from Howard and Susan Richman, co-editors
PA Homeschoolers newsletter
Barbara Page's quotes from the Penn Homeschoolers Email Conference list are indented:
Do homeschoolers that don't get a 'recognized' diploma have trouble getting into colleges in PA?
Howard's replies are not:
I'm really not in touch these days with what is going on with those who don't have diplomas (the homeschool grads I know all have recognized diplomas), but about seven years ago [KT]'s oldest daughter was [denied admission] by the University of Pittsburgh [unless KT's school superintendent would send a letter to the university. Although KT's school superintendent would have been quite willing to send such a letter, KT's daughter, instead, decided to attend a different college.] At the same time Sara DeRoy (a PHAA student) was already attending Pitt as an early admission student. A couple years later my eldest son, a PHAA graduate, was not only admitted to Pitt but also awarded a scholarship.
...and this recognized diploma stuff has been the invention of the PA Dept of Education. It has nothing to do with the legislative-generated homeschooling regulations.
There is a long history behind recognition of the diplomas
which
is outlined in the first two pages of Guide to PA
Homeschoolers
Diploma. Briefly:
1. The law which passed in December 1988 included
graduation
requirements which the Department of Education, allied with the
Teachers' unions, took out, but we succeeded in reinserting.
2. The Department of Education refused to recognize
diplomas
issued by parents or evaluators but said that they might be
willing to issue the diplomas.
3. The Pennsylvania Home Education Network wrote a letter
to
the Department of Education urging them not to issue diplomas to
homeschoolers.
4. The Department of Education decided that instead of
issuing the diplomas themselves, home education organizations
should issue the diplomas because, "the monitoring and evaluation
could then be done by individuals familiar with those programs
and the quality control could be enforced by those individuals
who have a vested interest in maintaining that quality."
5. PA Homeschoolers started the first of the recognized
diploma programs (PHAA: Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation
Agency).
6. When Susan Rearick's daughter Julie applied for a PHEAA
grant for
college, she was initially turned down despite the fact that she
was getting a PHAA diploma, so we went to bat for her. The
Department of Education recognized our diploma and the rest is
history.
Instead, I personally see the diploma- recognizing activity of the Department of Education as just another way to impose additional excutive-branch regulations on homeschoolers. Now we have more rules instead of fewer rules.
Perhaps, but the Department of Education has already recognized six homeschoolers organizations that are granting diplomas. Thus homeschoolers have six choices with a reasonably broad range or requirements in the current market place. I am unaware that they have rejected a single homeschoolers organization that has applied.
Now we have two classes of homeschoolers in our state. Ones that have a state-recognized diploma and ones that don't. I don't see this as something better than before.
A few years ago, PHEAA also decided to recognize diplomas where the local school superintendent signs a letter stating that the student has graduated. Thus those homeschoolers who don't want to go with the standards of a homeschool organization can appeal for help from their local superintendent. And there is always the GED which is also recognized by PHEAA. [Click here to read the federal rules regarding eligibility for federal grants.]
As far as I know, with the exception of those states where homeschoolers have come under existing private school laws, no state in the nation allows homeschoolers to give their own children a diploma and then recognizes that diploma. Legislators would be very reluctant to open a hole so big that the parent of a drop-out could simply file a home education affidavit and then give the drop-out a state-recognized diploma.
And there are only six stores selling diplomas if a student in PA wants to apply for financial aid from the state -- not the federal government.
I don't think that there are any "stores" that sell diplomas which are then in-turn recognized by the state.
I suspect that you left out one very important detail in the state-recognition of homeschooling diplomas saga. Until last summer, any homeschooling organization in the state could award a recognized diploma.
Actually according to correspondence between the Department of Education and PHEAA, until last summer there were only three homeschooling organizations giving recognized diplomas, PHAA, Erie County Homeschoolers, and Buxmont.
So now, according to the Dept. of Education, the rules have been changed for any other homeschooling organization that wishes to award a diploma. They must become a non-profit corporation($), they must have a board of directors, their diplomas must be number and locked up(!) (like who is going to steal a diploma????) and many more to numerous to mention here. Where did these new rules come from?
I'm sure the Department of Education wanted to make sure that they weren't recognizing diplomas sold by "stores."
Why do they resemble in minute detail the rules and by-laws of PHAA? Is that a coincidence?
No, it is not a coincidence. Mary Hudzinski of Mason Dixon Homeschoolers and I negotiated the policy with the Department of Education in consultation with Erie County Homeschoolers and Buxmont. This policy put the Ridge Administration on record as continuing the recognition of diplomas issued by home education organizations that was begun during the Casey administration. It opened the door to the addition of new organizations, including Mason Dixon Homeschoolers, to the list. You will notice that the policy does not prevent each organization from setting its own standards.
The McKeesport Area Homeschoolers were ready to begin issuing homeschooling diplomas beginning this year and were stopped dead in the water when the DOE came out with all the new rules and regs for issuing diplomas. We certainly can't afford to become a non-profit organization! And I would assume that this is the case for many other, small home schooling support groups across the state.
Good decision. Issuing diplomas is a big responsibility. The transcripts behind the diplomas must be kept on file into the distant future so that the graduation of homeschooled students can be verified whenever it is questioned. Any organization that is not even willing to incorporate and set up a board of directors to insure continuity shouldn't be awarding diplomas.
As long as we assume that the Department of Education can regulate homeschooling, we now have an agency that can govern us at a whim!
Perhaps we need to write safeguards into law to make sure that it is legislation, not just "whim", which guarantees continued recognition of the diplomas issued by homeschool organizations.
Who did you meet with in the Dept of Education to come up with the standards for homeschooling organizations to award 'recognized' diplomas? Was it just you and someone from Mason-Dixon Homeschoolers?
Since the meeting did not come up with the "standards" that homeschool organizations use to award diplomas, I am not sure how to answer your question. The basic outline of those standards is set by the homeschool law (4 years of English, 3 years of math, ...; secondary courses to include geometry, algebra, ...) The interpretation of those standards is left up to the individual diploma program.
In order to negotiate the Department of Education's policy with regard to adding to and maintaining its list of recognized programs, we corresponded with and met with Greg White, the policy director. Secretary of Education Hickok stopped in at the face-to-face meeting at the end which was also attended by Mary Hudzinski, Susan Richman, [Karen Boyd,] and me.
When you mentioned that you conferred with others from the other homeschooling organizations that grant 'recognized' diplomas, do you mean that you just talked to them on the phone once or twice?
No. Both phone calls and written correspondence were involved. For example, I cc'd them each letter that I sent to ... Greg White at the Department of Education.
Are you certain that homeschoolers in the state desire to have you represent their interests to the Department of Education?
We were not representing, or claiming to represent, the interests of all homeschoolers in the state. I was representing an organization that was already recognized and Mary was representing one that wanted to be added to the list. (No new organizations had yet been added to the list during the Ridge Administration.) Our goal was to open the door so that Mason Dixon Homeschoolers would be added to the list of recognized organizations and so that existing and future homeschool diploma organizations would have as much leeway as possible regarding the standards that we set.
I had the privilege from 1984 through 1988 to co-lead a wonderful lobbying effort which virtually ended the prosecution of homeschoolers in PA. (At that time Pennsylvania was prosecuting more homeschoolers than any other state.
Once the law passed, I felt the responsibility to make sure it worked. At first most of those who were qualified were afraid to be evaluators. They worried that they could easily be sued. In order for the law to work, homeschoolers would need to have evaluators, so I quit my job as a public school teacher and traveled the entire state to give an evaluator to anyone who needed one.
Anyone who thinks that my motive was money should ask themselves why I kept my fees low and made it a practice (which Susan and I maintain to this day) to give free advertising in our state-wide newsletter (now in its 18th year of publication) to every competing evaluator who asks to be listed.
The law that was signed in December 1988 specified that homeschoolers could graduate but did not specify who would give the diplomas. My own oldest child and children of my friends were getting up into the high school years and I wanted to make sure that they could get legitimate diplomas. So I began a correspondence with the Department of Education designed to pin them down about who should give the diplomas.
They were clear that they would not recognize diplomas granted by parents or evaluators, but they left the door open to the idea that they might give the diplomas themselves. My next letter [dated September 22, 1990] was carefully crafted with input from 70 support group leaders including those of the Pennsylvania Home Education Network. [For example, both Diana Baseman and Tom Murphy had suggested that I should include the option of transcripts without grades, so I included a version without grades with the "pass-fail" and "letter-grade" sample transcripts that were attached.] It was designed to get the Department to award their Commonwealth Secondary School Diploma to homeschool graduates, while not precluding any other diploma options (such as correspondence school diplomas or diplomas awarded by parents to their children).
At that time I had not even dreamt of the idea of starting a diploma program. If our initial effort had succeeded, the Department of Education would have awarded diplomas to homeschoolers!
That was when the Pennsylvania Home Education Network folks wrote the [September 27, 1990] letter to the Department of Education [arguing that the Department of Education should not award diplomas to homeschoolers but should instead regulate evaluators] which convinced the Department that they didn't want to touch the idea of awarding diplomas with a ten foot pole.
The Department of Education then extricated themselves from the trap by declaring that home education organizations should award the diplomas because, as the [new] Chief of the Division of Advisory Services wrote [on Ocober 2, 1990]:
"It seems more appropriate to me to have the credential for home schoolers issued by a home schoolers organization. The monitoring and evaluation could then be done by individuals familiar with those programs and the quality control could be enforced by those individuals who have a vested interest in maintaining that quality."
I was thrilled with that response. I immediately recognized that it meant that they were going to let the home education community stand on its own two feet. It meant that homeschoolers would have many choices for diploma standards, not just an arbitrary standard set by the government.
In response to that letter I immediately started PHAA, the first of the current six diploma programs. My decision to do so gave the Pennsylvania Home Education Network apoplexy (which they have yet to get over...).
Now, again, you must understand the concept of responsibility to understand what came next. I was responsible to make sure that I didn't lead those homeschoolers astray who received the PHAA diploma. My recent negotiations with the Ridge Administration were partly to open the door to additional organizations and partly to insure the continued legitimacy of the PHAA diploma.
I know that many people are attracted by the dream of a diploma issued by parents with no community constraints such as those imposed by homeschool organizations upon their members. However, no self-respecting department of education in any state would ever let parents give out possibly-standardless diplomas! Look around. You will find that no such option exists as part of the home education law of any other state.
We are the leaders! Pennsylvania first, and now South Carolina, are the only two states where homeschoolers can graduate as homeschoolers and receive a recognized diploma.
Some of those who don't want a homeschool diploma organization diploma argue that our diploma options make their graduates second class citizens. But, in the other states all homeschool graduates are second class citizens. Either they have to masquerade as graduates of a private school or their only choices are correspondence school diplomas, parent-given diplomas, the GED, or no diploma. Often they bring more than one diploma to an interview: "Oh you won't accept my parent-issued diploma, well here's my GED."
In Pennsylvania we have those same three choices available, but we have another in addition -- one that allows the homeschooling community in Pennsylvania to stand on its own feet -- one that already gives homeschoolers a choice between six different sets of standards.
Barbara Page posted the following discussion from the pa-hs-leaders list on the Penn Homeschoolers Email Conference list. First she posted this query from a support group leader:
Help from anyone,
A friend of mine told me today that the Richmans will be pursuing college admissions to ONLY accept their diploma - has anyone heard of this???? She said something about Susan speaking at a college conference and it is figured this is where it will start. I've asked her to milk her source for more details so I cna know where to go, but I thought I'd put the feeler our there to all of you....
Then she posted how she had responded on the pa-hs-leaders list to that querry:
This is absolutely true. PA Homeschooolers have reported such activities in their newsletter for years.....
Now Susan's explanation:
Hello Barbara and the Leaders List,
This is Susan Richman here, responding to the query re/ what I may have said to college admissions folks. Hope this long letter helps clarify some things that may have been misunderstood. I, too, would be very angry if I thought one person was trying to preempt every option for homeschoolers and diplomas and college admissions, by trying to promote their particular option as the only way. I have actually tried *not* to do this, but I realize some things may have been misunderstood. Let me know if this helps at all -- I'll try again if things still seem muddy.
Over the last few years I have spoken at a number of college admissions sessions at several statewide conferences for the group PASSCAC (Pennsylvania Association of Secondary School and College Admissions Counselors), and to individual colleges when asked. Actually I always let these people know that the PHAA diploma program is only ONE of six programs in PA recognized (yep, recognized is indeed the proper term, not 'certified', 'accredited', or anything else :-) ) by the PA Dept of Ed, and that hopefully more programs will be up and running in the future. AND that many homeschoolers may come to them with other types of diplomas -- from distance programs, from schools such as the one in Maine that accredits homeschooler's work from all types of educational settings (anyone know of this program or used it? very flexible, willing to help students graduate quickly, pull together diverse credits, etc. see www.homeschoolassociates.com ), and from parent-generated diplomas and GED exams. If they sometimes 'hear' incorrectly that PHAA is the 'only' one, then I'll indeed have to work harder to make it clear that that is not at all true.
I do say that to my knowledge PHAA is probably the largest of the diploma programs in PA so far (we'll have over 400 grads this year, and this is our tenth year offering diplomas -- but we too started out very small... 6 grads the very first year...). And of course I relate that I can let them know more specifically about the PHAA program than about any of the other options, as that's what I'm personally involved with. Again, I realize that what I say and what people hear may sometimes be different -- reminds me that all of these things need to be repeated again and again in talks to these groups. Thanks for that reminder! I'll be sure to clarify this even more next time I speak to college admissions folks.
What I usually suggest to college admissions personnel is that they *already have* the tools in hand to deal effectively with college admissions for homeschoolers -- these kids can be asked to show the same types of things other students show: SAT or ACT scores (the few homeschoolers I know who felt very prickly about not doing these tests have opted, wisely, to go to the small number of colleges that don't require them for admission -- often these types of colleges are more flexible in general, and will suit that student's learning style more closely); organized lists of courses and credits and grades (and I discuss why some families may choose not to give grades....) on a transcript, either parent-generated or from their diploma program or distance school, to show that the required range of courses have been taken over the high school years and that the equivalent of graduation credit requirements will be met; recommendation letters when needed (this is usually *very* easy for PA kids to have, as they have evaluators to turn to... and many kids are also working with at least some other adults who know them and their work and abilities); and lists of extra-curricular and leadership and work experiences and honors/ awards received. Homeschoolers can easily supply all of this info, just as school students do -- the 'content' will look a bit unique, but they can supply all of the above.
If a college feels they need some more info, because they just don't understand, say, what a 'biology' course might be for a homeschooled student ("did they have lab work or field work? did they use a textbook? did they complete any projects or write any papers or take any tests?? was there an outside teacher? do they use the Internet for extra resources? What does this 'A' mean?"), I suggest they consider Carnegie Mellon Univ's current policy -- CMU asks that the family provide a brief summary of each course completed in high school, listing major resources used, projects or type of work completed, and how progress was assessed. CMU feels this is *fine* coming directly from the parent -- and I remind the admissions folks that the parents will be the ones who know most directly what was accomplished in all subject areas and how.... except maybe for the student themselves.... many high school kids actually write their own very persuasive and helpful course summaries).
Some colleges encourage (few require) interviews for all students, and when dealing with a homeschooler, this gives them another chance to learn more about what the homeschool student actually did in their high school years at home -- and this is often a time when a homeschooler can share a succinct portfolio of their very best work from all the high school years. And colleges still do usually ask about extra-curricular or social learning activities -- they do want to know if the student has had experiences in working cooperatively with others (most homeschoolers have lots of positive things to share in this area).
I really try to discourage colleges from thinking they need to create a whole new 'plan of action' in dealing with homeschoolers. I sometimes mention that some parents who have chosen not to be associated with an outside program may need some assistance from colleges in understanding what the college means by 'transcript' -- but I also assure colleges that there are indeed many resource books out there to help parents find ways to create their own transcript, that clearly communicates coursework completion and subject area distribution. I usually share examples of what the PHAA transcript looks like.
I let admissions folks know too that in PA, for students under the home education statute (this doesn't go for kids under private tutoring, as they don't have a portfolio or evaluation requirement), they can ask for evaluators letters and to see the portfolio of work if they feel this will help in decision making (usually portfolios aren't asked for, in my experience, but many colleges just like knowing that they *could* ask to see the portfolio -- I also let them know this is one of the suggestions on the excellent www.collegeboard.org website re/ homeschoolers and admissions). Most admissions offices we deal with really *appreciate* seeing evaluation letters, as these really help them gain a feel for what the family and student have accomplished, and it gives them a sense that some outside evaluation and assessment that they view as a bit more 'objective' than the parent alone has been completed. Most colleges *appreciate* some balancing outside opinion/information about the student -- and many times this can take the form of objective test scores (SAT I, SAT II, AP, CLEP, ACT, etc), if not through personal letters of evaluation or recommendation.
I have reported in our newsletter, when writing about talks I've given to these groups, how positively admissions folks have generally responded to students from the PHAA program, as again they really *appreciate* the type of documentation we send on from our office when asked to send on an official transcript (we always include the letters of evaluation with the one page sealed transcript). They are becoming familiar with what the PHAA program guidelines are, what our requirements are, what the evaluators do, etc., and many colleges have had a number of our graduates as applicants and as students. Other diploma programs and distance programs are probably engaged in similar work with college admissions personnel also, to help explain their procedures and standards. And for those parents who choose not to go with a diploma program, they'll need to do this work individually, just like Barb is now doing very effectively. Although I try to make sure college admissions people do understand the range of homeschoolers who may apply, I can't speak *for* these other individuals or for these other groups, nor do I think those people would want me to. I always let admissions folks know that I personally am a board member of PHAA, and do guidance work with PHAA students, and that I can speak most concretely about what to expect from students in this program -- I can only speak in more general terms about other programs or about families working individually.
It's sort of like this -- colleges in PA generally 'know' what to expect from a student, say, who's been educated at an elite private school like Sewickley Academy. They know the guidance counselor through years of networking activities, they've had a number of students from the school attend the college, they know what types of courses are offered, and what type of facilities this school has and what areas they excel in. Colleges in PA have probably often *been* to Sewickley Academy to give talks on admissions, so they've even seen the physical school buildings. On the other hand, they may not know very much about a tiny rural school in the middle of Idaho -- that school is just an unknown. If a student from way out there applies, the college is curious, but may feel initially at a loss to know how to assess this student compared to the more 'known' quantity of the Sewickley Academy kid who they feel 'sure' about. They may need more info, try to find out more from the high school's 'profile' (a summary statement from the school about their students and what they do, what level of courses are offered, what percentage head to college, etc.). They may very well decide they really *want* this Idaho kid, because he'll be a bit different and add diversity to the campus -- and especially when all the specific info looks pretty good on the individual student. It's a little like this for homeschoolers -- we all used to be like that Idaho rural school, but things are really changing rapidly for the better. Right now many colleges in PA are getting more familiar with the PHAA program, because we've been networking, sharing info, working with admissions to help them understand what we do (this could be why some think we are the only diploma option for homeschoolers -- because they've dealt with us, but haven't yet dealt with the others). They are also probably starting to gain more familiarity with the other diploma programs, as more students from those programs head to college, and they'll also start learning more about the various excellent distance programs that issue diplomas. It just takes time, and effort. And because of good work from folks like Barbara Page, they'll start learning more about why some homeschoolers opt *not* to go with any of these programs, but give a diploma themselves, and what this may mean and why these kids are also good candidates for admissions, and why their credentials should be taken seriously. It just takes time, and it's already starting to happen.
Hope this may clear up some things. I'll be happy to respond to any other queries on this, as I have time (my time is pretty tight this time of year...). If anyone has specific suggestions on further things I could share with admissions folks about families who opt to give their own diploma, I'd be happy to hear these ideas. But again, I feel probably that type of sharing will best come directly from these families to the colleges -- I wouldn't want to presume that I could speak for them.
And Barbara Page's explanation of her posting:
Dear Susan and other interested parties,
When I wrote these words:
"This is absolutely true. PA Homeschoolers have reported such activities in their newsletter for years..... "
I was referring to the previous sentence:
>She said something about Susan speaking at a college conference..."
I erred in not being more specific about your (Susan's) speaking at events attended by college admissions and financial aid officers. I do not agree with the statement:
>...the Richmans will be pursuing college admissions to ONLY accept their diploma...<
I apologize for any confusion. For me to agree with the statement directly above, I would have to have attended every single conference that Susan or howard ever gave a talk in which college admissions officers attended. And of course this is impossible. And this fact probably was only obvious to myself!....
A few days later, Howard asked Barbara Page to add him to the support group leaders email list. He was hoping to have the opportunity to correct misimpressions, such as the one above, that might be spread on that list. Here is her response:
Dear Howard,
I regret to inform you that the leaders list is not open to leaders of diploma programs.With Regrets,
Barbara Page
Barbara Page wrote the following to the Penn Homeschoolers Email Conference list, in response to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about our daughter Molly getting a Chancellor's Scholarship at the University of Pittsburgh:
Great Article! Congratulations to Molly Richman!!! According to this Post Gazette Article, she has been admitted to Pitt at the age of 16. That is too cool!I have a few questions (if you are reading this howard or susan or maybe a knowledgable PHAA Board member..) I thought that a student in the PHAA diploma program could not graduate early since they wouldn't be able to fit in 'four years' of English. I suppose if Molly is heading off to college next fall (way to go girl!) then one of the following has to be true:
- she started high school two years early (cool)
- she is leaving high school early to go to college, maybe without graduating (very cool)
- the four year requirment for English has been changed for the PHAA diploma (?)
- Molly isn't getting a PHAA diploma (like why would she need one now!?!? She has reached a pretty high level of acheivement!)
- Molly is getting a state-issued diploma after completing 30 credit hours at Pitt.
Hi Barb -- this is Susan Richman responding here. Thanks for your nice words re/ the article. I thought it was very positive overall. Btw, was kind of fun that the writer called me a few times just before it was published with a real problem -- she was having *great* difficulty in finding someone to give a negative comment about homeschoolers! Her editor would not allow the article to be published without a 'balancing' negative, so she had to look really hard... finally she thought of the teacher's union -- I assured her they would always be good for a negative :-).
Re/ Molly graduating at 16. She is indeed a senior in the PHAA program, and will receive her diploma this June at our graduation ceremony at St. Vincent's College. We made the decision to skip Molly ahead a year way back when she was in first grade, and always let the school district know this. Her birthday happens to be August 5, so by 'normal' grade placement she would have been among the very youngest in her grade -- then with skipping her ahead, she was doubly 'young'. I've written about this decision in our newsletter a couple of years ago. I don't 'recommend' this to others, and never did it with my other three kids, but for Molly it really seems like it was the best decision. So, Molly was an entering 9th grader in the PHAA program when she had just turned 13. Hope this clarifies things.
What the PHAA policy is re/ high school credits is that grades can't be 'skipped' within 9th - 12th grades, so if people realize that they want their child to move ahead more quickly, they 'skip' a grade at an earlier level. We've certainly had other younger students graduate with our diploma -- I think the youngest was a 14 year old brilliant student from the Allentown area, who had already been attending several college classes in his senior year, and who had continued to receive all sorts of honors in college since graduating from the PHAA program.
Some students who want to go to college a year early (that is, during their junior year they start applying to college) receive their PHAA diploma after completing their full-time freshman year in college. This is all spelled out (hopefully clearly!) in the newest update of our Guide to the PA Homeschoolers Diploma.
The reporter (who was *extremely* nice, and who really had fun working on the story and learning more about homeschoolers) was indeed told that the SAT scores were just for kids in the PHAA diploma program, not for homeschoolers in general in the state. But she may not have quite understood, and so didn't label it that way clearly. She did call the College Board to confirm all the stats. The College Board does not yet have 'generic' stats on homeschoolers, and so just doesn't have any data to share on how homeschoolers are doing in PA. They've just instituted a general homeschoolers code number for kids to use who have chosen not to be associated with any diploma program or distance program (and so wouldn't have a specific code # to use), and this will indeed help them generate data on a wider range of homeschoolers. These reported stats were indeed only those from kids registered for the PHAA diploma, who actually used our code # (some students don't use it, either by mistake or because they choose not too -- we did not include their scores here, even if they were later reported to us by the families. we only used the data summary given to us by the College Board).
My only regret about the article is that the reporter didn't mention all the many, many types of group activities homeschoolers have created for themselves. We certainly told her about a whole slew that Molly in particular was involved with. Guess she may have run out of room -- she told me that the article was way too long originally, and had been edited way back. So that's just life. And also she got the designation a bit wrong re/ what the difference was between PHAA and PA Homeschoolers, but oh well.... I tried :- ).
But again, I hope the article has a positive effect. Thanks for your nice comments, Barb.
Barbara Page wrote the following in a letter to the Penn Homeschoolers Email Conference list:
Howard's response:
The diplomas that existed before PHAA (Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency) were diplomas from schools. Ours was the first diploma to be recognized based upon the Pennsylvania home education law, and not based upon laws dealing with schools. When Buxmont, Erie, and Mason Dixon contacted us for advice, we helped them gain the same recognition that we had received for we feel that there should be many different options to meet the needs of the diverse homeschooling population in Pennsylvania.
We always knew that there were many diploma options available nationally through distance education where you would complete all of the institution's required course work (using their materials and having work graded by them) as well as some rather expensive programs such as Clonlara where parents were encouraged to develop their own course of study. There have also been a few Pennsylvania schools offering their diplomas to homeschooled students in Pennsylvania. (These schools were often a bit quiet about it, not wishing to call attention to what they were doing.) We wanted to offer a different option for parents in PA working under the PA Home Education Law who wanted flexibility while appreciating our standards.
The PHAA diploma and the other diploma clones are R-E-C-O-G-N-I-Z-E-D by the Department of Education here in Pennsylvania. The PHAA diploma and its diploma clones are NOT: certified, bona-fide, accredited, legitimate, better, vitamin- fortified EXCEPT when these same diploma programs are described in PHAA-generated literature....PHAA has not been accredited by any outside agency, which is the normal and common practice, for its 'accredited' status. PHAA has accredited itself! This is unheard of in educational circles....
For PHAA to claim that their diploma program is accredited in the normal understanding of the word is misleading and false. Of course PHAA can say that PHAA has accredited PHAA. Fine. But don't pretend that the State of Pennsylvania has granted special certification of PHAA diplomas when this is not the case....
Then, when I (Howard) challenged her saying that she had twisted my words "pretending that I have made many claims that I have never made," she responded:
You claim that PHAA diplomas are accredited when you write on this webpage: http://www.pahomeschoolers.com/whoweare.htmlI have not claimed that PHAA is accredited, however I have claimed that Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency accredits home education programs -- the words "accreditation agency" appear in our name. The other accreditation agencies are organizations of schools that accredit schools; we have claimed to be the first of a new kind of organization, an organization of home education programs that accredits home education programs."PA Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency (PHAA), a non- profit corporation that we founded which accredits homeschool diplomas in Pennsylvania."
In the front page article of Issue 34 (Winter 1991) of the PA Homeschoolers newsletter, I (Howard) summarized the first two years of the homeschool law. I wrote:
Before it passed about 50 families were in court, now none are prosecuted. Before it passed home visits were routine, now they are prohibited. Before it passed homeschoolers were tested in the schools, now they can be tested at home. Before it passed many parents could not homeschool unless they had teaching certificates or at the least 2 years of college, now all can homeschool with a high school diploma or a GED. Before it passed you had to get approval to homeschool from the local superintendent, now you just send in an affidavit by certified mail....
In order to check the accuracy of this claim, Barbara Page wrote a letter to me. I responded quickly. Then she posted my response and then made the following claim:
Two days ago I received a letter from Howard Richman who responded to a letter from me.... He now says that it was 16 families that were in court prior to 1989 (and the passage of our current homeschooling regulations.) Now think for a moment, both those statements can't be true. The number is either 50, 16 or some other number. What that means is Howard Richman lied...okay just plain ol' lied....
Now here is Barbara's quote of my letter which is her basis for claiming that I lied. I had written:
First, you asked about the number of prosecutions before Act 169 of 1988. The estimate of 50 came from Attorney Chris Klicka of the Home School Legal Defense Association. In order to get this estimate he added up the number of HSLDA members in court and then multiplied by three, figuring that for every HSLDA member in court, there were probably two non-members. In his testimony before the House Education Committee, Dec. 3, 1987, he reported:At this very moment we are representing 16 homeschooling families who are involved in litigation with various school districts. This unnecessary litigation is a tremendous cost to the state and the families.
All of these families who are presently in court, assured their local superintendents that their children were being educated. These families described at length that their home schools covered all the required subjects, for 180 days, and that their children would be annually tested using a nationally recognized standardized achievement test. These families even described their sincerely-held religious belief that God has called them to home school.
Unfortunately, the superintendents did not encourage these dedicated parent but rather brought criminal charges against these families...
When I wrote in 1991 that "about 50 families" were in court, I was using an estimate made by Chris Klicka, which may indeed have been inaccurate.
For those interested in finding out more about the non-HSLDA families who were in court at the time, one source is my book Story of a Bill, available free on-line which, in chapters 2 and 3 discusses the court cases of the DiBernardinos of Upper Darby and the Jacobys of Schuylkill County. Sorry for the confusion, and hope this clears things up a bit.
In a posting on an e-mail conference list someone wrote that Howard has lobbied PHEAA (Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency) in order to prevent graduates of correspondence school programs from receiving state grants.
Apparently,this poster was not aware that PHEAA has not recognized correspondence school diplomas for well over a decade. Their policy precedes 1992 when we negotiated with them in order to secure recognition of diplomas issued by homeschool organizations to those who had completed the graduation requirments of the Pennsylvania Home Education Law.
We didn't even know that PHEAA existed before 1991. The first we heard of it was when a homeschooler who graduated in 1991 from Christian Liberty Academy and then went on to attend Chatham College let us know that she could not get a scholarship grant through PHEAA. Today, this homeschooler could get a grant if her school superintendent would sign a home education certification form.
PHEAA had a firm policy at that time of not recognizing correspondence school diplomas, especially if the school was out-of-state. Whenever they noticed that the high school listed on a grant application was out-of-state they wrote to the graduate for more information. I think that they still have the same policy. For this policy to change, the initiative will have to come from those programs, or from homeschoolers who use those programs.
A homeschooling Mom of a 12th grader wrote me asking:
Your agency and others offer a diploma that is recognized by most colleges in our state but what about the student who does not desire to attend college? They have no recognition of ever compelting the state's requirements. This may not seem like a problem at first, but what if the student gets married and wants to homeschool their own children. What diploma will be valid as a "high school" diploma according to Act 169?
In letters that they have written, the PA Department of Education (PDE) has held that the PHAA diploma, and those issued by the other homeschool organizations whose diplomas they recognize, are the equivalent of a high school diploma as far as all of the following are concerned:
It is the opinion of the Pennsylvania Department of Education that individuals who either receive a diploma from an organization recognized by PDE to award a home education diploma or receive a letter from the superintendent of the resident school district indicating completion of the requirements for graduation from a home education program per §13-1327.1(d) of the Pennsylvania School Code are qualified under §13-1327.1(a) to become a Supervisor of a home education program. Section 13-1327.1(a) defines a “Supervisor” as “the parent or guardian or such person having legal custody of the child or children who shall be responsible for the provision of instruction, provided that such person has a high school diploma or its equivalent.” The diploma from a recognized organization or letter from the superintendent are “equivalent” to a high school diploma and thereby qualifies an individual to be a Supervisor of a home education program.
There is a group in Pennsylvania that opposes the idea of the PA Department of Education recognizing the homeschooling community setting standards for its diplomas. They sometimes argue that Pennsylvania is the only state in which this is so. However, South Carolina also recognizes homeschool organizations. Their statute does not specifically mention diplomas, but does recognize homeschool organizations for much more than just diplomas as can be found by reading South Carolina statutes at http://www.csranet.com/~vlmckie/sclaw.html. Information about the diploma program of one of those recognized South Carolina organizations can be found at http://www.scaihs.org/highscho.htm.
There is a group in Pennsylvania that opposes the idea of the PA Department of Education recognizing the homeschooling community setting standards for its diplomas. They point to a few isolated instances where diplomaless-homeschoolers in PA have had trouble getting into public colleges and suggest that these instances prove that Pennsylvania is worse than other states. Actually, according to a 1998-1999 survey by the National Center for Home Education, 38% of the public colleges and 29% of private colleges across the nation either require homeschoolers to take GED or SAT II tests not required of school graduates or else they set criteria for homeschool admission that are higher than those set for school graduates. A summary of that study can be found on-line at http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000001/00000163.ASP. The trouble that those without recognized diplomas face in Pennsylvania may not be greater than what they would face in another state.
Some homeschoolers in Pennsylvania argue that homeschool parents in other states issue diplomas to their own children which are automatically recognized to be the equivalent of a high school diploma. In order to further this claim they hold that the Pell Grant language of the U.S. government specifically recognizes high school diplomas issued by parents to be the equivalent of a high school diploma.
The actual Pell Grant requirements can be found at www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/StudentGuide/2001-2/elig.html. They do not hold that diplomas issued by parents to their children are the equivalent of a high school diploma. However they do say that "completion" of a high school education at home is sufficient for a Pell Grant.
Keep in mind that a "certificate of completion" is not considered to be the equivalent of a high school diploma. It is sometimes given to school students who complete their high school educations without achieving the standards necessary for a high school diploma. On the other hand, the Pennsylvania Department of Education has written to PHAA that diplomas issued by the seven homeschool organizations that they recognize are the equivalent of a high school diploma.
No. As I noted in the article that can be found at www.pahomeschoolers.com/newsletter/issue74.htm the drop-off that occurs in other states begins before the effects of their compulsory school ages would be felt. Moreover, one of those states (Oregon) has a later compulsory school age than Pennsylvania.
At an August 9, 2001, hearing of the Pennsylvania House Education Committee about cyber-charter school bills, Barbara Page claimed that the proportion of students homeschooled nationally was 4% while the proportion in Pennsylvania was 1%. However, her estimate for the national homeschool population is inflated and her estimate for the PA homeschool population is deflated.
The best estimate of the national homeschool population was recently released by the National Center for Education Statistics as part of their National Household Education Surveys Program. They estimated that in 1999 850,000 students were being homeschooled nationwide, amounting to "1.7 percent of U.S. students, ages 5 to 17, with a grade equivalent of kindergarten through grade 12" (page iv). That report can be read on-line at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2001/2001033.pdf
The best estimate of the Pennsylvania homeschool population is the statistics reported by the PA Department of Education for students who are enrolled in home education programs. They counted 23,313 students in home education programs during the 1999-2000 school year which they noted was "1.1% of the state's public, private and nonpublic enrollments in 1999-00" (page 1). The report, however noted in the Figure 3 caption (which graphed students by age) that the Pennsylvania School Code does not require a child to be registered for school until age eight and that "this accounted for the relatively low number of students registered in ages five, six, and seven." That report can be read on-line at the PA Department of Education's website.
A conservative estimate of 5-, 6-, and 7-year old students who are homeschooled would be 2,380 at each of those ages since no number lower than that appears for any age from 8 to 12. With this adjustment the PA Department of Education count rises to 28,793 students, 1.3% of the school age population. This estimate may still be low since it does not include those homeschoolers who are enrolled in private tutoring, umbrella schools, or satellite schools.
Thus the best estimate of the proportion of students homeschooled nationally is 1.7% not 4% and the best estimate of the proportion homeschooled in PA is 1.3% not 1%. The ratio of 1.7:1.3 is much less dramatic than the ratio of 4:1 claimed by Mrs. Barbara Page.
Incidentally, homeschooling is a rural, not an urban phenomena in that the proportion of homeschooled students is higher in rural areas than it is in cities. For example, Philadelphia County has 12.4% of all of the people in the state (according to the 2000 census) but only 2.5% of the students enrolled in home education programs (according to the PA Department of Education statistics). It would not be surprising if a relatively urban state, such as PA, should have a slightly lower proportion of homeschoolers than the national average.
No. According to a 1998-1999 survey by the National Center for Home Education only 38% of public colleges and 29% of private colleges across the nation either require homeschoolers to take GED or SAT II tests not required of school graduates.
Very few colleges require that PHAA graduates take additional tests that are not required of school graduates. I only know of two that do so, both are Mormon Colleges (Reeds College and Brigham Young University).
Colleges in Pennsylvania and surrounding states are actively courting homeschoolers in the PHAA program. For example, all of the following came to PHAA's High School at Home conference on July 20, 2001:
There are also many alternatives to a PHAA diploma for need-based scholarships to college including:
PHAA's transcripts are put together by evaluators and parents and are sent to colleges (or employers) with the evaluation letters attached. The colleges read the evaluation letters quite carefully! At the conference, they told us again and again how much they "appreciate" the documentation that we supply.
Dear Cybercharter folks,You had better realize that the attitude toward cybercharters marketing to homeschoolers is not something that is endorsed or welcomed by any state-level or national level homeschooling organization. HSLDA is against homeschoolers in govt. cybercharters, CHAP is against homeschoolers in govt. cybercharters and I believe that Catholic Homeschoolers of PA are against govt. cybercharters. Howard Richman is calling cybercharters public homeschooling - not a great idea since it will have the effect of confusing people and generating opposition against homeschoolers instead of generating support for cybercharters. Besides, he neglects to reveal his personal business affiliation with WPACCS and that is that he tests for them $$....
Barb Page is attributing our support for the cyber-charter school option (see the op-ed piece that Howard wrote for the Pittsburgh Tribune Review for an example) as being a result of our "business affiliation" with WPCCS.
However, PA Homeschoolers has no such affiliation. Last fall we had informally heard that WPCCS was thinking of using our testing service as a way to test their students, and had decided to turn them down if they should ask. But they never did. We knew that a number of students involved in the Mon Valley support group, which had been setting up our local testing day (as part of PA Homeschoolers fall testing service) for several years, were enrolled. Some of the students tested that day may very well have been WPCCS (Western Pennsylvania Cyber-Charter School, a cyber-charter school headquartered in Midland PA and founded by the Midland School District) students. We received no payment from WPCCS -- all payments for all of the tests that we gave came from the parents directly. We do not ask on our registration forms whether or not families are part of a cyber charter school program, and whether or not these families subsequently got reimbursed for this testing by WPCCS, we have no way of knowing.
We did take the opportunity to talk with several parents that day about how the cyber charter school experience was going, and most seemed very pleased with the whole experience. We even got to meet the traveling support teacher from WPCCS who was visiting the co-op group that day, and he was very pleased with the initiative that the experienced homeschooling families brought to the program.
We have never had any communications whatsoever with WPCCS regarding their students participating in our testing service or any of our other services. In fact, when a different cyber-charter school founder did ask us whether we could provide services to their students, we turned them down. In some cases we have clear policies:
We do however let cyber-charter school students participate on homeschool support group teams in our annual fall homeschoolers volleyball tournament. Our goal is to do our part, as influential editors of a statewide homeschooling newsletter, to keep support groups from splitting along public-private home education lines.
Barb Page is engaged in a campaign to impugn our motives. According to her we were motivated by money in all of the following:
Barb Page fails to understand our motivation. She doesn't understand how responsibility to our subscribers could cause us to work for a homeschool law that would end their prosecutions, how responsibility to the homeschool community could get us to work to make the homeschool diploma a reality, how responsibility to our members could get us to protect the PHAA diploma program, and how our integrity could lead us to support this new cyber-charter option.
So that we can continue to support the cyber-charter school option without the accusation that we are doing so with monetary motives, we have cancelled our testing arrangements for 2002 at the Mon Valley test site.
We have tested at that site (one of our approximately 25 test sites) for three years (Western PA Cyber Charter School has only been existence for one). When we arranged the testing last year we did not know that any WPCCS students would be attending-- if we continued to hold testing at that site, it would be with the knowledge that some WPCCS students would be attending and thus would add credence to Barb Page's accusation that we have a "personal business affiliation with WPACCS." In response to our decision not to test at the Mon Valley site, we received the following note from Linda Wohar, organizer of that test site:
Howard & Susan RichmanDear Howard,
I am very sorry to hear that you will no longer be offering homeschool testing in the Mon Valley Area. I am aware that the decision to stop discontinue this test cite was due to Barbara Page's continued harassment of Pa. Homeschoolers and their alleged "financial arrangement" with the Midland cyber school.
Mon Valley has been a test site for 3 years. Last October, many of our coop members plus other homeschoolers appreciated taking their required testing in a secure environment close to home. (we are at least 40 minutes from any other site). Some of our coop members, who are also participants in the Midland Cyber program chose to be tested. These tests were paid for by the parents of the children, not Midland.
The parents were never reinbursed by Midland, so Pa Homeschoolers never received any monies directly or indirectly from Midland. I personally informed Mrs. Page of these financial arrangements in some e-mails dated March 21, while I was trying to clear up some other mistruths she was publishing.(see attached letters) I do not understand why Barbara Page continues to publish these divisive half truths. [Note from Howard: Linda Wohar informed Barb Page that parents, not WPCCS, paid us for the testing-- she did not yet know that the parents were not reimbursed by WPCCS.] She also has a child enrolled in the cyber program and benefits from the CCAC classes that they pay for.
Only 1/3 of our coop students are also cyber charter students. These students and others will be forced to test in an unfamilial place. Although I understand Pa Homeschoolers desire to preserve the moral integrity of the business, please reconsider your decision and reinstate Mon Valley as a test site.
Yours Truly, Linda Wohar
You have my permission to publish this letter.
In an webpage entitled, "Legislators Attempt Consensus on New Home Education Law, Many Issues Still To Be Resolved," which appeared on the Catholic Homeschoolers of Pennsylvania website during the winter of 2001-2002, Ms. Page's fellow PAFREE steering committee member, Ms. Ellen Kramer, wrote the following as part of her report of a December 18, 2001, meeting:
Mr. Richman is unwilling to allow parent-issued diplomas to continue to have their arguably equivalent status. The legislature could choose to discontinue the choice of parent-issued diplomas if they are singled out through being specifically mentioned in a bill. Such an elimination would make PA the only state prohibiting the legal choice to personally document the students’ completion of a high school program. That would leave homeschool organization diplomas (not available or mandated in other states) and distance-learning diplomas as the only legal means of receiving diplomas for home educated students in PA.PAFREE steering committee member Ms. Kramer was arguing that the homeschool bill proposal that we presented at a December 18, 2001, meeting with legislators would take away parent-issued diplomas and thus violate our own position in the Winter 2001-2002 issue of the PA Homeschoolers newsletter when we opposed PAFREE's attempt to undercut homeschool organization diplomas through legislation, an attempt that found its way into House Bill 2560.Mr. Richman acknowledged that this could happen but was unmoved by that possibility in spite of his recent statement: "Not one step backward. Promote only what would provide homeschoolers with new options. Oppose any bill or amendment that would take away options already won."
However, the last sentence of the relevant section of our bill proposal specifically did not take away the existing validity of parent-issued diplomas. Here was the relevant language:
Recognizing that home education organizations have a vested interest in maintaining the quality of their diplomas, the Department of Education shall maintain a list of bona fide non-profit home education organizations whose standards and procedures for evaluating home education students' portfolios in grades nine through twelve meet the graduation requirements of this section. Diplomas awarded by those organizations will be recognized as the equivalent of a high school diploma. Recognizing that distance learning is a valid option, the Department of Education shall maintain a list of bona fide distance learning programs whose standards and procedures for grades 9 through 12 meet the graduation requirements of this section. Diplomas awarded by these distance learning programs shall be recognized as the equivalent of a high school diploma. Nothing in this section shall prevent the supervisor of a home education program from awarding a diploma to a student who has met the requirements of this section....Ms. Kramer was claiming that our inclusion of the last sentence of this passage would threaten parent-issued diplomas because "The legislature could choose to discontinue the choice of parent-issued diplomas if they are singled out through being specifically mentioned in a bill." However, Ms. Kramer was entirely incorrect if she thinks that we would be "unmoved" by deletion of the last sentence from this language. If the legislature did take out the last sentence, we would strongly oppose the legislation. Our position has not changed. We still believe, as we stated in the Winter 2001-2002 issue:
There is an important principle that [those in PAFREE] have not yet learned which must guide our legislative efforts: Not one step backward. Promote only what would provide homeschoolers with new options. Oppose any bill or amendment that would take away options already won.In order to make it appear that we were trying to take away the possible validity of parent-issued diplomas, she gave an incomplete and distorted version of what we actually proposed. She not only neglected to include the actual language of our bill proposal in her report, but she also neglected to mention that at the December 18 meeting we agreed to accept whatever language that PAFREE would come up with to recognize diplomas issued by parents so long as language were also included that codified the current recognition of homeschool organization diplomas. This did not satisfy Ms. Kramer's PAFREE coalition. Their apparent goal was to eliminate PA Department of Education recognition of homeschool organization diplomas as a way to bring up the comparative validity of parent-issued diplomas and correspondence school diplomas.
Ms. Kramer's account of the December 18 meeting was incomplete in other ways as well:
A November 7, 2002, article from the West Chester Daily Local News was headlined "Proposed Homeschool Bill Divides Parents." Readers were invited to respond to that article. In her response which appeared on the newspaper's website, Barbara Page argued that the title of the article was incorrect. She wrote:
HB 2560 has not divided families across the state - instead it has pitted paid, professional home education evaluators, whose incomes are dependent upon the current home education law against those families desperate for relief...I (Howard) am executive director of a 1,639 member non-profit homeschool organization, Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency. 83% of our members are homeschooling parents, the other 17% are homeschool evaluators. When we conducted a telephone poll of all of our members in one of the area codes, about 95% supported our position against House Bill 2560. We were united against the bill because we were aware that HB 2560 would take away the Pennsylvania Department of Education's recognition of our diploma.
When the House Education Committee held an informational meeting about HB 2560 in Harrisburg on June 13, it was attended by about a thousand homeschoolers who were divided between those supporting the bill, wearing red, those opposing the bill, wearing blue, and some in other colors. The only independent count of how many were wearing each color was given by Mike Wereschagin in a June 14 article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News who wrote that about 650 wore red and about 150 wore blue.
Furthermore, on the PA HOMESCHOOLERStm website you can find the following testimony against the bill from homeschooling leaders whose incomes have nothing to do with the current home education law:
1. Donald Joye, President of the Chester County Homeschoolers Association, the fourth largest in the state, wrote: "HB 2560 goes too far in eliminating things that have proven value. Portfolios, for example, are extremely useful for many things -- not the least of which is providing the critics of homeschooling with tangible evidence of activity and level of accomplishment, and this is extremely beneficial. I doubt we would have kept so good a record if it were not required...."
2. Carol Lugg, Chairperson of North Central Pennsylvania Homeschoolers testified before the House Education Committee: "Why gut a law which appears to be working? Why gut a law that allows a framework under which to build a solid homeschool? Why gut a law that gives us the freedom to choose our curricula, evaluators, methods of accountability, choice of tests, whether we want to do simple or fancy portfolios, and allows us to attempt to establish a relationship with our district? Why would the sponsors of this bill call it an improvement?..."
3. Nancy Emerson, homeschooler and former support group leader of the Harisburg Area Homeschool Association, one of the largest and most vibrant support groups in the state wrote: "I certainly don't mind opening up new ways to comply with homeschool law for those who desire that, but it is wrong to change a method that works well for many families, including my own. I believe there is a better way to make changes to the homeschool law. Should this bill get passed on to the House, I am very concerned about all the potential amendments that could be added there and in the Senate...."
4. Jay and Jean Snyder homeschoolers from Lancaster County and former board members of one of the homeschool organizations that is promoting House Bill 2560 wrote: "We too see some hidden benefits of the law. We have never found the log keeping to be a burden. When I kept these records, I found the process to be rewarding, it reinforced for me that I truly was doing my job in teaching. It was a way of me SEEING what I was doing. Later as the children became older, this task was given to them. This helped my children to become responsible in this area. They have found this to be burdensome at times, but they needed this to realize that record keeping is a part of life...."
5. Ted and Karen Holt, founders of Lehigh County Home Educators (one of the oldest support groups in the state), wrote: "The homeschooling law has been an encouragement to me personally by providing a framework for accountability.... The inclusion of the yearly educational objectives in the affidavit gave me motivation to realign my goals for the coming year. The portfolio gave my children and me a look at academic accomplishments during the year. Although I'm not a proponent of standardized testing it did not harm my children to have that experience the three times they were required to be tested. My children always enjoyed the time of evaluation and the opportunity to show to someone outside our family the accomplishments of the year...."
In her response to a November 7, 2002, article on the West Chester Daily Local News' website, Barbara Page wrote:
The Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency is currently under investigation by the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania for its practice of claiming accreditation. PHAA is not accredited. Time might be better spent investigating those organizations that sell credentials based upon false claims of accrediting authority OR false claims of being accredited....In this response Mrs. Page neglected to mention that the so-called investigation was simply two complaints that she herself had filed in August 2001! So far, these are the only two complaints that the Better Business Bureau has passed along to us for our response. We responded to both complaints promptly and have heard nothing further about them since.
In her first complaint which the BBB sent to us on August 29, 2001, she wrote:
This organization has filed with the PA Bureau of Corporations and the IRS as a 501(c)(4) non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Therefore it is ineligible to receive contributions that are tax-deductible to donors. But that is not why I have contacted you, the BBB.In our response to this complaint we cited correspondence from the Pennsylvania Department of Education recognizing our diploma as being the equivalent of a high school diploma for many purposes. Specifically, we responded:I am convinced after researching the operations of this organization, reviewing their 990s, interviewing those enrolled in their program (they provide no instruction, they simply award degrees based upon educational and life experiences) that they fit the description of what is termed a 'diploma mill' described by the BBB on this website: http://www.bbb.org/library/diplomamills.asp
The major difference between what the BBB describes as a diploma mill and what this organization 'awards' is that this organization awards high school diplomas.
The only authority granted to PHAA by the Pennsylvania Department of Education has been to designate that the credentials awarded by PHAA qualifies the recipient to receive post-secondary grants.
Yet PHAA claims to be certified, accredited (self-accredited), and strongly implies indorsement by the State of Pennsylvania. Many unsuspecting enrollees in the program and college admissions departments in Pennsylvania mistakenly believe the PHAA program to be:
I have exhausted many of the avenues open to me in my objections to the fraudulent practices of this organization with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Attorney General's Office in Pennsylvania. They have not responded in any manner to my concerns. I can at least file a complaint with you, the BBB.
- required by the State of Pennsylvania
- endorsed by the State of Pennsylvania
- accredited
- certified
With all Sincerity,
Barbara Page
I wish to remain anonymous
Thank you for forwarding the complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau of Western Pennsylvania by Mrs. Barbara Page. Not only is Mrs. Page not a member or customer of the Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency (PHAA), the charges that she raises are unfounded. Perhaps a bit of chronology is in order:In order to argue that PHAA fits the description of a "diploma mill" Mrs. Page makes three false arguments. She alleges of PHAA that (1) “They provide no instruction,” (2) “They award degrees based upon educational and life experiences” and (3) “The only authority granted to PHAA by the Pennsylvania Department of Education has been to designate that the credentials awarded by PHAA qualifies the recipient to receive state post-secondary grants.”
- In December 21, 1988, a home education law was passed in Pennsylvania which specified that homeschooled children could graduate from high school at home, but didn't specify who would issue the diploma. At first it appeared that the PA Department of Education would themselves award the diploma.
- On October 2, 1990, the Pennsylvania Department of Education decided not to award the Commonwealth Secondary School Diploma to home education graduates, but instead came up with the idea that bona fide homeschool organizations should award the diplomas because, as the new Chief of the Division of Advisory Services wrote me:
"It seems more appropriate to me to have the credential for home schoolers issued by a home schoolers organization. The monitoring and evaluation could then be done by individuals familiar with those programs and the quality control could be enforced by individuals who have a vested interest in maintaining that quality." [A copy of this October 2, 1990 letter is attached.]- In response to that letter in the winter of 1990-1991 I founded Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency (PHAA) and we began to enroll our first members. [Our bylaws are attached.]
- On July 9, 1991, PHAA held its first graduation ceremony at the New Villa Inn in Harrisburg.
- On June 11, 1992, Joseph Bard, Commissioner for Elementary and Secondary Education, after reviewing our standards and procedures for evaluating portfolios and awarding diplomas, wrote a letter to the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA) recognizing that the PHAA diploma was the equivalent of a high school diploma as far as state grants to college are concerned. [A copy of the Department of Education's June 11, 1992, letter is attached.]
- In the years since, six additional homeschool organizations have applied to the PA Department of Education and have been recognized by the PA Department of Education [A copy of the current application form downloaded from the PA Department of Education website (http://www.pde.psu.edu/homeed/homeedapp.html) is attached.] The Department has written letters recognizing these diplomas to be the equivalent of a high school diploma not only for PHEAA grants but also for other legal purposes including admission to Penn State and qualification to teach one's children.
- We currently publish a PHAA high school student newsletter, published quarterly, which is available free to members (PHAA students and PHAA evaluators; the last issue went out to over 1600 members). [A sample issue is attached.] We also host two formal high school graduation ceremonies each June. [News articles about our June 2001 ceremonies are attached.] We also hold a High School at Home Conference each July in Harrisburg, PA, to help families learn more about the ways of developing strong high school programs and to gain better understanding about the college admissions process (27 college representatives attended the 2001 conference, offering helpful information). [The program from our 2001 High School at Home conference is attached.] We send out official sealed transcripts, including the annual home education evaluation letters, to colleges or trade schools as requested by families, and work to help post-secondary institutions understand our program. We also periodically survey our graduates in order to determine what they do after graduation. [See attached article entitled "What do Homeschoolers do after Graduation."]
Her first allegation that we provide no instruction is based upon a misconstruction of our purpose. We are not a school, we are a home education organization, offering a recognized credential to families that have taken on the responsibility of teaching their own high school students themselves, using a wide range of curricular choices, under the PA home education statute. Parents often choose distance coursework of various sorts, use group co-op classes with other homeschoolers, purchase textbooks of their choice, or develop their own course outlines, as long as they meet our basic guidelines. As I noted in the chronology above, the PA Department of Education has reviewed our standards for evaluating home education portfolios and our procedures and has found those standards and procedures to be satisfactory. [A copy of the current list of seven home education organizations downloaded from the PA Department of Education website (http://www.pde.psu.edu/homeed/homeedorgs.html) is attached.]
Mrs. Page's second allegation that we award degrees based upon educational and life experiences misreads the ‘red-flags’ listed on the Better Business Bureau web site (http://www.bbb.org/library/diplomamills.asp). We do award credit for educational experiences by students in home education programs based upon professional evaluation of the portfolio documenting appropriate time and coverage of the subject under the Pennsylvania home education statute. Guidelines for credit are clearly described in our Guide to the PA Homeschoolers Diploma, and must be documented in the student's portfolio of work that is evaluated each spring by a PHAA member evaluator as part of the family's compliance with the home education statute. The local public school superintendent also reviews the student's portfolio of work and the PHAA evaluator letter. Credit for "educational experiences" is not even listed on the Better Business Bureau web site among the "red flags" -- the site instead cautions against: "Offers that place heavy emphasis on offering college credits for lifetime or real world experence.”
Mrs. Page’s third allegation states that the only “authority granted by PHAA by the Pennsylvania Department of Education has been to designate that the credentials awarded by PHAA qualifies the recipient to receive state post-secondary grants.” This also is not true. On May 13, 1993, the Department of Education wrote a letter to Penn State which caused Penn state to drop its requirement that our graduates take the GED. And on April 3, 2001, the Department wrote a letter to us in which they held that our graduates have the qualification necessary (a high school diploma or its equivalent) to teach their own children in Pennsylvania. As the April 3, 2001, letter clearly states, the Department of Education considers the diplomas of the organizations that they recognize to be substantially the equivalent of a public high school diploma. [Copies of the Department of Education's April 13, 1993, letter to Penn State and their April 3, 2001, letter are attached.]
The Better Business Bureau web site lists a number of other "red flags" of diploma mills that Barb Page does not discuss perhaps because they do not apply to PHAA.
We hope that this clears up any questions that you may have. To help you gain further background on our organization and our goals I have included the Guide to PA Homeschoolers Diploma which is available to parents who wish to find out more about the program. We have also included a general guide to the PA homeschool law which helps families comply with the home education law in responsible ways.
- "Degrees can be earned in less time than in a traditional college." Our degrees cannot be earned in less time than in a traditional high school. We require students to complete four years of English, as required by the Pennsylvania home education law, and we interpret this requirement to mean that students must complete four chronological years of English -- students must spend four years to earn our diploma.
- "Tuition paid on a per-degree basis, or discounts for enrolling in multiple degree programs. Traditional colleges charge by credit hourse, course, or semester." Our main fees are an initial filing fee ($35) and a diploma request fee ($45). Because we do not provide instruction (but rely on member evaluators to evaluate instruction by parents) we do not charge tuition. Member evaluators typically charge a fee for their services. We do not provide discounts for enrolling in "multiple degree programs", as we only offer a high school diploma and not other diplomas or degrees.
- "Names that are similar to well known reputable universities." Our name is not similar to that of any other institution. Specifically, we are not trying to present our organization as a bricks-and-mortar school, but as a home education organization that accredits work done in a home education program under PA statute.
- "Addresses that are box numbers or suites." Our address is a rural delivery mail box number, not a post office box number.
We have had many dealings with Mrs. Page over the past several years. We have tried to respond to her comments, but have rarely satisfied her. For more information see the web page that we have devoted to these responses: http://www.pahomeschoolers.com/barbpage.htm
When she is being honest, Mrs. Page objects not to the lack of regulation of the Department of Education over the recognized diploma organizations, but to the stringency of that regulation. She holds that the stringency of such regulation prevented her from starting a diploma program when she was a leader of McKeesport Area Homeschoolers. Specifically she wrote in an e-mail message that she published on her Penn Homeschoolers Email Conference list:
The McKeesport Area Homeschoolers were ready to begin issuing homeschooling diplomas beginning this year and were stopped dead in the water when the DOE came out with all the new rules and regs for issuing diplomas. We certainly can't afford to become a non-profit organization! And I would assume that this is the case for many other, small home schooling support groups across the state.In that same list we replied:Sincerely,Good decision. Issuing diplomas is a big responsibility. The transcripts behind the diplomas must be kept on file into the distant future so that the graduation of homeschooled students can be verified whenever it is questioned. Any organization that is not even willing to incorporate and set up a board of directors to insure continuity shouldn't be awarding diplomas.
Howard B. Richman, PhD
In her second complaint, which the BBB sent to us on August 31, 2001, she wrote:
The 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation known as Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accreditation Agency claims to award credentials to its customers/enrollees for which it has received no authority, review, certification or accreditation to grant. This non-profit is not certified or accredited. This non-profit has not been licensed, commissioned, or authorized by any governmental or non-governmental agency. This organization is not a bona fide state agency. I ave also contacted the appropriate Pennsylvania authority concerning the approval of the use of the corporate name that implies affiliation with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This non-profit name implies accreditation, the required enrollment of home educated students and the review and approval and endorsement of the PA Dept. of Education. This non-profit also engages in the lobbying of legislators.Mrs. Page accompanied this complaint by enclosing a printed copy of an article that I (Howard) wrote which appeared in a 1993 issue of The Practical Homeschooling Magazine and still appears on that magazine's website. The article was entitled, "State Organization Grants Certified Diplomas." The website version of that article has since been renamed "State Organization Grants Recognized Diplomas." On September 7, 2002, we responded to Mrs. Page's complaint:PHAA should formally be renamed to accurately represent the true nature of its operations and retract all claims to credentials that it does not posess.
Barbara Page
Thank your for forwarding the second complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau of Pennsylvania by Mrs. Barbara Page. As you know you mailed us her first complaint on August 29 and we responded to it on August 31. You sent this complaint to us on August 31, but we were out of the office over Labor Day weekend and only just now opened it. In order to reply in timely fashion we are FAXing, instead of mailing, this response to you.By the way, many of the letters that were attached to our BBB responses can be read on the Internet as attachments to my June 13 testimony to the House Education Committee.According to this new complaint PHAA "claims to award credentials to its customers/enrollees for which it has received no authority, review, certification or accreditation to grant." Later she states that our name implies "accreditation, the required enrollment of home educated students and the review and approval and endorsement of the PA Dept. of Education." These allegations are groundless as we noted in our August 31 response to the Better Business Bureau which we supported with attached documentation. In short, PHAA is indeed recognized by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to grant high school diplomas to graduates of home education programs. [Attached is our August 31 response to the Better Business Bureau.]
In her new complaint she claims that our name, Pennsylvania Homeschoolers Accrediation Agency implies "affiliation with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." I do not think that this is true. We are just one of 70 professional education organizations whose name begins with the word "Pennsylvania" in the list of professional organizations that appears in the Pennsylvania Education Directory: 2000-2001 published by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Few of these 70 organizations are affiliated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Lists of Pennsylvania-affiliated organizations, such as public schools, intermediate units, and state-related universities, appear in other parts of that directory as noted in the book's Table of Contents. [Attached are pages photocopied from that directory.]
Mrs. Page also complains that we lobby legislators. However, to my knowledge we are not in violation of any of the laws that might restrict the lobbying activities of 501(c4) tax-exempt organizations.
Although at the top of her customer complaint, Mrs. Page claims that the problem occurred since 1996, she attaches an article from a national homeschooling magazine which was published in 1993. She does not explain why she attached that article.
Perhaps she had a problem with the title. Magazine editors reserve for themselves the right to choose titles for the articles that they publish. However, if she does have a problem with the title, we agree with her. In order to be precise it should say "recognized" not "certified". In response to Mrs. Page complaint we just faxed the attached letter to the editor of the magazine asking her to change the title of the article on the web page so that it says "recognized" instead of "certified". [Attached is the letter that we just Faxed to the editor of Practical Homeschooling magazine.]
We hope that a change in this article's title satisfies Mrs. Page because, frankly, we do not have the time to respond to a new complaint from her every few days.
Sincerely,
Howard B. Richman, PhD
On October 29, 2002, I alerted homeschooling leaders across the state by e-mail about a bill that had passed the PA House of Representatives and was sitting in the Senate Education Committee with a provision that would lower Pennsylvania's beginning compulsory school age from 8 to 6. (This bill eventually died in the Senate Education Committee when the session ended a month later.) In my alert, I wrote:
Dear fellow homeschooling leaders:Dee Black of the Home School Legal Defense Association responded graciously to my e-mail the next day (October 29, 2002) with this thank you note:This is a heads up. Be ready to act, but don't do anything right away. I just did a legislative search and found that House Bill 1924, a bill that would lower the compulsory school age from 8 to 6, passed the PA House of Representatives with a unanimous vote (201 to 0) on June 26, 2002. (It was amended at the last minute just before passage which could explain why neither Rep. Rohrer nor HSLDA noticed it.)
It is now in the Senate Education Committee. If it passes the Senate and gets signed by the Governor it would become law. To read the bill and its history, go to the following website:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/BI/ALL/2001/0/HB1924.HTM
I don't know whether Senator Rhoades will bring up the bill in the Senate Education Committee. I don't even know if he has noticed the part of the bill that would lower the compulsory school age. We will not want to bring up the bill with him until we know that he is planning to bring it up.
We will need to closely watch the Senate Education Committee meeting schedule and the Senate Calendar. If the bill passes out of the Senate Education Committee, it will require three considerations on the Senate Floor. We will need to mount a campaign against it with the Senate Education Committee members as soon as we know that it is about to come up in the Senate Education Committee, and we need to escalate our campaign to involve homeschoolers all over the state contacting their Senators if we find out that the bill is about to come up for a vote on the Senate Floor. If we lose in the Senate, Gov. Schweiker is sure to sign it since he recently called for the lowering of the compulsory school age from 8 to 6. So we had better stop it in the Senate if we are going to stop it at all.
Please keep your eye on this bill and notify everyone immediately if you learn that it is about to come up in the Senate Education Committee or on the Senate Floor.
Again, I recommend that nobody contact Senator Rhoades about it until he decides to bring it up in the Senate Education Committee. I think that he wants to lower the compulsory school age, but he might not have noticed that part of this bill. It is close to the end of the session and the bill would simply die if Senator Rhoades does not get around to bringing it up.
I know that we disagree regarding House Bill 2560, but I am hopeful that we can all work together to stop SB 1924 or, at least, to get the part of the bill that changes the compulsory school age deleted from it.
Howard Richman
Thanks so much for your heads up on this bill. It slipped past us somehow. We have not been tracking this bill. Please let us know if you find out that the Senate Ed. Comm. is going to consider it.Barbara Page responded with a posting to a National Home Education Network website on June 15, 2003, with this accusation and link:
Unwarranted Legislative Alert Issued by Howard Richman of Pennsylvania Homeschoolerspilgrimspage@truevine.net <http://members.truevine.net/<a href=>/HB1924_Nov1.htm" target="_linkwindow">http://members.truevine.net/pilgrimspage@truevine.net <mailto:pilgrimspage@truevine.net>/HB1924_Nov1.htm Misleading Legislative Alert Corrected by Pennsylvania Home Education Leaders - Misleading and erroneous information occasionally is disseminated. Read about the context, the facts, and corrections to misleading assertions regarding the continuous legislative efforts to lower the compulsory school age in Pennsylvania.
We were recently accused in a public e-mail list of holding the position that homeschoolers should go along with school district requests for home visits. This is simply not true.
For example, here is an excerpt from a piece Susan wrote in Issue 49 (December 1994) issue of our newsletter:
We've received many calls and letters since the last issue from families who have had to deal with school districts that just don't seem to "get" the PA home education law. Some problems have been relatively minor, others were clear and flagrant violations of very important parts of the PA homeschool law. We're sharing here some of these families' stories to help all of the rest of us see some effective ways to work things out-- and to let you all know again some of the things districts CANNOT ask you to do. If you've had any similar experiences in the past -- or now! -- let us know. Your experience could help someone else...The district tells you that home visits, sometimes announced, sometimes unannounced, are "part of our policy." This is a most flagrant violation of the law, one that should not be tolerated at all, under any circumstances. But I regularly hear that some homeschoolers have said OK to these demands (after all, they are trying to be nice, and usually no one actually visits anyway...).
The PA Department of Education is very aware that home visits have no part in monitoring home education programs, and will back you up in your polite but firm refusal. If you run into problems, don't be afraid to call, or better yet write to the new head of the Office of School Services, Gary Himes, PA Dept. of Education, 333 Market ST, Harrisburg PA 17126-0333; or call (717) 787-4860. Here's a good quote from a letter written by Donald Thomson, who works in the Office of School Services in the PA Department of Education, in response to a letter sent by a homeschooling mother dealing with a district that was trying to ask for many extra requirements that are not a part of the law.
"The school district can't mandate anything to homeschoolers which goes beyond Act 169 of 1988... All parties involved should be working together amicably to ensure all children receive the education to which they are entitled. I do not see home visits addressed in the law and in no case may a school district, a homeschooler, or the Pennsylvania Department of Education either read into or require something that exceeds the boundaries of the existing law." (July 22, 1993)This letter was written to the homeschooling family, and a copy of sent to the school district administrator. This letter solved all the problems, and the district dropped all its extra requests.