Parent opting out of standardized testing

I've just read an article in Slate about a parent who opted her two daughters out of standardized testing. The bottom line is that the schools strongly resisted her decision with oddly unconvincing reasons. She had to contact the state board of education to get the real scoop.  It didn't change her mind.

When my daughters were in school, I sought ways to get them out of standardized tests. It wasn't that easy in my state (North Carolina.) As I began to consider home-schooling (for that reason as well as others), I learned that, during the month of May, I could not form a homeschool--just to prevent me from skipping end-of-grade (EOG) tests.

Clearly, my husband I were not the only parents who hated high-stakes testing. Not only are the tests nerve-wracking and high pressure for the kids, but they also became the main focus of the entire school year. Teachers taught the subjects that would be tested, and ignored the subjects that were not.

I didn't want grades/ scores/ numbers to be what defined my children. We homeschooled both of them for high school. Mastery of material and enjoying the process of learning were our focus.

The girls took their SAT / ACT with their age-peers--with zero preparation. None. No SAT classes. No ACT prep manuals. No looking online for practice questions. I work them up the morning of the examination, handed them a pencil, and drove them the testing center. That was all. My daughters did very well on those exams, proving that the missing of state EOG tests had no negative impact. Both girls got into the colleges of their choice without any problems.

I know that this decision isn't possible for all parents. Top-tier colleges may look askance at students without a transcript from a bricks-n-mortar high school. Homeschool was a huge time commitment from me and my husband to homeschool our daughters. It wasn't cheap either. But they've thrived since--and haven't missed out on a single goal because they skipped standardized EOG testing.

Innovative high schools breed success

I live in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina.  Recently, a local business journal published the rankings of local high schools. I was happy to see that the top six schools are all using innovative approaches to teaching teens. Five are "early college high schools" and one is a charter school.

If you're not familiar with early college high schools, it's a wonderfully simple idea. Early college high schools give students 2 graduation paths. A student can attend for the typical 4-years and leave with a high school diploma. However, if the student stays for 5 years, he or she can leave with a diploma and an associates degree--and it's free for the student.

I've volunteered at an early college HS and left so impressed. The teachers are creative and passionate. The students are excited about learning. Many of them are the first generation in their families to get a college degree.

I hope early college HS's are adopted in more states. It's a win for the kids and a win for America.

Goodbye to homework

There is a growing number of schools, especially in the elementary grades, that are eliminating homework. For instance, from VT to Texas to NY, schools are finding better ways to reinforce lessons without depending on homework.

Frankly, as a parent who had many miserable nights coaxing her kids to complete their homework, I'm glad this issue is being scrutinized. When my kids were in elementary school, I found that most of their nightly assignments were busy work, to the point of being ridiculous. Once the girls reached 4th/5th grade, they did have a few homework assignments, usually involving research and writing skills, that felt worthwhile. But the routine stuff? We would sometimes allow them to skip it, and I would write notes the next day letting the teachers know. It's my belief that:

• Sleep is more important than that last little problem.
• Choice promotes more love of learning than drudgery.

By the time my girls were in high school, we were homeschooling them. They completed their *total* schoolwork in four hours or less each day. Both did well on standardized tests. Both have been successful at the college level and beyond. (Granted, they didn't attend top-tier/Ivy-League type universities. Nor did we want them to.)

I hope we can continue to research and debate the effectiveness of homework. Perhaps there are kids who do benefit. Their specific demographics need to be identified to ensure the amount and kind of homework that will serve them best. But not all students should be forced into the misery of homework when there really isn't much data to support how well it works--and possibly suggests that it can have a detrimental effect on the creativity and agile thinking that America needs from the next generation.

Reasons to school at home - Lies your high school might not know they told you

In her sophomore year of high school, DD1 experienced health issues that interfered with her ability to learn. Health care appointments were frequent, and she missed a lot of school. Unfortunately, the teachers were not sympathetic and the school administration was unwilling to provide a home-bound teacher.

We were forced to find an alternative for her, one that allowed her the flexibility to (a) schedule appointments at her convenience and (b) sleep when she was exhausted (which was often.)
Online high schools were worth checking out. Most are accredited. Many are run by universities. Classes, assignments, and entire curriculums are customized to the student's situation.

photo by JJ Losier*

In other words, DD1 could take the classes she wanted, whenever it suited her. She would know 100% of her assignments from the first day of class. Since she didn't have the state government choosing the classes she took, she could create her own transcript primarily based on personal interests. (We did, of course, ensure that her transcript contained the minimum requirements needed to get into her target college. But you might be surprised how flexible that is.)

In the state of North Carolina, there are 3 options for primary and secondary education:

1. public
2. private
3. homeschool

There is no "online high school" option; therefore, we formed a homeschool, so that she could attend Mizzou Online High School (through the University of Missouri at Columbia.) DD1 has a diploma from the State of Missouri.

We liked the quality and convenience of online high school so well that we decided to send DD2 through the program as well. Her reasons were different: she learns better when she can focus on one subject at a time, and not switch when a bell rings. Online high school permitted that. If she wanted to work on English and only English during the week, that was fine. If she wanted to spend nine months to complete math and one month to complete history, also fine.

We were a little concerned about the stigma associated with homeschooling. The stereotype for homeschoolers are poorly-socialized kids who are being pulled from "bricks-and-mortar" schools for extremist/religious reasons. And, while there may be some families who fit that stereotype, we do not--nor did we find that to be true for the homeschool families we met.  In our county, 10,000+ kids are schooled at home. In this state, 150,000+ are homeschooled, of which 40% are schooled for secular reasons, such as health or disdain for the quality of local schools.

Bottom line: We chose online high school because it provided the flexibility of daily schedule and course workload that our daughters needed.  Our girls could sleep-in, take the classes they were interested in exactly when they were ready for them, and still get a good education. Being "homeschooled" was not only better than okay; it was great! (which is why so many families choose this option for the very same reasons we did.)

Other posts in this series:
Overview
Premise
Diplomas
Online school 
Grades
IQs
Teachers
GPA
Work Experience 
Career or money 

* Image under commons license

Advanced courses - Lies your high school may not know they told you

If you've created a short list of universities that you'd like to attend, then you may already know how rigorous the courses must be on your transcript to make you competitive.

There are several levels of rigor for high school courses: regular/standard, honors, advanced/college-prep, and dual enrollment. This post will primarily discuss advanced/college-prep high school courses and compare them to dual enrollment**.

Before you select the intensity of the courses you take, ensure that you know the admission rate for freshmen applicants at your target institutions. For instance, in North Carolina, freshmen admission rates are:

Duke	- 14%
UNC Chapel Hill	- 27%
NCSU	- 47%
Meredith College	- 61%
UNC Asheville	- 70%

The tougher it is to get into a college, the more rigor you will need to show on your transcript.


My older daughter took three advanced courses (Calculus, Statistics, World History) in her sophomore year of high school.  My younger daughter never took an advanced course. Both daughters were admitted to their first-choice colleges (UNC Asheville and Meredith, respectively.)

Here are some things I learned as the parent of a student taking advanced courses.

Volume of work: Although it probably varies by teacher, the volume of work for advanced courses is crazy. They are fast-paced and intense. They require more effort than actual college courses. If you can handle most advanced high school classes, you can handle most 100- and 200-level classes in college.

Frankly, I thought advanced courses were too hard. As an example, in her HS senior year, Older Daughter took a dual enrollment class in economics. A friend of hers took economics as an advanced HS class. This table compares their workload.

	Daughter	Friend
Course type	Dual enrollment	Advanced course
Taken from	community college	high school
Length of course	14 weeks	30 weeks
Time spent	5 hours per week	7 hours per week
Projects	2	10+
Quizzes	12	30
Exams	2	4
High-stakes standardized exam	0	1

They both walked away with 3 hours of college credit.

Stress: The stress of advanced courses was horrible for my daughter. In her sophomore year, she started out with 4 of them, and I made her drop one, just because the stress was worsening her health. She wasn't allowed to take any her junior or senior years.

Transferring into college: To transfer the advanced class into college, the student must take a national standardized exam. Colleges are allowed to set which score they accept. A student can get a decent score--and the college they attend can still reject it. My daughter's college accepted 2 of her scores and rejected the third.

Even if the college accepts the score, they can also decide whether to call it an elective or a replacement for the same subject. For example, my daughter's dual enrollment English class transferred into college as an English class. Her friend's advanced HS English class transferred in as an elective. Just something to think about.

Starting college as a sophomore: If a student takes a lot of advanced courses and gets good scores on the standardized exams, they can potentially start their first semester of college as a sophomore. This is a hugely-valuable reason for taking them. First, it's (potentially) a way to complete college faster. Also, freshmen are the last students to signup for classes; starting as a sophomore can get a student earlier access to the classes/sessions they want.

Older Daughter started college with 18 hours of dual enrollment and 6 hours of advanced HS courses. She was a sophomore by her second semester.

We did not permit Younger Daughter to take advanced classes; their stress level trumped everything. The lack of advanced classes didn't hurt her admission to college. It hasn't hurt her progress in college either.

Bottom line: There are good reasons to take advanced classes. They (over)prepare you for college. They can make it possible for you to begin college as a sophomore. And top-tier colleges expect to see them on your transcript.

There are good reasons to skip advanced classes (and, perhaps, take dual enrollment instead.) They are often harder than normal college courses and are, consequently, incredibly stressful. You must take a high-stakes standardized exam and, if you don't do well, have all of your effort make no difference on your college transcript. And even when you do well, they could take up your precious elective slots.



Other posts in this series:
Overview
Premise
Diplomas
Online school 
Grades
IQs
Teachers
GPA
Work Experience 
Career or money

** Dual enrollment: a program where a high school student can take a freshman college course and have it count on both her/his high school and college transcripts

Career or money - Lies your high school may not know they told you

My plan was to write my next post about taking honors or advanced classes in high school (and I will get to that soon.) Then  it hit me that choosing a college-prep courseload depends on where you're going to college. And your targeted college(s) probably depends on what you want out of a career.

So I'm writing about that topic first. What do you want out of a career?

Some of you may already know. You might want to be a doctor, lawyer, engineer, actor, musician, teacher, scientist, or athlete. You're picking up skills now. You understand how many years it will take to get the credentials you need. This post is not for you.

I'm talking to those of you who have no idea what you want to do after college. Like me when I was your age. Which means you probably don't know what you want to major in. I didn't.

It's okay. Most college freshmen are just like you. It's estimated that half of first-year students have an undecided major. And once you've made up your mind, it probably won't stick. 75% of college students change their major at least once and as many as half will change it 3 times.

I didn't know what I wanted to do. My favorite subjects were math and history. There weren't a lot of jobs that combined those two. When the US Air Force offered to pay my way through college if I majored in Computer Science, I was fine with that. So, yeah, the military picked my career. Fortunately, I've liked it.

Here are a few questions to consider when thinking about your future and the education you'll need to get there.

1. What are your interests, hobbies, and talents? Would you want to do any of them as a job, or are you okay with doing them after hours?
2. Do you want to love your career? Is liking a job enough? 
3. Is the salary important to you? Is money more important than the work?

When I was in high school, these were my answers.

1. I liked to read, and I didn't see how that interest could turn into a job. But I was okay with reading for pleasure at night.
2. I didn't have a particular need to love my job. Liking it was fine.
3. Salary was very important to me. I wanted to afford the kind of life style where I could buy lots of book to read at night and eat out all of the time. Finding a job that paid well was definitely a higher priority than being passionate about my daily work.

There are four people in my family. We are evenly split on the "Career or Money" question. My husband and Daughter #2 love their majors and whatever money comes along is fine. Daughter #1 and I were more about the paycheck. As long as we're making enough money to pay for our hobbies, we could put up with a lot at work.

Bottom line: Don't worry if you're not sure what you want to do or where you want to go. You can postpone these decisions for a little while longer and still recover.

If you're already sure about your career or vocation, great. You might know exactly what kind of high school courses will get you into the college that will launch your career.

If you don't know, that's fine too. You have time to figure it out. But start thinking about what's important to you and what you enjoy. It will help you plan for the college(s) you want to attend and the high school courses you should take to be admitted.

By the way, my story has a happy ending. I got both a career that I enjoy (in software development) and a job that pays well. I've found a second career (writing) that I love even more. And it all started by being honest about what would make me happiest.



Other posts in this series:
Overview
Premise
Diplomas
Online school 
Grades
IQs
Teachers
GPA
Work Experience 

Work experience - Lies your high school may not know they told you

Experience is the new black.

College graduates generally earn more than people with only a high school diploma. A 2014 study puts the gap at an average $17,500 per year. High school dropouts have it even worse, making 60% less than college grads. There are a lot of good reasons to get a college degree, and its effect on your earning potential is one of the most important.

But for many industries, the economic value tapers off once you have a bachelor's degree. A recent article in Business Insider listed the 10 most "useless" graduate degrees, where "useless" means that a master's really doesn't improve salaries or unemployment rates. Computer Science and IT graduate degrees made this top 10 list.

I can easily believe those findings. I'm a software professional who has hired (or helped to hire) dozens of software developers and testers in my career. All candidates had undergraduate degrees, and some had graduate. However, not all had work experience. For many hire decisions, relevant work experience can be the main differentiator.


The company that employs me is well-known for being a great place to work. When we open a technical position in Research & Development, hundreds of applications pour in. I do look at a candidate's education, but what I'm truly interested in is their employment history. If the applicant doesn't have one, I'm likely to move that resume to the "Maybe" stack.

Why do I do this? It's because I want new colleagues who know how to tackle business projects, meet deadlines, collaborate with other people, and follow directions. You do not get those skills in college. Unless you have "blow-me-away" education, I'll choose an experienced candidate. Every time.

There are a lot of ways to get experience. Work-study, internships, and volunteer jobs look amazing on resumes. If you can't find any of those opportunities, being self-employed can look good, too.


Start the research now, while you're making the transition from high school to college to career. If you know what you want to major in¹, find out if post-graduate education is required. If it's not, discover how much (or little) your education impacts your career and salary goals. And then organize your 5-year plan around that information.

Bottom line: In a competitive job market, work experience might be as critical to your job search as education. So do your research. Know what is expected for your field, and then make a plan that is right for you and your goals.

1 - If you don't know what you want to major in yet, that's fine. You don't have to be in a hurry. Postpone research and plans until you've figured out what you want to do in your first career. 

Other posts in this series:
Overview
Premise
Diplomas
Online school 
Grades
IQs
Teachers
GPA 

Teachers - Lies your high school may not know they told you

Many people and experiences have influenced my writing and my author's voice. But if I had to pick the one person who impacted me most, it would be my English composition teacher from high school. Miss Box was tough and wonderful. She worked hard to teach us how to write, and her students worked hard to please her. I was forever changed by that 9-week class. Thank you, Miss Box!


I think it must be incredibly hard to be a teacher in modern America. They're responsible for so much stuff that has nothing to do with pure teaching. Discipline. Never-ending paperwork. Meetings and staff development. Sponsoring cheerleaders or baseball teams or student council.

Then there are the parents. Some nice. Some not. Most care. Many don't.

And what about today's kids? Think about the wide range of students that teachers must manage. Smart and not-smart. Well-behaved and out-of-control. Normal wants and exceptional needs. Ready to study and hungry/tired/sad.

My sister is a teacher. My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were teachers. I'm in awe of good teachers. They work insane hours. They're not paid enough. They do not spend the summers lazing around. They care about your success, and they remember you much better than you might think.

I'm sorry to say that my girls were rather unlucky with teachers. About half were good, and half were bad, and a handful of the bad ones were despicable.  My husband and I found ourselves in the odd position of having a physician urge us to let our kid abandon school for her health. Ultimately, both daughters "dropped out" of high school and finished their diplomas at home—and it was almost entirely because they were being bullied by their teachers.


The weird thing about bad teachers is that they aren't a secret. The school administration, other parents, and other students know who they are.

So why are bad teachers still around, you might wonder?

Some will have their bad behavior overlooked as long as their students do well on standardized tests; good numbers are just too important for a school and district. Others might have tenure; if that's true, there isn't much you can do about them except hope you never get them.

But don't despair. You do have options if you find yourself taking a class from the wrong teacher.

• Fight for a different teacher: Ask to switch classes. Get a parent, guidance counselor, community/church leader, or good teacher to take up your cause if you need the support.
• Drop the class: maybe you don't need to take that class right now. Postpone it for another semester or try alternative education, such as...
• Petition to take the class on-line: Most states have virtual classes  or dual enrollment (college/high-school credit for same class.) It may require "permission" from the school, but persistence might work.
• Explore more drastic options: if things get really bad, push for what you need.  There are many ways to earn a diploma that don't involve  your local high school.

Bottom line: Most teachers are good. Some are not, and you don't have to suffer through them. There are alternatives. You may have to find a compassionate adult to help you. You may need to be willing to try something unconventional. But do what is right for you. Your mental and emotional health are important, too.


Other posts in this series:
Overview
Premise
Diplomas
Online school 
Grades
IQs

IQs - Lies your high school may not know they told you

The American education system ought to be about helping students explore their unique potential and interests. Instead, we ask all kids to grapple with a lot of stuff and only reward those students who have the skill of making good grades.

School success should be about developing talents and not about how well a kid manages assignments, teachers, and rules. We all know geniuses who barely scrape by in the classroom. Or how about those students (maybe even at my house) who coast along in a class, bored out of their skulls--and pass by acing the final with their stellar test-taking abilities? Why can't all of the above kids be celebrated, encouraged, and challenged?


When my daughters were still in elementary school, I remember one of them plaintively asking why she hadn't been called to the stage on Awards Day. The best answer I could give was "because the school doesn't give out prizes for the things you're good at."

In the 1980s, Howard Gardner, a professor at Harvard's graduate school of education, identified 8 intelligences, such as  logical/mathematical, naturalistic, and intrapersonal. I know that schools do support many of these "IQs." Kids who are "body smart" can play sports. If you have musical talent, you can join choir or band. The emphasis on reading and writing works out well for students who are good with words.

For over 30 Years, we've known that "book smart" is only one of the many IQs, yet schools still maintain a rigid focus on academics.

There are plenty of deeply valuable intelligences that go un-nourished. What about the student who can quickly see the patterns in a problem and fix it? Or the quietly-effective leader who paves the way to teamwork? Or the kid who has brilliant ideas but is not-so-great at execution? America needs all of them to soar.

High schools create graduates who are expected to succeed at math, English, foreign languages, science, history, fine arts or sports, and other whimsy shoveled onto transcripts by state legislatures. Why? (One of my subscribers sent me a link to some such insanity being forced on high school seniors in Utah.)

This makes no sense. How many jobs require an employee to be good at all of those subjects? Not many. In fact, most companies are delighted to find applicants who are excellent in one specific area.

So there's the paradox--your high school wants to graduate generalists, and the business world wants to hire specialists with a niche skill.

Maybe a better plan is to create an educational system that honors the unique characteristics of each student--a system that can allow broad and brief exposure to core subjects while encouraging students to specialize in their natural gifts.

Bottom line: A traditional high school is designed to nurture those who are good at academics, sports, or (sometimes) the arts. If you're great at something else--something very specific or distinctive--hang in there. Universities or community colleges might be your place to shine. And corporate America wants you!

Other posts in this series:

Overview
Premise
Diplomas
Online school 
Grades
 

Grades - Lies your high school may not know they told you

Making good grades is all about playing the game.

When I was in school, I understood that. My teachers made the rules, and I followed them. I turned in their assignments and told them what they wanted to hear on exams. In return, they gave me good grades, which I was able to cash in for college scholarship money.

It worked for me. I succeeded because I worked hard, and the teachers wanted me to win because they cared.

In today's America, the game has changed. Big time.

The teachers don't make the rules anymore; somebody else makes the rules for them. And generally, those "somebodies" know little about kids or how to educate them.

Even worse, the somebodies have given teachers a stake in the outcome. Teachers now need students to win (in part) because the teachers have a financial motivation for kids to succeed.

Too many people have skin in the game. Students, their parents, teachers, principals, schools, school systems, and government officials. This is a huge burden to place on a child's shoulders.

Just look at the news, like those teachers and administrators in Atlanta who gamed the system. It's egregious that they changed test scores. It's equally egregious that their state government tempted them into viewing personal gain as more important than an individual student's learning.

When I attended school eons ago:

1. My efforts were directly correlated to the grades I earned. 
2. My parents never helped me. Never. Any assignment or project I turned in was entirely my work.
3. Lessons made sense and usually advanced learning.
4. The teachers held all of the power. The vast majority of them deserved that power and did not abuse it.
5. There were no high-stakes tests. My transcript reflected skills I acquired steadily and organically. A single bad day or week had no impact.

By the time my kids hit the public school system:

1. Their grades were a complex mix of teacher quality, school quality, legislative insistence on metrics, and--yes, finally--my kids' efforts.
2. Other parents "helped" their kids. A lot. The more affluent or determined, the more they helped. We resisted until we realized that...
3. Lessons were as much about appearances as they were about education. Homework was required but often ineffective.
4. The teachers held a fraction of the power to make the rules. And, frighteningly, in our experience, only about half of our daughters' teachers deserved their authority or used it well.
5. High-stakes testing occurred often. A single bad day or week could be devastating.

We ultimately pulled our kids out of public schools and sent them to an online high school (via a proper, state-recognized homeschool.) And once we did, we abandoned our concern about grades. Yes, indeed. We phased out the question "what did you make?" and replaced it with "what did you learn?". It was lovely and liberating. The parent/child fights practically ended. The stress faded. Our girls could focus on understanding the material.

Older Kid ended up at a college where there were no letter grades. Just Pass/Fail. Or, really, just pass--because she had to redo all assignments and exams as often as it took to get them completely correct. In other words, she had to prove mastery (what you would call a B or higher) on all classes. The very fact that she has her degree means that she mastered all college-level material in her major.

Bottom line: Don't expect the rules to be fair. Grades reflect more than your own effort; they also reflect how well you understand the game and how equipped you are to play it. Some institutions are turning to a different system--where your transcript is about what you learned instead of how much the rules favored you.

Other posts in this series:

Overview
Premise
Diplomas
Online school 

Education - Lies your high school may not know they told you

Older Kid was watching over my shoulder as I wrote a new post in this series, and she asked a great question: What exactly is your premise for these articles?

Okay, then. I need to make that clear. It's my opinion that public schools have become focused on the "business" of education. They treat students like units of production, rather than people with individual needs.

Why do I think that? Because schools are all about the numbers. GPAs, SATs, percentiles, reading levels, % free-and-reduced lunches, end-of-grade tests, adequate yearly progress, graduation rates, enrollment on September 15th. When you ask what the quality of a school is, most of the time, you're told a number.

I don't care about a school's numbers. I only care about how well my child would learn there.

Let me say upfront that this is not a slam against teachers. I believe most try really hard to do a good job. I have friends who are compassionate, committed teachers. I grew up in a family of amazing teachers. My sister, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother were all public school teachers. They loved teaching. They agonized over how to help their students. They worked too hard for too little pay.

I also believe that many students will do just fine in regular schools. However, if you're a kid who has any of the following factors, you're in danger of being failed by the system.

• A socio-economic/family background that doesn't value learning
• A brain that can't juggle a lot of different subjects simultaneously
• Health issues, including insomnia
• Learning disabilities
• Genius IQ or unconventional interests
• Behavior patterns that are viewed unfavorably by the school

The local school system failed my kids. One had health issues. The other had learning disabilities. Actually, I failed them too--because I let too much time elapse while I kept hoping for things to get better.

In North Carolina, we have two departments that administrate schools: the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the Department of Non Public Education (DNPE). It's interesting to note that public schools have "instruction" and non-public schools have "education."

I'm not sure why American schools have gone in this direction. I lay a lot of the blame on state legislatures, who have no clue what it takes to educate children from multiple socio-economic backgrounds and with varying skills, learning styles, and intelligences. Most legislators fall back on asking for numbers, perhaps because they don't know any better, perhaps because they're distracted by the money that inevitably circulates around an enterprise this big.

Of course, if I blame government officials, then I have to blame voters too--'cause we're the ones putting the wrong people into power.

Bottom line: It is my opinion that public schools are too focused on the business of generating "numbers" -- and not focused enough on helping kids. Some students will do fine anyway, but there are many who won't, and they don't deserve to be failed by public education.

Online school - Lies your high school may not know they told you

My husband and I are both graduates of the traditional American education system, having attended public schools from first grade through college. We expected the same for our children. Public schools—in buildings made of bricks-and-mortar—had been good enough for us; we expected it would be good enough for them.

The reality was far different.


Both of my kids have learning differences that made the old, traditional, classroom-based approach ineffective. We had to find an alternative. Since we're a family of geeks, education over the internet was something we were willing to try.

I am so glad we did. Online schools worked out great for my daughters! But will it work for you?



Each student is different. If you're considering online education (or cyber academy, virtual school, e-learning, distance education, etc.) here are some things to consider.

Disclaimer: if you're a student with a goal of attending a top-tier university, be sure to research their attitudes toward online high schools. A highly-competitive university may look askance at an online transcript (although Stanford University runs a virtual high school; that diploma would probably look just fine.)

The Good

Variety: Nearly every university in America offers online classes, both for college-level and high school (HS). The number of options is exhausting. Older Kid received her HS diploma from the University of Missouri Online High School. Western Governors University, a virtual college, awarded her college degree. Younger Kid's HS transcript is filled with online classes. Although she attends a bricks-and-mortar college now, her transcript has online courses from multiple universities.

Pace: The pacing is my favorite part of virtual high schools. Most online classes have flexible schedules. My girls could start a class whenever they liked, work on it as long as they needed, and immediately move on to something new when they were done. Since Older Kid had health issues, she could focus on schoolwork when she felt good and heal when she didn't. Younger Kid might race through English in 3 months. Since math was harder for her, she could take a full year with it.

Syllabus: Another great thing about online classes is that you know from the first day what is expected from you. Because you often have the course outline before you register, you know upfront about all assignments, quizzes, and exams.

The Bad

Personality: A student must have good self-discipline and a strong motivation to pursue e-learning. You must be willing to track your own progress. You must be able to learn by reading. If you aren't willing to push yourself to study and complete assignments, you will fail.

Cost: Public schools are free. Online schools are not. For HS, I spent about $4000 per year per kid, which included all online class materials, grading, exams, textbooks, and tutors.  (For Older Kid's virtual college, we paid about $3000 per semester, so its tuition was actually less than most colleges.)

It-depends

Quality: Just like in traditional schools, the quality of an online class depends on the instructor who designed and developed the content. I'd like to think that virtual schools seek out the best teachers possible, but who knows? Generally, though, from what I witnessed with 50+ online courses, the quality is pretty good.

Relationships: If you're considering online high school, you need the support of your parents/family. It's hard to learn every required subject without another human being to talk to occasionally. So be aware that attending an online HS may change the parent-child relationship. (It strengthened mine, but I wouldn't expect that to be true for everyone.)

Foreign language: Research shows that students who take a foreign language online do better at vocabulary and worse at conversation. We found that to be true, too.

Solitude: You will complete most online classes by yourself. You don't interact with people face-to-face. If you enjoy group projects and social time, virtual school may not be the right choice for you.



Before we pulled Older Kid out of her public HS, she asked her guidance counselor if she could take an online class from NC's virtual public school. He refused, saying that they were too easy to be any good. I suspect he had no actual experience with e-learning. Most studies suggest that students who drop out of online classes do so because they are too hard.

Bottom line: You must have the right personality to be successful at online school: that is, you must be self-motivated and able to learn on your own. The quality of online classes depends on the institution offering it, but you can expect a well-respected university to offer good classes. You can choose class schedules that accommodate your pace. And it's wise to have support from your family.

Other posts in this series:
Diplomas
Overview

Diplomas - Lies your high school may not know they told you

I pulled both of my kids out of conventional high schools (HS). Older Kid left at 16. We liked alternative education so well that we pulled Younger Kid out at 14; she spent all 4 years of HS in an educational program customized for her.

One of our first concerns was their HS diploma. What would it take to get a valid diploma? How many credits would they need? Who issued their diplomas and transcripts?


The most important question, though, was: Would colleges accept a transcript from an alternative education source? 

The answer is...Yes, they will. And it's easier than you might think.

[Disclaimer: the information below is useful in North Carolina. Laws and regulations in other states and countries may vary, so always do your own research. Also, if you're a student with a goal of being admitted to a top-tier college, this information does not apply to you.]


Here's what I did to learn about the kinds of  diplomas and transcripts that would impress colleges.


1. Find out what our target colleges expected.

My kids wanted to attend college in North Carolina, either public or private.  The University of North Carolina System has minimum admissions requirements. The requirements were:

• 15 credit hours (with specific minimums for Language Arts, Science, Math, and Social Studies)
• GPA of 2.5 or higher
• SAT score of 800+ or ACT composite of 17+

So, yeah,15 credit hours. That's all they needed.


2. Research the diploma requirements for our state.

• The state requires more credits for a state HS diploma: 20 for Older Kid (21 for Younger Kid, because the rules changed).
• That was unexpected. North Carolina requires 6 more credits than minimum admission requirements. Then there is another little gotcha.  Counties are allowed to add even more credits to issue a diploma. Our county adds 5 more credits.
• If my kids had received a county HS diploma, they would have completed 11 credits more than local colleges require.  I'm sorry, but that's just crazy.

3. Check into HS equivalency programs.

When we looked into HS equivalency programs, we found two: Adult High School Diploma and High School Equivalency.

• Adult diploma: this diploma is issued by our local county, with the same requirements.
• High School Equivalency: a certificate is awarded, following the successful completion of a well-known series of tests. Those tests are not easy, by the way.

Nope. We didn't want either of those options.


4. Look into online (distance) HS programs.

There are hundreds of online HS programs.  Most states offer them. Most major colleges offer them. And many private/for-profit institutions also allow you to earn an online diploma. The more research we did, the more we discovered that there are many excellent distance programs available.


5. Select the right option for the student.

• We decided to use online education for both of our kids.
• We chose a fully-accredited distance diploma for Older Kid. She took classes from a community college as well as classes from the online high school at the University of Missouri. Older Kid received a HS diploma from the State of Missouri.
• We simplified high school even further for Younger Kid. She took many distance HS courses from two universities. We formed a home school and customized some coursework around her special needs. Our home school issued Younger Kid's diploma and transcript.

And guess what? Our kids had no trouble at all being admitted to the colleges they wanted.

A conventional high school has no motivation to share this information. There are a variety of reasons. First, they may not know it. Second, even if they did know, they might not realize (or believe) how good these alternatives are. Lastly, there is a financial incentive not to tell students.  


Bottom line:  Alternative education options allow you to choose a high school program that reflects a student's goals and what their family can support.If you want to attend an Ivy League university, you may need a diploma from a rigorous, conventional high school. If you want to start a career immediately or if you want to attend a local college, there are alternatives to conventional high schools--such as home school, distance high schools, or high school equivalency programs.  Check it out!

Lies your high school may not know they told you

I'm an author but, more importantly, I'm a mom. I have two unconventional kids who, a few short years ago, struggled to get their secondary educational needs met. Their health-related issues forced me to search for unconventional solutions to getting them through high school.

When public high schools didn't work out, we looked into private schools, on-line schools, and home schools.  I learned a lot along the way. I'll write a series of posts that discuss alternatives to conventional education.

A couple of disclaimers:

• I live in North Carolina, USA. My knowledge is heavily based on the way things are here. Other states and countries may have different expectations and statutes.
• My kids have simple goals. They want quiet college degrees and good jobs. They do not aspire to Ivy League universities or jobs that require advanced degrees or training. If you are (or parent) a student who has aspirations to attend a top-tier university with dreams of landing a highly-competitive job, these posts are not for you.

My daughter suggested the name Lies your high school may not know they told you--because we don't believe that most educators are hiding this information or deliberately misleading students.  It's likely they don't know it either.