Anecdotal evidence seems to indicate that homeschooling is growing in the black community. Mike Smith of the Home School Legal Defense Association discusses this with Joyce Burges, co-founder of the National Black Home Educators Resource Association.
Black Homeschoolers' Network is intended to facilitate a network among African American homeschoolers across the country. Here you will also find a message board for general communication as well as an email pal listing for homeschooled kids.
While families have been homeschooling for nearly thirty years in the United States, it is only recently that African-American families have seen the proven potential of educating their children at home. In a time of perpetual academic underachievement, the ever-stagnant achievement gap and unfettered, unequal access to quality schools and resources, African-American families are taking a dramatic approach to the educational future of their children by adopting a collective and renewed stance on family-led learning.
When black families look to homeschool there are a lot of questions to take into consideration. Here is a quick primer to get you started.
Here are some tips on how to incorporate cultural studies into your homeschool. This can be used if you are trying to include or highlight your own heritage/ background or if you want to study another culture that is not your own. One of the blessings of home education is that you have the opportunity to study various different world cultures without limitations. You can go beyond the one or two holidays or cultural activities that they may or may not do in the public school system. You can incorporate your culture into every aspect of your curriculum or just highlight some of the major bullet points of your culture. Either way I think these tips give a great starting point to enriching your curriculum program.
African-American Unschoolers provides information and support for Black families choosing to home educate, especially with an emphasis on an unschooling approach. Find homeschool help, information, social connections, and more.
This group is for African American parents (or parents of African American children) who are homeschooling their children. It is also for parents looking to supplement their children's education with home study.
This work looks at contemporary Black homeschooling as a form of resistance among single Black mothers, exploring each mother's experience and perspective in deciding to homeschool and developing their practice. It faces the many issues that plague the education of Black children in America, including discipline disproportionality, frequent special education referrals, low expectations in the classroom, and the marginalization of Black parents. Most importantly, this work challenges stereotypical characterizations of who homeschools and why.
This youtube video talks about an African-centered curriculum based on the texts African American History: A Journey to Liberation by Dr. Molefi Kete Asante and Classical Africa.
The best research on homeschooling indicates the total number of children who are homeschooled is 1.5 to 2 million, and that number is growing by 10 to 15 percent per year. But not everyone recognizes the academic and social success of homeschoolers and some criticize the movement as being white and elitist. While it's true that the large majority of homeschool children are white, the number of black homeschoolers is growing rapidly. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, estimates that there are 30,000 to 50,000 black children being homeschooled today. Others estimate that black homeschoolers make up 5 percent of the total homeschool population. Most importantly black homeschool movement is growing at a faster rate than the general homeschool population.
In the past couple of years the news has been inundated with national, international and local articles reporting the dramatic rise of homeschooling in the African-American community. Although we often get statistics about Black homeschoolers, we rarely get a glimpse of real families. This article takes you into the lives of Black homeschooling families who are taking their children's education into their own hands.
Brown Sugar & Spice Books carries African-American children's books, multicultural books, and black history books for adults and children.
Great youtube video discussing various African-centered resources for homeschoolers.
African-American Single Parent Homeschoolers is a discussion group designed to lend support and resources to parents who are home schooling alone.
Significant growth in black families’ participation in home schooling is beginning to show up on the radar screens of researchers. The National Center for Education Statistics computed African-Americans as 9.9 percent of the 850,000 children the federal agency figured were being home-schooled nationally in 1999. Veteran home-schooling researcher Brian Ray figures blacks are currently about 5 percent of the 1.6 million to 2 million home-schooled children but he agrees that black home schooling is growing rapidly.
Are you working fulltime and feeling as though you and your children have been left out of the homeschool loop? Are you a single parent concerned you might not be able to meet the demands of homeschooling? Does your child have special needs? Dell's Place has established a network for working moms, single parents, and the rest of us who struggle to pull it all together. The purpose of this network is for support and encouragement, but it's also to offer real solutions from other parents who struggle with the same issues.
Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) exists to educate and inform the general public about parental choice initiatives on the local and national level; educate Black families about the numerous educational options available; create, promote and support efforts to empower Black parents to exercise choice in determining how their children are educated; and educate and inform the general public about efforts to reduce or limit educational options available to parents.
A discussion group for pro-Black African and/or African Diasporan, Black homeschoolers, unschoolers, deschoolers, home-based educators everywhere. It is also open to non-homeschoolers and non-Blacks who are trying to teach their children about Blacks.
4 My Kids Records is committed to producing quality educational and entertainment products that will ignite a child’s excitement to learn. Every catchy song, dance-floor groove, memorable story, colorful illustration and fun-filled animation is created with a timeless heart.
Mothers are bears when it comes down to protecting their children. Read about how this home school mom fought racism in her way and created highly acclaimed multicultural educational tools in the process.