Homeschoolers exceed their public school counterparts

Ian SlatterDirector of Media Relations
August 10, 2009



Overall the study showed significant advances in homeschool academic achievement as well as revealing that issues such as student gender, parents’ education level, and family income had little bearing on the results of homeschooled students.
National Average Percentile Scores
Subtest
Homeschool (first numbers) Public School (second numbers)
Reading 89 50


Language 84 50


Math 84 50


Science 86 50


Social Studies 84 50


Core a 88 50


Composite b 86 50


a. Core is a combination of Reading, Language, and Math.

b. Composite is a combination of all subtests that the student took on the test.


There was little difference between the results of homeschooled boys and girls on core scores.
Boys—87th percentile

Girls—88th percentile


Household income had little impact on the results of homeschooled students.
$34,999 or less—85th percentile

$35,000–$49,999—86th percentile

$50,000–$69,999—86th percentile

$70,000 or more—89th percentile


The education level of the parents made a noticeable difference, but the homeschooled children of non-college educated parents still scored in the 83rd percentile, which is well above the national average.
Neither parent has a college degree—83rd percentile

One parent has a college degree—86th percentile

Both parents have a college degree—90th percentile


Whether either parent was a certified teacher did not matter.
Certified (i.e., either parent ever certified)—87th percentile

Not certified (i.e., neither parent ever certified)—88th percentile


Parental spending on home education made little difference.
Spent $600 or more on the student—89th percentile

Spent under $600 on the student—86th percentile


The extent of government regulation on homeschoolers did not affect the results.
Low state regulation—87th percentile

Medium state regulation—88th percentile

High state regulation—87th percentile


HSLDA defines the extent of government regulation this way:
States with low regulation: No state requirement for parents to initiate any contact or State requires parental notification only.
States with moderate regulation: State requires parents to send notification, test scores, and/or professional evaluation of student progress.
State with high regulation: State requires parents to send notification or achievement test scores and/or professional evaluation, plus other requirements (e.g. curriculum approval by the state, teacher qualification of parents, or home visits by state officials).


The question HSLDA regularly puts before state legislatures is, “If government regulation does not improve the results of homeschoolers why is it necessary?”



In short, the results found in the new study are consistent with 25 years of research, which show that as a group homeschoolers consistently perform above average academically. The Progress Report also shows that, even as the numbers and diversity of homeschoolers have grown tremendously over the past 10 years, homeschoolers have actually increased the already sizeable gap in academic achievement between themselves and their public school counterparts-moving from about 30 percentile points higher in the Rudner study (1998) to 37 percentile points higher in the Progress Report (2009).


As mentioned earlier, the achievement gaps that are well-documented in public school between boys and girls, parents with lower incomes, and parents with lower levels of education are not found among homeschoolers. While it is not possible to draw a definitive conclusion, it does appear from all the existing research that homeschooling equalizes every student upwards. Homeschoolers are actually achieving every day what the public schools claim are their goals—to narrow achievement gaps and to educate each child to a high level.


Of course, an education movement which consistently shows that children can be educated to a standard significantly above the average public school student at a fraction of the cost—the average spent by participants in the Progress Report was about $500 per child per year as opposed to the public school average of nearly $10,000 per child per year—will inevitably draw attention from the K-12 public education industry.



Read the entire article here