Common Core And Homeschooling

Many schools are experiencing the implementation of Common Core. Parents are finding out that the regulations that determine how the child will be educated might be more involved than they might have thought.

Homeschooling parents have considered themselves immune to the effects and regulations of Common Core because, after all, they are educating their children at home. But is it realistic to believe that homeschoolers can avoid the broad umbrella of Common Core?

There are a number of ways that Common Core may affect homeschoolers, both directly and indirectly. The following information is by no means exhaustive.

Data Collection

Currently homeschool students seem to be off the radar in many states. By right and by choice homeschooling families tend to want to keep their students out of the system. However, one of the components of Common Core is that it allows for a database of student information which begins in kindergarten and continues through the student’s entry into the workforce.

In states where students are not required to register in any way to homeschool the amount of data collected on that student will be minimal. However, for states that seek more control over their homeschoolers, those homeschoolers will be providing information for that database. While it may not seem like much, this database is accessible by outside sources which might not need to access student’s names and other personal information.

Standardized Testing

Homeschooling students in many states are not required to submit to standardized testing. In a number of states homeschool students who are not associated with church schools are required to participate in state testing. Homeschool students who are required to participate in state testing will have a fundamental freedom removed from them. Because they will be tested according to state standards, which are aligned with Common Core Standards, homeschool students will have to study homeschooling curriculum that will prepare them for those tests.

This removes the freedom to choose certain curricula. Homeschoolers pride themselves on their ability to choose the curriculum that is best suited for their student’s learning style and also their philosophical reasons for homechooling. By having to study curricula that are aligned with Common Core the homeschoolers are being forced to participate in a system that many of them oppose.

And College Entrance Exams

At a point in the foreseeable future college entrance exams will be rewritten and adapted to fit the curriculum that is being taught in public schools. The curriculum in public schools across the country will be aligned to Common Core Standards. Part of the reason Common Core is being enacted is to make the curriculum all across the country standard. Because of this, it makes perfect sense for the college entrance exams to reflect this.

Just as with standardized testing in elementary school, middle school, and high school, college entrance exam requirements will, by default, require that homeschoolers conform to learning the body of knowledge that will allow them to do best on these exams. If they choose to study homeschool curricula that do not currently conform to the Common Core Standards, or do not adapt to align with those standards they will be penalized for this lack of conformity by potentially lower test scores.

Finally, from the standpoint of someone who does not mind data being collected on their children, and consequently their families, and who does not mind that curriculum choices are being made for their children without their input or their control, it might seem odd that anyone would object to the implementation of Common Core standards and requirements across the country. However, there is a whole group of people, generally homeschoolers, who do not believe that the state or the federal government have the right to control how their children are educated. Neither the state nor the federal government should have the right or ability to collect, store, and disseminate information on the student or family. Common Core might seem like a step toward Big Brother and away from the freedoms that they enjoy as homeschoolers