Report on HEIR Meeting With Chancellor Portch

October 21, 1997

Meeting: HEIR representatives with Chancellor Portch, October 21, 1997

Regarding: University System of Georgia admissions policy for homeschoolers

Attending:

Chancellor Steven Portch
Senior Vice-Chancellor James Muyskins
Mr. Tom Daniel, Vice Chancellor for External Affairs
Rep. Ron Crews (R 78)
Rep. Jeff Williams (R 83)
Leon McGinnis
Angela Paul
Kurt Schulzke

The meeting began at 1 pm and ended at about 2:10.

To begin, Chancellor Portch made some comments, covering the following points:

The Board of Regents (BoR) has good motives in the many policy changes implemented in recent months; the Chancellor felt that homeschoolers suspected their motives
The BoR is interested in having homeschooled students enrolled in the USG institutions, because: (1) you are taxpayers and it's your right; (2) homeschoolers are disproportionately represented among good students
The BoR does not intend to exclude homeschoolers
The BoR is concerned with fairness and equity
The BoR may have "done the wrong thing" but has acted "for the right reasons"

The homeschoolers introduced themselves:

McGinnis-- professor of engineering at Georgia Tech, and a homeschooler for 14 years, currently chairman of HEIR
Paul--homeschooling mother of four; BS in chemical engineering from MIT, MS in chemical engineering from Georgia Tech
Schulzke--professor of accounting at Kennesaw State; homeschooling parent of four

Leon McGinnis covered a few key points from the formal briefing paper presented to the Chancellor, including:

Homeschoolers appreciate and endorse the BoR intent to improve education in Georgia, and to raise the bar; however, we want to be sure that all Georgia citizens see the bar at approximately the same level.

Homeschooling in Georgia includes over 16,000 students and is growing at 20% per year.

There is a wealth of data indicating that homeschoolers are at least as accomplished as their publicly schooled peers with regard to standard tests of academic achievement.

Homeschooling is very different from traditional classroom learning; it may not be appropriate to evaluate homeschooling using the same instruments used to evaluate traditional classroom learning.

The portfolio is a critical instrument in assessing homeschoolers.

The policy setting process leading to the current requirement for eight SAT II tests was seriously flawed. Among the most egregious flaws were: (1) no representation of the homeschooling perspective and no homeschooling expertise in the task force; (2) no impact assessment for the proposed policy; (3) no attempt to validate the "passing scores".

If the new standards for homeschoolers were applied to the entire population of college-bound seniors, less than five percent would be allowed in the admissions pool for the University System of Georgia; it is clear that this policy is in no way fair or equitable or equivalent to the policy for public school students.

While the BoR may have data suggesting that the College Prep Curriculum (CPC) is a successful program to improve the college success of public school students, it is not a guarantee of success; by the same token, there is sufficient evidence indicating that CPC deficiency is not a guarantee of failure. The key question in admissions should not be "how did you prepare yourself?" but "are you ready for college?" CPC requirements are fact and curriculum oriented, not integration, motivation, self-reliance, or critical thinking oriented.

Traditional school transcripts are notoriously unreliable as predictors of college success, and well-known to be inconsistent with regard to teacher and school, yet the BoR accepts them; in contrast no documentation from homeschoolers is "trustworthy." The issue should be what form homeschooler documentation should take, not whether it will be considered.

Clearly, the population of homeschoolers is being treated very differently from the population of public school students with regard to the types of admissions mistakes that can be made, i.e., accepting a student who is not qualified or rejecting a student who is qualified.

Homeschoolers are and are likely to remain a small fraction of USG enrollment. Forcing homeschoolers to conform to some predetermined CPC must necessarily limit their flexibility to pursue other academic interests, and their ability to develop the diversity of abilities and accomplishments that can be reflected in a portfolio, but not in standardized tests. The criteria for admission should focus on what is necessary for success in college, which includes basic literacy, general knowledge of society, mathematics, and science, motivation, learning skills, and critical thinking skills. These are unlikely to be completely and correctly assessed by standardized tests like the SAT II.

A proposed admissions policy is: (1) set a minimum SAT hurdle, such as at or above the 50th percentile of the previous year's freshman class; (2) give admissions officers at each institution the authority to make admissions decisions using the portfolio, essay, personal interview, letters of reference, and existing college placement exams as needed.

Because the current policy is so inequitable, this option should not be a pilot limited to only a few, but should be available to all homeschoolers.

Homeschoolers should be allowed to joint enroll, provided they can produce reasonable evidence that they are prepared for the course in which they seek enrollment.

There should be a regular review of the homeschooling admission policy, because there is no data available to support current policy decisions. There must be some planned process for review and adjustment.

During the briefing and afterward, there was a free-flowing discussion of the issues. Among the key points of that discussion:

The Chancellor agreed to reevaluate the SAT II cutoff scores and to work with the home school community to design at least one (and maybe more) alternative admissions "pilot," based on the SAT I plus portfolio model
The Chancellor also indicated a willingness to involve the home school community on an ongoing basis in the development and review of home school admissions criteria.
The Chancellor promised an annual review of the homeschooler admission criteria.
The Chancellor appeared to be sympathetic to the concerns regarding joint enrollment.
With regard to the idea of "pilot programs," the issue of logistics was raised--taking 4 or 6 or 8 SAT II tests requires considerable planning over the entire period of a students preparation for college and cannot be accomplished in only 9 or 12 months.
Dr. Muyskins stated that prior to the current policy, there was no system-wide, standardized admissions process for homeschoolers, and that the current policy does help homeschoolers by providing at least some system-wide basis for admissions.
Dr. Muyskins reiterated the primacy of the CPC as a requirement for college success, and continued to hold up standard tests as the only reliable mechanism for certifying "CPC proficiency" for homeschoolers
Mr. Daniel stated that the fairness argument may not always be a good one in the political process, and offered the example of certification as a requirement for public school teachers.
Chancellor Portch explained the political difficulty, when the University System of Georgia declines to admit a public school student who has, say a "B" average, yet admits a homeschooler with no "transcript", and only the parents' word for the student's ability.

This report contributed by Leon McGinnis

Created 10/25/97

Report on HEIR Meeting With Chancellor Portch

About HEIR ||| Home ||| Contents ||| News ||| Opinion © 1997 HEIR

About HEIR ||| Home ||| Contents ||| News ||| Opinion

© 1997 HEIR