ABOUT / METHODOLOGY
READ THE CLAIM. FIND THE SOURCE. FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE.
Homeschool Now exists to help Christian parents investigate the forces shaping their children without reducing serious questions to slogans. The Parent Research Center follows primary documents, historical records, educational research, testimony, policy, and competing explanations so parents can see where the evidence is strong – and where it is not.
Our Evidence Standard
We classify claims because not every claim deserves the same level of certainty. A documented quotation, a plausible interpretation, a later historical recollection, and an unresolved allegation are not the same thing. Our public labels make those differences visible.
Our Approach to Controversial Researchers
We treat controversial and dissident researchers as leads worth investigating, not as authorities whose conclusions must be accepted wholesale. Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt is especially important to our current work because her historical compilation points toward a large body of original educational documents. We follow those references back to the source and evaluate each claim on its own evidentiary strength.
Our Formation Lens
Education is never only about information. Every educational system makes decisions about knowledge, authority, habits, values, responsibility, adulthood, and human flourishing. We therefore ask not only what a child is learning, but what influences are shaping what the child loves, believes, expects, and becomes.
Evidence Classification System
DOCUMENTED
Direct, verifiable evidence establishes the specific fact being asserted.
SUPPORTED / PLAUSIBLE
Evidence reasonably supports the interpretation, but direct proof of the full conclusion is incomplete.
HISTORICAL ALLEGATION
A significant reported claim preserved through testimony, memoir, interview, or later recollection that is not independently established sufficiently to present as fact.
OPEN QUESTION
An issue worth investigating where evidence is incomplete, conflicting, inaccessible, or insufficient for a responsible conclusion.
UNSUPPORTED / NOT ESTABLISHED
Available evidence does not currently support presenting the claim as fact.
Evidence principle: We should never say more than the evidence allows us to say. Evidence determines confidence; importance does not.
Intent Ladder
L0 – Outcome: Something happened.
L1 – Mechanism: How did it happen?
L2 – Incentive: What encouraged it or who benefited?
L3 – Deliberate Design: Was a program or system intentionally created?
L4 – Documented Intent: Did the responsible actor explicitly state the goal?
L5 – Coordinated Intent: Did multiple actors demonstrably coordinate toward a shared goal? Exceptional evidence required.
Intent rule: Climb only as high as the evidence permits. Always ask: whose intent, toward what goal, evidenced where?
Our Commitment
- We will not present allegation as documentation.
- We will not infer coordinated intent simply because similar outcomes exist.
- We will state important uncertainty plainly.
- We will provide original sources wherever practical.
- We will correct evidence classifications when better evidence changes the record.
- We will bring the research back to the parent’s responsibility to form intentionally.