Scholarly Choice

Considering Homeschooling?

While it is definitely open for discussion, I doubt that most people would argue the educational benefits of homeschooling. A state school consists of a room full of children each at a different level of understanding or ability, a teacher who barely knows them or their interests following an iron clad curriculum designed to comply with the mean intellect in said classroom. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that there are better alternatives. For the sake of argument, however, we’ll suppose that the defects of the program are not so visible and allow the following statistics to speak for themselves.

Academic Statistics

In 1990, the National Home Education Research Institute issued a report entitled "A Nationwide Study of Home Education: Family Characteristics, Legal Matters, and Student Achievement." This was a study of over 2,163 homeschooling families which found that the average scores of the homeschool students were at or above the 80th percentile in all categories. The homeschoolers’ national percentile mean was 84th for reading, 80th for language, 81st for math, 84th for science and 83rd for social studies.1

In 1991, a survey of standardized test scores was performed by the Home School Legal Defense Association in cooperation with the Psychological Corporation, which publishes the Stanford Achievement Test. Students represented all 50 states and their grades ranged from K-12. These 5,124 homeschoolers’ composite scores on the basic battery of tests in reading, math, and language arts ranked 18 to 28 percentile points above public school averages. For instance, 692 homeschooled 4th graders averaged in the 77th percentile in reading, the 63rd percentile in math, and the 70th percentile in language arts. Sixth-grade homeschoolers, of 505 tested, scored in the 76th percentile in reading, the 65th percentile in math, and the 72nd percentile in language arts.

The homeschooled high schoolers did even better, which goes against the trend in public schools where studies show the longer a child is in the public schools, the lower he scores on standardized tests. The 118 tenth-grade homeschool students, as a group, made an average score of the 82nd percentile in reading, the 70th percentile in math, and the 81st percentile in language arts.2

In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released entitled, "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America." The study demonstrated that homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects.3

In study after study children educated at home have, on average, scored higher than students in conventional state-run schools.

Truth be told, academics are not the most frequent argument I hear from my dubious friends. In fact, the most common topic they have issues with is the social aspect of home education. It’s not unusual to think that homeschoolers are socially inept. It is definitely the stereotype and I’ll admit I’ve known my fair share of odd kids, however, my response is always the same. Homeschooling, when done correctly, cannot be surpassed in the benefits it has to offer. Homeschooling does not just mean, keeping your children home for their schooling. In public or private schools, socialization takes little to no involvement from the parents whatsoever. Does socializing your children take more effort when you’re homeschooling them? Absolutely, but it’s a small sacrifice for those parents who understand what they’re getting in return. These days, socialization is becoming significantly easier what with club sports, homeschool groups, special programs, etc. They are far from "unsocialized" and are not lacking in the extra-curricular activities my public/private schooled comrades remember so fondly.