Where is all the evidence for homeschoolers stacking teams?
It is presumed that a home school team will be composed of children who have a pre-existing relationship of working together on a regular basis. We will require a statement from the coach as to the nature of that relationship. An “all star” team assembled by student abilities rather than by their pre-existing regular study relationship would not be allowed. Since this is a new aspect of the Texas Science Olympiad, we may establish additional criteria as the home school activity materializes and unforeseen problems become known. Our desire is to provide this opportunity to as many children as possible while, at the same time, keeping the playing field level.
How many of these teams come from magnet schools–you know schools that draw kids from all over a school district, maybe even outside the district, but certainly not from the same assigned school?
Do these kids all attend the exact same science, English, history, classes at school? Is it possible that many of the public school teams have kids that share an advanced science class but no others?
What’s sad is that I’m sure many of these public school teams do consist of kids who all attend the exact same honors or advance classes. These teams are undoubtedly “assembled by student abilities.” I bet in some of the more competitive magnet schools, there are even “try-outs.” They in no way represent the greater student population of the school. And these teams are more “fair” than a homeschool team formed of kids who just want to share their passion for a particular subject–whether they’re good at it or not?
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