Posted on 07/31/2007 4:22:18 PM PDT by DaveLoneRanger
Recently released statistics show the 2006 average ACT composite score for homeschooled students was 22.4, compared to the national average composite of 21.1!
Now homeschoolers have an unbroken record for the last 10 years—since 1996, when testing officials started tracking them—of scoring higher on the ACT than the national average. For example, the 2005 average ACT composite score for homeschooled students was 22.5, compared to the national average of 20.9.
The 8,075 homeschool graduates who took the ACT in 2005 comprised about 1 percent of all those who took the college entrance exam.
The 1996 ACT results showed that in English, homeschoolers scored 22.5, compared to the national average of 20.3. In math, homeschoolers scored 19.2, compared to the national average of 20.2. In reading, homeschoolers outshone their public school counterparts 24.1 to 21.3. In science, homeschoolers scored 21.9, compared to 21.1.
According to the 1998 ACT High School Profile Report, 2,610 graduating homeschoolers took the ACT and scored an average of 22.8 out of a possible 36 points. This score is slightly higher than the 1997 report released on the results of 1,926 homeschool graduates, which found that homeschoolers maintained an average of 22.5. This is higher than the national average, which was 21.0 in both 1997 and 1998.
In 2003, Iowa State University’s admissions department data showed that homeschoolers had a 26.1 mean ACT composite score, as compared to a 24.6 mean score for all entering freshmen beginning in the fall of that year. The University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) have also seen higher ACT and SAT averages from homeschoolers in comparison to the total school population. The cumulative admissions data from UNI reveals that the average ACT score for homeschoolers was nearly 2 points higher than that of regular freshmen: 25 versus 23.5.
In 2004, the 7,858 homeschool students taking the ACT scored an average of 22.6, compared to the national average of 20.9.
Since 1985, research consistently shows that homeschoolers on average do better than the national average on standardized achievement tests for the elementary and secondary grade levels.
This academic success continues through college.
The bottom line is: Homeschooling works!
Overall, very good news for homeschoolers.
This could all be fixed if we’d just give the public schools more money.
I find it interesting that the only category that home schoolers score a lower average is in mathematics. That is one area that is difficult for government schools to “multiculture” into ineffectiveness. Either you teach algebra correctly or you don’t teach it at all.
I was thinking of giving these parents a raise and creating a union for them to join!
Unions at home ?
I already formed a union here at home. I change shirts. I don’t change diapers. For diapers you need someone else.
My wife is decidedly anti-union ;-)
homeschool/test scores ping!
Ping !
Are there any disadvantages? I guess it does vary with curriculum used and the quality of instruction. In your case you were able to work around a weaker area through the help of a DVD. I did not home school my kid but I admire those who do.
This happens so often, it doesn’t surprise anyone anymore.
“The bottom line is: Homeschooling works!”
No the bottom line is that measures such as this represent a misleading self-selecting statistic.
Congrats to everyone - homeschooler or not that achieves on the ACT. Homeschooling should always be an available educational option, but unfortunately the act of homeschooling doesn’t mean Johnny will automatically score high on the ACT.
I think that any disadvantages would probably be specific to each family situation. The only disadvantage (if you can call it that) that we had was dealing with a big dose of skepticism from our extended family (they’ve seen the results now and think it’s great, even my sister-in-law who works in a large public school district). We also had to make some lifestyle decisions (like living simply on one paycheck) that some have told us they would never make (we don’t have new cars, don’t take big vacations, don’t eat out a lot, etc.,) but that’s only temporary. Our kids are only with us in our home for a brief while and homeschooling has really helped us to make the most of being a family (as well as the obvious benefits of keeping them away from the politically correct, socialist, homosexual, etc., agendas of the government run schools).
“This happens so often, it doesn’t surprise anyone anymore.”
It happens everytime if you take a smaller statistical pool of high-achievers and compare them with a larger pool of high, medium, and low achievers.
Yep...it’s a fact. We have the crew here run through standardized testing yearly, and they always do better than their public schooled counterparts. :-) Thanks! It did me good to read this! :-)
The spiritual aspects are more important to us; Christian experience and testimony is more important to us than ACT scores. Beyond that, our children will not be duped by political, social and moral liberals.
Smart kids are a reflection of smarter parents.......Congrats to You and Sweetie Pie !
The ACT is optional. I don't think public schools force 'medium' an 'low' achievers take it.
You’re working on the assumption that homeschoolers represent some non-average type individual not attending the public schools.
Wrong.
They are not *high achievers*. Homeschoolers are just ordinary people who decided to homeschool. It’s not like they’re some kind of elite group, like private schools recruit. Many people homeschool kids with learning disabilities. Lots only have high school educations, or college level. Teachers often have graduate level educations; theoretically making them MORE qualified to teach. And they are doing an abysmal job in spite of that. Turns out the less educated non-teaching degree parents are doing a better job.
Face it, your attempts to dismiss the clear advantage of homeschooling by saying the statistics are skewed just isn’t going to work.
It is so good to hear about parents such as yourselves that view kids as a blessing and you treat them as such.
Home schooling is like anything else it is not a panacea but it in my experience generally provides a better environment for children to learn. I also think it strengthens the family unit. Homeschooling parents are inherently more involved with their children because they have to be. Plus one doesn’t have to deal with the politics or the unions. No one is going to force a sexual curriculum on your kids or teach them to be environmental pests or nanny state socialists. Also we can include religious instruction with the schooling if we like and the ACLU can’t do a thing about it. Homeschooling is the perfect compliment to a free society.
“Homeschooling is the perfect compliment to a free society.”
How true.
(Pardon this blatant bragging. I couldn't resist the chance.)
He's right. The statistics don't say what you think they do. This only gives you stats on homeschoolers who took the test. There's PLENTY of homeschoolers out there (I've seen it, I've lived it, don't argue with me on this one) that would absolutely BOMB on these tests because for a variety of reasons their parents are not educating them.
The ones who take the tests are most likely the serious homeschoolers who plan on going to college, and therefore are doing what it takes to score well.
You may not be aware of it but within the homeschooling population there are unschoolers, freeschoolers, eclectic homeschoolers, et cetera et cetera. Their attitude is that the kids will learn what they need to know. And without exception when these kids finally get into a real school environment, they are horrifically unprepared. I have never seen the unschooling thing succeed. They are far behind even the average students. They do lousy on the standardized tests. They haven't been made to do much of any learning or studying and it shows up in spades later on.
I'm a huge homeschooling advocate, but ONLY for those parents WHO WILL ACTUALLY DO IT.
If ALL homeschoolers took this test and scored higher than ALL non-homeschoolers, then this statistic would carry more weight with me.
It's perfectly clear that there is self-selection going on, and that therefore there are differences in the expected results of the two groups before they study the material in question.I think it is undoubted that parental involvement in education is sine qua non for good student performance . . . and it can hardly be questioned that homeschool parents are deeply involved in their children's educations!
From that perspective, the superior performance of homeschoolers in everything but math might be less interesting than the inferiority of homeschoolers in math. It suggests that the specialization of the teacher pays the most dividends in math. And/or, that the parents who homeschool tend disproportionately to be weak in math rather than in geography, history, English, or even science.
Exactly the same as can be said for public school kids. ACTs are not standardized testing and not required for ALL public school kids to take. To think that all the dropouts and slackers in the public school system take these tests and lower the stats is not realistic. It doesn't happen.
That is awesome. I always like to hear good news no matter where it comes from. Small schools I imagine probably have more success. I went to one of the centralized schools and never did like it. I think we could improve education considerably just by decentralizing. The next thing would be to break the teachers unions.
Absolutely! We’re a homeschooling family of six children and the sacrifice has been worth every minute. Watching our eldest graduate both high school and community college the same day and get accepted into a large University on scholarship has been very rewarding. The next child is dual-enrolled in high school and community college. They are all politically active and pay attention to the important issues of today. They are anti-big government and pro freedom, liberty and life. Homeschooling has allowed us to avoid all the liberal agenda driven nonsense in public school.
I would tend to agree with most everything you said .... homeschooling works only if the parents actually do it and have STANDARDS!!!
It is necessary to make kids memorize stuff, including history facts, math tables, etc. The reason that the public schools aren’t as good as they used to be 50 years ago is that they don’t think it necessary to force the poor dears to actually work!!
The big advantage with home-schooling is that the programs can be tailored to meet their specific needs and learning styles, but as said before - it is essential to have standards and to ensure that the standards are met. The majority of parents I know that are doing home-schooling do things like have the kids take regular standardized tests to ensure that learning is taking place.
We finished home schooling and the last of 3 left the nest last month. #1 is in a ROTC Army Nursing program (graduates in December), #2 is at the Naval Academy (and a Trident Scholar!!) - graduates next May. #3 is in Army boot camp (and amazed at how dense the other “boots” can be. I told him he was going to feel like the rocket scientist of the group, although he claimed he didn’t want to continue into college for a few years!!)
Obviously, good results can be had with home-schooling!
Mike
“Face it, your attempts to dismiss the clear advantage of homeschooling by saying the statistics are skewed just isn’t going to work.”
There may well be a clear advantage of homeschooling, I’m just saying performance on the ACT isn’t it. Do not manufacture offense, where none is intended.
Homeschoolers are not statistically average kids when it comes to education. I won’t even argue that point.
It is hard for some to break out of institutional think. They have been trained to believe things have to be a certain way with a highly degreed liberal teacher for kids to learn. It always does my heart a delight to see a bunch of Mom’s and Dad’s without education degrees putting a bunch of self important “educators” to shame. So much of educational theory is made up crap designed to inflate those who come up with it rather than further the learning of children. I had some very good public school teachers but there were so many that shouldn’t have been teaching at all and the system often was so inane as to water down best as the unions went out of their way to protect the worst.
As for those who are worried about homeschooling they should realize that a bad school can ruin the lives of hundreds of children, a family that fails at homeschooling effects only their children. Education is not the domain of an elite priesthood and doesn’t require a cadre of adults poking and prodding into the sexuality of little children or teaching them to believe lies about how they can save world by replacing light bulbs.
“The ACT is optional. I don’t think public schools force ‘medium’ an ‘low’ achievers take it.”
But plenty do take it. That’s the driver of the statistical difference shown in this report.
I’m happy for high-achieving kids, however they got that way. But using this statistic, which is meaningless for the reasons previously discussed is not a good way to advocate for homeschooling. Use the true strengths of homeschooling to advocate, not incorrect statistics.
When I took the SATs, my math score was about 40 points lower than my verbal skill for a very interesting reason. The reason was, I was in calculus and hadn’t seen the basic math used on the SATs in about two years. I hadn’t had time to review (long story) and ended up trying to re-derive trig formulas from basic principles. I still ended up with a very high score.
I wonder if there are other students who have had this experience?
You know this for sure? Do you homeschool?
Of course they're average kids. We've homeschooled for 12 years and been in several different support groups. There are pretty average people out there homeschooling. Their kids are not inherently any more gifted or capable than public school kids.
I know families who have homeschooled handicapped kids, learning disabled kids, kids who were kicked out of the public school system and were headed for JD.
The statistics are comparing two similar groups of kids, both have intentions to go to college. Those homeschoolers who do not intend to go to college don't take it any more than public school kids who don't intend to go to college don't take it.
Homeschooling is criticized that it cannot provide all the opportunities as public schools as far as resources and specialized instructors, and in spite of that *handicap*, they STILL manage to do better.
There's just no way to work around the fact that homeschoolers do better because homeschooling works better; not because homeschoolers are some kind of elite special breed of student.
This is a college entrance exam. The ACT is not a standard exam given to all students. I think it is safe to say the comparison is on equal footing. They are all students competing for college entrance.
bookmark
But supposedly public schools “teach to the test”.
Hm, what’s that verse again? “Seek ye first the kingdom of God”...?
I appreciate it, but I think they’re a whole lot smarter than I am! Now Sweetie Pie is a SMART lady though! ...maybe that’s where they get it from!....must be. :-)
My youngest daughter (who hated math), who has begun to homeschool her brood, has found that as she jumps in to teaching the kids, she is learning too, and thus is able to prod them along.
No, but it appears to mean that it is likely that he will score higher than he would have had he not been homeschooled. Parental involvement is an inestimable tool.
We wouldn't trade the time with our kids for anything (especially not more dollars to buy more stuff to impress people who don't matter). At ages 12 and 15 they will be gone and on their own all too soon.
We’ve commented many times that teaching the kids has been a great “refresher course” for us, as well. Even though we don’t consider math subjects to be our strong points (not that we’re math retards or anything), there are so many great curriculum and teaching aids that it really isn’t that big a problem (and it looks like our kids are kind of following in the arts tradition anyway, imagine that).
That’s not surprising. Every homeschooler I know admits to learning along with their kids.
Of course, going through school through 8th grade four times is bound to teach you something, even though the first time (my public education experience) was a bust.
Exactly. My kids have never even hinted that they are ashamed to be seen with me in public.
A messy house (at that time) is a small trade off to have kids like that.
Amen to that.
“No, but it appears to mean that it is likely that he will score higher than he would have had he not been homeschooled. Parental involvement is an inestimable tool.”
If you assume Johnny’s parents will ignore him if he weren’t homeschooled, perhaps.
I think it shows smart kids score higher, that’s it.
“There are pretty average people out there homeschooling. Their kids are not inherently any more gifted or capable than public school kids.”
You underestimate the dregs of society that are allowed to breed and then send their kids to school, and the legions of illegal immigrants, who are also “averaged into” a non-homeschool sample.
An “average” homeschool kid is above average, because they’ve got involved parents (yes, usually more than one) and their parents are usually more educated than average, and make more money and usually have a stay-at-home mom.
It’s not a bad thing, but its not statistically accurate to say that johnny gains IQ points the second he starts being homeschooled, as is the implication of statistics of this sort.
“Homeschooling is criticized that it cannot provide all the opportunities as public schools as far as resources and specialized instructors, and in spite of that *handicap*, they STILL manage to do better. “
I’ve never criticised homeschooling, just the use of self-selecting statistics to promote it. That’s the wrong way. There are plenty of other ways to promote it that are relevant.
All this says is smart kids do better than an average pool of kids. It says nothing about the effectiveness of homeschooling.
“They are all students competing for college entrance.”
Low-achieving kids apply to go to college too, and take the ACT.
It’s not a statistically valid comparison to say “All kids who apply to college are equal”.
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