Introduction
According to Isenberg (2007), presently in the United States the overall number of children who are homeschooled is slightly over one million. This number represents quite an impressive fete considering the fact that it exceeds 2 percent of the total number of school going kids and is equal to the total number of students in both voucher and charter schools combined. Narrowing down these statistics indicates that there is approximately one child who is homeschooled for every five children registered in private schools (Isenberg, 2007). Nonetheless, despite the immense size of homeschooled children, there is little to no data on homeschooling, which has led to an impairment in comprehending even the most basic questions regarding this phenomenon. Questions such as precise estimates on the number of homeschooling children; why families choose homeschooling; and how these families combine the prospect of homeschooling with conventional schools. Part of the data constraint in understanding homeschooling stems from political history, which impedes data collection at the state level. Presently, the most useful data for the understanding of pertinent questions in homeschooling has its derivatives from phone surveys, predominantly through the National Household Education survey (NHES) (Isenberg, 2007). As more researchers delve deeper into the comprehension of homeschooling, the NHES dataset combined with others displays shared glimpses into the answer for these questions of numbers, reasons, and the strategies parents use for homeschooling. This paper presents an action research project on homeschooling as it relates to the school laws of Pennsylvania; moreover, it presents a present pertinent problem that needs efficient tackling in order to deter future challenges in home schooling.
Prior to delving into problem identification, the understanding of homeschool data remains imperative. Over time, researchers have concluded that the major impediment on homeschooling research progress remains the lack of proper administrative data (Isenberg, 2007). Correspondingly, the somewhat meager voucher programs within the United States continue to receive scrutiny. In addition, while there is extensive research being done on the effect of schooling children in private institutions few research is being committed on homeschooling. To exacerbate this issue further, panel data such as the High School and Beyond, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, or the National Education Longitudinal Study are all dedicated to conventional schooling. This situation has led to the prevalence of school administrative data, which is presently available to the public, precluding studies designated on homeschooling, since by proper characterization; the population in question is not present within the data set. Similarly also, most panel data sets impede their use in the study of homeschooling since they already apply to private schooling. While this is the case, recent data sets such as the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the National Longitudinal Survey of Youths in 1997, and the Child development Supplement data indicate and include questions related to homeschooling; nonetheless, their sample size remains minute, thereby, resulting in a miniature subset that cannot be relied upon while studying the phenomenon of homeschooling. Notwithstanding this, two applicable sources exist, which are the state administrative data sets that enumerate the numbers of homeschooled children and the national cross-sectional surveys, principally, the NHES (Isenberg, 2007).
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Problem Identification
The legislature of Pennsylvania passed a law deeming it legal for parents to homeschool their kids within the commonwealth in 1988. Before the passing of this legislation, among American states, Pennsylvania was once the most belligerent states in a propensity of prosecuting parents for the then crime of truancy, it they were found guilty of failing to register their children and were in the process of homeschooling their children without proper authority and decrees. However, all these changed with Act 169 of 1988, which encompassed the Pennsylvania home school law, and was an inherent extension of the obligatory provision of education under the School Code. This school code also governs both public and private schools under its provisions. More amendments were made on the original version of the law to on October 31, 2014 making them known as the Act 196 of 2014, with its own statutory identity. Following these two laws, the most significant meaning they had was that the presence of these statutes gave parents and legal guardians the mandate and right of educating the child under their custody while at home. Fundamentally, this meant that a parent or a legal guardian does not need the school’s approval or permission in order for them to school their children at home. As such according to homeschool law, if a parent or guardian was a holder of a diploma in high school or its equivalent, then they are qualified to homeschool their children.
According to the aforementioned law, parents and guardians do not require a teaching certificate or other post-secondary educational degrees. To make matters even more interesting, they are not required to produce their high school diplomas, making a statement of an affidavit that they earned their diploma sufficient. However, in the process of homeschooling, one vital rule requires strict observance, which is the fact that no adult living at the address of your home education program should be an individual convicted of criminal offenses well stipulated under subsection (e) of section 111 of the code pertaining to schools (Phillips, 2014). Moreover, the code goes further to state that prior to the presentation of the affidavit, a total of five years should have elapsed since the release of the said convict. Likewise, persons are not given official clearances if the applicant or an adult living within the house has undergone conviction of the following charges: aggravated assault, stalking, kidnapping, rape, indecent assault, indecent exposure, prostitution and related offenses, possession of obscene sexual materials, among others. Such circumstances within home settings prohibit certain individuals from homeschooling. In light of these prerequisites, the problem of homeschooling in Pennsylvania remains to be the fact that these homeschooling organizations do not have legally bindings to report to school districts where students reside. Failure to offer ample reports results in pertinent issues such as the child’s sociological development and their involvement in co-curricular activities such as athletics among others.
Creation of Learning Outcomes
According to Pennsylvania School Code, predominantly those pertaining to homeschooling, the preparation of a list of objectives remain paramount since they require proper filing with an affidavit that is properly notarized. The initial step in the creation of learning outcomes remains the determination of roles. The use of specific languages to talk about homeschooling remains paramount. The term homeschooling alludes to the location where kids receive formal education, or where recognized education takes place, while the phrase home education refers to and specifically specifies that the education is delivered and directed exclusively by the caregivers of the child rather than being offered by professional teachers (Susan & Richman, 2017). Parents who choose to homeschool their children can either direct their child’s education themselves, or hire a professional teacher to do the same. While directing a child’s education may seem an easy task, numerous responsibilities are involved in their overall educational development, which are the establishment of learning goals; the selection of instructional methods and resources; the determination of learning activities; the evaluation of student progress and the delivery of lessons. All these objectives lead to the creation of learning outcomes that are worthwhile and applicable to the overall development of a child’s educational requirements. In homeschooling, teacher-directed education still requires the input and involvement of parents, therefore, teachers often accord pertinent choices to parents in relation to resources, activities and evaluation. In this scenario, the teacher retains key responsibility for the student’s learning choices.
Overall, learning outcomes vary with divergent levels of education. In elementary school subjects required include English; arithmetic; science; geography; history of Pennsylvania and the United States; civics; safety education; health and physiology; music; and art. In English, there is a requirement for homeschooled kids to learn reading, spelling, and writing. In safety education subsets such as water safety and fire safety, including a regular and continuous instruction to these dangers are stated as essential in the development of learning outcomes. It is also important to note that the law does not properly accord ample definition of co-curricular activities such as the inclusion of physical games as well as indoor ones. At a secondary level, Pennsylvania law requires homeschool educators to learn English; science; social studies; geography; mathematics; health; physical education; art and music; and safety education. Here, in social studies learning outcomes have to reflect innate understanding of civics, world history, the history of the United States, and Pennsylvania history. In mathematics, according to homeschool law secondary school level students require a comprehension of general mathematics, geometry, and algebra. In safety education, the inclusion of continuous and regular instructional procedures should be on the learning objectives. While the law requires one subject to be covered yearly in each respective grade level, the stipulation that they should be covered at least once for each grade level appears seemingly minimal. Moreover, the law does not state a penalty for not covering all the subjects each year. This makes it perfectly legal to assume particular co-curricular activities such as physical education.
At the sole discretion of supervisors, home education programs and courses may willingly include significant topics such as economics; chemistry; foreign languages; biology; calculus; advanced trigonometry provided they are age-appropriate and correspond to the abilities of the child being tutored. The notations of such stipulations are present in chapter five of the State board of Education, which comprehensively demarcates curriculum requirements for proper homeschooling. Therefore, depending on the supervisor assigned to students, the types of learning objectives are designed. Although the law does not fully require the inclusion of all subjects yearly, the noting of one objective per subject leads to an inevitable exhaustion of learning outcomes (Phillips, 2014).
Background Research
From role determination, comes the noting down of general objectives required in the action research. According to Pennsylvania law, there is a requirement of a list of objectives needed for the notoriety of an affidavit. Moreover, there is a need for the preparation of these documents before the presentation of an affidavit. In addition, these documents need to be straightforward and simple (Alberta Distance Learning Center, 2015). According to the law, the preparations of pertinent objectives require an outline of proposed objectives by areas of subject study. This preparation remains to be the fundamental process of creating learning outcomes. After role identification, homeschool educators, be it parents or legal guardians, or appointed professional teachers, the first step in objective preparation is the listing of pertinent objectives in a way that it is not rejected by the school district. While this is the case, this list of objectives does not require approval by school personnel. The second requirement by the law is that the list of objectives may not be employed into use by the superintendent in the determination of whether the stipulated home education program is out of acquiescence with the law. While a list of objectives is certainly required by law, the meddling of objective purposes by authorities or the school in a determination of their applicability and relevance is not merited. Therein lies a clear and concise support to the problem statement since the homeschooling entity does not have a legal binding to report to the school district where the student resides. However, even though such a situation transpires the law requires these objectives and they have to match germane school requirements for each educational level.
While the aforementioned caveats practically render objectives legally useless, the law stipulates and requires them as a basic planning tool for the setting of applicable objectives before the start of each academic year. Therefore, in the development and implementation of learning outcomes, it remains the sole responsibility of parents or guardians to provide necessary general or detailed objective lists (Alberta Distance Learning Center, 2015). As such, most legal entities advice against the inclusion of general information such as specific textual materials, detailed lesson plans, the provision of grade levels since the home school law does not require these details further indicating the laxity in the provision of pertinent and applicable study fields. In the event of homeschooling one child, home education scholars advocate for the attachment of only one form of every child in the elementary level, which ranges from grade one to six, and one for children who have attained a secondary level. In Pennsylvania, most school districts advocate for this method. A look at the law stipulates the non-inclusion of duplicated documents since the preparation of one document for each child is enough and the fact remains that one affidavit can efficiently list all children within a home education program ("Pennsylvania Homeschooling Laws - Home School Legal in PA | A2Z Homeschooling", 2017). Through various research and experiences, this method of listing remains appropriate especially while the objectives lists are kept general.
A look at section (d) (1-5) indicates minimum courses required in grades 9-12 for the graduation of students ("Pennsylvania Homeschooling Laws - Home School Legal in PA | A2Z Homeschooling", 2017). Within this section, home education programs require four years of English, three years of mathematics, three years of science, two years of humanities and arts, and three of social studies for proper completion. Further, the law states that the fulfillment of the provisions of this act results in the award of a high school diploma through a supervisor or an approved organization that grants diplomas. Moreover, the law states that this certification has the consideration of having the privileges and rights afforded by a Commonwealth agency including but not limited to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, an agency within local state, and an instrumentality or authority of the Commonwealth, including its political subdivision. Through such stipulations, it remains abundantly clear that co-curricular activities are non-inclusive of the fundamental learning outcomes of homes-based schooling.
In the case of special students, except those classified as talented and/or gifted, pursuant to the absolute provision of the edification of the Handicapped Act, special plans, and services have to be set by the school. Moreover, the stated educational objectives attached to an affidavit require approval in writing by a certified special education teacher, a school psychologist, or a licensed psychologist. Moreover, the approval letter requires a notarized affidavit. According to Pennsylvania law, this requirement is the only one needed by special needs students. On the other hand, the evaluator selected does not have to possess a certification in special education, making all legally qualified educators certified to conduct evaluations for special needs children. After the stipulation of learning outcomes, the design of the affidavit comes next. This written statement having been confirmed under an oath or an affirmation in the presence of a notary remains integral. The affidavit presents a major confirmation and a validity of the problem statement mentioned above. In it are various elements such as the supervisor’s name with a statement that he or she earned a high school diploma or its equivalent; the child’s age and participants of the home schooling program; the address and phone numbers; statements stipulating subjects offered; medical statements; and statements regarding the absence of criminal convictions. Therefore, the affidavit does not explicitly state the inclusion of co-curricular activities, indicating the fact that homeschooling organizations are not required to offer them.
Specific Data Collection Resources
In the research of Pennsylvania, secondary resource data remains crucial to the proper understanding of school code policies and their impact on the overall educational purposes of students. In understanding Pennsylvania law, two legal encyclopedias are crucial and pertinent. The encyclopedia with the broadest scope in comprehending the law of Pennsylvania is the Pennsylvania Legal Encyclopedia primarily published by West Publishing Company with a second edition presently issued by the Lexis Law publishing firm ("Pennsylvania Research: Secondary Sources | PittLaw", 2017). The use of this encyclopedia tool enables the arrangement of subject matters into various topics of interest, which are further broken down into section numbers. While this resource as a data collection point is highly significant, the PLE tends to have a bearing of oversimplifying issues in order to avoid the enactment of administrative law. Nonetheless, for problems of a statutory nature, common law issues continue to pervade homeschooling laws. In understanding the Pennsylvania law, eight Pennsylvania law schools produce a variety of publications. These eight periodicals all produce an all-purpose review of the law each dealing with a number of topics in Pennsylvania law. In the action research, pertinent databases will originate from the Duquesne law review, the University of Pennsylvania journal of constitutional law, and the University of Pennsylvania journal of law and social change. Moreover, pertinent understanding will originate from various book sources.
Action Plan
The primary goal of the action plan remains the improvement of the quality of instruction. Therefore, the initial step in the action plan will entail the proper evaluation and assessment of pertinent data, which has been presented in order to reach a determination of whether the conduction of this research problem is worthwhile. As such, the action plan will develop a true comprehension of the need for pertinent improvement in the research scope. The action plan will entail proper cross-examination studies of relevant laws, which pertain to homeschooling in Pennsylvania. While the relevant data does not stipulate a compulsory inclusion of extracurricular activities, which may bring about other issues in child welfare, the inherent question remains whether the unavailability of such data remains to be an issue of the lack of understanding or the incompetency of proficiency among researchers. The second step in the action plan is the development of an understanding of the need of conducting and completing this project. The development of this understanding remains an action plan needed for the fixing of identified needs. The third action plan entails a reflection of the learning experiences of this project in a determination if it will indeed become a successful project. While such reflections remain a process that will be conducted throughout the entire project, its delineation in this action plan stage remains imperative as it accords necessary direction in the overall project.
Conclusion
While this action research project handles the problem of homeschooling organizations in their design and creation of learning outcomes and their inclusion in legislative processes, pertinent concerns arise in the inclusion of co-curricular activities. This non-inclusion results in novel legislations due to pressing issues relating to child welfare. This research stipulates the fact this non-inclusion affects the sociological, mental, and physical development of children; therefore, it should be a present concern in the development of applicable homeschooling learning outcomes.
References
Alberta Distance Learning Center. (2015). Homeschooling in Alberta: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Started . Alberta, CA.
Isenberg, E. (2007). What Have We Learned About Homeschooling?. Peabody Journal Of Education , 82 (2-3), 387-409. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01619560701312996
Pennsylvania Homeschooling Laws - Home School Legal in PA | A2Z Homeschooling . (2017). A2zhomeschooling.com . Retrieved 6 December 2017, from https://a2zhomeschooling.com/laws/united_states/pennsylvania_home_school_laws/
Pennsylvania Research: Secondary Sources | PittLaw . (2017). Law.pitt.edu . Retrieved 6 December 2017, from http://law.pitt.edu/pennsylvania-research-secondary-sources
Phillips, E. (2014). Homeschooling in Pennsylvania .
Susan, H., & Richman. (2017). How the Law Came to Be . Kittanning, PA: PA Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency.
