Linda Anderson is presently involved in a pilot study program through Center for Christian School Services (CCSS) in conjunction with the Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI) offices in Washington State. CCSS is one of two pilot study programs approved by the state for one year, ending in June 1985. According to Linda, there are about 500 families throughout the state of Washington enrolled in CCSS. There are about forty-five teachers like her who are supervising families. The SPI has set certain requirements for the families involved in this pilot program. Among other things, parents must log their time spent in home education and meet with supervising teachers eight hours per month. The children must spend part of these eight hours with the teacher.
Linda’s work entails supervision of over twenty homeschooled children. She meets regularly with both children and parents to review work, give suggestions, and evaluate progress. She has been involved in organizing bi-monthly group activities in her home “school room”, field trips, parent-training, and monthly support group meetings. She also implements S.A.T. tests.
Students were pre-tested in April 1984 and will be post-tested in April 1985. They are being compared with a Roman Catholic school and with a public school. As soon as the test results are turned in to the SPI they will do a comparison study. Richard Wheeler (director of CCSS) will simultaneously compile his own results from test scores turned in from those home schooled children who were not able to be a part of the pilot study. Wheeler will also analyze questionnaires sent out to each family and quarterly report forms which show number of hours logged in the home.
Reports on the above information gathered should be available in June or July 1985. If interested, you may write to:
Barbara Mertens, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Old Capitol Building, Olympia WA 98504; or Richard Wheeler, Center for Christian School Services, P.O. Box 5858, Lynnwood WA 98036; or phone (206) 774-4953.
Besides the experience and learning with respect to Home Centered Learning, Linda will receive credit for one year of teaching for her role as supervisor of homeschooled children. Linda is also presently applying for admission to Central Washington University’s master’s degree program. She plans to pursue a master’s in Education with a Reading Specialty. Among other topics, she is considering doing research on the socialization of home schoolers.
Linda is also mother of two children, ages 5.5 and 4. She is presently homeschooling the oldest through the kindergarten year and at this time intends to homeschool both all through their school years. In her opinion, “the one-to-one tutorial style teaching is far superior to group instruction as I’ve done in school.”
You can see that Linda Anderson is a person with much to contribute to educators’ understanding of home schooling. She will definitely be able to add facts to the discussions that move throughout the U.S. relative to HCL and she is already adding experience with respect to HCL in the educational community of Washington. Linda, we look forward to what we can learn from you and others associated with you.