A Special Presentation

A Special Presentation
Why Homeschool A Special Presentation Produced by Chef of Lafayette January 2007

Why Homeschool There are many questions today about homeschooling. Here are two key ones: First: How do homeschool students score on standardized tests Compared to Public School students of similar socio-economic background Second: What about Socialization Also, some Homeschool Tips

How do Home School Students Score?
One of the first questions Prospective Home School Parents ask is: How do Home School Students Score on Nationally Standardized Tests? Studies over the past 15 years have found answers to these questions. Let’s compare home school student scores with those of Public School Students

How do Home School Students Score?
We’ll compare standardized test score results of Public School Students with similar test results for Home School Students We’ll look at K-12 results for Reading, Language, Math, Science and Social Studies And see if we can make any conclusions We’ll start with Reading

How do Home School Students Score? Reading
A 1997 study by Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) found that home educated students excelled on nationally-normed standarized achievement tests. The results shown here are for reading, writing and arithmetic, plus science and social studies.

How do Home School Students Score? Reading & Writing

How do Home School Students Score? Reading, Writing, Arithmetic

How do Home School Students Score? 3 Rs Plus Science

How do Home School Students Score? 3 Rs plus Science & Social Studies

Home School Students Score Percentile in all subjects: Very High Scores with Minimal subject variation

How do Home School Students Score? 3 Rs plus Science & Social Studies
The overall results are remarkable Home school students score at the 80th percentile level or above on standardized tests nationwide Far above the national average But you might say that homeschool parents are possibly above average in academic training, or contain mostly smarter family units. So, let’s compare home school students in families of similar academic background

How do Home School Students Score: What about the Parents
Studies on Public School Students show that the Education Level of the parents of such public School Students is very important Generally, the higher the education level of the parents, the better the performance of the student, in Public Schools. Remember, this is for Public School Students and their parents.

How do Public School Students Score: What about the Parents
We will first examine the results of Public School students whose parents have four different levels of education: Parents who have some High School Parents who are High School grads Parents who have some College Parents who are college grads.

How do Public School Students Score: What about the Parents-Public School
For the average public school student whose parents have less than a high school education, the average score on standardized achievement tests is a low 34%. This is well below average and is an example of the vicious cycle of illiteracy and poverty.

For those students whose parents are high school graduates, the results are a little better at 43%, but still well below average. Keep in mind that these are national averages and there could be considerable differences for the individual. But in this case, we are talking about averages and not individual examples. So, for the parents who have just a high school education, on average their children will score a below average score or 43% on these standardized writing tests.

We now add students whose parents have some education after high school, but no college degree. For the first time, the students score an above-average of 54% on the public school achievement writing test. Do you see a pattern here? For public school students, the higher the parent’s education level, the higher the average scores of their children on the public school achievement writing test. Let’s see how this looks on a line graph

Here we have the previous data displayed on a line graph. This graphically shows that as the public school parent’s education level increases, so do the scores on the public school achievement writing test.

Here is our bar graph again. Let’s add one additional level of parental education

For parents who are college grads, for the first time the public school average test score is over 60%.

This completes our graph for the public school student average scores on public school achievement tests, based on the parent’s education level.

Here are the same results for the public school achievement Math test. As you can see, the results are basically the same.

Here are the results shown in a line graph, showing the results for math are basically the same as the results for writing.

Here are the two results shown side by side. This graphically demonstrates that, for public school students, as the education level of the parents increases, the scores on standardized tests for the student increases. That is, the parent’s education level and the public school student academic results are directly proportional.

Public School Student Scores and Parent’s Education Level
A few Key conclusions For Public School Students, the education level of the parents is a relatively accurate predictor of the results of the average public school student The greater the level of education of the parents, the higher the average level of academic result of the public school student

Compare: Student Results by Parental Education Level-Public vs
Compare: Student Results by Parental Education Level-Public vs. Home School Next, we will compare the results of Public School Students at each educational level With Home School Students who had parents at the same educational level Then make a few conclusions

Compare: Student Results by Parental Education Level-Public vs. Home School On the left is the average of the math and writing results for public school students with parents education levgel of less than high school. The average of math and writing was 31.5%. The composite percentile for home school students whose parents education level was less than high school was an astounding 83%. The difference is a remarkable 50 percentile points. What about homeschool students whose parents had a bit more education?

Compare: Student Results by Parental Education Level-Public vs. Home School On the left, we have a comparison of public and home school students whose parent’s education level was less than high school, on the right we have the same comparison for students whose parents were high school graduates. Home school students whose parents were high school graduates scored a composite percentile of 80% on the battery of tests. For public school students, there is a demonstrable increase, but not so for home school students. For home school students, the difference in percentiles was within the margin of error. So it can be stated that the educational level of the parents was not a factor for these two sets of home school students. What about parent’s with a bit more education?

Compare: Student Results by Parental Education Level-Public vs. Home School For home school students whose parents had some education after high school, the percentile was 84%, almost identical to the students whose parents had less than high school education. Once more, we see that, for home school students, the education level of the parents is not a factor. Homeschool students score remarkably high on academic achievement tests, regardless of the education level of the parents.

Compare: Student Results by Parental Education Level-Public vs. Home School The final piece to the puzzle shows the results of home school students whose parents are college grads. Their result is in the 88th percentile on the standardized tests. This makes the average between the 83rd and 84th percentile and all of the home school students are within the margin of error, regardless of the education level of the parents, in stark contrast to the public school students.

To review, here is the graph of the results of the public school students by parent’s educational level.

Compare: Student Results by Parental Education Level-Public vs. Home School The remarkable conclusion is that for Public School Students, the Parent’s Education Level is a relatively accurate predictor of the success of the Average Public School Student. But for Home Educated Students, the Student’s likely performance is not at all related to the Parent’s level of Education. On the Average, the home educated Student is likely to score at the 80th percentile or above, regardless of the Parent’s level of Education. The implications of these facts are staggering.

Compare: Student Results by Parental Education Level-Public vs. Home School Key conclusions For the Average Public School Student, the parent’s education level is a relatively accurate predictor of academic results. The Higher the level of the parent’s level of education, the higher the average scores for public school students

Compare: Student Results by Parental Education Level-Public vs. Home School Key conclusions For the average home educated student, the parent’s level of education is not an accurate predictor of the student’s results The average home school student scores at or near the 83.5 percentile, regardless of the level of education of the parents.

What about Socialization, Special Interests and Enrichment Activities?
Research has found that most homeschool students are involved in a wide variety of outside activities, interact with a broad spectrum of people, and make positive contributions to their communities.

What about Socialization in our present public schools? “We’ve got a whole lot of falsehoods associated with schooling,” says Gary Knowles, a University of Toronto researcher. … We have … weird rites of passage that are quite dysfunctional”

The report continues: “Knowles has found home schoolers to be more self-reliant and focused. ‘They’re able to move into adulthood with a much better sense of self and have a very good sense of what they want to do,’ he said.”

The report continues: “Where did we ever get the idea that 2, year olds were the ideal people with which to socialize other 13-year olds?”

This is a question I would pose to all here: What is the best social group for Junior High Students? Is it other Junior High Students?

Brown Alumni Magazine, “Homeschooling comes of Age,” January/February 2002: “Homeschoolers are the epitome of Brown students,” says Dean Joyce Reed. “They are self-directed, they take risks, and they don’t back off.”

“My parents decided to homeschool me because I had speech problems, and they didn’t want to expose me to the teasing of school children. They taught me from kindergarten through 12th grade. I loved my “school” experience, and I don’t believe I ever wanted to attend a traditional school, public or private. It gave me the opportunity to truly grow up with my 3 siblings.

“And I was involved in many activities, including 4-H, Awana, Bible club, and volunteering at a local hospital. Today as a 2002 college graduate … I already have a job as a full time accountant. Looking back on my schooling experience, I was definitely prepared for college—emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. Carrie Ireland

How do you measure the success of “socialization”? By Academic success? By civic involvement? By lifestyle choices? Or by just plain happiness? Let’s look at all 4.

Socialization and Academics
One result of successful socialization should be academic success. A well-adjusted child should tend to have more academic success than otherwise. Note that when we set forth a “tendency”, this does not always mean the correlation exists in every instance, simply that there is a tendency. This should be indicated in overall statistics, but not necessarily in every individual.

We have already reviewed the remarkable academic results of home schoolers in high school, but what about college? Recent results of nationwide surveys provide interesting insights.

Socialization To the extent that socialization is related to Academics, it would be fair to say that Home School students are well-adjusted What about other areas of “socialization” Civic Involvement Lifestyle choices Overall Happiness

Socialization and Civic Involvement
Homeschool graduates are active and involved in their communities. 71% participate in an ongoing community service activity (such as: coaching a sports team, volunteering at a school, or working with a church or neighborhood association), compared to 37% of U.S. adults of similar age. 88% of the homeschool graduates surveyed were members of an organization (such as community group, church or synagogue, union, homeschool group, or professional organization), compared to 50% of U.S. adults of a similar age.

Only 4.2% of the homeschool graduates surveyed consider politics and government too complicated to understand, compared to 35% of all U.S. adults

As a result, home school graduates contribute to candidates in a higher percentage than the population at large,

Volunteer to work for candidates in a higher percentage than the population at large, and

Tend to vote in national and state elections in much higher percentages than the population at large.

This is a small glimpse into the extraordinary amount of Community and Civic involvement by home school students (and their parents). We could go on and on, but we must yet deal with two other areas: Lifestyle choices, and General happiness

Socialization and Daily Life
There are many possible aspects of Daily life we could review, however data are only available for three basic subjects: Reading habits Sources for current events and news Religious and Spiritual habits

Socialization and Daily Life

Socialization and Daily Life Religious habits

Socialization and Happiness Very happy, Pretty happy, not too happy

Socialization and Happiness Exciting, Routine, or Dull

Socialization and Happiness Job Satisfaction

Socialization and Happiness

Socialization and Happiness Outlook on Life

Socialization By every measure, home school graduates appear to be well-adjusted, contributing members of society and good citizens. The homeschool student starts with an excellent academic background, Nurtured by the one institution that cares for the student more than any other: the family. The student they takes that excellent academic background with confidence to college Then, understanding that hard work is a key element to success, they get to work.

Socialization Then, they join organizations in their community and volunteer on an ongoing basis. Unlike their peers, they regularly attend church services. Understanding that their obligations as good citizens, they vote Even more, they volunteer and contribute to political candidates

Socialization As I read the literature on this subject, I have a bit more hope for the future. Because the home school movement is growing and bringing with it a new breed of citizen, which is not new at all. These young citizens bring the same principled understanding to the marketplace that our founding fathers did when they came to these shores. If you know of anyone considering homeschooling, encourage them.

Socialization

Homeschool Tips Tip # 1: Get Plugged in
There are two large groups and several smaller homeschool groups right here in Acadiana Catholic: Holy Family Protestant: Christian Home Educators Fellowship – Chef of Lafayette Several Smaller Groups Local Church Groups Local “Unschool” groups

Homeschool Tips Tip # 2: Select a type of curriculum and method of homeschooling A few of the general categories: Traditional Classical Unit Studies Unschooling/Child Directed/Delight Directed There are almost as many curriculum combinations and educational philosophies as there are homeschooling families. Many families find their teaching style and curriculum choices altering to meet their children’s changing needs. Here is a quick description of some general categories Traditional: Textbook/workbook approach emphasizing reading, writing, grammar, and spelling through drill and practice. Classical: Following the Medieval “trivium”, a child’s education progresses from fundamental facts and skills to logic and advanced language abilities. Students study the great works of Western Literature. Unit Studies: Instructor-designed thematic studies. Progress in several disciplines is woven around a particular theme. Unschooling/Child Directed/Delight Directed. Allowing a child to learn by encouraging and equipping him to pursue his own interests. (guided or unguided exploration) One of the great things about home schooling is that you don’t have to be limited to just one approach. You can mix and match, taking what you like from each approach, to maximize your child’s learning.

Homeschool Tips Tip # 3: Attend a convention or curriculum fair.
Tip # 4: Tap into the used curriculum market Tip # 5: Choose a place to do school Tip # 6: Be creative with field trips

A Special Presentation

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