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I. Independent Evaluations of Homeschooling

1. In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released. It was 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. A significant finding when analyzing the data for 8th graders was the evidence that homeschoolers who are homeschooled two or more years score substantially higher than students who have been homeschooled one year or less. The new homeschoolers were scoring on the average in the 59th percentile compared to students homeschooled the last two or more years who scored between 86th and 92nd percentile. ...

...4. In Nevada, according to Washoe County School District’s data, homeschooled students scored higher than their public school counterparts in first through seventh grade. All children were tested with the Stanford Achievement Test, and homeschoolers consistently scored higher in reading, vocabulary, reading comprehension, math concepts, math comprehension, math and math concepts and application.
The most extreme gap between the public school children and the homeschooled children was in the area of vocabulary. For example, fourth graders in public school scored in the 49th percentile while the homeschooled fourth graders scored in the 80th percentile. ...
http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp

My oldest daughter went to University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She was a home schooled kid and scored 28 on the ACT. The admissions counselor went gaga over accepting her. The reason for it was how much she enjoyed home schooled kids who show up for college. "They are prepared, manage their time, and hit the ground running" according to her.

I'd have to agree.

I disagree that the only measure is standardized testing but set that aside for a moment. If you google "home school standardized testing results", you will find your answer. Over and over. Here is an example.

Five areas of academic pursuit were measured. In reading, the average home-schooler scored at the 89th percentile; language, 84th percentile; math, 84th percentile; science, 86th percentile; and social studies, 84th percentile. In the core studies (reading, language and math), the average home-schooler scored at the 88th percentile.

The average public school student taking these standardized tests scored at the 50th percentile in each subject area.

From HOME-SCHOOLING: Outstanding results on national tests.

“How do home schoolers perform on SAT/ACT compared to their traditionally educated counterparts? That is the only relevent question.”

I’d disagree with you about that. Public schools, esp here in NJ, spend hundreds of hours prepping kids for standardized tests, not on how to think, to reason, to research, to question, to explore for themselves. I did just hear about a homeschooler in our county who hasn’t officially graduated high school yet but has completed his associates degree at the local county college and has received an appointment to the Naval Academy.

The very first standardized tests that my homeschoolers took was the GRE for graduate school.

My homeschoolers were admitted to college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13. All finished all college general courses and Calculus III by the age of 15. The two younger finished B.S. degrees in math by the age of 18. The oldest of these two was **teaching** math to college students at the age of 18 as part of the masters degree she earned at the age of 20.

The oldest will soon finish a masters in accounting an age typical of those who are institutionalized for their education, however, my son also spent two years working in Eastern Europe and is now completely fluent in Russian. He was also an internationally and nationally ranked athlete and traveled the world representing the U.S. as part of his sport.