As you may already know, the NYS Education Department and the Board of Regents set up a Graduation Measures Blue Ribbon Commission to reevaluate the graduation requirements for public and registered private high schools in New York. Homeschool New York applied to be part of this Commission, and Rob Snyder (President) was accepted by the Board of Regents to be one of the sixty-four members. While the Commission’s work will purportedly not impact what we as homeschool families do to prepare our students for graduation, we felt it was an important opportunity to get involved, influence policy, bring our perspective to the conversation, and perhaps have a greater impact for homeschool freedom.
The Commission members have been asked to share the following link with their constituents to collect their feedback on the question, “What opportunities, experiences, and courses should be available to students in High School that align with their needs, dreams, and career exploration? Which of those should be mandatory?” As homeschoolers, you have thought more creatively about this question than most families, so please take a few minutes, click on the link below, and share your ideas! The survey will close on February 2, so don’t wait!
Participate in the discussion via ThoughtExchange.
It starts with a question about where you live and then about whether or not you “work” in education. You can answer this however you’d like, but they think that those who work in education have professional training to do a job. After that, you can indicate the various ways you work, including Parent and Other – feel free to elaborate in the Other box! After that comes the actual question, where you can share both what your idea is and why it is important. You can share several ideas if you’d like. After that, you can rate the ideas that others have shared already. Thanks in advance for your help!
A further explanation about why we think it’s important to participate:
- This Commission has a potential impact on college admissions, which is already a challenging area for homeschoolers.
- We strive to stay civically engaged as taxpaying residents of this state – our opinions should be represented and respected.
- The NYS Education Department is moving in a direction of flexible and customizable graduation pathways – something homeschoolers have already been doing successfully. Our suggestions may actually be helpful!
