Education Week - April 27, 2022 - 2

Schools May Be Back,
But Many Parents
Educating at Home
Schoolhouses have opened, but many parents are
saying " no thanks " and continuing to keep educating
their children at home.
Home schooling numbers this year dipped from last
year's all-time high but are still significantly above
pre-pandemic levels, according to data obtained and
analyzed by the Associated Press.
In 18 states that shared data through the current
school year, the number of home schooling students
increased by 63 percent in the 2020-21 school year,
then fell by only 17 percent in the 2021-22 school year.
The rising numbers have cut into public school
enrollment in ways that affect future funding and
renewed debates over how closely home schooling
should be regulated. Proponents of more oversight
point to the potential for undetected cases of child
abuse and neglect while others argue for less in the
name of parental rights. The new surge has led state
legislatures to consider easing regulations or imposing
new ones.
What remains unknown is whether this year's small
decrease signals a step toward pre-pandemic levels or
home schooling is becoming more mainstream.
Black families make up many of the home school
converts. The proportion of Black families home
schooling their children increased from 3.3 percent
to 16.1 percent, from spring 2020 to the fall, while the
proportion about doubled across other groups, according
to U.S. Census surveys.
Boston University researcher Andrew Bacher-Hicks
said data show that while rates rose across the board
last school year, the increase was greater in districts
that reverted to in-person learning, perhaps before
some parents were ready to send their children back.
He said the same health concerns that drove those
increases are likely behind the continued elevated
rates, despite additional upheaval in schools as parents
and policymakers debate issues surrounding race and
gender and which books should be in libraries.
" It's really hard to disentangle those two things
because all of this is kind of happening at the same
time, " he said. " But my my guess would be that a large
part of the decisions to exit from the system do have to
do with COVID-related issues as opposed to political
issues, because those things come up frequently, and
we've never seen an increase in home schooling rates
like this before. "
At the Controls
Tony Cantu, a member
of the Munster High
School Munster
Horsepower robotics
team, controls his
team's robot during a
qualifying match at
the FIRST Indiana
Robotics state
championships this
month on the
Rose-Hulman Institute
of Technology campus
in Terre Haute. His
team was part of the
alliance that came in
second overall.
Book Bans in Schools Spread Across U.S., Targeting
LGBTQ Protagonists, Those of Color, and Race Topics
Looks like a lot of bestsellers could be cropping up based on all
the books that have been banned from classrooms and libraries.
In 86 districts, 2 million students across the land have had their
access to books restricted this school year, finds a new report by
PEN America, a free-speech advocacy organization. As widespread
as those numbers seem, they represent only a fraction of
the nation's 50 million schoolchildren in its 13,452 districts.
What's not surprising is the subject matter of those books.
Those with protagonists of color accounted for 41 percent of
banned books. And those that are explicitly about LGBTQ topics
or have LGBTQ protagonists or prominent characters account
for 33 percent. Rounding out the most-banned topics were books
about race and racism, coming in at 22 percent.
What is somewhat surprising, though, is who's pulling the
books. Of all the bans, just 4 percent came from formal challenges
filed by parents or community members. Instead, a vast
majority were removed by school administrators or board members.
Those actions were often taken after officials listened to
comments from community members during public meetings.
Between July 2021 and March 2022, books had been outlawed
in 2,899 schools. PEN America also found 1,586 decisions to ban
a book from a library, classroom, or curriculum.
" Because of the tactics of censors and the politicization of
books, we are seeing the same books removed across state lines:
books about race, gender, LGBTQ+ identities, and sex most
often, " said Jonathan Friedman, the director of PEN America's
Free Expression and Education program and the report's lead author.
" We are witnessing the erasure of topics that only recently
represented progress toward inclusion. "
Texas has the most districts enacting bans, 713 titles in 16 districts.
Pennsylvania and Florida follow, with 456 and 204 bans,
respectively. Pennsylvania's Central York district had the distinction
of prohibiting the most books, 441. But after students
protested and the action attracted national attention, the school
board reversed its decision.
And the book most often banned: Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer:
A Memoir. The graphic novel is about the author's struggle with
and explanation of gender identity.
Although the Federal Law Has Moved the Needle,
Title IX Has Not Meant Equality for Girls' Sports
Lawmakers across the land are so worried about transgender
youth taking advantage of girls in sports that they're outlawing
children born male from joining girls' teams. Yet, they don't
seem to be doing much to bring equality to girls' sports anyway.
Nearly 50 years after Congress passed Title IX, the sweeping
law that guarantees equity in " any education program or activity
receiving federal financial assistance, " girls are stuck in an imperfect
system that continues to favor boys.
In schools across the country, boys' teams wear nicer uniforms,
play on better fields, are led by more experienced coaches, have
their practices scheduled at more desirable times, play with newer
equipment, and dress in better-equipped locker rooms. All are potential
violations of Title IX.
Those are findings from a four-month investigation by the Shirley
Povich Center for Sports Journalism and the Howard Center for
Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland.
" We still estimate that the majority of schools are likely out of
compliance with the law, " said Sarah Axelson, the vice president
of advocacy at the Women's Sports Foundation.
The investigation also found that:
* While Title IX has made a difference-girls' participation
in high school sports rose from 7 percent to 43 percent in the
BRIEFLY STATED CONTRIBUTORS: Associated Press, Eesha Pendharkar, and Tribune News Service. Edited by Karen Diegmueller.
2 | EDUCATION WEEK | April 27, 2022 | www.edweek.org
last 50 years-it is still not equal.
* The onus to report violations of Title IX is often left to teenagers
and their parents, who know little about the law.
* Enforcement by the U.S. Department of Education's office
for civil rights is cumbersome and slow-moving. A review of 39
complaints to OCR since 2008 that had both filing and resolution
dates showed that it took an average of 700 days to resolve
the cases. That means girls who suffered unequal treatment
often graduated before they saw results.
The centers found that violations have affected girls across the
country. In Union City, N.J., for example, a highly publicized athletic
field atop a $180 million high school building was mostly
used by boys' teams. For years, access for girls was limited.
In Ventura, Calif., girls on the softball team suffered injuries on
a field that was poorly maintained, while the boys' baseball team
had a field that was better tended at a higher-quality stadium.
Joseph C. Garza/The Tribune-Star via AP

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Education Week - April 27, 2022

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