Comments on: Do Kids Need More Time in School?

By: Alan Coupe

Alan Coupe — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:43:31 +0000

Purva (and ,by implication Barbara)
The standardized tests are a moving average score. The fact that kids score less well the longer they are in school is a measure of differential progress not absolute regression.
These studies only go to show that the kids make so much less progress that they end up way behind kids who were at similar attainment levels at the start of school.What you should be addressing is this slow rate of progress not trying to make cheap points by misinterpreting the evidence.

By: Barbara Frank

Barbara Frank — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:41:31 +0000

Thanks for all the great comments, everyone! And yes, Purva, I’ve seen those studies too. Let’s just keep throwing money at the problem instead of trying to figure out what they’re doing to make these kids dumber…./sarcasm off.

By: Purva Brown

Purva Brown — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:09:26 +0000

Here’s another piece of information I just found out: apparently when kids enter school, they score about the same as kids from other countries on standardized tests. By the time they’re in middle school, they score quite a bit worse and then by the time they graduate, they score about half as well! So kids get stupider the more time they spend in school! How is giving them MORE school going to fix that? They’re just going to be worse than they are now!

By: Walking Therein » Our Home School: Carnival of Homeschooling #197

Walking Therein » Our Home School: Carnival of Homeschooling #197 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:10:43 +0000

[...] schoolers regularly demonstrate that children don’t need more time in school in her post, Do Kids Need More Time in School? at Barbara Frank [...]

By: blessingfarm

blessingfarm — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:59:40 +0000

Has anyone taken the performance scores of ONLY the homeschoolers and compared these to the scores of other countries? Is the US still near the bottom of the barrel when you do this? That would be interesting to know.

Any way you look at it, I believe that one of the telling differences between homeschoolers and public schoolers is that our children are taught to value education and they attatch importance and responsibility to it. This is evident when you compare our performance with that of other countries. Their cultures take pride in achievement (sometimes it’s a bit off kilter the other way, though), whereas many of our public schooled children take more pride in their cell phones, what apps they have on them, and how many texts they have per month. My oldest son recently went to court to have his driver’s license presented and the lecture the kids all received was not about drinking and driving as I was expecting. Instead, it was about the irresonsibility of texting and driving…They have had many serious accidents in our county as a result of teens texting as they drive. The sheriff said he figured most of the kids in there probably sent 3000 texts a month…and most of the kids looked sheepish and did not shake their heads or look astonished. WOW! How can you learn if you do nothing but text and listen to an ipod? There is something wrong when kids move from REAL relationships to virtual ones. Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox now. Thanks for the interesting article. I can’t wait to share this with my husband and have a lively discussion about it.

By: Rocky Frisco

Rocky Frisco — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:02:28 +0000

I figure Obama is disgruntled because his Socialist agenda was not accepted eagerly by the sheeple. I think he figures that the kids need to be retrained because of the summer vacation, so he wants to shorten it. Schools have been centers for indoctrination for decades, but, since kids want to learn, they have been less than efficient. Since it’s badly broken from former fixes, Obama’s ilk want to fix it further.

By: Do Kids Need More Time in School? | America 20XY

Do Kids Need More Time in School? | America 20XY — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:53:16 +0000

[...] Barbara Frank Online [...]

By: Janet

Janet — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:08:03 +0000

Wow. REALLY good post, Barbara. School as day care? Not the way it’s supposed to be!

By: Karen Lange

Karen Lange — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:27:45 +0000

This is another example of putting a band aid on things, trying to fix it with the wrong solution. Don’t know what the solution is for this, but I am thankful that homeschooling is an option!