Home-Schooling, with a Little Help from the System

Brought to you by The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

By Leslie Dahm

The coordinator of the Des Moines Schools Home Instruction Program describes how her district helps parents who choose to home-school!

A Cooperative Experience
The Des Moines Public School System was one of the first in the United States to offer a cooperative home-school experience for parents who choose to teach their children at home. Our Home Instruction Program, which began in 1984 with 15 students, now serves 310 students from 165 families, out of a total district enrollment of some 30,000 students. This is in line with the U.S. Department of Education's estimate that about 1 percent of the school-aged population is home-schooled. Home-school groups estimate the figure as high as 4-5 percent.

When parents enroll their child in our Home Instruction Program, they have several choices to make: the curriculum they will follow, the type of assistance they would like from teachers, a method of evaluation, and whether their child will attend the neighborhood school part-time (dual enrollment). The teacher will meet with the family once every two weeks, either at home or at an alternative location, if the parents prefer. Our district assigns eight full-time teachers and one full-time coordinator to the program, each teacher working with a maximum of 20 families or 40 students. The only fee we charge is the $7.50 textbook rental fee that all district students pay.

Support, Not Control
When parents enroll in the Home Instruction Program, we develop a nine-month educational plan that outlines the course of studies, the time to be spent in each subject, and the texts and publishers they may use. While this plan may be modified at any time, it becomes a road map that both parents and teachers can use to track progress throughout the year. If parents choose to use the Des Moines school curriculum, we give them the same textbooks and teacher's guides that students use in the classrooms. Parents are free to omit any material that they feel conflicts with their beliefs or values.

In addition to regularly scheduled visits, program teachers plan a variety of group activities--gym times, drama groups, field trips, and outside recreation--to give students opportunities to work with and socialize with their peers. Older students have dissected frogs, gone skiing, and built electric lamps together. Parents often request such traditional school activities as having yearbook pictures taken. For families without home computers, we offer to arrange sessions on school computers to expose the children to technology. Many students in our dual-enrollment program take music or band lessons at their neighborhood school. Some attend classes in their favorite subject for one or two hours a day. They may also participate in extracurricular activities and play on sports teams.

Assessment Choices
To help home-schoolers meet our district educational requirements and comply with state law, we offer a choice of three evaluation methods: (1) the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, which is administered each April and results in a standardized test score; (2) the teacher's assessment of progress based on a portfolio that the student compiles throughout the year in each subject; or (3) the most popular choice, the teacher's verification of progress through a combination of methods--informal evaluations, direct instruction, reviews of work, reports, and projects.

In the third--and most subjective--approach, the teacher observes firsthand what instruction has taken place during the regularly scheduled visits. The students love to share art projects, science experiments, math papers, bulletin boards they have created, or food they made from the country they just studied. The students derive positive reinforcement, and the parents get immediate feedback from the teacher.

Occasionally students do not make adequate progress at home. In those cases, the teachers work with the families to determine what to change in the educational plan. When a home-school situation is not working, the parents are usually the first to voice concerns. Teachers make certain that these parents know that they have access to all options that are open to students in regular classes and that special services or classes, evaluations, and staffing can be arranged. Students can attend special education classes at their neighborhood schools part-time.

Leslie Dahm is Coordinator, Home Instruction, Des Moines Schools Home Instruction Program, Samuelson School, 3929 Bel-Aire Rd., Des Moines, IA 50310

This is an excerpt from an article that was first printed in the October 1996 issue of Educational Leadership. It is also featured reading in the ASCD PD Online course, Parents as Partners in Schooling.

More on: Making the Decision to Homeschool