Lennie Jarratt
Latest posts by Lennie Jarratt (see all)
There has been a downward trend in average SAT scores since 1972. Homeschool students, however, currently score higher than traditional school students and, in fact, have higher scores than the 1972 average of all students. Homeschool students’ average 2014 SAT scores are 70 points higher in Critical Reading, 8 points higher in Mathematics, and 48 points higher in Writing than the average scores of all students.
The College Board has fully aligned SAT to Common Core State Standards in an apparent attempt to boost test scores. Teachers in traditional schools will be teaching to the test instead of educating students and preparing them for college. Instead of dumbing down the tests, schools and testing companies should be following the lead of homeschool students who continue to excel.
Stories included in this edition are from School Reform News, School Choice Weekly, Somewhat Reasonable, and several other sources.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Homeschool News
- Homeschooled student Ashlynne Perkins was denied admission to the Ohio Business College because her homeschool was not accredited. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) stepped in to help.
- Why a free society depends on parents’ ability to decide what their children will learn.
- Video Contest: How Is the Federal Government Affecting Your Child’s Education?
- All parents should declare their education independence as homeschool parents have.
Common Core News
- The Gates Foundation acknowledges Common Core shortcomings.
- Common Core does not prepare students for college according to a new report from ACT.
- In Michigan, the country’s strongest Common Core repeal bill has been altered to remove a provision that would resist federal control of education, among other things.
- In Massachusetts, a referendum that would have repealed Common Core will not appear on November’s ballot because of a legal technicality, the state’s high court has ruled.
- Common Core has increased students’ math anxiety and has frustrated parents’ efforts to help their children learn, finds a new survey of teachers.
Curriculum News
- Meet the CLT, a test wholly unlike SAT or Common Core.
- Children who studied music for two years at ages six and seven had improved brain functions over two control groups, finds a new five-year study.
- In just five years, 25 states dropped federally funded Common Core tests, notes a new paper that chronicles the tests’ political difficulties.
Podcast
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