EdAction
Maple River Education Coalition PAC
105 Peavey Rd, St 116 
Chaska, MN  55318 
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May 16, 2001
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Private & Home Schools ALERT
The illusion of private and homeschool protection under HR1

Home schoolers and private schoolers have always looked for exemption language from the federal government regarding mandates on curriculum and testing. They have also opposed a national test because they recognize that a national test creates a de facto national curriculum. They have correctly recognized that a national curriculum will ultimately pull them into its powerful web.

Homeschoolers especially have insisted on specific legal exemptions from all federally mandated testing. HR1, the new federal education reauthorization bill, has included that exemption language. Homeschoolers are rejoicing that, once again, they are protected, and they are determined to defend that protection in the future.

Before nonpublic school parents relax, however, they should look carefully at the national norm-referenced tests they are presently using to measure their success. They should look at the redefinition of "success" being put in place in the new federal system of education through state mandated content standards in the public schools and their aligned assessments. This new federal "accountability" system, mandated first by HR6 in 1994 and now more aggressively by HR1, redefines what successful schools and students means. (HR1 will begin being debated on the floor of the U.S. House this week.)

Nonpublic schools have maintained their independence of state and federal mandates largely by demonstrating that they are "successful." Nonpublic students, by and large, do better than public school students on academic achievement. It is tough to argue with success.

But what if the definition of "success" becomes less a matter of academics, as we have known them, and more a matter of worldview and vocational training?

Take a look, for example, at the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). In HR1, the NAEP test would be used as a system-check to determine whether states are properly measuring success. Does the NAEP only measure academics, however? No. A careful look at the NAEP reveals that its primary purpose is to establish a national core curriculum. (See our analysis of the NAEP)

What constitutes the new national core curriculum as defined by the NAEP test? It consists of:

• Diversity: all cultures are equal, except for American culture, which is inferior;
• New Age religion: all religions are equal, except biblical Christianity, which is inferior;
• Radical environmentalism: we are not the stewards of the Earth; the Earth is the steward of us;
• A broad range of humanistic values, including feminism; and
• All education is vocational.

You will find this core curriculum measured by, and established by, the NAEP test, which, under HR1, will be used to evaluate and set the guidelines for the states' own assessment systems. The NAEP also sets the guidelines for all nationally norm-referenced tests.

HR1 allows states the option to choose a national norm-referenced test as an alternative to the NAEP as its system-check. Will these tests be substantially different from the NAEP? Over the past several years, a transformation of the national norm-referenced tests has taken place, all of them becoming aligned with the same national core curriculum. This transformation was predicted and described by Marc Tucker, the premier architect of the new federal education system, and Executive Director of the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE).

In his book, Thinking for a Living, Tucker describes the transformation this way:

In the summer of 1990, the National Center on Education and the Economy, which had created the Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, combined forces with the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh to begin the design of a project leading to a national examination system... The object is to create a national examination system in which states, districts, and even schools can select from many examinations, but with the passing level in all of these examinations set to the same standard... In this way, the nation could have a unified examination system without requiring everyone to use the same test." (p.147) [Emphasis added.]

In short, the national norm-referenced tests are all being aligned with the national curriculum, just as in Tucker's design. That is, most parents who homeschool and who use private schools will have their students measured by compliance with the new national core curriculum when they think students are being tested primarily for academic achievement.

Take a look, for example, at the Iowa Basics Test, one of the primary national norm-referenced tests used to assess private and homeschooled students. The Iowa Basics, and the other normed tests, have been dramatically changed over the past few years to be aligned with the national core curriculum, just as predicted and described by Tucker. (He has been intrumental making that happen, through his role at the NCEE and as a member of the National Skills Standards Board.) The Iowa Basics Test is no longer what it used to be. 

How many parents will add up the questions on environmentalism and notice that every question deals with how serious the environmental problems are, while none of them deal with the progress we have made in protecting the environment, and while none of them deal with the right to own private property?

How many parents will realize that every question dealing with Christianity puts Christianity in a negative light? How many parents will see that the questions dealing with the religious mythology of native peoples always puts that mythology in a positive light?

That is, how many parents will recognize that these tests are actually driving the core curriculum? Not very many. Most parents who homeschool and who use private schools will be adopting the new national core curriculum without ever realizing it.

HR6, the ESEA reauthorization of 1994, forced this national core curriculum upon all public schools through the content standards each state adopted in order to comply with the Goals 2000 and School-to-Work Acts of 1994. Refusal to comply meant losing federal Title I funding. Every state has already taken the Goals 2000/STW grant money and has in place a plan that was approved by the federal departments of education and labor under their requirements.

The state content standards all comply with the new national core curriculum. This year's reauthorization, HR1, ties states into those same content standards more tightly than they did in 1994. In addition, the testing mandates of HR1 redefine the meaning of success.

Nonpublic parents, teachers and school administrators ignore the new education system in the public schools at their peril. Once "academic success" has been thoroughly redefined and measured by the new national core curriculum, everyone will be defined by it. One national curriculum has been established, and nonpublics are being pulled into its powerful web.

Nonpublic schools and parents must join the battle to oppose HR1 today when everyone has a stake in the outcome, so that they will not be left fighting it alone another day when it will be too late. Winning the battle to be independent and separate from the new public education system but ignoring the battle to oppose this system in the public schools is a formula for defeat. Nonpublic parents and educators may win many battles for their independence. The bigger question is: Will they win the battles, but lose the war?

Julie M. Quist
MREdCoPAC Vice President

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