Highlights from the Texas Legislature

Here is some news that came out of the Texas Legislature. I'm not a big Perry fan but he does support us homeschoolers. The veteran stuff I'm not too sure about. It might mean an influx of people coming into the state solely for the purpose of going to school. That would mean that more jobs and housing would be needed. On one hand that would be good because the housing market would benefit but the job market isn't so great right now and I don't expect it to get too much better in the coming months (years). Will have to watch this and see how it pans out.

HOMESCHOOL RALLY

Republican Gov. Rick Perry revved up a crowd of home school families at a rally outside the Capitol on Tuesday, telling the group that government regulation needs to stop at their front door.

Perry said he is committed to improving public schools, but said, "I really do understand that public school education may not be the best choice for every family." He said home-schooled children are "some of the most gifted students in our state."

The governor and others speaking to the crowd urged them to support a bill by Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, that they said protects parental rights when grandparents are seeking custody of children.

VETERAN TUITION

Out-of-state veterans could get a major break for higher education in Texas under a bill that got initial approval from the House on Tuesday.

The proposal would allow veterans and their families to pay in-state tuition regardless of how long they have lived in Texas

"This is a very good benefit for our veterans for the service they have given to our country," said Rep. Frank Corte, a San Antonio Republican and the bill's author in the House.

But some lawmakers object to an amendment that would allow children of soldiers paying in-state tuition to be fully exempt while their parents are serving in combat zones.

Opponents of the amendment said the loss of funds could crush some schools, particularly community colleges near military bases.

But Rep. Marc Veasey, the Fort Worth Democrat pushing the amendment, said the provision is limited enough that it will not be too hard on the schools. He estimated that fewer than 1,000 students would be affected because the majority of soldiers serving in combat zones are not old enough to have college-aged children.

As approved, the proposal would require the state to pay colleges back for losses under the amendment.

The bill still has to be called up for a final vote on third reading. It passed the Senate without the House amendments last month.

Unschoolers, transcripts and books

A new friend of mine is an unschooler. Now I'm not real sure what exactly an unschooler is and apparently unschoolers have different opinions of what it means too. The way I perceive it is that they have no set of curriculum, no schedules, no real structure and they just kind of learn as they go. Now I'm no unschooler, but I'm not as regimental as some homeschoolers I know. I do like some structure, a plan and most times a curriculum. I like having most things laid out for me. BUT I'm not stuck with a schedule. I do plan a schedule for him to follow as to what he is suppose to do each day but if we have other plans for that day, then he just does those lessons the next day or whenever he can. My son also likes knowing what he is suppose to be studying that day. I think it helps him to stay on track. I'm not set on any one type of curriculum. I do use textbooks, workbooks, computer courses, and worksheets but I also use videos, movies, websites, field trips, outside classes, etc. as a supplement for those courses. I'm always looking for something that will help my son to better understand what he is suppose to be learning.

A few of us homeschoolers got together a while back and we asked this unschooler about grades and doing a transcript. When we met up with her yesterday, she gave us each a copy of the transcript she made up for her daughter. It was very simply done but it had all of the information that a college really needs, that she met the requirements for a high school education and what subjects were taught. There were no grades listed, just a statement saying "We do not 'label' or 'grade' students. Subjects are studied until material is integrated and mastered." This is exactly what I have been trying to get through to some other homeschoolers I've talked to. You don't need grades for a transcript, and colleges could care less if you made straight A's in high school. They only care if you get them in college! I loved the way this transcript was done. It's similar to the one I have written up for my son except mine has a description of the courses. I think I'll go back and redo his transcript. I realized that I don't need to put the description down for the courses unless they are so off the wall that they need further explanation. After all, colleges teach English, Math, History and Science too. I think they know what those are.

Another homeschooler made a very good point when it comes to English and History. The student is taught the same thing over and over all through school. In elementary school we were taught about grammar and sentence structure and that continued all the way through high school. The same thing with history. We learned about the presidents, constitution, Civil War, all the way through the present time, and that continued through high school. The only thing that changed with them was the reading level of the books. We didn't learn anything new about how to conjugate a sentence or how the Civil War ended, it was all just a repeat of what we had learned earlier in our education. Math is a little different only because we go from the basic math skills to Algebra and Trigonometry. The public schools even touch on Algebra in elementary grades! But nothing changes with math. The only subject that changes is science. New concepts and discoveries are happening all around us, so the child leans something new every time they turn around. If a child reads and is able to comprehend what they are reading, then they will be able to learn anything they need to know about any subject they want. So why must we constantly teach them English and History each and every year? If a child does not read well, then they cannot learn. So why don't the public schools focus more on teaching a child to read and less on spelling tests (the child would learn how to spell correctly if they could read the words)? My own son has missed out on so much because he was not a good reader when he was in public school. It wasn't until we took him out of public school and started homeschooling him that his reading got better. He's still not big on reading but he's a lot better than he would be if he was still in public school! I wish I had made my kids read more when they were younger and not just fiction either. They could have been learning so much more. So I have decided that with these last two remaining years that I have to teach my son, we will focus more on reading all sorts of books and a little less on busy work. Hopefully it will open up a whole new world for him.

Hours, lessons and credits.

I have had conversations with some of my homeschooling friends concerning awarding credits for classes and how to determine what a credit is. Some of these conversations have gotten rather heated, especially by those who seem to think that you have to have credits in order to get into college. Not so. But I won’t go into that. That’s a whole ‘nother subject altogether! I found some interesting information regarding what an “hour” is and what might be considered a “credit”. Sounds reasonable to me, especially since that's the way I’ve been doing it all this time. But some people you just can’t convince that they are the ones who decide what an “hour” and/or “credit” is. They are determined to follow what the public school system says is an “hour” and “credit”. As for me and my house, we choose to follow the homeschool way!

Requirements.
As a homeschooler in Texas, you legally have to teach reading, spelling, grammar, mathematics and a study of good citizenship. Other states require that you teach the “core subjects”. What do they mean by “core subjects”? In most states those subjects would be science, social studies, language arts, math, etc. In Texas the public schools are required to meet 180 days per year and students must attend school for 170 days. This does not apply to homeschools. Texas also does not require you to teach a minimum amount of hours in a day. Some states require that you log hours for the school year. What does that mean? In some states the “hours” must be logged in each of the “core” subjects during that school year. Some require that your student must have 1000 hours total of logged “class time” to complete a full school year.

Logging.
Now “to log” means to record that a “lesson was completed”. To “log an hour” of class time is to record in a ledger or log book that the student has successfully completed the lesson in that subject that was assigned for that day. Remember, an “hour” is not necessarily 60 minutes of time. The class could take 10 minutes; 20 minutes; or 1 ½ hours. You are just verifying that “legally” the child completed the assignment.

So where does the 1000 hours come in—well, let’s say that you take your child to choir or band—you record that your child attended the class. You can then also record each time the child practices. If you do “art” projects or take lessons—that can be part of the 1000 hours. If you take a field trip—mark that as well (the way to mark a field trip is the time it takes from when you leave the house until you return). If your student only does 1 or 2 other subjects that day (and they normally have 8 subjects) log the field trip as “6 hours”.

“How” to log the hours.
You need to understand what an “hour” is. The word “hour” does not necessarily refer to actual minutes of an hour—but refers to a “complete daily lesson”. For instance, if you were teaching your student in mathematics, you would have a set lesson to teach your child that day. If your child learns and does the work in 3 hours, or in 3 minutes, it makes no difference—the “hour” refers to the completed lesson for that day. You have to get past the idea that you are clocking–in and clocking-out, as if you were on a time card. What if your child does not understand the material and they work for several hours and still do not understand it? Just as in the public school, “hours” are not just determined by whether a child masters a lesson, but is determined beforehand by the instructor. There is a difference between mastering a lesson and completing it. I will explain: you can spend 1 week on a particular lesson in math and that would be “logged” as 5 separate lessons (or hours) even though you were working on 1 lesson in the math book. On the other hand, you might have the opposite situation— your child handily finishes an assignment in 15 minutes, instead of taking 45 minutes to an hour. Can that be logged as “1 hour”? Yes it can. They have successfully completed the assigned lesson for the day. The critical idea is that “hours” refer not only to time spent in a subject, but also material covered. And an “hour” specifically means a predetermined lesson assigned for that day’s work. Who does the predetermining? YOU do.

How much is a lesson?
How do you find out “how much is a lesson”? Here’s a very easy method—look at the textbook you will have your student use. Find the last page of the “text” in the book. Take that number and divide it by 150. The answer will be the number of pages that should be covered each day (the number of pages for each lesson). Since the student should be in class 180 days in a school year (a normal school year), by dividing by 150 you have 30 days to “play with”, days that can be used for field trips, tests, working on papers or project, etc. And then, if your child completes the textbook in less than 180 days—they are done! That’s it. They finished that subject early! Yippeee!

Credit Hours and GPA's.
The High Schools assign “credits” to each subject—normally a subject is worth “1 credit hour” if it last the entire school year. If your child takes a subject for 1 semester only, then that course is assigned “1/2 a credit hour”. The standard used in computing a student’s G.P.A. (Grade Point Average) is usually a 4.0 for an A; 3.0 for a B; 2.0 for a C; 1.0 for a D; and 0 for an F. Advanced Placement courses, honor courses, and all college level courses are often given 1 additional point since the material is more difficult: in other words, for a dual enrolled student, they would receive a 5.0 for an A in that college level course; 4.0 for a B in the course; 3.0 for a C.

I have discussed credits in a previous post so I won’t go into too much detail about that. YOU as the parent/teacher determine what the credit is for the class, not the public school system (at least in Texas). Even though my own son used one book for grammar, one for vocabulary and one for writing, I only gave him one credit for English. I could have given him a credit (or ½ credits) for each subject but to me they were all related to English. My son spent two years doing World History, but I only gave him credit for one year. Normally World History is covered in one year in public schools but then again, they don’t cover everything in the book whereas we did. To me it all depends on how in-depth the subject is as to how much “credit” I give.

Transcripts and college

A friend of mine and I were discussing whether or not colleges require you to have a high school transcript. I told her that one was not required and she said that it was. So I decided to do some research on this subject. I have come to the conclusion that while there are some colleges that do require a transcript, most colleges now are not requiring them of homeschoolers. I think the reason is because some homeschoolers do not follow a strict course schedule and/or grading system. Take for instance unschoolers. They allow their children to choose their own way of learning. People that use unit studies also do not have a grading system because usually the "course" covers several different subjects/topics inter-mingled together. There are some that use an eclectic approach like me. Even though we use text books for most of our core subjects, only one of the books actually has a grading system for their tests. I suppose I could count the number of problems, add up the number of correct answers and divide...blah, blah, blah. That's just too much trouble! Besides, when I do grade an assignment or test, we always go over the incorrect problem and correct it. So, should I grade the assignment or test before we do corrections or after? To me it is more important to correct the problems and grade on that than it is to grade before hand and not do any corrections. The one issue I had with public schools is the grading system. They correct the assignments or tests, pass them back to the child and never go over and correct the problems. What are the kids learning from this? Absolutely nothing, except humiliation. The humiliation of knowing that they did poorly on the assignment or test and now all your classmates know how bad you did too. I would rather my child know the correct answer than how many they got wrong and not know the answer.

So back to transcripts. On the transcripts that I have found, they all require a grade for the course taken and any credits given. Hmmmm, I homeschool, therefore I am the one awarding the grades and credits. If my child did not understand the subject well enough to "pass", then I am not going to continue on to the next subject. I am going to work with my child until they do understand the subject. Eventually my child will earn the credit they need in that subject. To me if my child understands what they have learned, then they deserve an "A", which in turn means that they now have a 4.0 G.P.A. I would put this "grade" on the transcript because that is what they want. As you can tell, I don't like grades. I think they are distracting because then the child is only trying to get an "A" instead of trying to learn the subject. Anyone remember those "A" and "A & B" honor rolls the public schools love to post?

When I mentioned to my friend my feelings on grades, she was pretty much aghast that I don't "grade" my childs papers. She wants actual scores to use and not what I call "made up" scores. Her approach to homeschooling and school work are quite different than mine, but that's her choice. (Ah, the joys of homeschooling)

In doing some research on transcripts I came across this: "The documentation allows admission officers to rank students with other applicants and determine if a student is capable of doing well at their school." (see Cafi Cohen's article entitled "And What About College?" below) and “[Transcripts are] irrelevant because a transcript is basically a comparison to other students in the school.” Since my child is the only student I have, how then can this documentation compare them to another student and even rank them since these other students didn't use the same curriculum I did?

Then at the Texas Home School Coalition (THSC) website, I came across this: Testing - Colleges rely more on tests than transcripts for home schoolers. Find out which test(s) and what scores are required for admission to the colleges or universities your student is interested in attending. The school he eventually attends might be determined by his test scores. The site lists some of the tests that colleges might request - THEA, GED, PSAT, SAT, and ACT, the same tests that public school kids take.

On the Home School Texas site I found this:

A common question parents ask when considering homeschooling is, "Can homeschoolers go to college?" The answer is a resounding "Yes".

If your son or daughter is considering a specific college, contact the college and ask them what their enrollment requirements are for homeschoolers. Although each college independently establishes it entrance requirements, at a minimum those requirements will normally include a review of the following:

1) SAT or ACT scores
2) Possibly review work you done during your home schooling and
3) Discuss your involvement in community activities.

Trinity Christian College had this note on their website - * Home schooled students may substitute an academic portfolio plus verification that the home school program has been completed. If the student has been part of an association that issues transcripts, a transcript should be sent.

In my research I found many other colleges that had similar policies for homeschoolers. It is mostly up to the college whether or not they require you to have an "official" transcript. If that is so, then by all means you should make one.

When my daughter was trying to enlist in the Air Force, I made a transcript for her. I did not send off for the "official" transcript from the public school that she attended. All I did was go to the schools website and copy the course information from their listings. That is what I did for the courses she took while homeschooling. I did not put a grade on the transcript although I could have if I wanted to. I could go into more detail on how the military handles homeschoolers, but that's another blog. I did put on there whether she passed or failed (of course she passed the homeschool classes but she also passed her public school classes too).

When it comes time for my son to enter college, I will probably make out a transcript. Whether it will have grades is another story. If the college he chooses to go to requires grades, then I will put a grade down for each subject. In the end he will get an "A" in the subject because he will know the material he has been studying well enough to warrant an "A" grade. I'm not going to give him an "F" and go on to something else. I'll leave the "let's promote them to the next grade level even though they don't know the work" attitude to the public schools. As for me and my child, he'll end up with a 4.0 G.P.A. in my book.

Just as our children have their own learning styles, we as parents have our own teaching and record keeping styles. I hope that this will clear up some of the confusion associated with transcripts. Just check with the college that your child is going to attend and find out their requirements, then go from there.

Meanwhile, I'll think about the grade thing and get back to you.

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I have listed a few more links about transcripts, portfolios and what some of the other colleges I found require.

Waycross College - Scroll down the page to "Homeschool Admission" for info on their policies.

Univ. of Washington - Info for homeschooled applicants.

Trinity Lutheran College states: "When applying to Trinity, we require an application, character reference, transcripts, and SAT/ACT scores for admission. Students should submit any parent-made transcripts as well as any transcripts from distance learning and/or online high schools. If such transcripts are not available, a portfolio of high school completion should be submitted."

Pacific Northwest College of Art had this to say on their website: "Students who have completed their secondary (high school) education by home schooling must demonstrate the federal standard of Ability to Benefit. Along with the home school transcript, home schooled students must submit a diploma recognized by their local school district or an official copy of the GED. Students must also include a letter explaining why the family chose to home school." They also have homeschool students fill out this document: - Home Schooled Requirements

Mary Baldwin College has a Homeschool Transcript Form for students/parents to fill out.

The Wall Street Journal has a very good article listed in their Classroom Edition called "Remaking the Grade - Colleges Devise Formulas to Interpret Applicants' High-School GPAs"

At Homeschoolers.com there was this article "Homeschoolers, Colleges Want You!" that will answer some of the questions about college.

At Houghton College I found this Homeschool Curricular Template which you may find useful in preparing your records for college admission officers. It's a different approach to the traditional transcript but it is very informative.

Another option I have seen is a portfolio. From what I have seen, a portfolio is more or less a collection of work that your child has done but can include just about anything of importance to your child's schooling. The Oklahoma Homeschool website has loads of information on homeschooling to begin with but they did have this example of what should go into a portfolio.

And finally, I am including a link to an excerpt from Cafi Cohen's article entitled "And What About College?" Chap 5: Recordkeeping & Transcripts-Transcripts vs. Portfolios.