Last Friday, DEED led a question-and-answer session held at the ASD Board Room. Leading the meeting were Interim Commissioner Barbara Thompson and Eddie Jeans. The larger districts in the state were represented along with charter schools.
A couple things stood out to me:

Most importantly for us, Commissioner Thompson stated that these proposed regulations are not a […]

We’ve gone through the proposed regs one by one and compiled our own analysis here. Narda’s done a great job making this concise commentary.
What could be the most troubling change is very tiny but very significant. 4 AAC 33.460 will be amended to say that “the department may monitor correspondence study programs to ensure compliance.” […]

AHEA has posted recordings of the State Board meeting last month in which the Board voted to post the proposal packet for public comment.  Be patient because the page with the recordings takes forever and ever to load. AHEA is dominated by statewide correspondence school affiliates and reflects their point of view which is inconsistent […]

In New South Wales registration for homeschooling has jumped 15% in the last 12 months. That does not include those who have chosen not to register with the state.
Reasons parents give for removing their kids from the public school system:

Curriculum
Bullying
Homeschooling has lost its ‘hippie’ stigma

State Education spokesman Andrew Stoner says the problem is publics schools […]

Yesterday I wrote about the reasons usually heard for regulating correspondence schools. I made the case that statewide correspondence schools (SWC) require regulation because they have no statewide oversight. In-district schools have sufficient local oversight.
Here are the typical reasons given to not regulate the two different types of correspondence schools. As before, my opinions are […]

One of the frustrating aspects of the new proposed regulations is the notion underlying them that in-district schools are the same as statewide correspondence schools and should be treated and regulated the same. Admittedly, there are some similarities on the surface but there is a much bigger picture to look at than allotment amounts and […]

At last week’s State Board meeting the proposed regulations for correspondence schools were approved for public comment. There were a few comments before the start of Friday’s business meeting none of them in favor of the regulations.
Action on the proposal is expected at the June meeting which has been moved to Anchorage. As of this […]

I’ve read through these proposed regulations, discussed them with colleagues and fellow homeschoolers and have a few beginning thoughts. We’ll be entering some of this in the comment session at tomorrow’s State DEED Board meeting in Juneau.
My perspective is as a co-founder of Frontier Charter School which enrolls Anchorage School District students. As such, we […]

The Alaska State Board of Education has asked for public comment to begin on proposed changes to regulations for schools classified for funding purposes as correspondence schools. Interim Commissioner Barbara Thompson has placed this as Agenda Item 20 at Friday’s meeting in Juneau.
The memorandum is here. There will be plenty more comment on these proposed […]

Education Next, a publication of the Hoover Institution has published “American Teachers: What do they believe?” Author Dr. Robert Slater has sifted through some available data obtained from 3.5 million Americans who are K-12 teachers to discern some generalities regarding their social and political positions. Demographically, the typical teacher is a 46-year-old, white woman who […]