Smrt Lernins

A few weeks ago, Captain Science did the first round of standardized testing since he’s been out of public school. He took the ITBS through a neighboring homeschool co-op and it was an overall interesting experience.

Both days ran very late. In fact, the first day ran so late (almost an hour) that the director rescheduled the next day’s testing to account for an extra hour and a half…and they still ran another 45 minutes late over that! I’m pretty sure they took long breaks between every 15 minute test section.

Captain Science felt like he aced the math and the language arts, but he was a little concerned about the social studies, since he hasn’t actually had any of the stuff they covered. Oops! Told him it didn’t matter; all I want is to make sure he’s on track in math/LA and to satisfy the state’s requirements for standardized testing. None of this is the part I’d call “interesting,” however.

No, the interesting part was when, the day after testing, I picked Captain Science’s backpack up from the floor where he’d tossed it…and his test booklet and Scantron fell out. *headdesk*

That was an “oh, shit!” moment, because I was pretty sure that taking the test off site invalidated the test, meaning we’d wasted two days and $60-ish dollars on a test that would never get scored. The front of the book declared it to be property of whoever it is that distributes and scores the tests, so I emailed the test proctor and let her know we had her booklet and ask if I could drop it off. I became ever so happy to be a homeschooler when she let me know that, since the tests are only for our benefit (we have to DO them, but the state doesn’t get the scores), she’d just let me bring her the booklet and the Scantron and no one would need to be the wiser.

I zipped the whole kit n’ kaboodle up into a gallon-sized Ziplock bag, because for some reason, that made me feel like it was some how not being compromised by being away from the testing facility, and brought it to the proctor the next day. Results are already back and she’s mailing them to me.

The quirkiness of homeschoolers is how the test book came home to begin with — space cadet son + apparently equally space cadet proctors — but the quirkiness of homeschoolers also allowed us to turn the results in anyway. I’ll call it a win.

I was pleased to see this great article in Access Atlanta about the growing number of local homeschoolers and the various programs springing up to accommodate us. These programs are “part of a trend of home schoolers becoming involved in activities that would have once seemed the antithesis of learning in a private, family-based environment. What began with home educated students making their presence felt in scholastic sports leagues and youth orchestras has spread to cultural institutions.”

Along with listing information on various programs available to homeschoolers, the article also gives information on homeschooling numbers both nationally and state-wide:

In part, this development can be attributed to critical mass: In its most recent study in 2007, the U.S. Department of Education estimated some 1.5 million students nationwide were home schoolers, up from 850,000 in 1998; the private National Home Education Research Institute says the number may be as high as 2.5 million now. An earlier analysis conducted by the U.S. Department of Education in 2003 found that 40.6 percent of all home schooled students lived in the South, nearly twice as many as in any other region of the country.

Officially, Georgia now boasts almost 40,000 homeschooled students! I have some questions about the bolded portion of the following paragraph, however:

In Georgia, 39,207 students were home schooled in 2009, according to numbers compiled by the state Department of Education. The highest concentration was in metro Atlanta, including 3,276 in Gwinnett and 2,942 in Cobb. Fulton’s total was listed as zero, suggesting the overall figure statewide is probably higher.

How is it that Fulton county lists no homeschoolers at all? Every county in Georgia should have the same reporting requirements. What is going on at the Fulton county superintendent’s officer that no homeschoolers are being reported? If any of my readers living and schooling in Fulton, I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences about this.

It feels nice to be a part of something. Two years ago, this article would have meant nothing to me. A year ago, it might have piqued my curiosity, as we were just starting to explore alternatives to public school. Now, however, I’m part of a group that is “making [our] presence felt.” I love my new community of families and I’m so glad we have all these wonderful local resources available to us.