. . .1. u. p. . ‘1’ ‘ .2 «WP » is ‘ r. . .n‘ v I . ,3 R)», I ‘7... X.— .. $.47. ‘- 3‘}!!! . t.) s\£ . . 3...»)? H~ .. 23%. um. .i» a: 7 ulflvvwv u“, 9. “man... |.r > f 3.... h, xhhfiflp’bglll 1 ifi'. (0- Fifi)! . r!- PI’. .. t‘ |... L. . v .... 2... . x .|r!o.\l. \ gmv/‘Jdkv' ' mu m UBRAmES ”W“ iiiiifi‘ ii iii iii \‘\ \\i\ ii i W Michigan State 3 12 University This is to certify that the dissertation entitled AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF HOME SCHOOLERS: HOW DO THESE STUDENTS FARE WHEN THEY ENTER OR RETURN TO PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS? presented by ."‘_ LINDA LOU HOOK MYERS I has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Webe— degree inq—Gufi-freuirum Cfim 4. MW Major professor Date November 9k1981 MS U is an Affirmative Action/ Equal Opportunity Institution 9 .2; 3‘ PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record. TO AVOID FINES return on or baton date due. DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE 9A 0 8 1992,";ém 3 » 213 9! ' ‘ MAR 3 0 200 x—k—rr 1.01913 - "' ‘ 7- A r 1 V W LEM MSU Is An Affirmetive Action/Equal Opportunity Institution AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF HOME SCHOOIERS: HOW DO THESE STUDENTS FARE WHEN THEY ENTER OR RETURN TO PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS? BY Linda Lou Hock Myers A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Teacher Education 1989 bo4—iWB ABSTRACT AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF HOME SCHOOLERS: HOW DO THESE STUDENTS FARE WHEN THEY ENTER OR RETURN TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS? BY Linda Lou Hock Myers United States government statistics report that approximately one million children across the country are being home schooled. Are horne- schooled students caning into high schools after their elementary/middle school experience? If they are, how do they fare when they enter or return to public schools? The high schools selected for study were chosen from a Michigan Department of Education listing that showed ten or more reported home schools within the Intermediate District where the polled high schools were located. Schools with pOpulations as small as 238 and as large as 3192 were chosen. One hundred high schools around the state of Michigan were sent questionnaires to obtain data on the phenomenon of entering or re-entering hane schoolers . Data were gathered concerning numbers of students coming into the schools and concerning school policy regarding these students . In addition, specific information about the entering students and their parents was gathered. A seventy-two percent return rate from schools polled was realized. Sixteen hone-schooled students were identified. Only fourteen percent of the school respondents who sent back questionnaires reported that home-schooled students had enrolled in their buildings. One school reported that no home schoolers had enrolled in their building this year; however, they had lost twelve students this year to home schools. The seventy-two schools which returned questionnaires were representative of four different types of ccmnunities: twenty-nine schools served students in rural areas, twenty-three were small city schools, eight served suburban conmunities and twelve schools were located in urban areas. A descriptive profile of the students who came into public schools after being home schooled was developed. From the profile it is clear that the students are all unique in their previous schooling experiences, academic progress, attitude, social adjustment and cocurricular partici- pation. Sixty-one percent of the school personnel surveyed reported that they had not considered using placement tests when determining grade placement for home-schooled students. The thirty-nine percent who did test used the results to measure the student's progress, assist in classification, provide data for remediation/ advancement and determine knowledge of specific concepts. Respondents general 1y demonstrated little awareness regarding home schools and home-schooled students. Many schools had not developed any policy dealing with home-schooled students, nor did they know how they would place these students within their schools if they were to request admittance . ACKNOWIEDGMENTS As I complete the final pages of this dissertation I find.myself reflecting back to the time when I made the decision to begin.work on my doctoral program. The first personal contact I had with Michigan State University was with Dr. Charles Blackman, who later became my graduate advisor and dissertation director. He conveyed to me in our first.meeting that if I truly wanted to earn this degree that I was most capable of doing so, but that it would require hard work, dedication and sacrifice. Over the last six years he has continued to encourage, advise and praise the accomplishments I have made. Another important person involved in the dissertation process of my graduate work.was my secretary and friend, Shirley Bruskotter. She not only typed draft after draft of the document, but provided.me with additional ideas while I was writing. My dissertation committee composed of Dr. Sam.Moore, Dr. Ben Bohnhorst, and Dr. June Youatt.made many helpful suggestions which have improved the quality of the finished product. Finally, had I not been supported by my family, Margaret and Bud Hock, parents, Dick Myers, husband, and Tim, Marcee, Erik and Scott, children, I prObably would have not felt the need to begin this most‘ important educational process. I dedicate this dissertation to the aforementioned people. I. II. III. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . . . Statement of the Problem. Purposes of the Study . Statement of Assumptions. Central Questions . . . Significance. . . . . . Subjects. . . . . . . . Definition of Terms . . Study Methodology . . . Delimitatidns . . . . . Limitations of Research Review of Literature . . . . History . . . . . . . . Status of Home Schools. Legislation that Governs Home Parental Considerations Recent Studies. . . . . Summary . . . . . . . . Methodology. . . .p. . . . . Research Subjects . . . Data Collection Instrument. Distribution of the Questionnaire . . ii Page No. 10 ll 12 l3 l4 16 16 17 19 26 28 31 33 33 34 35 TABLE OF CONTENTS (cont.) Page No. Procedures for Analysis of the Data . . . . . . . 37 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Presentation and Analysis of Data. . . . . . . . . . . 39 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Study Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6O Implications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Recarmendations................. 65 High School Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Intermediate School District Recommendations. . . 67 StateRecanmendations.............. 68 Ehrther Study Recarmendations . . . . . . . . . . 69 Reflections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Appendix A - Letter of Inquiry to Department of Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 Appendix B - Department of Education Response . . . . . 74 Appendix C - 1987-88 Home Schools (reported to the State by ISD's) as of April 8, 1988 . . . . . . . 75 Appendix D - Letter to Administrator. . . . . . . . . . 76 Appendix E - Questionnaire for High School Personnel and Questionnaire about Entering Home Schooled Students. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Appendix F - Listing of Intermediate School Districts . 81 Appendix G - Letter Requesting Permission to Copy Article . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 iii TABLE OF cormmms (cont.) Appendix H - Permission to Reprint Copyright Material Appendix I - Map of Intermediate School Districts Which Participated in Research . . . . . . . . . Appendix J - Board Policy for Students Entering School X After Home Schooling. . . . . . . . . Appendix K - Board Policy Statement for School Y Entering Students from Non-Accredited Schools. . Appendix L — Board Policy for Students Entering School Z (Especially Grades 7—12) After Home Schooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Appendix M - Letter of Exemption from UCRIHS Review . Bibliography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv Page No. 91 92 94 95 96 97 TABLE 1 TABLE 2 TABLE 3 TABLE 4 TABLE 5 TABLE 6 LIST OF TABLES States' Education Laws Response Rate to Questionnaire Response Rate by Classification Schools Which Reported Home Schooled Students Enrolled How Students Scored on an Entry Level Placement Test Profile of Exploratory Study Page No. 24-25 37 4O 49 53 FIGURE 1 FIGURE 2 FIGURE 3 LIST OF FIGURES Students Enrolling from Home Schools in 1988-89 School Year in Different Types of Communities Range of Number of Years of Public Schooling in Male and Female Students Reported in Study Age Span of Male and Female Students Reported in Study vi Page No. 43 44 45 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION As 'movements' go, home schooling is made up of one of the most eclectic, coalescing and extraordinarily diverse groups of individuals all pursuing a single purpose - the education of children outside the traditional schooling structure. The growing ranks of home schoolers span the entire political spectrum, encompassing conservatives and liberals, libertarians and populists. (Moody Monthly, "Before You Dismiss Home Schooling," V01. 84, March, 1984, 18). Many home schoolers are rigidly traditional and scrupulously law- abiding, while others are long-time practitioners of civil disobedience. Some are fervently religious and have removed their children from mainstream schools because they are too secular, while others are non- believers who consider public schools too religious. Still others are compelled to educate their children at home because they live in geographically isolated areas, remote from ordinary schools. What binds this heterogeneous movement together is a deeply held devotion to a single overriding 'principle: that parents have the responsibility - and the right - to direct and control the educational development of their children. But despite the consistency of this View with the principles of liberty on.which this nation.was founded, the right of home schoolers to freely exercise their choice is in serious dispute - giving rise to one of the most compelling civil rights controversies of our time. (Clint Bolick, "The Home Schooling Movement," The Freeman, March 1987, 84.) The public school system in the United States has been envied 2 and copied by many nations. Since the 1960's, however, this public institution seems to have lost some of the attention and respect it previously enjoyed. Major national, regional, and local newspapers and journals are now giving considerable attention to the home school movement as an alternative to the existing educational process. (Moody Monthly, "Before You Dismiss Home Schooling," V01. 84, March, 1984, 18). In the United States there are forty-three million school-age children who are attending either public or private schools (vance Grant and Leo Biden, 1988, Digest of Educational Statistics, washington D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office, 51-61.) Recently parents of approximately one million children have chosen not to send their children to either of these institutions, but to home school them. (John Naisbitt, Megatrends, New York, warner Books, 1982, 20). Many families choose home schooling because they disagree with the political or religious values embedded in the public school program. Some families do so because they are strongly committed to a family~ centered life and extended time with small children. Others believe they know best how to educate a particular child. (Ted ward, Values Begin at Hang Wheaton, Illinois, Victor Books, 1981). A number of parents want to teach their children at home for religious reasons. They see the shaping of a child's character and intellect as one of life's highest callings. These parents realize that they are dealing not with creations of their own, but with creations of God and the centrality and beauty of the child's experience is a focus of family unity. (Mary Pride, The Big Book of Home Learning, westchester, Illinois, Crossway Books, 1987, 58). 3 Some parents home school their children from the beginning. Fifty- three nationally organized home schooling organizations and seven international ones have sprung up to meet their needs. Two of the national organizations are based in Michigan. (John W. Whitehead and Wendell R. Bird, Hane Education and Constitutional Liberties, Crossway Books, 1984, 129). Parental decisions have been felt financially by the public schools. There has been approximately a two billion dollar cut in the educational budget of the nation due to parents pulling their children out of the public school system. This is a calculation based on the average cost per student per year, according to Teeter, of $2,000.00 (Ruskin Teeter, The Opening up of American Education - A.Sampler, New York, University Press of America, 1983, 131). As stated by Teeter, the average public school pupil-teacher ratio is one to nineteen. Calculations based on these figures show that about fifty thousand teachers could be unemployed. From all indications, the home schooling movement appears to be on the increase. In colonial America home schooling was the major form of education. The decision of how to educate one's children and the substance of the curriculum was the right and responsibility of the parents. Since the emergence of the public school system, parents have been, and continue to be, major supporters of the system through the funding of schools and by playing many key roles. They have contributed at all levels except teaching in the classrooms . Parents have tended to accept, with only a rare challenge, what was taught, how it was taughth and the ultimate purpose of the schools. Schools relieved parents of this one major parental responsibility: teaching their children was up to teachers in schools. The issue of home schools is an emotionally charged controversy in our world today. Newspapers and.magazines weekly report success cases 3 Garth Colfax is learning from his parents, fran books in the home library and from the world.around him. That might.make Garth sound educationally deprived, but don't worry too much about his future. His three home schooled brothers, Grant, Drew and Reed, all got into Harvard. Allowing the kids independence and responsibility has produced.some amazing results. Grant 23, may have been the only magna cum laude graduate of his Harvard class who raised his own 4-H Club steer. When Drew was 12 he built his own telescope. When Reed, 18, tries out for next year's freshman cross country team, he may be Harvard's only self-trained runner. (Michael Ryan, "Now They're at Harvard," Detroit Free Press Parade Magazine, July 17, 1988, 20). Mo and Robin Whipple have never learned a difference between learning and fun in their home schooling. Almost everything they do seems to be fun for them. "In home schooling we don't teach them there is a distinction between learning and fun," Lelan Whipple, father, said. Unless the state forces them to give up home schooling, the Whipples plan to continue teaching their children at least until they reach high school. (Hugh Leach, "Whipples Have Fun Learning," Lansing State Journal Perspective, November 16, 1986 Section D, l). ' Having two school age children didn't stop the Powell family from spending a year in Europe. With a year off from their regular jobs, Richard and.Mary Powell became full time tutors for their two children. They pursued ambitious highly structured curricula provided by the Calvert School in Baltimore, whose teachers evaluated the kids' work as part of the school's home study program. By the time they returned to the United States the children had made so much progress that their private school in Charleston, South Carolina found no need to test them for entry into the next grade. (Nancy Henderson, "Home Schooling, " Changing Times, March, 1987, 83-87). The Timothy Naylor family in Bridgeport, Michigan also made the 5 news when they kept their two young boys home and hired a certified teacher to come into their home. "The teacher, the parents say, is a Christian woman who shared their morals and values. 'One of the main philosophies of home schooling is to teach (children) what they're ready for when they're ready for it.‘ says Timothy Naylor. 'If they are having trouble with syllables lay off them and work on phonics. When they're ready, they just snap it up.‘ None of their children, the Naylor parents claim, will likely attend public or private school before age ten." (Andrew Heller, "Increasingly Parents Say There's No Place Like Home For Learning," Saginaw News, November 10, 1985, B1). Statement of the Problem None of the aforementioned scenarios features a home school which has proven not to be a successful venture. After doing a written publications search the researcher concluded that since no articles could be found, newspaper reporters and book authors do not recognize failures as noteworthy and thus little is ever written about unsuccessful ventures. It appears from review of the literature, hare schools that prove unsuccessful simply are forgotten and students are quietly enrolled back into the public or private schools with no attention focussed on them. Only one of the aforementioned home schooling experiences features high school age students. Research done in Michigan by Hansen in 1987 indicated that the majority of hare schooled students were elementary age students. (Hansen, Bradley, Analysis and Comparison of the Causal Factors of Home School Education Between the Home School Parents of Newaygo County Intermediate School District and the Intenmediate School Districts' Superintendents in the State of Michigan, Michigan State University Dissertation 1987, p 41.) Dibaba described the:main.motive 6 of home school parents to be the desire for their children to be taught their religious values and cognitive skills. These, they perceive, are essential for the success of their children. (Dibabo, Mamo, Ag Exploratory Study of Reasons Parents Give for Home Schooling their Children, Michigan State University dissertation 1986, p 78). Evidently the assumption which home schooling parents reach is that once young impressionable students are taught these essentials by their parents, they can enter the public schools to receive further training in academics. The news stories which were reported in the introduction made mentioned that the parents declared they would hate school their youngsters until junior high or high school age, but then their children would go to a private or public school. This influx of students at the secondary level who have not had schooling backgrounds similar to the majority of students in the school might present an interesting challenge to the school faculty and student body. Social development, student participation in co-curricular activities, student progress, grade placement, social adjustment and parent involvement are the issues which were examined in this study of hate schooled students entering the public schools. The researcher focused on students entering public schools from home schools and attempted to determine how well these students did in public high schools after home schooling. Purposes of the Study This researcher's purpose was to examine how easy or how difficult it was for individual home-schooled youngsters to move from a home 7 school into a public school. Counselors and/or administrators were asked to describe the student both in academic terms and in social terms. For the purposes of this study, research was conducted through schools only in the state of Michigan. A secondary purpose was to determine the numbers of home schooled students returning to public schools in Michigan and to investigate their progress after eight months in the public schools as perceived by the school administrator or counselor. The home school movement appears to be gaining momentum in the state of Michigan with 601 declared home schools reporting their existence to their Intermediate School Districts in the 1987-88 school year. Since 1980, there has been an upsurge of interest in home instruction (Patricia Lines, ECS-Issuegram, Education Commission of the States' Distribution Center, August, 1984). This movement of parents wishing to tutor their children at home is not unique to Michigan, but is occurring across the United States. As of February, 1987, a study conducted by the National Institute of Education reported over 10,000 families engaged in home instruction in the United States. It should be noted that this estimate of families engaged in home instruction is at variance with the number of one.million students noted.by Naisbitt as being home schooled. This variance documents the absence of valid data keeping which was evidenced frequently as research.was conducted. Many hare schoolers are young children of elementary school age. As students reach high school age, grade 9, there appears to be a.movement back into the public schools. This research was conducted to determine if there are high school 8 age hane schoolers entering Michigan public schools. Second, grade placement determination also was questioned. Are students simply placed according to age or is a placerent test given to determine appropriate grade level? Finally, parental involvement with students ' education after the student returns to school fran home education and the student's ease in social adjustment was explored. Statement of Assumptions The researcher brings many years of experience in education with her to this study and has formulated sane assumptions which are indicated to provide clarity. The assumptions were proven valid or invalid through the respondent's answers to the central questions . The limited literature regarding hane schoolers suggested that parents educate through the elementary grades . Since elenentary teacher certification gives people certified the right to teach subjects to students K—8 and since Michigan requires certified teachers for hare schoolers, the assumption would be that hame schoolers would educate through grade 8 and then send their students to high school . Carmon sense tells us that young people who are educated at here by a competent certified teacher might very well have a better education then young people who are educated in a classroan where the teacher/pupil ratio is one to thirty. There is yet another important factor in a successful education, that is pupil motivation. The researcher believes that the motivation factor can overcame many handicaps and if students truly want to do well, they can. On the other hand if a student doesn't place much importance in schooling and doesn't try too hard, that student will do poorly. Predictions can be made that students who enter or 9 re-enter a school already doing well will continue to do well and those who came in doing poorly will continue to do poorly. Observations of new students caning into public schools have shown that many have a period of adjustment. When students are unfamiliar with schools because they have been educated at home, it would appear logical to assume that the transition would be most difficult. Any parent who makes the cannittment to heme school their children make an enormous sacrifice both financially and time wise. How difficult it must be for those parents who have made a cannitonent to re-enroll their children back in a school and hand then over to strangers to teach then. Since school serves as a social milieu, any young person who was reroved by his parents fran schools and then allowed to return would so welcane the Opportunity to be back with his/her peers that he/ she would take advantage of all the opportunities that public education affords . Central Questions Through the use of the central questions which are addressed in this research, the researcher attempted to determine: 1. How many heme-schooled young people during 1988-89 school year are caning into Michigan public schools after their junior high or middle school years? 2 . What are the ages and gender of the students who are entering fran hane schools? Have these students ever attended public schools before and what are their reasons for entering or re-entering? 3 . How do individual schools determine grade placement for hare-schooled students? If placement tests are used, how do the students fare on these tests? 4. What do public schools do for the entering hane- lO schooled student in order that their transition into school can be smooth? Are there school or board policies which address the entry into school of home-schooled students? Administrators and/or counselors will be asked to make judgments regarding home-schooled student's progress after being in the public school for a year, in the areas of academics, and in social and personal involvement in school activities. At which level and in what ways do parents of previously home-schooled students interact with the public school? Significance The Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals has developed a policy which local schools are able to adopt which addresses the issue of home-schooled youngsters who enter public schools. Agreements for home school should be reached with the local board of education before home schooling begins and all home schooling must meet the requirements of the Michigan State Department of Education. An affidavit must be signed by the parents and supervising teacher that instruction was provided under the direct supervision of a certified teacher, and that the equivalent of a minimum of 180 days and 900 hours of instruction.were met. Courses requiring special equipment; i.e., industrial arts, music, science, etc., may not be granted credit nor waived from graduation requirements. No grades will be given (shown on transcript). Any credits will be shown on the transcript as 'home schooling.‘ Marking period tests and final exams will be given to determine if credit will be awarded or graduation requirements waived (left up to the local district.) (MASSP Bulletin, "Policy for Home Schooling," February, 1987) . It is recognized that there prdbably is a.wide range of differences 11 in what Michigan high school principals are doing with entering hane schoolers because the situation has not received focused attention. Those differences will range fran enrolling in grade appropriate to age with no questions asked, to elaborate testing/ interview procedures. The data when reported should be significant in the fact that they will provide a current View of practice, where no earlier data are available. Benefits which may be gained fran this research include, but are not limited to, an awareness that young people are caning into schools with different backgrounds than public school educated students. This situation may need to be addressed if they are to be placed at the appropriate grade level and encouraged to benefit from a public school setting. Also, results from this research may give school people same ideas of how they might better counsel parents who ask for help in making the decision to home school youngsters . Administrators may need to have information made available to then in order to advise people who are considering hame schooling concerning placement and adjustment issues and questions for bane-schooled pupils entering the public high school. Finally, the researcher's canpilation of data regarding practices for enrol ling students who have not previously attended schools may he 1p to formulate a set of guidelines that schools might follow. Even though there are many home schools in the state of Michigan, there has been virtually no research conducted that addresses this topic. The Michigan Department of Education has done no work with the re-entry process in public schools. Therefore, background data on this issue are non-existent for Michigan at least. Subjects A letter was sent to the Michigan Department of Education' 3 Office 12 of Pupil Accounting Services in order to identify intermediate school districts that had ten or more registered home schools. Every intermediate school district in the state of Michigan is required by law to collect and report to the state the names of all non-public schools in their districts including the names and ages of each child who is enrolled at the schools. (Act #451 of the Public Acts, School Code 1976, Section 380.1284, Part 23A.1ine 8-15). After receiving fitnlthe state (Appendix B—C, pages 74-75) the numbers of home schools by district, the researcher identified schools within those intermediate districts which had reported at least ten home schools in their district. Size of schools was taken into consideration. Using the Michigan High School Athletic Association handbook classification, which groups schools by student population, the researcher chose schools with a population as small as 238 and as large as 3192. The only specific requirement for the subjects of the research was that they were students who were enrolled in a public high school, grades 9-12, who had been home schooled during the elementary and middle school years. Definition of Terms Home School - A school maintained by a parent or parents within the household where educational instruction is presented to children by the parent or parent's agent without public financial assistance. Home-schooled students - school-aged children who are taught by their parents in their home. Intermediate School District - One of the fiftybseven educational agencies designated by the state of Michigan as an intermediate school 13 district. One of their many responsibilities is to monitor pupil accounting. M.A.S.S.P. - Michigan.Association of Secondary School Principals. This organization plays an active role in providing public high schools with models of policy which can be adopted at local levels by individual school boards. Michigan Department of Educationngupil Accounting - A.unit within the state department of education that is responsible for collecting data from all schools in Michigan regarding the attendance of young people in school. Parents - Father, mother or legal guardian of school-aged children. Public School -,A publicly funded facility that provides tuition- free education without restrictions and is available to all school-aged children. Study'Methodology .A short answer questionnaire (Appendix E, pages 78-80) was developed for the purpose of gathering data from public school administrators or counselors regarding the variety of backgrounds that home-schooled young people are bringing into the public schools at the time of entry. The researcher sought data on each home-schooled student.who enrolled in any public school; therefore the questionnaire needed to be brief, but concise, in order that the person answering the questions would not became overwhelmed with the task. .A pilot survey, using the questionnaire, was given to principals representing public high schools in the researcher's intermediate school district. The pilot principals deemed the questionnaire easy to understand and not difficult to complete. 14 The questionnaire dealt with four major areas: 1. Who is caning into public schools from a hane schooling experience, and why? 2. What kind of an educational background are they bringing with then? 3. How do public schools accamodate these new students? 4. What kind of progress do these students make after enrolling in a public school? A sampling of schools with student populations from small to large was surveyed in order to procure a representative cross-section. Delimitations of Research This research was conducted in a single state, Michigan. It is not a national study as hane school laws vary appreciably from state to state (See Table 1 on pages 24-25) . Reporting procedures in the state of Michigan, which require all home schools to report to their intermediate school districts, afforded the researcher geographic school areas where heme-schooled students were enrolling in public schools. This study is not designed to discover the concerns that may have motivated parents to home school their children. It is not designed to determine the number of home schools currently operating within the state of Michigan. There is also no intent to look at the philoso— phical or legal issues of hate schooling. Instead, this research is focused on how hame schooled students fare when they enter the public schools . Limitations of Research The validity of this research will be influenced by at least four 15 factors: 1. Parents of home-schooled students appear hesitant to report on their home school experiences or to be involved in research conducted to report on home schools. This may be due to the sensitivity and fear people have of being charged with violations of the school code. Thus, there is a minimal amount of written material available on home- schooled students. 2. The state of Michigan requires that all intermediate school districts collect data on home schoolers in their districts and then report this information to the state. However, each intermediate district determines the emphasis they will put on monitoring home schoolers. This researcher must, for this study, rely on the reported data which ‘will make it difficult to detenmine where students are because of limited monitoring in some intermediate districts. 3. The instrument used for this research is focused on perceptions of people. Individual interviewees have different orientations and this will affect their individual judgments. 4. The subjects of the research will be limited to initial adjustment time. One half of a school year will be the longest amount of time given then to adjust from hane schooling to public schooling. Interviewees were asked to report in May on students who entered the school nine months before. CHAPTERII REVIEW OF LITERATURE Four areas will be explored in this chapter as writings on hane schools are reviewed. The literature summarizing the history and current status of home schooling, state laws or Department of Education require- ments governing hame schooling, and parental considerations will be described. Concluding the review of literature will be a synopsis of two recent home school studies conducted by graduates of Michigan State University. There has been very little research work done on home schools. Thus these studies will provide the available pertinent information . Histogy Hane schooling, the education of youth within their own hares, has been decreed the movement of the decade by Raymond Moore, an officer of the United States Office of Education. He states, "as far as a revolution in education is concerned, hame schooling is probably one very critical factor." (Raymond S. Moore, "Research and Cannon Sense: Therapies for our Hares and Schools," Teachers College Record! New York, Columbia University Press, Winter, 1982, 37) . Throughout the history of education, home schooling has appealed to some families. In isolated places in early America hare schooling was the only possibility. Today in a few places in Alaska, Montana and other sparsely populated areas this is still true. On the whole, however, families who now teach their children at hame do so as a matter of choice, often a value-laden choice. (ECS Issuegram - Education 16 17 Commission of the States' Distribution Center, August, 1984, 6). Home schooling is an ancient and honorable way of educating children. Proponents argue that today educators try to teach children by packing then in a large room with one adult supervisor, and they feel that is not necessarily the best way for every child. (Christopher Jencks, Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect Family and Schooling Have in America, New York, Basic Books, 1972, 25) . Historically, all societies have had one form of education or another to transfer the skills and values of one generation to the succeeding one. In areas of the world where the industrial revolution has not taken place, education is still primarily natural, meaning the young learn from the old by observation, imitation and application. The expansion of formal schooling in the industrialized societies developed with the industrial revolution of the 19th century. The United States has had a leading role in cultivating and propagating formal education, both here and abroad, for social and political reasons and to bring prosperity (Theodore W. Schultz, "Investment in Human Capital," American Economic Review, Vol 51, March 1961, 1-17) . Status of Home Schools Census figures indicate that about five million children do not attend school regularly (for various reasons) - children of migrant families, handicapped children and families in rural areas. A minimum of five to ten percent of these children are instructed in their homes by parents, thus equalling nearly one million hone-school students around the United States. However, this is only an estimate because no one knows how many families teach their children as many parents do not register their programs, often for fear that the programs will 18 not be approved. .Michigan education officials estimate there are 2,000 children in Michigan receiving home instruction. (See Appendix C, showing listing of Michigan intermediate School districts with number of reported home schools and students, page 75). A number of researchers, scholars and planners recently have been experimenting with the Education Commission of the United States growth programs centered in the home. Findings have been conclusive that the home can provide a far better climate for learning than normally realized. Studies by Blatt and Farfunkle suggest that (l) the home is more influential than the school and (2) the school can do little without parental support. (Jencks, Christopher, Inequality: A.Reassessment of the Effect Family Schools Have in America, New York, Basic Books, 1972, p 17). Benjamin Bloom, a pioneer in the early schooling movement, concludes that the home is the educational nest, and that parents are the best teachers. (Moore, 369). Home schools have high success rates in View of several factors: 1. Home schools are characterized by parents who have enough time for their children to take on the task of systematically teaching. 2. Parents provide a partiality that young children need, but schools do not allow. 3. Children thrive on routines that involve a few children who have the same family values. 4. The child in the home school daily experiences many more personal adult to child responses than he/she would in school; such responses, along with adult example, mean educational power far more than do books. 19 5. Without the all-day regimentation of the classroom the child is more of a free explorer and thinker than a regurgatator of books, which to him/her are often more barriers than facilitators of learning. 6. Parents who bring their children with them into the responsibili- ties of the home turn out independent, self-directed children. (Moore, 372). Legislation that Governs Home Schools Each state has compulsory school attendance laws which by legislation sets policies on home instruction. The state of Michigan is included among those states in the United States which have set policies on home instruction. Parents face criminal charges if they do not meet the law's requirements. Compulsory education laws in thirty-eight jurisdictions expressly permit home schools or require simply that children be educated in lieu of school attendance. Seventeen states have no statutory provisions for home schools. (See Table 1, Statutory Provisions for Nonschool Instruction, pages 24-25) . In Illinois, the state Supreme Court has ruled that if a home qualifies as a school - and the requirements for private schools in Illinois are very flexible - then attendance at that home school satisfies the state school attendance law; Following this decision, the Illinois Department of Education organized a supportive office for the state's home schools. Michigan's attorney general has issued a similar ruling. But teachers in Michigan.must have a teacher's certificate, which few parents have. State departments of education in a number of other states where statutes do not specifically mention home schools take a.similar position. Courts in west Virginia and NOrth Carolina have upheld state requirements that greatly restrict.home schools and.may effectively 20 prohibit them. In some states such as Washington and Kansas, parents are actively lobbying for legal recognition of home schooling. (Nancy Henderson, "Hone Schooling," Changing Times, March 1987, 84) . Half of the 6,000 Home School Association members do not have more than a high school diploma and would not qualify for certification. But they have been so successful in their pleas to be allowed to teach their children at home, made mostly on religious grounds, that only three states Iowa, Michigan, and North Dakota, still require home teachers to hold a license. (Constance M. Keith, "The Home School Revolution," West Michigan Family, August 1989, p 18) . Maryland and Colorado dropped the requirement for certification in 1985. In Maryland, where parents previously had to follow the public school curriculum, including its mandated textbooks, they now have to do no more than provide to the local school system a portfolio of each child's work twice a year. Colorado is more demanding. Hone-schooled students there must submit to a standardized test each year, and those who fail to reach the prescribed level may be required to attend school. In Texas, the courts have ruled that home schools qualify as private institutions. But private schools in Texas are required to be accredited, and there are problems about extending this to hone teaching. The Texas state teacher's association thinks the rule should be applied "We believe people can educate their children any way they want, but if there are minimum standards they should apply to hone schools, as well," said a spokesperson. Elsewhere the laws are frequently vague, and it is often left up to local superintendents to decide whether or not to permit a home school - assuming they know it exists. In remote rural areas, 21 and some not so remote, it is not unknown for parents to keep children at home and simply not bother to educate them, and nobody seems to care. (New York Times Educational Supplement, October 9, 1987, 20). A.proposal to amend Idaho's compulsory education law would allow parents to educate their children at home if they make "a good faith effort" to instruct the children in reading, writing, mathematics, history and civics. Under Idaho's current law, home schooling of children between the ages of 7 and 16 is allowed only if they receive an education that is "comparable" to that of the public schools. The proposed amendment is designed to give parents more jurisdiction over the education of their children, the lawmakers said. Public officials must start trusting parents "to do the right thing." (Education.Weeky April 12, 1987, 17). A bill that will loosen the state's policy toward home schools was approved recently by washington lawmakers. The bill will amend the state's compulsory education laws to recognize home schooling as being one appropriate way for children to be educated. Essentially the state is abandoning its efforts to enforce the mandatory attendance act, on the assumption that children will receive viable educational experiences at home. (Education week, June 15, 1987, 33). Under the terms of the bill, parents must notify local school districts of their intention to teach their children at home. The parents must provide instruction in the same basic skills required for public school children and also keep immunization and testing records. Parents who operate home schools must either have had a year of college study, or proof they have attended a home-school program offered by a post- secondary institution, or be deemed "otherwise qualified to teach by the local school superintendent." In lieu of these requirements, parents 22 may have a certificated teacher supervise their home school program, meeting with the home pupils for at least four hours each month to examine their progress. The bill includes a stipulation that standardized achievement tests be administered annually to hone-educated children. If a deficiency is discovered, the parents must make good-faith efforts to remedy the problem or risk having their "school" closed. (Education Week, May 18, 1985, 9) . In 1985 two-hundred parents and children gathered in front of the Iowa capitol in Des Moines demanding an end to the state's teacher certification law, which they said violates their religious liberty by precluding hone instruction. The law, which requires virtually every teacher to receive state certification, effectively makes criminals of families who want to teach their children at home because of religious convictions. Michigan and North Dakota are the only other states with similar teacher certification laws. (Education Weekl February 1986) . Facing pressures from hone-schooling advocates, the Texas State Board of Education has asked the legislature to determine what legal body has the authority to define "private and parochial" school for the purpose of enforcing the state ' s compulsory-attendance law. Hare schooling has not been legal in the state since 1929, but in recent years religious groups have spearheaded a movement to have it restored, according to a spokesman for the Texas Education Agency . The State Board issued a set of recomendations to guide the efforts of local districts, which have responsibility for enforcing the attendance requirerent. (Education Weeky April 12, 1986, 15) . Home schooling advocates in Michigan gathered at the state capitol 23 to press for "clear laws" allowing them to instruct their children at home, without the assistance of state certified teachers. Michigan has no hare schooling law, only requirements issued by the Michigan Department of Education. Regulation of home schools varies throughout the state. Some districts regulate hone schools according to state laws governing private schools, including a requirement that hate schools use state certified teachers. (Education Week, November 16, 1985) . Four of the thirty-eight states that allow home school instruction require that home schools be certified. Some of the states allow hone instruction because the home qualifies as a school (e.g. Michigan) but require teachers to have certificates. Arizona and Oregon both require that children educated at hare be tested to provide assurance that they are progressing. A number of states require that state or local officials approve hone programs . Some require that home programs cover the same subjects taught in the public schools. Many have some kind of "equivalency" or "comparability" requirement that is generally construed to mean that the same subjects must be taught. (See Table 1 for States' Education laws, pages 24-25, and Appendix G). (Changing Times, March 1987) . The Michigan Department of Education has issued the following set of requirements for parents who wish to provide for the education of their children in the home. The requirements are as follows: 1. All instruction must be given by a Michigan certificated teacher. The certificate must be valid for the subject matter being taught by the teacher. Al 1 teaching certificates must be registered with the Intermediate Superintendent' 5 Office . 2 . The Compulsory School Attendance law states that the curriculum for children in the hole must be comparable to that offered by the local public school in which the home is located. The parent must request a statement of comparability from the local superintendent. This statement is to be kept 24 w n 1 it ““0“. T‘ a - i“ ’.‘ ' o . . hfi'l 14?,fi§*‘;§§ 49‘3”) States' Education Laws *Reproduced by permission, see Appendix G. 25 TABLE 1 (cont.) .; ~,.t;‘..si- . ‘. A SCHOOL!“ - 0f SOIOOI. STAT! MW “6|! , ' YEAR (DAYS) . . s it» MlssoURI 7 . , I,'ooo HOURS 7 ' KEEP ACIiVIiY RECORDS, SAMPLE WORK; ‘ y ”I '. PROGRESS EVALUAmONs MoNiANA 7 . - ENDANCE AND IMMUNIzAiION g . ~ _ RECORDS NOiIFY COUNiY. NEBRASKA 7 > _" ‘ I75 3‘: No ’ ’ "7 ACHIEVEMENriESis NomcE OF ‘ “' .. A . I. - NEVADA 7 - ‘? ‘ IBo -. ' ' V AiiENDANCE' RECORDS; ACHIEVEMENi ,7 1:1 _ iESiS; NOTlC_E OP INiENi. NEW HAMPSHIRE 5 Leo , , g 4 mm OF INitNi NEW JERSEY 5 . g ' " 1,:YE'S ' EOUNALENT' INSiRUCiION NEW Mmco 5 m ' No AiiENDANCE RECORDS; SiANDARDIZED . . - iESISNSiwcr ORwsr HABAVE DEGREE NEW YORK 5 Leo No AiiENDANCE ILECORDS; INSiRUCIION EOUIvALENi 10 PUBLIC SCHOOLS. NoRiH CAROLINA 7 180 NO AEisiquANCE RECORDS; STANDARDIZED norm DAKOiA 7 YES TEACHER CERIIEICAIION, INSiRUCi 51» HOURS PER cum 5 I82 YES QUALIFIED INSiRUCIOIL OKLAHOMA 7 180 g NO iEACH BASICS. OREGON 7 No Lng NOiIFIOAiION; STANDARDIZED PENNSYLVANIA 8 Leo YES QUALIFIED iUiOR. RHODE ISLAND 7 YES AiiENDANCE RECORDS. SOUTH CARoLINA 5 YES HEARING BEFORE LOCAL BOARD. scum DAKOiA 7 NO TEACH BASIC SKI I;LLS NOTlFY SUPERINTENDENT; A'NNUAL TEST iENNEssu 7 I75 NO NOiICE or INiENi; AiiENDANCE RECORDS AND SiANDARDIZED TESTS; OR SPECIAL ExEMPiION. mus 7 I70 NO WRIiiEN CURRICULUM (PENDING COURI DECISI SI.ONI UTAH 6 No MAY BE SEi BY LOCAL SCHOOL BOARD. VtRM0Ni 7 I75 YES ANNUAL APPROVAL BY SiAiE BOARD OR OUA lIFY AS A PRIVAIE SCHOOL VIRGINIA 5 NO SUBMIi CURRICULUM; ANNUAL NOiIFICAIION; SiAN'DARDIZED TESTS WASHINoiON 8 I30 NO ERASSTIE SklllS. LOCAL NOiIFICAiION, WEST VIRGINIA 7 I50 NO ArrENDANCE AND PROGRESS RECORDS. WISCONSIN 5 B75 HOURS No FAMILY MEMBERS ONLY; SiAiEMENi OF ENROLLMENT WYOMING 7 I75 No SUSMIi CURRICULUM. "'Vories across state; must conlorm to local public school disirld rules. States' Education Laws *Reproduced by permission, see Appendix G. .L‘fu' ". -. _..- 'A. 1-. . 26 on file in the office of the local superintendent. 3. Children in the home must be provided with a minimum of 180 days and 900 hours of instruction. Because of the intensive instruction that can be provided by one teacher and one student, it may not be necessary for the certificated teacher to be in attendance for the full day of instruction. The number of hours may be adjusted so that children receive adequate supervision in which to perform their work . Accurate records must be kept by the parent to substantiate the days and hours of instruction provided to the child. 4. Children being taught in the home shall be given: A) courses of instruction in the Constitution of the United States, B) Constitution of the State of Michigan, C) the history and present form of civil government of the United States, the State of Michigan, and the political subdivisions and municipalities of the State of Michigan. The parent must provide a statement to the local superintendent of schools that the above courses will be taught. (Attorney General Opinion #5579, dated September 27, 1979, Act 451, 1976, Sec. 1532, 1561, 1166) . Parental Considerations Compulsory school attendance laws as they are known today were not widespread in the United States until about the middle of the last century. Parents mmist consider what it will mean to their child to be kept away from school. Although many children protest the boredom, routine and regimentation of school , school attendance means a great deal to them as semi- independent beings reaching out to the world and establishing their own identity. Being deprived of a regular school experience can be as anxiety-provoking for some children as forced separation from a parent. (Education Week, October 30, 1985) . Part of the whole schooling process is learning to live in society and communicate with others. People who are home schooled miss out on that. Some experts say that learning at home often benefits a bright, 27 well-motivated student who is smothered in a larger school setting. But they warn that others may be penalized by studying under parents who are not well-trained in teaching methods or subject matter. School psychologist, Thomas Boyle, reached that conclusion after working in Maricopa County, Arizona, with the fanulies of home-schooled children who failed to perform well on achievement tests. He notes: "Not all children learn at the same rate or in the same way. For some, being educated at home may be the best way to learn at that point in their lives, but other children need to have someone outside the family doing these things with them. (Lucia Solorzano, "Teaching Kids at Home Stirs New Uproar," U.S. News and WOrld Report, August 19, 1985, 59). British researchers, Tizzard and Hughes conducted a study comparing the quality of education that British children receive at home with the quality of education they receive in schools. Their study compares two teaching methods: tutoring and group instruction. Formal education relies almost entirely on group instruction. The tutorial method won out since it has consistently proved superior to every other method of instruction including the shiny computer. (Paul Chance, "Does Mother Know Best," Psychology Today, August, 1985, 10). Bloom notes that the average tutored child learns more than almost all children receiving traditional group instruction. For decades, Bloom and other experts have searched for teaching.methods that.would approximate the proven benefits of tutoring. Perhaps it is time to stop looking for a substitute, and try tutoring. Today's smaller classes, the arrival of the teaching aide and the use of higher achieving students to assist lower achieving ones makes this realistic. (Chance, 22). 28 Curriculum programs involving parents have sprung up around the country since the early seventies when, for the first time in the nation's history, adults considered themselves better educated than young people. A variety of "self~help" responses to the continued disillusionment with the school systems occurred. Parent activism increased and private school enrollments increased. The new educational self-help movement produced a steady stream.of new alternative schools and attempts to move the education process from the schools into the homes either as a supplement to the regular school curriculum or as an outright threat to the compulsory education laws. (Naisbitt, 157). Naisbitt states in his 1982 Megatrends, "Although most parents are not willing to take such drastic action as to take children out of school entirely, a great many feel they must supplement their children's education with more home teaching." Sales of the Calvert School Home Study program, a commercialized curriculum, have increased substantially as more parents use the system to supplement school curriculum. (Naisbitt, 169) . Naisbitt also tells of Washington, D.C. parents who supplement their children' 3 education through a unique self-help program designed by Dr. Rich, author of Families learning Together. Rich does not believe parents should keep children out of the schools, "but schools have a more limited role than we thought," she says. Rich's method, a series Of " learning appetizers" for home use, are imaginative and inexpensive. The programs seem to work for a variety of socioeconomic groups . "Home schooling definitely has an important role to play as a supplement to public school education," says J. Coleman. Toffler and Coleman speak about "action" and service learning. They term this type 29 of learning, or the supplementary learning which home schooling can provide, as educational experiences that are sponsored or brokered by the school, but extend beyond its walls into the wider community. (Educating for a New Millennium, Harold Shane, 1981) . Recent Studies Two recent studies were focused on issues Of home schooling. Dibaba, 1986, studied The Reasons Parents Give for Home Schooling Their Children. The Causal Factors of Home School Education Between the Home School Parents of Newaygo County Intermediate School District and the Intermediate School Districts' Superintendents in the State of Michigan, was studied by Hansen, 1987. Dibaba states that: . . . in the United States, in the past five years a number of parents have taken their children from the public and private schools in order to teach them at home. As a result of their action many parents are facing court cases, and school districts are questioning this unconventional behavior. The concerns which led a hundred parents in three mid—western communities to decide to home school their children are the focus of this research. A mail survey questionnaire was used to obtain data from the parents. Fifty-eight families responded. The main objectives Of the study were to identify the concerns which influenced the parents in their decision to home school and to report those findings . Empirical evidence from the responses revealed that these parents have a set of concerns which led them to their decision. The parents ' concerns include issues about school curriculum, issues about values, issues about peer pressure, issues about methodology, issues about skill development, and issues about the future of their children. In general, the parents' concerns were expressed in a mixture of sets Of behavior. These included anxiety about what might happen to their children, eagerness to participate in the educational process of their children, and aspiration to see the future success of their children. Since this was an initial exploratory research of the home-school ing movement, it became obvious that further research is necessary to understand it. (Mamo Dibaba, 30 "An Exploratory Study of the Reasons Parents Give for PkHEESChOOlng their Childreny" .Michigan State University Dissertation, 1986). Hansen states his purpose: was to determine the motivating factors parents have when educating school-aged children at home. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine if Intermediate School District Superintendents' perceptions regarding parent motives are accurate when compared with actual parent responses who have implemented home—based education programs. Hansen using an open-ended question/response format interviewed thirteen sets of parents in Newaygo County in Michigan asking why they had chosen to home school their children. He then surveyed the entire Michigan population of Intermediate School Superintendents as to why they felt parents chose to home/school their youngsters. Hansen wrote in his dissertation: The study was significant because it contributed to an understanding of the reasons why parents remove their children from public and parochial school settings and provide education at home. By investigating the factors which.motivate home school parents, public educators will be able to better determine if action on their part might reduce this trend. The research questions were: 1. What specific aspects of home-based education do parents want for their children? 2. What are the distinguishing characteristics of home-based education as perceived by parents? 3. What do parents perceive as giving home-schools their unique character? 4. What implications do superintendents' perceptions of home-based education have on the future of public school education? Parents perceive home-school education to be different in kind from public or parochial education. Hansen's major conclusions in the study were: 1. A firm belief is shared by parents and educational leaders that parents can and should be deeply involved 31 in the educational development of their own children. 2 . Parents and educational leaders agree on the perceived factors which motivate parents to choose home-based education for their children to be the negative influences in our society which is (sic.) reflected in our public school system, and for religious preference. 3. Specific home-schooled legislation is needed and desired by parents and educational leaders to insure that a1 1 children have adequate teachers, equivalent curriculum, instructional time and periodic testing to measure progress and determine problem areas. 4. Building cooperative relationships between public school officials and home-schoolers was seen as a method that could enrich our understanding of child development and learning since home-schools provide a substantially different learning environment. (Bradley Hansen, Abstract: Analysis and Cmrison of the Causal Factors of Home School Education between the Home School Parents of Newaygo County Intermediate School District and the Intermediate School Districts' Superintendents in the State of Michigan, " 1987.) SUIVMARY Over one million children are being home schooled, some legally, some illegally. States within the United States have no consistent set of rules for home schoolers. Each state uses different criteria. Parents are continually becoming more demanding of their state legislature to give them the right to control the educational development of their children. Weekly, news media report various court cases which involve parents of home schoolers questioning teacher licensure, mandated school curriculum and textbooks, submission to standardized tests and home-school accreditation. The state of Michigan has issued a set of requirements for parents who wish to provide for the education of their children in the home. The intermediate school districts have been designated as the monitoring agency in Michigan . 32 Even though the concept of home schools has been around for centuries, it has not been researched or received much media attention until the last decade. An ERIC search revealed only a dozen entries. Very few books have been written expressly about home schools and a dissertation search revealed only two recent written projects. Both studies suggested the immediate need for further research. CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY The researcher's purpose in this study was to identify high schools in the state of Michigan which had enrolled home-schooled students, determine the procedures that the schools used when enrolling these students, and discover how well those home-schooled young people did in a public school, socially and educationally as perceived by school officials. A questionnaire, designed by the researcher, was the method used to collect the data. In this chapter how the schools were selected and how the data were collected and analyzed will be described. Research Subjects The School Management Services of the Michigan State Department of Education is responsible for col lecting data yearly from intermediate school districts (ISD) concerning numbers of home schoolers in Michigan. The data are then tabulated by the state and reported by number of home schools in individual intermediate school districts and by the number of students being schooled in each home. (See Appendix C, page 75) . These data were obtained from the Department. (See Appendicies A, B, C and F.) Forty-nine intermediate school districts out of a total Of fifty- seven (see Appendix F, pages 81-89) were identified as having home schools existing within their jurisdiction. Numbers of home schools reported in intenmediate districts ranged from as few as one in five districts to sixty-eight in the Kent ISD . Twenty-two ISD' 3 reported at least ten or more home schools within their district. These twenty- 33 34 two intermediate school districts were then targeted for the study, using the rationale that home-schooled students would most likely return to public schools which were in close proximity to their homes. Using the state directory which identifies names of public high schools within given intermediates, the researcher pinpointed all the high schools in each intermediate school district that were reported to have home schools, and then identified the size of the high school by using the Michigan High School Athletic directory which indicates population of all Michigan high schools. A complete listing of the twenty-two chosen ISD's with the high schools that were located within the ISD's are in Appendix F, pages 81-89. Data Collection Instrument Since standardization of infonmaticn was important, the questionnaire form was chosen as the most effective method for collecting the desired data. The researcher decided to design a predominantly closed form instrument so that quantification and analysis of the results could be carried out in an efficient manner. It was decided to provide respondents with a predetenmined series of items which would establish the central focus of the study and insure the uniform coverage of specifically important or key issues. There was minimum space provided within the instrument for respondents to clarify their answers. Instead specific information was requested and respondents needed only fill in the blanks. Care was taken to construct the questionnaire so that the respondents could complete the report in a short amount of time. All the information requested could be found in the attendance and counseling offices of any high school . Educators were asked to share basic information for this educational study confidentially. No identities of students were 35 requested, only tabulations and grade performance levels. Distribution Of the Questionnaire The distribution of the questionnaire was an important factor in this research because respondents need to be familiar with the subjects about whom they were reporting. It was important that they (the respond- ents) be given ample time to recognize adjustments that home schooled students made to public schools after they entered. It was assumed that at least a marking period had to elapse in order for a respondent to get a sense of the social and educational progress students were able to make. A complete listing of high schools by intermediate districts can be found in the Appendix F, pages 81-89. Once this list had been generated and the size of the schools determined, the researcher used a stratified random sampling process to choose respondents. This process was used in an attempt to insure as varied but representative a sample as possible. One hundred high schools were sent questionnaires to complete. They were requested to send back the questionnaire even if they had not enrolled any home schoolers, so that that fact could be documented in the research. The high schools chosen for the study were located in the following intenmediate school districts (ISD's): Allegan, Berrien, Calhoun, Charlevoix-Emmet, Clare-Gladwin, Genesee, Gogebic-Ontonagon, Traverse-Bay, Gratiot-Isabella, Copper Country, Ingham, Kalamazoo, Kent, Lenawee, Marquette-Alger, Montcalm, Muskegon, Oakland, Ottawa, VanBuren and Wayne. These ISD' s were selected because they all reported having at least ten home schools Operating within their district. (Appendix I shovs a map of Michigan, with the location Of the intermediate school 36 districts which took part in the research.) There were twenty-five high schools selected from each size classi- fication. A.cover letter along with the questionnaire was sent to the principals of the chosen schools. The questionnaire was piloted with principals in the researcher's intermediate school district, affording the researcher the Opportunity to get impressions of the questionnaire's structure and content from col leagues. The five area principals were encouraged to make comments on how items and the instrument could be improved. The decision was made to administer the questionnaire in May of the 1989 school year, giving the respondents an opportunity to have observed students for several months. Another consideration for administering the questionnaire in.May is that three-fourths of the school year is over and administrators may not be quite so involved ‘with their rigorous work schedules. They might be more inclined to complete the additional paper work this questionnaire required of them. Each principal of the one hundred schools selected for the research was mailed a packet of materials that included: a cover letter (Appendix D) and a copy of the two-part questionnaire (Appendix E). One side of the questionnaire needed to be completed for every home school student who was enrolled in the school, so additional copies were included in the materials packet, with the suggestion that if not enough copies had been sent, additional copies could be requested or duplicated from the original. A.stamped and addressed envelope in.which to return the questionnaires was also included in the packets in order to insure the return of the completed.questionnaires. Return of the questionnaires was requested within two weeks. Two weeks after the 37 deadline, phone calls were made requesting that selected schools please respond to the survey. At this time prospective respondents were given the opportunity to respond over the phone if they so desired. Table 2 indicates the response rate to the questionnaire. (See Appendix I for map of Michigan.marking the Intermediate School Districts (ISD's) which participated in the study.) Table 2 Response Rate to Questionnaire and Telephone Followeup Contact Total Replies Percent Returned Mailing 58 58% Phone Reminder/Replies 14 14% Total 72 72% Procedures for Analysis of the Data When questionnaires were returned from respondents who elected to take part in the research, the data were reviewed and recorded item by item. The information was processed and recorded, and is reported in Chapter IV. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the demographics of the research.participants. Summaries of the responses allowed the researcher to draw conclusions according to frequency of similar responses. There were two questionnaires. The first was for the high school administrator completing the survey. The administrator was requested 38 to supply demographic information about the school and the community in which the school was located. The administrator also was questioned about board policy on entering students. The second questionnaire was designed for a counselor or other school person who was familiar with students to give an overall description of returning home-schooled students, specifically, characterizing social development, parental involvement, student progress, social adjustment and involvement in school activities. The responses to these questions were summarized and aggregated to provide an indication of the frequency of responses to the specific questions. Summary The information gathered from these questionnaires should be helpful in a number of ways. The respondents who work in the schools reported what is going on in the public schools with regard to enrolling of home schooled students and described as well the schools' provisions to this unique group of young people. Conclusions will be drawn from the reported findings. CHAPTER IV PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA Introduction The researcher's purpose in this study was to explore, collect, analyze and compare data regarding home-schooled students who return to or enter public high schools. Two areas of data were examined. In the first area the researcher investigated a sampling of Michigan public high schools, determined how many home schoolers were coming into these schools and how the individual schools were prepared to service them. In the second area, the researcher surveyed school personnel who declared that home-schooled students had returned to their buildings, as to the type of progress, educationally and socially, the home schoolers made in the public schools after entering or returning. One hundred schools across the state of Michigan were mailed questionnaires. There were twentybfive schools randomly selected from each of the four classifications of the Michigan High School Athletic Association which groups schools into four equally numbered clusters by population size. .A 72% return rate was realized by the investigator. (See Table 3 below to observe the number returned in each classification.) Results from the two questionnaires are reported in this chapter. Six central questions were addressed in this exploratory study. Two dealt with the schools surveyed and the other four questions dealt with the home schooled students. Each central question is addressed individually and responses to survey questionnaires are reported under the central question that relates. 39 40 TABLE 3 Response Rate by School Size Classification School Enrolbment No. Sent No. Returned Percent Returned A 1020 and above 25 15 60% B 523-1019 25 24 96% C 263-522 25 2 84% D Less than 262 25 12 48% TOTAL 100 72 Study Results 1. How many home-schooled young people identified in this study are coming to Michigan public schools after their junior high or middle school years? In order to determine numbers of students coming into public schools, administrators were asked directly to report actual numbers who enrolled this school year. Sixteen home-schooled students were reported. Fourteen percent of the schools who sent back questionnaires reported home-schooled students had enrolled in their buildings. In Table 4 the number of schools reporting home schoolers and the actual number of students in each classification are shown. Confidentiality restraints prohibit naming of particular schools. An interesting note made on one of the questionnaires was that they had no home schOolers who had enrolled, but they had lost twelve students this school year to a home school. One of the high school principal respondents described a local monitoring prOblem, with the following scenario. He reported that he knew at least twenty-five students in his district that were being home 41 schooled, who were not following state guidelines and whom no agency was monitoring. He went on to say that in his district a large population of Amish people had settled and educated their own. He reported that the local people use this Amish settlement as an excuse to keep their young people at home. Traditionally the children are kept at home until they reach ninth grade and then are sent back to high school . He reported that the students have a very difficult time adjusting, they are loners and they are not prepared for the high school curriculum. However, the local school board appears hesitant to draw attention to the issue for fear of Offending some of the businessmen in the district. 2 . What are the ages and gender of the students who are entering from hoie schools? Have these students ever attended public schools before and what is their reason for entering? Students reported in this study ranged in age from thirteen to seventeen and were represented as eleven females and five males. Two TABIE 4 Schools which reported Home Schooled Students Enrol led Schools Size of No. of Schools Reporting No. of Student Reporting School Home Schooler Enrollees Enrollees 15 A l l 24 B 6 9 21 C l 3 12 D L .3; 72 Schools 10 Schools 16 Students of the students who happened to be twins had never attended public school before. The other fourteen students had attended some time in their educational career from four months to eight years. The age of each student reported, their sex, whether they had attended public schools before and if so, for what time period are shown in Figures 2, 3, and 4. Home-schooled students portrayed by the size of 42 community their school is situated are shown in Figure l. The questionnaire was sent to building principals. They were asked to coiplete the data sheet to describe the home schooler. Since the researcher is a principal herself, it is realized that with a situation such as a home schooler entering the public school, the usual protocol would be for the principal to talk with the young person individually and his or her parents before the principal would go through the formal procedure of enrollment. A suggestion was made to the principals completing the questionnaire that if they were not the responsible party who did the initial interview of entering home-schooled students then they were to refer the questionnaire to the appropriate personnel . In the seventy-two schools which returned data, sixty respondents were principals, eight were counselors and three were assistant principals. The seventy—two schools which responded to the survey were from four different kinds of communities. TWenty-nine of the respondents served students in rural areas . TWenty-three of the respondents indicated that they were in a small city. Eight schools served suburban communities and twelve schools were located in urban areas. There appeared to be no relation between the type or size of community and which school officer completed the survey. It was most important that the person who inter- viewed the home-schooled student and his/her parents coiplete the questionnaire so that questions regarding why they returned or entered public schools could be responded to with accuracy. Reasons for entry or re-entry into public schools were varied. Three students from two different schools entered because Of court orders. Three other students had moved from their homes and entered public schools when they moved into new communities. One student who had been home 43 “mg «HO Wage. .go 2H a 485m mwlmmmH m5? ZH ”HS—Um 853 E g WEE A musofie copy: I] muecseaou mo momma cohuohsm I Aufiu Hausa amuse V‘ ,4 (om 5 OH mucmosum NO 44 NDDBm ZH gmgmm mggm mgcefim 024 MIR/NE m0 mag mud m 9.30.3 unwofim woo 3359. I 8.25m 8.22 2i .1 I. Q I «4.! . Liam woe fll l .l. mom iii Til! 11mm of... .l/ .. .11.: I... /l N. v A LIZ 4S MQPHMZH 89mg mgaamgggmo OZHABSUm Uqubm .mO mg .mO mmmEDZ m0 g m 859m €83... «so 8869 modofiwm . moan: o O o O A 8 a: A A B a: . x \ .I. . m .l . .. /.l.. / \ m Snow DDR5 4 /_ .. e .898 6303 Enema. m m g4 mummy a a H a a a a m 2 S 46 schooled for the student's entire life entered the public school for only four months because his parents decided that was what he should do. .At the end of the four months he left and did not return. .A freshman girl who entered stated to the guidance counselor that her parents felt it was too difficult to educate a high school student at home. They wanted her to receive the benefits that a high school with a varied curriculum could offer. A junior girl entered for nearly the same reason. She had decided that after a high school education she wanted to go into a business-related career field. Her parents did not feel competent, nor did they have the equipment they needed at home to prepare her for this specialization; so they sent her back to public schools. Two students who belonged to the same family had parents who were both teachers and had taken time off work so that they could stay home with their youngsters and educate them. Both parents had been offered jobs which they decided to take, thus they sent their children back to the public school. Fondly therapy was completed with one family and their child then entered the public school. No other explanation was given with this reason for re-entry. A wish to earn a regular high school diploma was listed on two questionnaires as the major reason for re-entry and one thirteen year Old who was entering school to begin her freshman year reported that she wanted to come back to school as a ninth grader so she would be with the same kids for four years and graduate with them. Finally, one set of parents returned their student to school for the co—curricular offerings and social contacts that were not possible 47 in a home school environment. 3 . How do individual schools determine grade placement for home- schooled students? If placement tests are used, what test is used and how do students fare on these tests? Data returned from local high schools across the state indicated that entering home schoolers face a wide spectrum of methods used for grade placement. Forty school officials wrote that they had no idea how to determine grade placement and that, in fact, they had not even considered how they would place a student who did not have the background that public school education offers. Many of the respondents indicated that their level of concern had been raised to this issue of placement after coipleting the questionnaire. They planned to research this matter and discuss with others in their district as to what their plan of action might be, should they find a home schooler enrolling. Twenty-six ways to determine grade placement were provided by respon- dents. They are listed: 1. Testing 2 . Age of Student 3 . Teacher recommendation 4 . Parent recommendation 5. Most recent school records . 6. High school credits 7 . Talk with individual student 8. let Intermediate School District determine 9 . Grade transcript 10. Give student nine-week marking period tests and final exams, place by those results. 11. Student Personnel Services determine proper placement 48 12. Principal determination 13. Use good judgment 14. Place where student feels they should be, then evaluate after placement 15. Prayer 16. Previous grades 17. Number of years in school 18. Central office determines l9. Always place at freshman level if no credits 20. Consider parent and student request, base placement on conference held with them 21. Look at classes completed at home and attempt to give credits 22. Use standardized test scores 23. Individual teachers would test in each subject area to determine placement 24. Student would take final exams given in courses he desires to enter 25. Request resume of work completed and place from these Results of the question asked regarding hOW'many schools used placement tests for entering students disclosed that sixty-one percent of the respondents admitted they had not considered the use of a test. All schools, with the exception of one, which had enrolled home-schooled students, had used some form of a placement test when enrolling. However, each school indicated they used different tests. Nationally known tests used were: 1. Orleans Hanna, Algebraic Readiness Test 2. Gates McGinnity Test 49 3. Metropolitan Achievement Test 4. California Test of Basic Skills 5. Scholastic Reading Readiness Test 6. Stanford Achievement Test These tests provide school personnel with information to measure a student's progress, assist in the classification of a student, provide data for remediation and knowledge of specific concepts. (See Table 5 below for student test results). TABLE 5 Entry Level Placement Tests for Home-Schooled Students and How They Scored Grade levels Students Tested Not Tested Below At Above Total 12 4 3 6 3 16 4. What do public schools do for the entering home-schooled student to make their transition into schools comfortable? Are there local school and/or board policies which address the entry of lmmerschooled students? Since many school personnel who participated in this study were not even cognizant of the fact that there were non-traditional students who came back to the public schools, they also had not considered how the public schools might.make them feel more welcome. Of the seventy-two school staff members who responded, nine schools indicated they had an orientation plan for new students. Sixty-three schools reported they had no such program. Orientation programs were varied. One school.matched a new student 50 with a student who had been in the building for some time. After spending a full day with a student host, new students knew where their classes were and had the opportunity of being introduced to teachers and other students when they might not have met on their own. Another school's counselors took on the responsibility of guiding each new student around the school the first day. Still another school held a meeting of all new students several times throughout the year and presented them with information about the school's programs, then let them go out on their own to "sink or swim." A.tutoring program for former home-schooled students was scheduled after school in one district. Students had the Opportunity to get individualized help with their studies from a certified teacher. This was particularly helpful to the students because they discovered themselves to be way behind as the result of their home schooling experience and needed remedial help in order to bring themselves up to grade level. The questions addressing policies that school districts already had in place indicated once again that districts were not experiencing a large number of returning home schoolers and were treating the ones who were coming into the school as they treated any new student. Six schools reported that they had a specific board policy dealing with returning home-schooled students. Three of them sent their policies as they appear in print. See Appendicies J, K, and L. The other three schools indicated that their policies are identical to the Michigan Department of Education set of requirements. (See Page 23 for the complete requirements.) .A sampling of quotes of how the sixtybsix other schools responded to the question regarding board policy: "we have not faced this problem.", "we have not had any return to our school, thus Board has not addressed 51 this issue.", "we never had the situation come up.", "we are waiting for the ISD to address the problem.", "A board policy is currently under review, however the issue has not come up. we are wrestling with what are appropriate policies.", "NO conversation in our district regarding such policy.", "No experience with this problem, so I can't even advise the Superintendent and Board.", and "I really don't know? I will be researching and will send a policy to the Board." Response to the local school policy was nearly identical to the Board policy. Board policy addresses requirements which must be met for home schooling to be considered legal. School policy addresses credits and grade placement. Eight schools had established school policy in their handbooks regarding incoming students who had been home schooled. They all reported that their school policy was a duplicate of the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals' suggested policy (see Page 8, Chapter I). NO schools sent copies of their school policies. Sixty- four schools indicated they did not address the issue in their local school policy. 5. At what level and in what ways do parents of previously home-schooled students interact with the public school? Nineteen percent of the students who were described by school personnel in this study had parents who never came into the school or who made no effort to have any communication.with school people. When required to make contact with a teacher, counselor or administrator, these parents were reported to seem very uncomfortable. Twenty-five percent Of the home-schooled students ' parents Communicated with the school only when a concern arose. This group too, appeared to want nothing to dO‘With the public school setting or the teachers and administrators. This group did communicate, and did not go out of their way to keep away from the 52 school as the first set of parents described, however, they were not seen often. The remaining fifty-six percent of the home~schooled students' parents were heavily involved in the school, much more so than regular students' parents. They attended parent/teacher conferences, Open houses, athletic events, concerts, plays and other curricular activities in which they also encouraged their young people to take part. These parents were well known by the teachers because they communicated with them on a regular basis via phone conversations and informal visits. Whenever individual teachers needed chaperones for class field trips or aide/tutors for their class, these parents were the first ones they contacted. The parents were supportive of school rules and kept a continuing dialogue with the high school counselors. Parents in this group had students who attended school with enrollments as small as 90 and as large as 1200. The size of the school did not appear to influence their level of enthusiasm or involvement in their young person's education. Taking a closer look at these young people and their reason for entry or re-entry into public schools shed light on additional information which appears to relate to parent involvement. The fifty-six percent of students whose parents were heavily involved came into the public schools because their parents wanted them to. Some of the reasons described for re-entry were: wanted student to interact with other students his age and get involved with extra-curricular activities, wanted student to have the social contacts that.were not available in the home, and student was beginning ninth grade and parents wanted their son to receive a regular high school diploma. Reasons for entry or re-entry from the other two groups of students 53 eégupefi gazommmm oza .288 done/Q. I 3638 52m ESESSG mo SEEN m Emma nos“: «Coo 3333958 .323 $33 .9030 omouo>< once. 02 Eva m 3 fig o: 332 ~83 633002 0535 :53 330 32mm .352 z 3 £3.33 cwgoou no use 53.. 3.62 £83 91.56: .368 9:38 :53 830 .28 .352 m 2 $093.3 83 mmuooeufluom 989 «.33 x33 6wa0 omega. 3.23 396 u< E308 m 2 wordauu mono gut. voodoo fig. .2620 «5322 $33 830 at No>oz z 3 museum ocoo . A962 98... 633 to: 6.68 @325 ”.89 oz 533. m 2 woe—«Cu Deco . No.62 320m one) .9320 poudfiq ammo. oz 533“ m 2 >35.qu no: .88 No.62 noes SEQ... .9390 ©0354 umou. oz 530m .w 5 $533 ocoo "Bandage a mound #53 £308 0333009.. 32...... 330 good 53mm nu mm 86on ocoo nuuooeuHflom g 033 #33 6.350 "330......an 34.3 3.30 0.69.. E39» m 2 mucoiu fig 32.2 82mm 8 .938 9:3»... 353 38c .98 533.. m 2 0308 mecca «Eco .m3a«o«§o 969m. was 0303 .9300 “0332804 .323 330 02H? 530m 2 m: 9.00 8.62 ~88 to; .958 R523 653 33w 2 53mm x 3 355 38 $4.92 you?“ one: .mxwoo compo}. ~33 moouo u< 530m m 2 080 5.302 umcs £03 .962. 00302 34.3 330 u< 530m x we c.3339: uc>oz nerd.“ .325 9300 03?»: 3.64 830 .5. Sam“ m we cofiooauauham .uwdnod 83354 mmoumoum magnum umou. “p.834 . uoEoc mod HABAAHOoO A28... 0:384 £2088 328 333 54 whose parents appeared to not want to be involved with the school were somewhat different. The courts had ordered two students back to school another three students had moved into the district and no longer had their home school tutors available to them. One student returned to public schools after the family completed extensive therapy and another student's parent complained that trying to educate a high school student was too complicated. The final area on the questionnaire that related to parents' involve- ment was the number of years that students were home schooled. The group of heavily involved parents had home schooled their children from four months to eight years. All the parents who selectively communicated with the school on only matters of concern had home schooled for two years and the parents who stayed away from the school had home schooled from three years to life. 6 . Administrators and/ or counselors will be asked to make judgments regarding home-schooled student ' s progress after being in the public school for nearly a year, in the areas of academics, social and personal involvement in school activities. Reported progress of home-schoo led students who had entered the public schools during the 88-89 school year brought a variety of responses from school personnel who were asked to make the judgments . Placement test results and academic progress showed a very direct relationship. The three students who tested above grade level on placement tests when coming into the schools showed accelerated academic progress during their first year in public school . The six students who tested at grade level continued to work at an average pace in their academics with the exception of two, who were limited somewhat by their insufficient academic background . The three students who tested below grade level earned failing 55 grades academically during their first year in school. The final four students who were not tested because the schools did not require a placement test showed limited to average progress during their time in public schools. Students' social progress was evaluated in two areas: attitudes demonstrated toward school and attitudes exhibited in relating to peers. Following rules, relating with teachers, adult staff members and admini- strators, promptness and being prepared were focused areas when evaluating attitudes demonstrated toward school. Respondents were asked when evaluating attitudes exhibited in relating to peers to focus on student's personality and numbers of friends they spent time with in the school setting. Seventy-five percent of the students studied obeyed school rules, appeared interested in school, were polite to school personnel and com- pleted their homework, coming to school prepared. The other twenty-five percent were different. Even though they did all obey the school rules, they did not do their homework. They were described by the respondents to the questionnaire as "negative," "not appearing to be interested in anything going on in the school setting," "taking up space," and "fish out of water." They spoke only to teachers if they were spoken to. Three of these same four students were described as loners and one was even termed a "recluse," when asked about student friends. The fourth student had a small select group of friends who were boisterous, loud enmi considered a "rough breed." This student's parents had originally txflcen her out of the public schools so she could be taught the "proper Cluristian principles." ‘Written remarks on the questionnaire questioned vdmether she might be rebelling against all that she had been taught, 56 evidenced by her disregard for school, staff and her choice of friends, of whom her parents definitely did not approve. The seventy-five percent of students who appeared to have found a "fit" in the public schools evidenced by their acceptance of school tradition, rules and people divided into all three categories when classifying how outgoing they were by the number of friends they attracted. Eighteen percent were described as loners, twenty-five percent as having a select small group of friends and thirty-two percent as being involved with a large group of friends. Questionnaire results describing personal involvement in school activities showed sixty-nine percent of this selected study group not involved in any activities or even attending school athletic or school sponsored events. Twenty-five percent of the students in the group participated in selected activities and attended school program.cfferings. Six percent of the group participated in everything that was offered in the school. "It appears that they can't get enough, or do enough,? said an administrator. Summary The results of a two part questionnaire regarding home schooled students who returned to public schools have been indicated in this chapter. Results have been reported, not interpreted. The respondents who answered the questionnaires represent a cross section of schools across the state of Michigan. (See Appendix I for map of Michigan which shows responding areas.) Sixteen students were identified in this study through the mailings of one-hundred questionnaires. There was a seventy-two percent response rate. Six central issues were posed to school personnel through a series 57 of questions involving how many students were returning to or entering public schools for the first time, what their ages and gender were, how schools determine grade placement, what services are offered these students, whether parents are involved.when their students come from a home situation into the public school and finally what kind of progress these students exhibit academically, socially and in terms of personal involvement. CHAPTER'V SUMMARY , CONCLUSIONS , IMPLICATIONS , REEQ‘TMENDATIONS AND REFLECTIONS In this chapter there is a review of the study in the summary, an examination of the findings of the study and conclusions. Implications involving the issue of home-schooled students entering the public schools are suggested and recommendations for high schools, ISD's and the State are given. Finally, observations in the form of reflections from the author of the study are presented. m The focus of this exploratory study was two-fold. First a determin- ation of the number of students who had been home schooled and then returned to public high schools and the reason they returned.was made. Second, how these home-schooled young people fared educationally and socially after entering and attending a public school was determined. Personnel from.one hundred high schools were surveyed.with seventy- two returning their questionnaires. Among those seventybtwo respondents, sixteen home-schooled students were reported to have entered the schools during the last school year. This small percentage indicates that the number of returnees is not a quantitative problem; however, there does exist a situation of how to orient these home schoolers into a public school setting that appears not to have been addressed by the public schools. TWO questionnaires were used to gather data for this study. The .first instrument was designed to gather individual local school 58 59 information and was to be answered by the principal . The second questionnaire asked for specific personal adjustment information about individual home-schooled students who had returned to the public schools. This questionnaire was designed to be completed by school personnel who were familiar with the student and knew him/ her well enough to evaluate their progress since the student entered public schools. (See Appendix E.) Results of the data collected were tabulated and reported in Chapter IV. Conclusions drawn from those results will appear in this chapter. Several limitations affected the validity of this research. Limitation factors mentioned in Chapter I were the minimal amount of literature written about home schooling, that the research for this study was only conducted in a single state, the research instrument used was focused on perceptions of people, and subjects of the research were limited to an eight months adjustment time. Additionally, other limitations became apparent as results were tabulated. The small number of home-schooled students entering public schools presented a difficulty in making conclusive detenminations . Many school districts were unaware of the phenomenon of home schoolers and reportedly were ill prepared for any entering students. Finally, the mixed messages that come from court interpretations, state enforcement and local monitoring presented difficulty. Respondents indicated over and over again from the additional comments they made on the questionnaires that the whole issue of home schooling is a most complex issue and people have very strong feelings about the home schOOIing concept . Before conclusions can be drawn from this exploratory study the 60 reader must first reflect on the six central questions that the researcher posed in the introductory chapter of this dissertation. 1) How many home-schooled young people are coming to Michigan public schools after their junior high or middle school years? 2) What are the ages and gender of the students who are entering fnonlxmmzschocls? Have these students ever attended public schools before and.what is their reason for entering? 3) How do individual schools determine grade placement for home- schooled students? If placement tests are used, what test is used and how do students fare on these tests? 4) What do public schools do for the entering home-schooled student to make their transition into schools comfortable? Are there local school and/or board policies which address the entry of home-schooled students? 5) At what level and in.what.ways do parents of previously home- schooled students interact with the public school? 6) Administrators and/or counselors will be asked to make judgments regarding home-schooled student's progress after being in the public schools for nearly a year, in the areas of academics, social and personal involvement in school activities. Can these young people find a place for themselves in public education after being home schooled, and be comfortable with "the fit?" Conclusions While there are limited numbers of students in the research, it was very clear that almost all school personnel who answered the questionnaires were concerned that students be treated with care and concern and that there be efforts made in the school to welcome these 61 students into the school. The ways that these home schoolers are welcomed appeared to be consistent throughout the study. They are treated just as any other new student. Few schools had policies, either local school or board of education, in place, and even fewer had considered any type of orientation program. The Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals took a pro- active stand in the early 80's and developed a sample policy for member schools to review, evaluate and then rewrite to suit their own individual district. The policy addresses areas to consider when a student from ailmnezsituation comes into a district and wishes to enroll. The schools in this study which did admit to having a policy had adopted the MASSP policy in its entirety. (See Chapter I, Page 8 for MASSP policy statement.) The orientation issue for incoming home schoolers also did not elicit any original ideas. Schools tended to leave the counselors in charge of making new students feel welcome by introductions to teachers, to administrators and sometimes to a few key students. The home-schooled students were perceived by the school personnel in the study as just another transfer student. Perhaps, because such a minimal number of students are returning, school people do not feel a lot of attention needs to be spent on considerations for making the transition from such different educational settings. Another indication of the perception of school personnel for the lmome-schooled student being like any other entering student was the fact.that few schools had considered how to place them.at a grade level. Ikesponses on questionnaires appeared in many cases to be "stabs in the