Homeschooling: A Family’s Journey

New York’s Village Voice finds homeschooling getting more popular among the city’s African Americans:

In the 2006–2007 school year, the city’s Department of Education says that 3,654 students in New York were homeschooled. Most are white, but a growing number are African-American. Black parents tend to take their children out of the schools for other than religious reasons, and homeschooling groups say black children taught at home are nearly always boys… some of New York’s parents have concluded that the school system is failing the city’s black boys, and have elected to teach them at home as an alternative.

Joanne Jacobs spotlights research finding that black boys who start school as high achievers fall behind even faster than low achievers:

African-American children tend to be taught in predominantly black schools, where test scores are lower on average, teachers are less experienced, and high-achieving peers are harder to find.

The website of National Black Home Educators is a good starting point for families interested in an alternative to such schools. It offers resource information and personal contacts in several states.