The Salt Lake Tribune of September 6, 2008, reported that hundreds of home school affidavits have been filed by residents of Colorado City during the past week. Several reader comments expressed the hope that the FLDS parents will now make some effort to educate their children, who are assumed to enter either marriage or the workforce at age thirteen.

 

FLDS parents have been educating their children all along, either through public or private schools or through home schools. The negligence, if any has occurred, has been in the formality of filing the affidavits, not in educating the children.

 

 

In regard to criticisms that most FLDS children have been receiving a substandard education, the following evidence is especially meaningful. 

 

The table below uses information gathered from the Arizona Department of Education website and presents the results for the Stanford 9 standardized achievement test, administered in grades 2 through 11 for the last three years that the FLDS children attended public school in Colorado City. The figures given are percentile rank, with the national average for each subject category being 50. Percentile ranks are given for the entire state of Arizona for comparison at each grade level.

  

  

		1997-1998	1998-1999	1999-2000
Grade	Content Area	Score         AZ	Score        AZ	Score       AZ
2	Reading Language Mathematics	--               --    --               --    --               --	35             50       24             40      44             51	54           52     30           43     59           55
3	Reading Language Mathematics	36             47    30             49    37             46	44             47    32             51    41             49	47           48     42           54     54           52
4	Reading Language Mathematics	50             53    37             47    45             51	53             54    44             49    59             54	57           54     44           48     60           55
5	Reading Language Mathematics	52             51    42             42    44             51	48             51    34             44    49             54	57           51     50           45     66           55
6	Reading Language Mathematics	47             53    35             41    63             57	53             54    41             44    60             59	50           53     53           44     68           60
7	Reading Language Mathematics	50             52    46             52    53             53	51             53    40             54    57             55	57           52     58           54     61           56
8	Reading Language Mathematics	57             54    50             46    54             52	53             54    52             59    50             54	50           53     39           49     54           56
9	Reading Language Mathematics	55             44    52             39    60             57	52             43    42             39    60             57	49           43     46           40     69           59
10	Reading Language Mathematics	59             42    65             43    57             47	46             42    55             44    54             49	50           42     56           44     48           50
11	Reading Language Mathematics	50             46    57             43    57             51	61             44    59             42    66             52	60           45     60           44     68           55

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The table above indicates that the FLDS children tend to enter school at a slightly lower level than state and national averages. Any differences, however, are largely erased by 5^th grade; and by the time they reach the upper grades, the FLDS children are significantly exceeding both state and national norms.

 

During the five years following their withdrawal from the public school system, the FLDS people educated their children primarily in private schools. Since standardized tests were not regularly administered, no data exists to make completely objective comparisons in relation to state or national norms. I was able, however, from the principal of one private school, to obtain achievement test results for 7^th and 8^th grade students in that school for the 2004-2005 school year. On the complete battery of tests, the 7^th grade students scored at the 53^rd percentile and the 8^th grade students at the 52^nd percentile, just slightly above national averages.

 

Although it is a somewhat subjective evaluation, I can refer to my own experience as a high-school teacher for five years in one of the private schools after our people withdrew from the public schools. I had previously taught 8^th grade and then high school for thirty-five years in Colorado City. In the private school I used the same textbooks and much the same approach that I had used in the public high school. Student performance on both tests and assignments was superior to what it had been in the public school so that I look upon my years in the private high school as the most rewarding years of my teaching career.

 

Both in her book Escape and in her testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Carolyn Jessop alleged that Warren Jeffs did not allow certified teachers to teach in the private Priesthood schools because they supposedly had been tainted with worldly learning. Not only did I personally teach in one of the private schools, but family members helped me count at least forty other certified teachers who did the same. Many of us hold post-graduate degrees.

 

 

Another indication of student achievement in the private schools operated by the FLDS Church is the testimony of CPS caseworker Adriana Pineira at a status hearing in San Antonio, Texas, for Teresa Jeffs on May 30, 2008. The YFZ Ranch had a private school very similar to those which operated in Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The FLDS people value education. Over the years they have made generous contributions of both time and materials to build schools in their communities. They will see that their children are properly taught, whether it be through the public school system, private schools, or home schools.