Willow Wind combines home and school

ABOVE: Five-year-old Rosie Keiser stands outside of Willow Wind school. FRONT: Willow Wind teacher Robin Hawley, right, talks to Gina Keiser, center, about her daughter’s progress, Rosie Keiser, 5, left. The meeting is part of a new program where the parent and teacher partner up to help the development of the students. Photos by Orville Hector | Daily Tidings

Jeanne Chouard's two children aren't home-schooled, but they don't attend standard classrooms either.

Instead, the 10-year-old and 14-year-old are enrolled in a new program this year at the Willow Wind Community Learning Center where parents and students work with a teacher to develop a specific curriculum for each individual child.

Chouard said she wanted to develop a curriculum for her children that was tailored to their specific learning style, but she didn't want to do it all on her own.

"I wanted an opportunity to address their individual needs, and I didn't want to do it all myself," she said.

So Chouard's family enrolled with 64 other students for the piloting of the Parent-Partner program this year. Of the 230 to 235 students enrolled at Willow Wind, most decided to remain in the existing home-school program, Willow Wind administrator Debra Schaeffer Pew said.

Home school students are considered part-time enrollments in the Ashland School District, and parent-partner students are full-time enrolled.

Students in the traditional home school program take classes part time at Willow Wind and develop their own curriculum with their parents. Parent-partner students work with their parents and a teacher to develop their own curriculum.

All students still take standardized tests required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act this year.

"We really make sure that every area of the state curriculum is being addressed," Chouard said.

While students at Willow Wind report their scores to the state department of education, they still develop unique curriculums for each child. Judith Anne McBride, a teacher at Willow Wind, said the program still has to teach to state and federal standards, but there is more flexibility.

"The standards are in place, but how and where they happen is up to us," she said.

Schaeffer Pew, who started home schooling her own children before taking on the main responsibilities at Willow Wind, said the new program provides fewer physical boundaries for how and where students learn.

"It provides for flexibility in how you meet individual educational needs as families," Schaeffer Pew said.

Some families use the services at Willow Wind as added assistance in structuring their children's busy schedules. Susan Marsden is a parent in Ashland with two high school-age children who are home-schooled. Her children are involved in sports and extracurricular activities, and the flexibility of home-schooling and taking a few classes in the district creates better time management skills, she thinks.

"It's very much like a college schedule," Marsden said. "I really feel like it's my responsibility to find out what works."

Marsden decided to stick with the home-schooling/part-time program because it suited her children and their schedules.

With the new facet of the Willow Wind Community Learning Center taking off, Ashland Schools Superintendent Juli Di Chiro said the administration is monitoring the program to make sure it's successful.

Di Chiro said more students enrolled than expected, and with updates from teachers and parents, the program appears successful after its first semester. Di Chiro said the initiation of the program came in large part because it was something parents wanted.

"Like a lot of things at Willow Wind, they're driven by what the parents are interested in," Di Chiro said.

Because students in the parent-partner program are considered full-time enrollments, the school district receives more funding for each student than for part-time enrollments. According to state school fund grant data, the Ashland School District receives $5,768 per full-time student each year from the state.

When it comes time to report test scores, they are reported to the district, then added to each student's grade level. Willow Wind does not have a separate report to the state, although the school district sees the numbers.

Students in the home school program at Willow Wind are among 21,192 home schoolers in Oregon and 2,109 in Southern Oregon, according to 2004-2005 home school registered numbers.

Drew Hinds, an education specialist in private schools and alternative programs for the Oregon Department of Education, said most of the alternative programs in the state education system are designed to help students who are struggling to earn a diploma or have other setbacks that make them need extra help. Many alternative programs are at the high school level.

"It's a rare occurrence that an alternative program would be serving elementary students like Willow Wind," Hinds said.

Staff writer Alan Panebaker can be reached at 482-3456 x 227 or apanebaker@dailytidings.com.