 4, 5, or more classes at a time. Both my Junior and Senior years I took 4 classes at West Mesa. I also took classes at Albuquerque Night School to get the rest of my required credits.
I know it has been almost 10 years since I graduted, so this may have changed. But by what you say, it sounds like the same policy. If you are not concerned with the traditional diploma and the GED is a route you are willing to take, you should have no problems enrollling your children in an APS school and them taking 3 or more classes there. I don't know how they can require that the classes all be academic. When I was going part-time, atleast half of my classes were electives, but of course the academic courses were made up for in night school. I guess if I hadn't been attending night school, they may have pushed me to change my class load to meet graduation requirements.
I don't know if any of my babble helps. Best of luck to you in getting this worked out for your children. Also, Congrats on your daughter starting at NMT. My brother went there and graduated almost 2 years ago. It is a wonderful school and I wish her the best in her studies there. |
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| jandig |
| Posted on: January 4th, 2006, 4:27am |
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Thanks, Jess. It gives me one more high school anecdote to add to my list.
Your comment about your high school not having a problem with you because
the rest of your curriculum was being accomplished in an official setting, isn't
really apropos any more, since last year! Last year the state passed a new
law stating that schools may not require homeschooling parents to prove
academic progress of their children.
I am wondering if you tested the flexibility of your high school in any way, e.g.,
dropping a class because you weren't doing well in it.
There's a great conflict between schools' traditional assumptions and how they have
to approach things for homeschoolers in high school under the above law:
1. A homeschooler need not care about his grades if he can "drop" a class because
he isn't doing well or doesn't like it. The school, under the above law, can't require
him to finish it because he took it voluntarily in the first place.
2. A homeschooler need not care about his grades if he's going to do GED. (NMT
didn't even look at my daughter's grades, but only at her SAT/ACT scores.)
3. A homeschooler could take all but one class at high school--as you remarked--
yet still be a homeschooler and not subject to attendance laws.
4. In my town, there is funding for the police to pursue truants and prosecute them.
Yet, by filling out a form that doesn't require approval and sending it to the state,
"truants" are suddenly homeschoolers and not subject to that prosecution.
Many homeschoolers feel that they should not have anything to do with schools, because the more schools have to deal with homeschoolers, the more likely they
will produce regulations to reconcile the above conflicts.
I am wondering how Albuquerque schools, which have dealt with these issues a lot
longer, do it ...
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| LadyJessica |
| Posted on: January 4th, 2006, 5:41pm |
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It is hard for me to look at how my school would have handled a homeschooled student, since even though I only attended part-time I was still a fully public schooled student. Unfortunately, instead of dropping classes, I just stopped going to the ones that I did not care for and took the F at the end of the semester. My parents had to go with me to court twice for truacy during my first 2 high school years. After 16, you are not required to attend school, so then it did not matter. I can see where it would have been much easier to be homeschooled. The education I received from public high school, was lacking, but I still managed to educate myself enough outside of class to accomplish all that I wanted.
Please let me know how this all falls into place for you. I am curious how the schools handle this and what you are able to work out. Where are you located, anyway? |
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| jandig |
| Posted on: January 5th, 2006, 4:56pm |
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We are in Socorro. Not attending certain classes is an option if
the school decides to be inflexible. I'm not sure my
kids could handle being set apart from their peers in that way,
e.g., letting them acquire F's on purpose and thus changing the
course of their entire high school experience.
Thanks, that would have been my guess: That the school would
try to apply sanctions when you didn't attend certain classes.
I'll definitely report events in the near future. At this point I'm pretty much
resolved at least on getting my kids out of some of their classes,
to try to relieve some pressure for them, because they're both
under stress (in different ways). However, dealing with their (pubescent)
changes in addition to the school bureaucracy is very difficult!
Jan |
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