CONCORD -- Thanks to the hard work and persistance of Amy Gall, homeschoolers had a presence at Governor Lynch's Education Summit Conference in Concord yesterday. After securing a much-coveted invitation, she was unable to attend, and I went in her stead. There were approximately 250 attendees, including the commissioner of education Lyonel Tracy, BOE chairman David Reudig, teachers, administrators, DOE employees, social services employees, businessmen, parents, and students.

At registration, participants were handed a folder containing handouts with statistical information about NH and recent articles about dropouts. They proceeded to the auditorium, where Governor Lynch shook the hand of each entering participant. Captioned pictures of public school students engaged in alternative learning activities were displayed on a large screen in the front of the room. The conference began with an introduction by David Reudig, a keynote from the governor, and a short statement by Commissioner Tracy. Participants then spent the morning in eight facilitated breakout work sessions:

• Alternative Learning
• Career & Technical Education
• Internships & Apprenticeships
• Community Social Services Supports
• Law Enforcement/Safe Learning Environments/Juvenile Justice
• High School Re-Design & School Approval Standards
• K through 8: Pre-High School Years
• Roles & Responsibilities of Students and Parents

At each session, a panel presented information about the topic area, and took follow-up questions. Participants then brainstormed about what was being done well, what needed improvement, and recommendations. Participants were paired off to list their items on paper, and then in groups of four to do the same thing. Each group presented its ideas to the entire session, and participants voted on the three items in each category that they felt were the most important. Based on the voting patterns, the most significant items were included in the final report.

In the afternoon, the findings of each work session were presented to the entire conference. Some common themes that ran through the presentations:

• Most sessions mentioned existing programs that were successful but limited in scope.
• The loss of the Office of Best Practices at the DOE was keenly felt. Many sessions thought something like it was important for disseminating knowledge about successful dropout prevention programs.
• Although participants were cautioned by the facilitators that funding issues were a given, every one of them felt compelled to mention it one way or another. Some went so far as to say they believed HUGE amounts of funding were needed, and almost every session pointed out that sustained funding was needed, not just year-to-year grants. One session also pointed out that funding was not equally available in all parts of the state.
• Many sessions recommended seeking input from students who had dropped out.
• Many sessions recommended making changes to public school curriculum (more relevant to the "real world", career-oriented, etc.)
• Many sessions emphasized relationships with caring adults as key to preventing students from leaving school.

There were two recommendations that brought spontaneous applause from the audience. One was from the "K through 8" group, presented by Peggy McAlister of the NH Association of School Principals, that NH needed a mandatory full-day kindergarten with state standards. The other came from the "Roles & Responsibilities of Parents" group, presented by Leslie Hernandez, a former high school dropout, that schools should establish a "want to stay" environment, rather than a "have to stay" environment.

There were many faces I recognized, and was finally able to put names to, as well as putting faces to names. Many members of the House Education Committee were present, as were lobbyists for professional organizations, Doug Hall of the NH Center for Public Policy (publisher of the 2002 "One in Four" report on dropouts), key players in the business community, and politically active school administrators.

Some initiatives I expect will come out of this conference:

• There will be more attempts to mandate districts provide kindergarten
• The BOE may attempt to require all districts to use the same calendar, to facilitate regional vocational programs
• There will be a push to get a Jobs Corps program in NH; we are one of two states that do not have this program
• There may be efforts to push career-oriented programs down into the middle school
• There was a clear division in the group I attended between business people and educators on this issue. Educators did not seem to feel that business people had a clear grasp of the developmental stage of middle school-aged children.
• There may be efforts at the state level to require districts to
       align their curriculum to the needs of businesses
• Local law enforcement will likely be asking the state for help in training town police officers to deal with 16-17yo truants, and 16-17yos who exhibit violent behavior because they do not want to be in schools.

Since these conferences are designed to bring consensus to the attention of policy-makers, it is difficult for minority positions, such as advocacy of parental rights, to be heard. I do feel that some good things for homeschoolers came out of attending this conference. The governor's office and DOE are now thinking about including homeschoolers in their dialogues. Panelists who want to provide apprenticeships, internships and mentorships would like to know how to reach homeschoolers. With access to the handouts, homeschooling parents who are interested in participating in the debate on SB268 now have a comprehensive view of the data policy-makers are using.

DOE personnel organizing the event assured me that a report of the findings of the summit will be available at the DOE website in the near future, and will likely merit a "headline" on the website's home page.

Chris Hamilton
Beaver Lodge Homeschool