Posted on 07/12/2008 5:05:48 PM PDT by wintertime
When it comes to getting a good education, apparently, there's no place like home.
When homeschooling first came into prominence in the late 1980’s many viewed it with skepticism, but it has proved itself over and over the past two decades.
Whether the average homeschooled student is getting as good an education as the average public school student is no longer a question. The verdict is in. The results of numerous studies show the average homeschooler is receiving a better education than the average public or private school student.
In a 1997 study, Strengths of Their Own, Dr. Brian Ray examined a sample of over 5,402 homeschooled students. On average, they scored 30 to 37 percentile points higher than the average public school student in all subjects.
A separate test done in 1991 by the Home School Legal Defense Association in conjunction with the Psychological Corporation found that a sampling of 5,124 homeschooled students across all grades scored 18 to 28 percentile points higher on the Stanford Achievement Test than the average public school student.
Finally, the 7,858 students who declared themselves to be homeschooled on the 2004 ACT scored an average of 1.7 points higher, on a scale of 1-32, than the national average.
The academic success of homeschooled students is impressive and, no doubt, attributable to the hard work these students put into their education; but the hard work put in by their parents (many of whom do not even hold a bachelor's degree) is equally impressive. Parental involvement is key and appears to outweigh factors such as race and government regulation on one's education at home.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
Seriously!!!!
BUMP!!!
Good on ya. Ignore the troll.
Somebody should do a study on whether they also make better citizens. Not that there’s any doubt.
/johnny
I know who I want for neighbors...
/johnny
Homeschoolers are in general better citizens.
As adults they are more likely to be married, have kids, be a volunteer in the community, graduate from college, hold a job, go to church, and **vote**! The study can be found on the HSLDA website.
I remember as a youth a friend who was having a bad time grade wise in school. The school counselor suggested a tutor to help him in certain subjects.
Isn’t that what we homeschoolers do 24/7? Tutor our kids one on one in all subjects of life, including the ones not recognized by the state?
With that kind of philosophical approach, these stats do not surprise me. Nor should it surprise the state since that is what they recommend, one on one tutoring that is.
Perhaps this ruling will make the case before the Appeals court null and void. Do you know if this is the case?
I got all the affirmation I needed when I took my sons out, whether to the grocery or to the barber shop, and folks remarked how well behaved they were.
I attribute that to a what some call “lack of socialization.” I call it protection from the predatory pack while they grew into self confident individuals with their own identity.
Please remember that some of us are home schooling in defense of our kids. I was called to a conference with my second grade son’s teacher “he refuses to do his class work” was her complaint. My response was so then he is failing the class. Oh no he always scores A’s on the Friday tests but you must make him do his class work rather than quietly gazing off into space was her response. I asked her if she had tried to give him harder more challenging work. Her response was no that would be rewarding him for not doing his class work. My comment on the previous thread:”
What to do when my homeschooled 13 year old scores PHS on the Stanford test. That stands for post high school grade level. He is also the tagline mentioned life scout with some 30 odd merit badges also. This is the kid the “professional” teacher wanted to toss out for not doing his seat work! I think I have the answer he will be in Junior college with dual enrollment in the fall. The other one is even scarier finishing an online sixth grade class in three months and playing fiddle (violin) with adults. They do a sport every year and scouts as well. I promise I will have their karate instructor beat their lunch money out of them once per year to keep em socialized. Should we go into the 1000 lexiles probably not. Kudos to the factory school kids getting ready for the factory jobs that have all departed maybe they can follow.”
It is also what parents of academically institutionalized children are doing as well.
I often enrage government school defenders by posting: “All academically successful students are homeschooled!” I know that this is really a bit much, but really shouldn't we be carefully examining this?
If children ( home and institutionally schooled) are academically successful how much of their success is due to the schooling that occurs in the home? How much is due to the child's study of the text and finishing projects? How much is due to the teaching and home life created by the parents?
If 99% of learning is homeschooling or “afterschooling” then throwing more money at traditional government schools will **never** improve the achievement of those students in dysfunctional families. There are two possible options ( or a combination of both:
1) Teach dysfunctional parents how to be functional.
and/or
2) Do as the KIPP schools are doing. Duplicate in school what is happen at home in a functional family.
The problem with government schooling is that the advice dysfunctional parents need is in conflict with the First Amendment. Can you imagine a government principals saying to a parent, “Get married to your live in honey!” Could you see government school principals talking sternly to a parent about “sin”?
What is needed for these parents and their children are private schools. Private schools do not have First Amendment religious constraints.
same thread Homeshool debate! hopefully civil enuf not to be locked.
Awww, that's no fun! Can we at least get a little whiney?
That last thread was just a pig-sloppin’ fight...too dirty to enter into.
This kid finished all college general requirements and Calculus III by the age of 15.
The principal was of no help. His response was to suggest that maybe my son could be tested in the summer. ( about 7 month away.)..but...no guarantees. The psychologist was busy testing students with disabilities.
I don’t get as lively as I’d like, in homeschooling threads. Two reasons. I agree with wintertime 99.9% of the time, and wintertime has a thicker hide. :)
Started homeschooling my son in 10th grade after he was suspended for correcting a history teacher (honest). I watched the rapid transformation from a liberal zombie to a responsible clear thinking adult. One day he asked if we could take a field trip. He wanted to attend a support the troops rally. Think this answered your question.
Sounds like you did right. Looks we had a triple zorch on the thread.
I wonder if Arnold had a stern talk with a judge or two. I am certain that he did not need a pocket calculator to figure out 200,000 homeschoolers entering government schools at $15,000 each per year ( or more) would break the California budget!
Also...This way the the appeals court can save face. I wouldn't be surprised if judges are watching each other's back.
Sorry maybe I do have an axe to grind my dad was a public school teacher. Would use me as a elementary school kid to show up his high school math classes.
Feed me the answers in advance to a pop quiz! Made em buckle down and learn to calculate when they thought a kid was kickin their butt. Tell me their boss even if it is at McD’s would not do the same thing. Been there using Trig to cut plywood pieces for a roof. It is important no matter what you do in life!
Good for you!
Many, many congratulations!
"As adults they are more likely to be married, have kids, be a volunteer in the community, graduate from college, hold a job, go to church, and **vote**! The study can be found on the HSLDA website."Makes me wish I was Homeschooled!
I had a similar deal. I was doing advanced math with my daughter at home. The teacher complained to my wife that she needed to make me stop doing that, because the kid was getting too bored in class. So we pulled her out and homeschooled her. She started college at 15
Me too. The Amish that I currently have ;)
She started college at 15
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Your daughter and my children are **normal**. It is the institutionalized child who is artificially retarded in their academic and social development.
Honestly, my children and your daughter are likely not any smarter than the bright children of the posters on this board. They have merely been educated in the healthiest and most natural manner possible...**In The Home**!
You still schooling or is he done?
“I took my youngest out before they kicked him out or I got fired. I envy yall the bed of roses though because it was rough at my house.”
Do you have my son at your house? ;)
Government schools are paced to what the slowest third can keep up with, and are not challenging to anybody in the upper quarter of IQ. A child of above average intelligence can get through the material at least 25% to 50% faster than public-school pace without difficulty.This translates into being done with the current 12 grades worth of material by the 8th - 9th grade
‘It is the institutionalized child who is artificially retarded in their academic and social development.’
All of them?
Your daughter and my children are **normal**. It is the institutionalized child who is artificially retarded in their academic and social development.
Honestly, my children and your daughter are likely not any smarter than the bright children of the posters on this board. They have merely been educated in the healthiest and most natural manner possible...**In The Home**!
You know, you're actually very right about that. It used to be that by the time a kid was 15, they were basically ready for a trade or for university. A 15-year old in the Middle Ages was starting his apprenticeship. Granted, we've several hundred years worth of accumulated knowledge that we have to teach them, but still, kids are not as dumb as educrats want them to be - if they are motivated.
The current educational system in the publik skools in the USA basically seeks to bring the smart kids down to the lowest common denominator. Instead of having separate tracks for each level of students, class material is often simplified so as to be accessible to the borderline special needs kids, with the result that the average kids are somewhat bored, and the smart kids are frustrated beyond belief. This has been somewhat mitigated by the access given to college level and AP courses over the past couple of decades, but the problem has not been solved by any means.
Done. We survived.
I do have a confession to make. I am officially a home schooler. The state of Floriduh in its wisdom choses to aid and abet us to the extent of providing a complete free on line curriculum via FLVS. The FLVS is a work at your own pace state middle and high school. Classes from FLVS are recognized by fiat by all schools and colleges in Florida. Also by fiat any student in Florida of high school age in entitled to take classes at their local community college as long as their school (parental unit) deems them capable of taking such classes with the local school board paying the tuition and fees for such classes. Can we say associates degree by 18? And this largess applies not only to “home schooled” students but schooled students as well.
How is your son doing in the Marines so far?
Thanks for the Ping... BTTT...
There are good public schools - I was fortunate enough to attend one. And there are undoubtedly parents who are unfit as homeschool teachers.
It is a question of distributions; for example, a comparison of both sub-populations of children based on some metric (SAT scores, income at age 35, voting rate, etc) yield two overlapping distributions which may look like this:
So even if your children were part of the "lower scoring group" they could still have higher performance than, say, 90% of the higher scoring group.
Something else to consider in these comparisons is that any metric for the public school group would necessarily be weighed down by the presence of gangbangers and other enormously underrepresented educational basketcases in the homeschooling category (and one can then debate cause and effect, causation and correlation).
As far as the public-vs-home school debate is concerned, the main point established by the data (plus some assumptions of unknown quality) is that homeschooling is AT LEAST as good (if not better) than public schooling for the average student (assuming both groups are drawn randomly from the same total population - i.e. no a priori self-selection of better performing or worse performing students for either group).
Even if you subtracted off the thugs (for whom public school serves as glorified pre-prison babysitting) from the public schools and then drew a fresh comparison showing near-equal performance of both groups, this would still be sufficient to establish the primary thesis of homeschooling advocates - that parents can do just as good of a job as the government in child education.
In case it is difficult to tell, the above post is PRO-homeschooling, as am I.
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