Homeschooling parents: Using the Common Core State Standards as curriculum guidelines

This basic qualitative study sought to understand why and how homeschooling parents make the decision using the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as curriculum guidelines for their children. Specific areas explored by this research consisted of how homeschooling parents align their curriculum to the CCSS and whether or not the CCSS has influenced their beliefs of education. The sample consisted of 10 participants who homeschool their children and have adopted the CCSS to guide their curriculum decisions. Data was collected in the form of semi-structured interviews and artifact analysis of participant curriculum lists. It was found that homeschooling parents that align their curriculum with the CCSS do not all subscribe to the same educational beliefs and values. The participants represented a range of homeschooling educational models including Unschooling, Classical Education, Traditional Education, and an Eclectic approach. They all held to the educational belief that education should meet the needs of the individual child. The reasons the participants chose to align to the CCSS included outside pressures, preparing their children for future experiences, and specific attributes of the CCSS, including meeting the needs of the children, teaching children how to think, teaching children multiple ways to approach a problem, and enhancing learning. When it came to curriculum decision-making criteria, the participants looked for curriculum that met the needs of the students, met the needs of the parents, curriculum that was easy to use, and curriculum that was appropriately challenging. Their curriculum decision-making process included extensive research prior to adoption, checking for alignment to the CCSS, and trial and error. The participants adopted the CCSS by various means. Some of the parents specifically chose curriculum aligned to the CCSS, while others chose curriculum that aligned with their educational beliefs and values and that happened to be CCSS aligned. For the majority of the participants, the alignment of their curriculum to the CCSS has been a gradual process. Many of the participants would like more CCSS curriculum choices, and most would like to see their current non-aligned curriculum offered in a CCSS edition.