Titles related to "home-life" subjects—like preserving and canning—have also experienced a boost in sales

Narrated by Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Richard Kurin, the 24-part video series blends history with modern mainstays

Rural educator Frank Cyr had the vision and pull to force the nation to standardize the color of the ubiquitous vehicle

Nova Scotia students and teachers will not be returning to the classroom this year. At-home learning will continue until June 5, when the province's school year will end.

Some school travel groups in Cape Breton that had trips cancelled in March due to COVID-19 are still waiting to get their money back.

The provincially appointed trustee of the English Montreal School Board says the Quebec government made the “right decision” when it postponed the reopening of Montreal-area elementary schools to May 25.

A Winnipeg School Division trustee who was suspended from the school board earlier this week does not plan on fighting the decision, she told CBC News.

Schools in western Quebec are getting ready to welcome students back next week, but things will look a lot different — and classrooms will likely be far from full. 

Ontario reported its lowest new COVID-19 case count of the week on Saturday with 346 new confirmed cases of the virus. Meanwhile, the government has issued an emergency order allowing school board employees to be voluntarily redeployed to hospitals, long-term care homes, retirement homes and women's shelters.

Every other week the OM team in Bar visits a Roma community to teach the children to read and write.

Denver Newsroom, May 7, 2020 / 05:29 pm (CNA).- A Notre Dame sociologist is using data to challenge a Harvard Law professor’s assertions that homeschooling is “dangerous”, and detrimental to society.

The controversy stems from a recent paper by professor Elizabeth Bartholet in which she calls for a presumptive ban on homeschooling in the United States.

Bartholet, as quoted in a Harvard Magazine piece based on her paper, points to unspecified “surveys of homeschoolers” to assert that “up to 90 percent” of homeschooling families are “driven by conservative Christian beliefs, and seek to remove their children from mainstream culture.”

“Some” homeschooling parents are “‘extreme religious ideologues’ who question science and promote female subservience and white supremacy,” she writes.

David Sikkink, associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame, analyzed surveys of homeschooling families— including a 2016 government survey—  and found that these families are not overwhelmingly Christian nor religious, and are not as universally closed-off to the outside world as Bartholet asserts.

In the analysis Sikkink conducted, just 16% of homeschooling parents said they were homeschooling primarily for religious reasons. The number one reason homeschooling parents cited was a concern about school environment, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure.

Eleven percent of parents reported homeschooling because their child has special needs.

While approximately half of the homeschooling parents surveyed mentioned religion as a factor in their decision to homeschool, Sikkink notes that the parents who cited religion as a reason were, on the whole, more highly educated than those parents who did not.

In terms of Bartholet’s assertion that some homeschooling parents “believe that women should be totally subservient to men and educated in ways that promote such subservience,” Sikkink’s analysis did not find evidence that religious households oppose higher education for girls.

Among the homeschooling families in the survey who use a religious curriculum, there was no difference in their self-reported educational expectations— i.e., what education level they expected their children to reach—  for their male children vs. their female children.

Several past studies have shown that homeschool students typically outperform their public and private school counterparts on things like standardized tests and college performance. A 2016 study from the National Council on Measurement in Education showed that, when adjusted for demographic factors, homeschool students were on par academically with their demographically-similar peers.

Moreover, the data Sikkink analyzed suggests that after family background and demographic controls are accounted for, about 64% of homeschoolers “completely agree” that they have much in life to be thankful for, compared to 53% of public schoolers.

On feelings of helplessness, or lack or goals or direction in life, homeschoolers do not substantially differ from their public school counterparts, the analysis suggests.

In the Arizona Law Review, Bartholet argues that while homeschool children may perform as well as their peers on standardized tests or in college, they are also often isolated from their peers and denied experiences and exposures that would make them more productive citizens.

Bartholet claims in her article that “a very large proportion of homeschooling parents are ideologically committed to isolating their children from the majority culture and indoctrinating them in views and values that are in serious conflict with that culture.”

“Isolated families,” she asserts, “constitute a significant part of the homeschooling world.”

In contrast, Sikkink’s analysis found that among the schooling groups surveyed, homeschooling families had the highest level of “community involvement” of all school sectors.

“Community involvement” activities included attending sporting events, attending concerts, going to the zoo or aquarium, going to a museum, going to a library, visiting a bookstore, or attending an event sponsored by a community, religious, or ethnic group.

Homeschooling graduates are almost identical to their public school counterparts in likelihood to vote in federal and local elections, Sikkink found.

Furthermore, the total number of volunteer and community service hours for homeschooling graduates is very similar to or slightly higher than public school graduates, the analysis found.

Bartholet asserts that some homeschoolers “engage in homeschooling to promote racist ideologies and avoid racial intermingling.”

In contrast: “The reality is that about 41% of homeschooled children are racial and ethnic minorities,” Sikkink writes.

“When asked about four closest friends, about 37% of young adult homeschoolers...mention someone of a different race or ethnicity—exactly the same as public schoolers.”

This diversity also extends to schooling practices— increasingly, Sikkink says, homeschooling adopts new forms, including “hybrids” that combine the benefits of home and institutional schooling.

“About 57 percent of homeschoolers are using some form of instruction outside the family,” Sikkink told CNA in an email.

“That includes using tutors, private or public schools, colleges or universities, or homeschooling coops. That percentage would be higher if we included those who reported obtaining curriculum from formal institutions, such as public schools.”

Moreover, about a third of homeschooling parents obtain their curriculum or books from a public school or school district.

“Altogether, 46% of homeschoolers have some pedagogical relationship with public schools,” Sikkink asserts.

Bartholet argues that homeschooling puts children at risk of abuse by their parents, while if children were in public schools, they would be among teachers who are mandatory reporters of any suspected abuse that may be taking place.

“The issue is, do we think that parents should have 24/7, essentially authoritarian control over their children from ages zero to 18? I think that’s dangerous,” Bartholet asserts in the Harvard Magazine piece.

“I think it’s always dangerous to put powerful people in charge of the powerless, and to give the powerful ones total authority.”

Sikkink says Bartholet’s image of a child confined to the home “24/7...from ages zero to 18” is not consistent with the data.

“When we look at the use of homeschooling for each year of the child's upbringing, we only find a small percentage that report that the child was homeschooled for all their years of schooling,” Sikkink told CNA in an email.

Many of these students are part-time public schoolers— about 25% of homeschoolers receive some instruction in public schools during their school-age careers, he wrote.

Homeschooling regulations vary widely by state. Sikkink told CNA he hopes future studies will examine the effects of state-level variation in regulation on homeschooling quality.

“The question of schooling oversight remains, of course, but it would be short-sighted not to keep homeschooling and other creative schooling options in the mix, including the hybrid models that cross sector boundaries,” Sikkink concludes.

 

Subsequent to the publication of this story, Sikkink told CNA he had revised his assessment of the percentage of homeschoolers using instruction outside the family, from 64% to 57%. The story has been updated to reflect that assessment.

OM Hungary's Sports Team brings baseball and the Gospel to local schools in their now-annual visit to sports classes.

OM Malawi opens a new school to help educate children in need.

CNA Staff, May 4, 2020 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- The Republic of Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission has decided that an atheist child was discriminated against by his Catholic school when students were rewarded for attending a religious ceremony.

The commission, an independent, quasi-judicial forum, ruled that the Yellow Furze National School in County Meath had discriminated against an atheist student.

Early in the 2019 school year, the students had been promised a homework pass if they took part in the choir during a First Communion ceremony

The boy’s mother complained, but the school defended its policy.

"Any student, regardless of his/her religion in our school who opted not to participate in this extracurricular event was not 'rewarded,'" the school said, according to the Irish Post last year.

The school added that children of any religion were able to participate in the choir, and that the claim of discrimination was thus “wholly unfounded.”

The commission said the school “does not appreciate this action had an adverse effect on students who are not of a Catholic faith,” the Irish Times reported.

His mother said that "on that day my son was the only child in the class who was not participating. He was also the only non-Catholic child in the class." She added that “he came out of school crying.”

“We are atheist and this is not a choice that is open to him,” she said.

The Irish Post reported in 2019 that the boy was one of two pupils in his class of 33 to receive homework instead of attending the choir ceremony.

According to the commission the boy’s parents were “deeply hurt and upset” by the school.

“We felt that the school had disregarded the fact that we have a different set of beliefs,” the mother told RTE News. “We felt that our child had been singled out and punished for not being a Catholic,” and she added that she hoped the ruling would “change things for children here who are not Catholic".

The mother has since enrolled her son in a different school.

The commission ordered the school to pay €5,000 and demanded the school review its policies so it complies with the Equal Status Acts. The school will also have to post a memo of its compliance in a noticeable location within the school.

The mother told RTE News she will return the €5,000 to the school, “because it will be our friends and our neighbours who will be funding it, through school fundraising. We have been vindicated, but we feel that it would be wrong to accept this money.”

Catholic schools in Ireland make up 90% of all primary schools in the country, the Irish Times reported. The ruling is likely to affect how other schools promote and organize religious events.

After recognising that no training was available for lay leaders, particularly those in house churches, workers planed the launch of a Bible school.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:

Use of specific services may help to optimize health for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); however, little is known about their service use patterns. We aimed to (1) define service use groups and (2) determine associations of sociodemographic, developmental, behavioral, and health characteristics with service use groups among school-aged children with ASD.

Asthma is a significant public health issue, impacting quality of life, morbidity, and health care costs nationally. Stock asthma rescue medication policies authorize school districts to maintain unassigned albuterol and enable trained staff members to administer the medication in response to asthma symptoms, exercise premedication, and asthma emergencies. Stock asthma rescue (or reliever) medication laws serve as an important fail-safe measure. Such laws provide districts with the ability to respond if a student has an asthma emergency at school but either lacks a diagnosis or does not have access to their own medication. As of September 2019, 13 states have enacted either a law or regulation authorizing the stocking of asthma rescue medication in schools: Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. Three additional states provide stock albuterol asthma guidelines but do not have legislation: Indiana, New York, and Nebraska. Some states have found that these policies reduce the need for 911 calls and emergency medical services transports as a result of asthma exacerbations. Initial data also demonstrate that these policies reach populations in need and improve health outcomes. This case study will describe the current state of asthma in Illinois, an innovative policy solution to address asthma emergencies in schools, and the steps taken to advocate for stock asthma rescue medication in Illinois. Legislation for stock albuterol in Illinois was signed into law in August 2018.

OM Ireland's Creative Arts Team and a group from the US lead a week-long tour into schools and a kids’ club in a housing estate.

OM's International Intensive School of Missions in Panama is getting ready to start in January 2012 to equip Latinos for missions.

OM EAST, in partnership with OM Bosnia, is getting ready for their annual Schoolbags Project in north-west Bosnia-Herzegovina this summer.

We find out about a life-changing scheme in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A look at how Swiss football is on the rise, from the grassroots upwards.

At first glance, it could seem that teenagers just really, really hate high school. But Yale researchers found deeper student engagement issues.

Sharing moments of levity and hope from the education world amid the mass disruption of schooling and life from the coronavirus.

One of the biggest pieces of unfinished business for education groups when it comes to federal help with the coronavirus is connectivity and online learning. But what's the state of play?

E-learning may help some schools keep instruction flowing but major gaps in access and resources mean not all schools are ready to offer virtual classes, and not all students are equipped to learn online.

EDUCATION Secretary John Swinney does not expect schools to reopen overnight as he stressed they would only do so when it was safe for public health.

THE teacher had four pupils yesterday. Just four pupils out of a class of 33 took part in virtual online lockdown lessons.

Everyone who knows anything about education seems to now be running a livestream from their room, and the explosion of home-schooling resources can be enough to send a busy parent into lockdown meltdown. That's why we've created a check-list of some of the books and sites that could help. It’s not all about BBC Bitesize and the Khan Academy – it can be all the more fun when you go a little off the beaten path.

Schools in Wales could be allowed to reopen their doors next month in a phased approach, the first minister has said.

THE SCOTTISH Government “does not consider it likely” that schools will fully re-open “in the foreseeable future” - while working from home is “likely to persist as part of the new normal”.

The slur isn't appropriate for school personnel or students of any race to ever use, writes Tyrone C. Howard.

One particularly tense staff meeting helped educator Robert Parker rethink how his school celebrated Black History Month.

With more than 40 million unique visitors a year, GreatSchools.org is a wildly popular source of information on K-12 schools. Though the site has added more factors and nuance to how it rates schools, researchers argue that it’s exacerbating already existing patterns of segregation.

And four strategies for fixing the underlying problems most often laid bare, from Great Schools Partnership’s Craig Kesselheim.

A pair of new studies find that, when given a choice, white parents tend to send their children to schools that are predominantly white.

New data tools allow users to see how public schools fall short when it comes to providing all students the resources they need to meet their highest potential.

School dress codes are clashing with students, parents, and researchers who see the rules and their enforcement as rife with racism and sexism. Some school leaders say the codes are important for safety and teaching kids to comply.

Thanks to the coronavirus epidemic, America is facing a school shutdown of historic proportions, deepening learning divides among students and taking away the centers of communities. Can we ever make up the lost learning time?

When schools reduce racial segregation between schools, racial isolation within the classes inside those schools goes up, according to an analysis of 20 years of North Carolina data.

Blaming teachers unions for all the ills afflicting public schools does not stand up to scrutiny.

With the first charter school strike in the books—and teachers coming out victorious—experts say both unions and charter schools may need to rethink how they’ve long operated.

Charter school principals in South Carolina are overwhelmingly veteran school leaders, but more than half are new to the charter sector, according to a study by the Regional Educational Laboratory Southeast.

New Orleans charter schools have increased spending on administrators and reduced spending for teachers in the years since charter schools took over nearly every public school after Hurricane Katrina hit the city in 2005.

When public schools accept an offer to move into a new building on corporate land, they open the door to interference on curriculum and faculty hiring.

Traditional public schools on average received about 29 percent more funding per student than charter schools in 14 metropolitan areas, finds a new study by the University of Arkansas' education reform department.