Homeschooling

No longer, need anyone be concerned about the academic quality of homeschooling. Now that the homeschooling movement has been growing steadily for a few decades, a large body of research, including multitudes of studies, is available, and the conclusions being made all point to one fact: homeschooling works.

A report, "Academic Statistics on Homeschooling" that brings much of this research and studies together was recently compiled by the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). The report draws upon national research from 13 different sources, state-level findings from seven states, and local research from four school districts.

Many of these studies cite the academic excellence of homeschooled children.

For example, a national study, entitled "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America," found that homeschoolers, on average, outperformed those in public schools by 30 to 37 points in all subjects.

Overall, the longer a child was homeschooled, the better the test scores. While analyzing 8th grade scores, an interesting discovery was made: while new homeschoolers scored, on average, in the 59th percentile, 8th graders who had been homeschooled for two or more years at the time of assessment scored between the 86th and 92nd percentile.

This finding, that the longer a child is homeschooled, the more likely he will academically outperform his formally schooled peers, has been confirmed in other studies as well. Also, homeschooling seems to close the gap between white and minority students, as well as income levels, whereas public school widens it.

The National Home Education Research Institute's findings were also included in the report. A study of over 2,163 homeschooling families found that the average scores of the homeschool students were at or above the 80th percentile in all categories: reading, language, math, science and social studies.

A careful reader may wonder if this is due perhaps to homeschooling regulations. Perhaps these families live in states with strict requirements, such as frequent testing or tutoring provided by a certified teacher? This wasn't the case. The study purposefully drew from homeschooling scores in three groups of states: the most restrictive, less restrictive, and states with no homeschooling restrictions.

The Institute concluded that that they found no difference in the academic achievement scores of students between these three groups of states with

their varying regulations.

Some new to homeschooling worry that they may not be qualified to teach their children. While it is true that some of those who homeschool were at one time certified, public school teachers, in this study, only 13.9 percent had been certified teachers, and even more significantly, there was no difference between the scores of students from these homes or homes where neither parent had any teaching credentials.

Another academic plus for homeschoolers is that learning disabilities that were exhibited in public school, disappear for many after being homeschooled for a while.

Homeschoolers are also winning many academic type competitions, including regional and national spelling bees, debate tournaments, public-speaking and essay contests, and science and math competitions.

Finally, while college is certainly not for everyone, homeschoolers are accepted into colleges and are succeeding there. In fact, 19 of the nation's top 20 universities, including Harvard, accept homeschooled students.  Many are accepting portfolios and test scores in lieu of traditional high school transcripts.

It will be interesting to see how the sub-movement of unschooling fares as a whole in the academic world of test scores and college. Many unschoolers, raised on child-led rather curriculum-based learning, are also winning competitions and going to college, as well as leading happy, productive and successful adult lives.

Enjoy your Homeschooling!

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Enjoy Your Homeschooling!