# How is Home Schooling monitored and evaluated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 18, 2018, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926 "2018-01-18T22:25:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/61 "2018-01-22T16:19:44Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Any reason you couldn’t be bothered to cite your claim? Actually, that was cited earlier. _:shrugs:_ **Shodan** ’s Law - if they didn’t read it the first time, they won’t read it the second time either. Anyway, we have moved well into debate, and this is GQ, so I will drop out. Have fun storming the castle! Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/62 "2018-01-22T20:55:34Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > And yet home-schooled students whose parents put forth an organized effort seem to do as well, or better, than those in public education. So apparently there are more than you expect. > > Regards, > Shodan Most people are also ignorant to the fact their are many computer based and online resources for students. Many public schools actually use these also. Not to mention the reality is in many public schools the kids sit in front of computers learning anyways or they watch lots of videos. I think people are also ignorant about just how good some homeschool curriculum is. Their are textbooks, workbooks, interactive computer lessons, and chances to talk online to teachers and other students. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/63 "2018-01-22T21:03:12Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I think people are also ignorant about just how good some homeschool curriculum is. Their are textbooks, workbooks, interactive computer lessons, and chances to talk online to teachers and other students. And all that is required is the desire, the will and the money to use all these resources. Any stats as to what percentage of all home schools have all three? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/64 "2018-01-22T22:09:40Z")
A lot of the best resources are actually free. But you still have to have the desire, and to know that they exist in the first place and how to find them. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/65 "2018-01-22T23:13:48Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > A lot of the best resources are actually free. But you still have to have the desire, and to know that they exist in the first place and how to find them. This is true for high school, in particular math (Khan Academy is awesome), but less true in lower grades. That said, curricula often get swapped, given away, or sold cheap once you’re done with them. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/66 "2018-01-23T09:40:47Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > And all that is required is the desire, the will and the money to use all these resources. > Any stats as to what percentage of all home schools have all three? Dont know. Many are available for free at the public library which I see many homeschooled families using. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/67 "2018-01-23T14:07:18Z")
OK, you got me there, since high school math is what I know best. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/68 "2018-01-23T17:43:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, you got me there, since high school math is what I know best. To be honest, how much more have you ever needed in life? Most math things are basic arithmetic. Yeah, it was nice to learn calculus and geometry. But I’ve never used it. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/69 "2018-01-23T17:58:05Z")
I had the impression the parents in this particular case had, in effect, more or less hidden the children away, so that nobody official knew they were there to be checked on? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/70 "2018-01-23T17:59:26Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > I had the impression the parents in this particular case had, in effect, more or less hidden the children away, so that nobody official knew they were there to be checked on? They officially filed as a home school, so officials knew they were there. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/71 "2018-01-23T18:27:52Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > How long ago was this? According to the link I previously provided Minnesota is listed as a “Low Moderation state”, and (bolding mine) Also, while There is no specific requirement in Minnesota law for how often each of the subjects must be taught or at what grade levels. Four years ago. As far as I know from my research at that time (which included looking at the actual laws and talking to his high school counselor) Minnesota does require that even if you are a parent, you hold a bachelors degree to homeschool your kids. And yeah, they don’t say when or how much of those subjects need to be taught, but we taught what he would have taken in 9th grade, with varying degrees of success. I did want him to graduate from an actual high school. (A foreign language was a disaster, I don’t speak any well enough to even pretend to teach. English, Algebra and Human Geography were really good. He took guitar that year, which counted and was good. He is an active kid, so we logged a ton of PE hours. Science was just OK - it was supposed to be a no math Physics and Engineering thing. And I had him do the UUC sexuality program and counted that as health). To our credit, his 9th grade ACT score was above the national average for high school students taking the ACT. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/72 "2018-01-23T18:30:39Z")
I mean, out of K-12 teaching specialties, high school math is what I know most about the online resources for it. I know more about teaching high school physics, but the most important resources for that can’t be online. And I also know (and use) plenty of college math and physics, but nobody was talking about college in this thread. For instance, just the other day I found myself using this equation: z = (sqrt(2)/8 - sqrt(x_y)_(1-sqrt(x^2+y^2)))_(1+cos(20_atan(y/x))) Do you remember enough of your high school math to make sense of that? And while that equation itself is just algebra and trig, I had to use calculus to derive parts of it. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/73 "2018-01-23T18:39:08Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > What some on this board do not realize is some people really have no choice but to homeschool. Not everyone lives in a good public school district or can afford private schools. Although homeschooling is really a luxury of the middle class. To homeschool in an organized fashion successfully, you need to have a stay at home parent. You need to be able to access resources - I spent a thousand dollars on good textbooks, including - for Math - the teachers edition. If you are going to get your kid past eighth grade, you need some sort of academic grounding yourself. You are going to want to supplement your own abilities - in our case, guitar lessons and a sculpture class (and, had I done it for longer with a kid who was college bound, I would have had to find another way to teach a foreign language) Yeah, you can use the internet, but its really inadequate for MOST kids on its own. We used Khan Academy for Geometry - but I still needed to be able to explain it a second or third way for my son. The internet is not going to grade a composition and tell you if its written at an appropriate level for a college bound high schooler. The parent has to do that - and if you don’t know, you can’t do it. The internet is going to show you a physics experiment, but you really want to get out the pully and ropes and ramps yourself. You really should dissect that fetal pig on your kitchen table. For parents who barely got through high school on their own, who have to have two incomes - or are single parents with one income, homeschooling in any sort of responsible fashion is out of reach past. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/74 "2018-01-23T18:56:21Z")
The Turpins apparently took homeschooling seriously. I wonder if all the Turpin kids got the same quality homeschooling? I wish they had reported how many hours the oldest son completed. Six semesters could mean anything. Depends on whether he carried a full course load. Completing 15 hours a semester with that GPA would be very impressive. He’d be about 40 hours short of graduating. > **[Perris torture case: Eldest son maintained 3.93 GPA at local community college](https://abc7.com/amp/perris-torture-child-abuse-children-shackled-home-captive/2978384/)** > > The eldest son of the couple accused of keeping their 13 kids captive in Perris went to a community college under his mom's watchful eye. > [@](#): > > The eldest son of David and Louise Turpin, the couple accused of shackling and torturing their 13 children in their Perris home, attended a local community college under the watchful eye of his mother, prosecutors say. > > That son was a student at Mt. San Jacinto College for six semesters and maintained a 3.93 grade-point-average, according to a transcript obtained by ABC News. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/75 "2018-01-23T19:16:13Z")
I wonder how much of that “watchful eye of his mother” involved her actually doing the work. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/76 "2018-01-23T21:05:09Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Unschooling is an example of the nuttiness I can’t stand. Sounds similar to my background (although it didn’t have a name and no-one else was doing it); I hated school, and my mom let me stay home and just shoveled books in my direction and let me do whatever. I liked science and math, so I kept up on those by myself, and I successfully resisted almost all of her efforts to make me study literature or history. (She did make me take music lessons.) Mom made me start school every year until 9th grade, but I usually convinced her to let me drop out within a month or two (my record for longest continuous enrollment was 6 months in 9th grade). I never finished a full year of school until college; I took the GED and spent a year at a community college to get a formal record, then transferred to a Famous A-List University. Currently, I have a Ph.D. and work in research science for a (different) Famous A-List University. So we have an n=1 for the “no curriculum” system working. In regards to socialization, I’ve been an antisocial introverted weirdo as far back as I can remember (about 9). I don’t think spending more of my childhood in a schoolroom would have helped… ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/77 "2018-01-24T02:11:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Yeah, the only reason my mom was even considering homeschooling me is that she’s a teacher, and even then, she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up in some subjects. Of course, there are a lot more resources available now than there were then, thanks to the Internet, but not all homeschoolers take advantage of them. I do worry that if someone is taking on a job as important as their children’s future, maybe they should be qualified. While some people might be challenged by Grade 12 math, I would hope anyone expecting to school their children would be able to understand any lesser subject enough to pass it on to others. I wonder what proportion of home-schooling is less about religion and more about avoiding their children falling in with “bad elements” (in the parents’ minds). The main problem is that unless the kids are incredibly bright and motivated - schooling is a full-time job. Modern society has evolved (regressed?) to the point where to enjoy a decent lifestyle - house, cars, modern appliances and amenities, computers, xBox, cellphones - both spouses must work, unless one receives a very good salary. Being able to spend all day at home not making money is a luxury few couples can afford. (Indeed, one of the driving factors of the current low birth rate in the western world is the high cost of factors like child care…) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/78 "2018-01-24T03:32:30Z")
> [@](#): > > In regards to socialization, I’ve been an antisocial introverted weirdo as far back as I can remember (about 9). I don’t think spending more of my childhood in a schoolroom would have helped… I’m an introverted weirdo, too, and I’m in a line of work that’s all about interacting with other people. Socialization isn’t about learning to be an extrovert; it’s about learning how to deal with society even as an introvert. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/79 "2018-01-24T20:37:21Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I wonder what proportion of home-schooling is less about religion and more about avoiding their children falling in with “bad elements” (in the parents’ minds). > ) Actually I know one mother who homeschooled for THIS very reason. Her son was constantly getting in trouble in school because of the influence of the so-called “bad element”. Note - another was she didnt care for the Texas school. Too centered on sports. Very little actual “learning” time when you take out all the time used in the schoolday for assemblies, time between classes, pep rallies, etc… So yes she took him out of school and homeschooled him and the kid did great. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2018, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926/80 "2018-01-24T20:39:51Z")
> [@JR\_Brown](#): > > Sounds similar to my background (although it didn’t have a name and no-one else was doing it); I hated school, and my mom let me stay home and just shoveled books in my direction and let me do whatever. I liked science and math, so I kept up on those by myself, and I successfully resisted almost all of her efforts to make me study literature or history. (She did make me take music lessons.) > > Mom made me start school every year until 9th grade, but I usually convinced her to let me drop out within a month or two (my record for longest continuous enrollment was 6 months in 9th grade). I never finished a full year of school until college; I took the GED and spent a year at a community college to get a formal record, then transferred to a Famous A-List University. > > Currently, I have a Ph.D. and work in research science for a (different) Famous A-List University. So we have an n=1 for the “no curriculum” system working. > > In regards to socialization, I’ve been an antisocial introverted weirdo as far back as I can remember (about 9). I don’t think spending more of my childhood in a schoolroom would have helped… Exactly! I dont know why the hell all kids have to do this stupid “one size fits all” government schooling? I much more favor an umbrella approach where parents could choose from a variety of schools such as public, private, alternate, magnet, or homeschooling. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-home-schooling-monitored-and-evaluated/806926.md?page=5)