Alternative education
Hybrid schools integrate lessons at home, in class

By PATTI GHEZZI
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/01/05

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, children file into the tiny classrooms at Victory Academy, where teachers lead lessons in math, reading and foreign languages.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, however, those classrooms are empty. The school's 48 students are taught at home.

Andy Sharp/AJC (ENLARGE)
First-graders (from left) Gabby Gouraige, Ian Reid, Elyse Deprisco, Alex Tuck and Gracie Jackson listen to class instructions at Victory Academy in Mableton. Home schooled students come to Victory two days a week.
Andy Sharp/AJC (ENLARGE)
Ian Reid, 6, ponders a question from his teacher. Victory offers reading, math and foreign language lessons.
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Victory Academy, a Catholic school in Mableton, is one of at least a half-dozen schools in metro Atlanta blending home schooling and private education. Several more such schools are in the planning stages. Kids and parents say the arrangement affords them the best of home schooling and a more structured school.

"I get to spend time with my family at home and time at school with my friends," said Alex Perez, 9.

Georgia's home schooled population has doubled since 1996. Last year, more than 34,000 children were taught at home — about 2 percent of the state's student population. That figure doesn't include home schooled students whose parents don't register with the local school board. It's unclear how many home schooled students are attending some sort of school part time.

For some parents who don't like public schools, "hybrid" schools like Victory offer a more affordable alternative than traditional private academies. Because Victory is open only two days a week, tuition ranges from $1,700 to $3,400 a year, less than half the cost of most private schools. On Fridays, children can participate in an optional arts program.

Organizers believe the "hybrid" concept could open up home schooling to many families who want to try it but are intimidated by the prospect of developing lesson plans for each child and covering everything a child needs to know.

Pam Palmer, a Gwinnett County home schooling mother of five, needed help with her children's high school courses, especially lab sciences.

"I don't want a fetal pig on my kitchen table," she said.

Small, difficult classes

Palmer sends her older children to Parkwood Christian Academy in Lilburn. The school is located in the basement of the home of Phyllis Maxwell, who runs the academy, which everyone calls the "Maxwell House." She has a sixth-grade class of six students who come two days a week, and she offers a range of notoriously hard high school classes.

Several of her 12 part-time employees have doctoral degrees. Her school teaches about 70 kids a year.

These schools keep low profiles, filling their seats via word-of-mouth advertising. Like private schools, they are not regulated by the government. Those that are accredited must meet the standards of one of several accrediting agencies. Students who attend such schools are viewed by the state as home schooled kids and their parents must continue to file attendance forms in accordance with state law.

While parents and school organizers often avoid publicity, some say they want others to know about the education options that exist outside the mainstream. And they want to dispel myths that families who home school are extremists.

"Initially home schooling was seen as a religious movement, but it took off and now it's people who want to educate their children well and guard their morals," said Rhonda Anderson, co-founder of the King's Academy in Woodstock, which appears to be the largest metro Atlanta school combining home schooling and private education. The school started six years ago with three families.

"Our kids were approaching middle school, and our knees were buckling," said Anderson, a "very structured home school mom" of three.

Today, King's Academy has 450 students in grades k-12. Like several other "hybrid" schools, King's is accredited by an organization that certifies correspondence schools. That means graduates from King's are eligible for the HOPE scholarship, which pays tuition and other expenses for Georgia students with B averages to attend in-state public colleges. King's, a Christian school, offers drama club, Beta club, and is affiliated with a sports program. There's a student council and a junior-senior dance.

"It's like any traditional school," Anderson said. "It's just open two days."

Class discipline a boon

School leaders are careful to emphasize how important the home schooling aspect of the program is. Many families come to King's already immersed in the home schooling lifestyle, but others come from public schools that they're dissatisfied with and private schools that are too expensive. Tuition at King's tops out at about $2,250 a year.

For kids, especially those who have been home schooled for several years, the change to a structured environment can be jarring, said Annette Hew, principal of Victory Academy. Homework is due on the day it's due, and students are expected to take tests on the day the teacher announces. Mom is generally a lot more lenient, said Hew, who home schools her five children.

Bibiana Perez agrees. Her five children attend Victory. After one year at the school, Perez saw their scores rise on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills — a standardized test taken by kids across the country. She believes the discipline of a classroom environment was at least part of the reason.

"There's more authority behind me," said Perez, who has a master of divinity degree from Yale University and teaches eighth grade at Victory. "There's a principal they could be sent to. They are asked to do more than I require of them at home."

So-called "two-day" schools like King's and Victory also give home schooling parents some relief from creating lesson plans for kids of various ages. Teachers handle lesson planning and give parents detailed instructions for days when the child is not in school. But, in return, parents sacrifice some control over their children's education.

Some Georgia parents are turning to a Texas-based trademarked franchise known as University-Model School, which already has three schools in metro Atlanta.

The organization provides the framework and curriculum to set up a private academy that blends home schooling with structured school. In kindergarten, children learn at home. In first and second grade, children attend school twice a week for half a day. As they get older, kids go two full days a week, but they still spend more time at home than at school.

Schedule changes

In middle school, that schedule reverses, with students attending school on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. By their junior year of high school, their schedule depends on which classes they take, much like college.

Greg Beadles, a Gwinnett County father of two young children, is researching the University-Model School in hopes of co-founding one.

Beadles, the chief financial officer for the Atlanta Falcons, likes the idea of a teacher assessing the students' work in addition to the parent. Beadles said such a school also would answer the criticism that home schooled children need to develop the social skills they get in traditional schools.

"Our own personal philosophy is parents are ultimately responsible for the education of their children," he said. "This may be a more effective way to potentially do it."