Christy Raines, 15, has been educated at home since age 5.

In the midst of FCAT season in public school classrooms, angst against “the system” goes into high gear.  Parents are looking for solutions – and more in Palm Beach County are opting out of schools altogether.

The number of local students who were home-schooled jumped 8 percent – to more than 4,800 students in Palm Beach County – for the 2010-11 school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.

“With home schooling, you don’t have to teach to any test,” said Sharon Raines of Boca Raton, who has home-schooled her 15-year-old daughter, Christy, for 10 years. “You can teach the things you believe are important.”

People who choose to home-school have many reasons for doing it, beyond avoiding  Florida’s “teach-to-the-test” public school culture and finding pricey private schools out of reach.

Some are motivated by religion. Others worry about safety in schools.

Raines, who has led the Boca Home Schoolers support group for the past eight years, said she wanted the freedom to instill specific character qualities in her daughter and have the family’s Christian convictions be the foundation of her learning.

It’s also a lifestyle choice. Home-schoolers are not bound by specific attendance requirements. School can be conducted during the day, at night or on the weekends. Your vacations need not be ruled by the county school calendar.

But it is a big commitment, and a lot of work for parents

Raines,  a stay-at-home mom, figures she spends more than 30 hours a week on her daughter’s education, including preparing lessons, grading papers, organizing field trips, projects, sports and other activities. She believes it is worth it.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity that we have as parents to teach our children,” Raines said. “It’s the single best thing our family has ever done. We love it.”

Finding curriculum

When Christy was 5, Raines started the “Five in A Row” curriculum, which offers rich lessons through an assortment of children’s books. She recommends this approach for younger children because it is fun, easy to implement, and affordable, since most of the books can be found at the library.

Over the past 10 years, the Raineses have experimented with several programs. Sharon Raines now selects course materials designed for her daughter’s kinesthetic, hands-on, learning style. Home educating allows her the flexibility to try different techniques to get her daughter to retain certain concepts.

“You can tailor the curriculum to your child’s learning style,” Sharon said. “Schools can’t do that.”

With a degree in finance, Raines said she is comfortable teaching her daughter math and English. For some of the other subjects, like science, Christy receives supplemental instruction weekly at Home Education Enrichment Day.

HEED is a Boca Raton-based home school co-op that hires teachers who are experts in their fields to tutor students in a variety of subjects, including chemistry, biology, algebra, literature,  public speaking and critical thinking. The classes are offered weekly and cost up to $450 a class for the school year. Raines said it is worth the cost.

HEED serves about  150 families.

“We wouldn’t have the resources to do a science lab, but when you come together with a large group, you can get a teacher who can offer a lab,” Raines said.

Three virtual education programs are also available, for free, to Florida students:

• Florida Virtual School serves sixth- through 12th-grade students
• Connections Academy serves kindergarten through eighth-grade students
• K-12 serves kindergarten through 12th-grade students

Home-schooled children do not receive an official diploma from the Department of Education but they can still attend college. Some parents create transcripts and diplomas to submit directly to college admissions departments, while others choose to have their child get a GED. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, colleges are mainly concerned with SAT or ACT scores and having an accurate transcript that outlines all of the courses the student has completed.

Socialization

Many people think home-schooled children don’t get to interact with other kids. But home-schoolers in Boca Raton have plenty of opportunities to participate in sports and other activities – even at public schools.

Christy spends her Friday afternoons with 72 other children preparing for an upcoming production of Tom Sawyer that is being produced by the home-school drama company Stars in the Universe. The production will include elementary, middle and high school-age students.

In addition to violin and vocal lessons, Christy also plays volleyball for the Christian Home School Athletic Association of Florida. The association, commonly referred to as SAINTS, offers physical education for kids age 5-17. Students are exposed to a variety of sports, including baseball, archery, volleyball, golf and track and field.

Support

Raines recommends finding a local support group – for guidance and encouragement for you, and social activities for the kids.  Besides her group, the Palm Beach County Homeschooling Cooperative supports home educators with kids age 3 to 12.

How to get started

Find all the requirements at the state Department of Education website.

Resources

• The Florida Parent-Educators Association provides home educators with support, guidance and information.  It is dedicated to protecting the rights of home educators and act as an ambassador to the home school community.
• LIFE of Florida is a state support and networking group for home educators.
• The Home School Legal Defense Association is an advocacy organization dedicated to defending the constitutional rights that parents have to teach their children.
• The School District of Palm Beach County has more information on rules and guidelines.

- MERCEDES COPPIN

What’s going on in our children’s schools?

What you don’t find out from the fliers in the backpacks is what is going on at the state and national level that can have a big impact on how our children learn, how they are tested and how changes to the public school system will affect them.

The bottom line is that individual schools are virtually powerless to stray from the course set by lawmakers in Tallahassee, or Washington, D.C. With the Florida Legislature set to convene on Jan. 10, it’s a good time to catch up on what’s happening with “education reform.”

Among the issues:

• School funding: Gov. Rick Scott made deep cuts to the education budget last year and has vowed to restore some of the funding this year.
• Testing and teacher pay: The Obama Administration has offered grants to states through its “Race to the Top” program to implement performance-based pay for teachers. A big component of teacher performance is student test scores – a controversial issue fraught with complications. (Read an in-depth report on this at MiamiHerald.com)
• Charter schools: How much money – and freedom from the oversight and rules that govern traditional public schools – they get will likely be a hot topic during this year’s session. A recent Miami Herald investigation found that “Florida’s charter school movement has grown into $400-million-a-year powerhouse backed by real-estate developers and promoted by politicians, but with little oversight.” Read that report at MiamiHerald.com.

How to keep up with all this? Here is a list of sources to follow to stay informed on what’s happening locally and nationally, with some perspective.

Online

• Subscribe to the Palm Beach Post Schools & Education feed through your web browser  or follow Palm Beach Post Education Matters on Facebook

• Read the Sun-Sentinel’s education coverage or follow its blog on Facebook.

• Read the State Impact Florida blog, a National Public Radio Project.

• To see what’s happening in Miami-Dade and Broward, read The Miami Herald’s Schools coverage.

More on Facebook

“Subscribe” to or “Like” these Facebook pages, which post links to news and opinions from all over. You may not agree with all of them – and I am not endorsing their views – but they stay on top of the issues. Some of them are on Twitter, as well.

• Testing is Not Teaching – PBC citizens united to make a difference

• Parents Across America

• Parents and Kids Against Standardized Testing

• K-12 News Network

• Digital Learning Now

• Save Our Schools; The Movement

• Parent at the Helm (home-schooling)

• Education Week

• Palm Beach County Council of PTA/PTSA

• Advocates for Gifted Education – Palm Beach

• Race to the Top

I also repost interesting education stories on my Facebook page. You can Subscribe to my public updates. And while you’re at it, be sure to Like BocaParent, too.

- CHARLENE PACENTI

Hundreds of parents and teachers attending a community forum on education Thursday night in Boca Raton were clearly fed up with high-stakes standardized tests – and angry at the Florida Legislature’s move to tie teacher pay to student scores.

U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch (D) organized the meeting at the Safe Schools Institute on the campus of Don Estridge High Tech Middle School, as Congress proposes to slash millions in public school spending, along with the state.

The audience applauded Diane Ravitch, an education historian and New York University professor who addressed the crowd via satellite, saying the very idea of public education is under attack by a “corporate reform movement” seeking to privatize schools.

The audience did not applaud the Obama education official trying to explain the President’s agenda – which includes “assessments” and keeping former President Bush’s No Child Left Behind program, which triggered an avalanche of standardized tests.

Deputy Assistant Education Secretary Micheal Yudin described the Administration’s goals of improving readiness for kindergarten, high school graduation rates and college and career preparedness.

Obama wants to lead the world in college completion by 2020, he said. But to get there, “We need reliable and fair assessments of progress.”

At that point, there was booing.

In Florida, where the FCAT has dominated the classroom for the past several years, many teachers and parents don’t want to hear about any more tests.

Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education, said Obama’s agenda has made the entire conversation turn on teachers, when so many other factors go into how well a student does on a test.

“Teachers are not the problem,” she said. “The problem is poverty.”

Yudin emphasized that NCLB needs to be reformed and that any assessments would be designed to measure readiness for college and career, as well as critical thinking.

“We’re not advocating for the same standardized tests that Florida has in place,” he said.

Deutch, a West Boca dad with three kids in public school, said the gap between what the local parents want and what the Administration is trying to do is not so wide.

But in Florida, T stands for tortured. Just ask your third-grader.

MORE ON EDUCATION

• What we learned from the Race to Nowhere documentary
• Testing is Not Teaching and Root for Education – parent activists on Facebook
• Palm Beach Post coverage of Deutch event
• The Palm Beach Post Extra Credit blog
• The Sun-Sentinel education blog

What is really best for our kids when it comes to education? What is key to their success in college? Cramming in as many advanced placement courses as possible? Building an extensive resume of extracurricular activities? Or a curriculum that moves at their own pace, with time to explore their own interests?

Parents are grappling with these questions, as the public education system clings to high-stakes tests to measure success and the race to get into the best colleges has kids competing at ever earlier ages. Some kids today are asked to pick a career path as early as fifth grade so they can get a jump on high-level courses that will put them ahead in college. Some preschools pride themselves on academic rigor.

Is this a great opportunity for success – or burnout?

To start a community dialogue on this topic, and explore some different perspectives, BocaParent.com and B’Nai Torah Congregation are hosting a screening of an acclaimed documentary, Race to Nowhere, the Dark Side of America’s Achievement Culture (PG-13). The film will be followed by  panel discussion, led by local experts and educators:

• Rabbi David Steinhardt, B’Nai Torah’s senior rabbi
• Arthur Brand, psychologist
• Karen Deerwester, author of  The Entitlement-Free Child, and a regular contributor to BocaParent.
• Ira Margulies, Verde Elementary School principal
• Naomi Steinberg, Apply Yourself Educational Consulting.

Race to Nowhere was produced by a California mom, challenging our assumptions about how to best prepare our kids to become “healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens.”

The film is becoming a national phenomenon, with community groups all over the United States and in a dozen other countries arranging screenings. It’s aimed at educators and parents of kids of all ages, but also teenagers who are living the scenarios presented in the film: Practicing for standardized tests, trying to get into a good college, staying up half the night doing homework, little down time, much anxiety.

“It raises some really important issues about how we raise children,” Steinhardt said, adding that the synagogue is hoping to follow the screening with ongoing conversations for parents.

“I sense that one of the problems is in the way society defines success and that if we define success purely in terms of an academic achievement that is going to lead to the best job possible in order to make the most money possible, we’re creating a type of tension that leads to anxiety – because not everybody is cut out for that,” Steinhardt said.

If we are to change that measure of success, we need to embrace learning for the sake of learning, finding joy in gaining knowledge and in relationships  – and that message needs to come from a communal perspective, not a competitive one, he said.

“Happiness grows out of fulfillment and that comes from achievement but also a sense of satisfaction that grows out of being thankful for the gifts we do  have.”

Bring a friend, your PTA, your play group. None of us has all the answers, but together we can figure it out.

ATTEND OUR SCREENING

Race to Nowhere will be shown at 7 p.m. April 7 at B’Nai Torah Congregation, 6261 SW 18th St. Tickets are $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Buy them at racetonowhere.com. The 85-minute film will be followed by a panel discussion. Refreshments for purchase.

READ MORE ABOUT THE FILM

• New York Times
• Washington Post

KidSafe recommends: Monitor - and limit - your kids' Internet use.

Two local moms are on a mission to make our kids safer – by teaching them to be their own first line of defense.

It’s not about “stranger danger” any more.

These days we have to worry about Internet predators and cyberbullying, in addition to the horrors of abduction and sexual abuse.

Sally Berenzweig and Cherie Benjoseph – familiar to BocaParent readers as regular contributors to our 3-Minute Guru feature – want to educate kids about protecting themselves, in proactive ways they can understand.

Through their nonprofit KidSafe Foundation, these two moms – one a licensed social worker, the other a former psychotherapist – have designed a curriculum based on “fun not fear” to empower kids through education and role-playing.

They bring the program to the community in several ways:

• Through family events at local  schools, where parents and kids attend separate sessions simultaneously
• through an eight-week program in schools (half-hour lessons once a week)
• seminars for parents
• workshops for teachers
• small private groups in a home or clubhouse

The program has reached about 14,000 kids over the past few years.

KidSafe brought its Family Event to Addison Mizner Elementary School on Jan. 10 (funded by a grant from the Junior League of Boca Raton) – and will present it at Waters Edge Elementary in West Boca at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 19. (It’s open to the public).

In her presentation to parents, Berenzweig talked about teaching a language of safety. (We all know what “Stop, Drop and Roll” means, for example).

“Our children are going to be safe if we are all on the same page,” she said. “It takes all of us.”

Some of the statistics she shared:

• 90 percent of child sex abuse victims are abused by someone they know (not a stranger)
• 1 in 4 kids is being bullied; 1 in 5 admits to being a bully
• Most sex offenders seem to be upstanding citizens

Some of the lessons KidSafe teaches children:

• If you are lost, the best person to ask for  help is a mother with children
• If a stranger approaches, immediately take five steps back
• The difference between a good secret (like a surprise party – happy ending) and a bad one (no ending, bad feeling)

And we’re only scratching the surface here.

To bring KidSafe to your school, contact the foundation through its website.

A one-hour family event, with sessions for parents and kids, costs $750. The eight-week classroom program works out to about $24 a student. Many schools get sponsors to pay part of the cost, or hold fund-raisers.

Read more about KidSafe:

The foundation has published two books to help explain some of the concepts to kids, including a new one, My Body is Special and Belongs to Me. You can order them online through KidSafe.

The KidSafe moms have covered these topics in 3-Minute Guru:

Keeping kids safe on holiday visits

Helping kids learn from mistakes

Is there a gun in the house? Safety tips

Teach kids to say no – for safety sake

On their own: Walk to school, home alone

Reporting vs. tattling: Know the difference

How to remember kid’s in the back seat