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.
Virtual charter schools are popping up all over the country, providing free computers, textbooks and educational materials to any family who would like to enroll in their program. Jennifer James takes a hard look at how these schools are detrimental to black homeschoolers.
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.
African-American Unschooling provides a point of contact for African-American homeschoolers. Connect with unschoolers near you, get information about homeschooling and unschooling, and get access to homeschooling and Africentric resources.
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.
The National African-American Homeschoolers Alliance was born out of a desire to unite African-American homeschoolers nationally. Launched in January 2003, NAAHA is the only nonsectarian organization for African-American home schooling families. The primary objective of NAAHA is to disseminate home schooling information relevant to African-American homeschoolers or to anyone home schooling African-American children. NAAHA's fundamental mission is to consistently provide the latest and the best home school information and resources for members and online guests to enjoy--from home schooling books and curricula to new African-American support groups and organizations. In addition to being an information clearinghouse, NAAHA also provides free educational advisory help from educational professionals and from those with a degreed knowledge of a particular subject.
The National Black Home Educators Resource Association (NBHERA) is a resource network founded by Eric and Joyce Burges in July 2000. This association encourages, supports, and offers fellowship to families who are exploring benefits of home education. NBHERA was created to serve the African American community by providing assistance with information about getting started homeschool, networking/connecting veteran families with new families, recommending resources such as books, music, films, speaking information, curriculum, etc. NBHERA’s mission endeavors to empower parents to educate their children for excellence.
Footsteps Magazine is a magazine designed for young people, their parents, and other individuals interested in discovering the scope, substance, and many often unheralded facts of African American heritage. It is an excellent classroom resource for teachers, a valuable research tool for students, and an important vehicle for bringing this rich heritage to people of all backgrounds.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Great youtube video discussing various African-centered resources for homeschoolers.
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.
This group was created for African American homeschoolers in and around the Baltimore/Washington DC/Northern VA area to connect with one another. This is a central place where members of various support groups and/or individual homeschoolers in the area can learn from and help each other.
A look at unschooling as a philosophy of life from an African-American perspective.
African-American Teens who unschool/homeschool: Come hear how others live exciting, creative lives outside of traditional schooling. This is a free and comfortable space for teens to call their own.
This is a great social networking site for black homeschoolers. It is designed to help share educational goals and curriculum plans as well as connect with other families.
This is a Yahoo group email list for African American parent(s) who homeschool their children.
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.
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.
Culture at Home is an African American homeschool support group in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area with an emphasis on the older homeschooled student. Culture at Home is a support group for families concerned with the healthy well-being and academic guidance of the African-American child. The purpose of this group is to provide an educational outreach support program and to supplement the curriculum of homeschoolers with children ages 10-18 (grades 5-12), but they also provide some resources for homeschooled children ages 6-10.