School choice gains favor

By Tanner Kent
The Free Press

August 31, 2008 11:53 pm

— Chris Oldenburg felt alone when she first made the decision to homeschool.
After a preschool screening determined that young Alex had already developed skills that surpassed kindergarten level, Oldenburg felt she needed to re-evaluate her role in the family. She had assumed that she would be a typical working mother — outside the home. But Oldenburg couldn’t shake the notion that her job had now moved inside the home.
But when she first tested the waters of home schooling, there was no support. Other homeschool families were isolated. There was no network and no one to guide the process.
“I felt like I was thrown in the ocean with no life vest,” said the mother and teacher of four home-schooled children. “I really felt on my own.”
Oldenburg put ads in local newspapers to try and generate interest for an organized group of home-schoolers. The first meeting attracted six families.
But now, more than 80 families have joined the network — called Mankato Area Home Educators. Oldenburg said group members have been able to share resources and textbooks as well as exchange lesson plans and teaching tips. With strength in numbers, Oldenburg said it’s been easier to plan field trips and social activities. Home schooled children in the network even get together for Christmas musicals and theater productions.
“Now, we have so many activities,” Oldenburg said. “Parents can even be choosy a little bit.”
One size won’t fit all
Statewide, the network is growing as well.
In 2004-05, the Minnesota Department of Education calculated that 17,135 students were home-schooled. As the 2008-09 school year is set to begin, that number is more than 18,000. Similarly, charter school enrollment has nearly tripled from 2001-02 with more than 24,000 students slated to attend class this year in charter school classrooms. Online academies, the newest of which is Brooklyn Center-based iQ Academy, are also reporting growing enrollments.
Don Johannsen, lead advisor at Mankato’s RiverBend Academy, said the traditional classroom method doesn’t work for all students and all families. He said the growing movement toward nontraditional school choices — especially at schools like RiverBend which specialize in alternative learning — underscores the real need to leave no child behind.
“Our students here run the gamut,” Johannsen said. “We take kids where they are at and try to move them on from that point.”
RiverBend’s curriculum is considered project-based. Serving about 100 students in grades 6-12, Johannsen said there are very few “structured, sit-down classes.” Instead, students complete a handful of multi-media projects each year including a senior project, which is a 300-hour behemoth that determines graduation.
Johannsen said RiverBend, which has no tuition and is still taking enrollments, has seen steadily rising enrollments since its inception.
“We measure success one student at a time,” Johannsen said. “We help our students graduate no matter what the circumstances.”
Flexibility helps
Julie Hiniker has tried school both ways. Mother of 12, Hiniker is currently home schooling seven of her children, spread out between preschool and 11th grade. But Hiniker has also had one son graduate from a public school and another from RiverBend Academy.
Home schooling, however, has given her the greatest freedom both as mother and teacher. Her kids participate in a full range of activities, from piano and guitar to Boy Scouts and sports. She said the flexibility of teaching at home allows for lessons and events to be scheduled during the day and actually makes her life less hectic than those who must coordinate all outside activities after the school day.
“If someone is sick, we can declare a sick day and it will still be educational,” Hiniker said. “We can do school at 8 in the morning, 8 at night and even during the summer.”
With online academies, the learning is also done at home. But certified teachers are available to check on homework, advise students academically and provide resources. Most online academies offer stipends for Internet access and 24-hour support availability to fit all lifestyles — a far cry from Hiniker’s early morning support sessions.
“There’s another home school mom that I talk with a lot,” she said. “But we have to talk at 5:30 in the morning because I’ve got my kids and she’s got nine of her own. We talk about everything from being behind on laundry to coming up with lesson plans.”
No escaping standards
At the end of the day, however, almost all students are held to the same standards. Charter schools are held to the same No Child Left Behind stipulations as public schools while home-schoolers are also required to be evaluated by some form of standardized test.
In Mankato, where more than 100 students are home-schooled, the school district works closely with families to develop a plan for testing. Home school teachers are required to report school attendance for every child 16 years old and younger and must submit report cards if they do not have a teaching certification.
And while legislative attempts to curb school choice flare up every so often — usually in the form of proposals to tighten home school regulations — Hiniker said the ability to choose the best educational approach for your own family isn’t going anywhere.
“It’s about keeping the freedom for parents to educate their children any way they want,” Hiniker said.

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