Brian D. Ray, PhD
HOME SCHOOLING is a flourishing phenomenon within the United States. In the early 1980s, the general public had never heard of home schooling, but today, almost everyone has.
Still, society at large knows little about home schoolers: their backgrounds, their activities, or their achievements. A recent study conducted by Dr. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) provides some answers.
This study, Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America, collected data on 5,402 home school students from 1,657 families for the 1994-95 and 1995-96 academic years. Nearly 6,000 surveys were sent to home school families using a variety of sources and methods. Some were mailed directly to families (both those randomly selected from numerous mailing lists as well as longitudinal participants from Ray's similar study in 1990). Others were blindly forwarded to families through the leadership of independent home school support groups and networks operating in every state. Unquestionably, this research represents the largest and most comprehensive study on home schooling every undertaken (see Ray, 1997).
In a collaborative effort to provide solid answers to common questions about home schooling, HSLDA and Dr. Ray have highlighted some of the key findings of this study. Where available, comparable public school student data were also obtained. This publication, Home Education Across the United States, is the result.
This study demonstrates that home schooling works. It suggests that direct parental involvement and hard work are the keys to educational success. Regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status, parent education level, teacher certification, or the degree of government regulation, the academic achievement scores of home educated students significantly exceed those of public school students. Home school students are fully engaged in society and experience a wide range of opportunities outside the home. They are smart users of both technology and their time. And graduates are equipped to pursue their aspirations &emdash; work or college. Contrary to the often speculative opinions of critics, the facts from this study demonstrate success.
How Many Home Schoolers Are There?
Just how prevalent is home education today? The data indicate there are approximately 1.23 million American children being taught at home. This finding (which has an estimated margin of error of ± 10%) exceeds the total public school enrollment for the state of New Jersey, which has the 10th largest student population in the nation. Put another way, there are more home school students nationwide than there are public school students in Wyoming, Vermont, Delaware, North Dakota, Alaska, South Dakota, Rhode Island, Montana, and Hawaii &emdash; combined. In fact, America's home schoolers collectively outnumber the individual statewide public school enrollments in each of 41 states (Figure 1.0).
How Do Home School Students Score?
Why are so many parents choosing to home school? Because it works. This study shows that home educated students excel on nationally-normed standardized achievement exams. On average, home schoolers out-perform their public school peers by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects (Figure 2.0).
How Do Long-Term Home Schoolers Compare to Those Who Switch to Home Education Midstream?
Home schoolers' test scores sometimes increase in relation to the number of years a student has been taught at home. The data for eighth grade home schoolers suggest that those who have completed two or more years at home score substantially higher than those who just completed one year of instruction (Figure 3.0). This suggests that students who move from an institutional school to home school may experience a brief transition period. Students home schooled from early grades tend to score higher in subsequent years in some subject areas (see Ray, 1997).
Is Teacher Certification Necessary for High Achievement?
Critics often claim that only parents with teaching credentials can effectively home school. The data from
this study suggest otherwise. Home school students' test scores segmented by whether their parents have ever held a teaching certificate reveal a differential of only three percentile points &emdash; the 88th percentile versus the 85th percentile (Figure 4.0).
Does Parent Education Level Predict Student Achievement?
A parent's education background has no substantive effect on their children's home school academic performance, according to this study. Home educated students' test scores remain between the 80th and 90th percentiles, whether their mothers have a college degree or did not complete high school (Figure 5.1).
For public school students, however, a parent's education level does affect their children's performance (Figures 5.2 & 5.3). In eighth grade math, public school students whose parents are college graduates score at the 63rd percentile, whereas students whose parents have less than a high school diploma score at the 28th percentile. Remarkably, students taught at home by mothers who never finished high school score a full 55 percentile points higher than public school students from families of comparable educational backgrounds.
How Do Minorities Fare in Home Education?
Does race make a difference in academic performance? Math and reading scores for minority home schoolers show no significant difference when compared to whites. In reading, both white and minority home schoolers score at the 87th percentile. Only five points separate them in math &emdash; the 82nd percentile versus the 77th percentile (Figures 6.1 & 6.2).
A similar comparison for public school students, however, demonstrates a substantial disparity. White public school eighth grade students score at the 57th percentile in reading and at the 58th percentile in math nationally.1 Black public school eighth grade students score at the 28th percentile in reading and the 24th percentile in math in the same national sample. Hispanic students score at the 28th percentile in math nationally. However, national figures are not available which allow proportional weighting of various minority groups to match the same proportions as are found among home schooling racial minority groups.
Scores are available from the Virginia Department of Public Education which allow the scores to be weighted in a manner which matches the proportions exactly in the same ratio as are found in the home schooling sample. When the scores are weighted in this fashion, Virginia white eighth grade students score at the 61st percentile in reading while the weighted minorities score at the 49th percentile. In math the same scores show whites at the 60th percentile and minorities at the 50th percentile.
Home schoolers have been able to substantially eliminate the disparity between white and minority scores even when the samples are adjusted to reflect the exact same proportion of American Indians, Asians, blacks, and Hispanics.
What About the Gender Gap in Academics?
When segmented by gender, test scores for home schoolers reveal that boys are slightly better in math (the 84th percentile versus the 79th percentile), and girls are somewhat better in reading (the 88th percentile versus the 87th percentile). Public school student performance in math follows a similar pattern, but public school boys' reading scores are markedly behind girls', the 43rd percentile versus the 58th percentile &emdash; a 15 point difference (Figure 7.0).
Is Family Income a Predictor of Academic Achievement for Home Schoolers?
Segmenting student test scores by family income shows that socioeconomic status is not a determinant of academic performance for home schoolers (Figure 8.0). Regardless of family income bracket, home school students score between the 82nd and 92nd percentiles.
According to some researchers and officials, family income has a significant impact on public school students' scores. Concerned about a recent study of student achievement in the Denver public schools, a school board member wrote, "The conclusion is clear. Family income and class are stronger indicators of education success than race."2
Does Spending Correlate with Achievement?
A cost-benefit analysis reveals that an average of $546 spent per home school student per year yields an average 85th percentile ranking on test scores. Compare this to the average annual expenditure of $5,325 per public school student to achieve only an average 50th percentile ranking. These figures do not include capital expenditures, like buildings and land, etc. (Figure 9.0).
Is Government Regulation Necessary for High Achievement?
The degree of governmental regulation from state to state has no significant effect on the academic performance of home schoolers. Whether a state imposes a high degree of regulation (i.e., notification, standardized testing, professional evaluations, curriculum approval, teacher qualifications, home visits, etc.) or no regulation, home school student test score averages are identical &emdash; the 86th percentile for both segments (Figure 10.1). Legitimate questions may be asked concerning the purpose of such regulations since there is no apparent effect on student learning.
Do Test Scores Vary by Who Administered the Test?
Standardized tests for home schoolers are administered in various ways. Little difference was found in scores among students tested by a parent, a private school teacher, a public school teacher, or some other test administrator. And again, the average scores range between the 80th and 90th percentiles (Figure 11.0).
What Kind of Curriculum Do Home Schoolers Use?
What kind of curriculum do home schoolers use? The vast majority of home school parents (71.1%) hand-pick their instructional materials, custom designing the curriculum to presumably suit the needs of their children, the family's lifestyle, and applicable government regulations. Nearly 24% use a complete curriculum package purchased from one of numerous providers. Other options include enrollment in private satellite schools or special programs operated by the local private school. The data also revealed that some parents employ more than one approach to assembling their children's curriculum (Table 1.0).
How Many Times Do Home Schoolers Visit the Library Per Month?
This study found that 53% of home schoolers visit a library at least once or twice a month (Figure 12.0). Nearly half (47%) reported that they go even more often. As a group, home schooled students frequent the library an average of 3.8 times each month (see Ray, 1997).
Are Computers a Part of Home Schools?
Apparently quick to employ the cutting-edge technology of computers, 85.6% of home school families reported owning a computer and 83.7% say their children use it in their education. Compared to the national norms for all U.S. families (34% and 26%, respectively), home school families are setting a trend for equipping their children with resources for the 21st century (Figure 13.0).
What About Socialization?
Home schoolers are often asked, "What about socialization?" The data on home school students' activities and community involvement reveal that, on average, these children are engaged in 5.2 activities outside the home, with 98% involved in two or more. Activities ranging from scouts, dance class, and 4-H to sports, field trips, and volunteer work demonstrate that home schoolers interact with people of all ages, from all sorts of backgrounds, and in all types of social settings (Figure 14.0).
How Many Hours Per Day Are Spent Watching Television & Video Tapes?
This study also measured the time home schoolers spent watching television and video tapes each weekday. These data were compared to those for public school students. Simply put, home school children spend substantially less time watching TV than do public school children (Figure 15.0).
Ages of Home School Students in Study
Of the 5,402 children included in this study, all grades (K-12) are substantially represented. The majority of the sample (61.1%) is comprised of grades K-6, probably because the movement is relatively young and has grown so rapidly (Figure 16.0).
What Are the Occupations of Home School Parents?
According to the data, home school parents are employed in a full range of typical occupations. Most notable, however, is the finding that 87.7% of mothers and 0.5% of fathers have elected to stay home full-time to teach and raise their children (Table 2.0).
How Long Are They Going to Home School?
How enthusiastic are home school parents about their success? The vast majority (89%) intend to continue teaching their children at home all the way through high school (Figure 17.0).
How Many Years Were Home School Graduates Taught at Home?
On average, home school graduates had 6.9 years of home education (see Ray, 1997). The data reveal that 92% of graduates were taught at home for three or more years (Figure 18.0).
What Happens After Graduation?
Once they graduate from high school, home schoolers closely parallel their public school counterparts, whether they pursue more formal education or enter the job market (Figure 19.0).
Conclusion
This study demonstrates that home schooling works. It suggests that direct parental involvement and hard work are the keys to educational success. Regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic status, parent education level, teacher certification, or the degree of government regulation, the academic achievement scores of home educated students significantly exceed those of public school students. Home school students are fully engaged in society and experience a wide range of opportunities outside the home. They are smart users of both technology and their time. And graduates are equipped to pursue their aspirations &emdash; work or college. Contrary to the often speculative opinions of critics, the facts from this study demonstrate success.
ABOUT THE RESEARCHER
DR. BRIAN D. RAY is president of the National Home Education
Research Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in science education from
Oregon State University. NHERI conducts basic, data-gathering
research; serves as a clearinghouse of information for
researchers, home educators, attorneys, legislators, policy
makers, and the public at large; and provides speaker services on
various topics. NHERI also publishes research reports and the
unique, academic, refereed journal Home School Researcher.
Strengths of Their Own &emdash; Home Schoolers Across America: Academic Achievement, Family Characteristics, and Longitudinal Traits is available from NHERI for $12.95, plus $3 shipping. For further information and orders, visit NHERI's web site (http://www.nheri.org/research/). To obtain paper copies of this summary edition, proceed to the Digital Bookstore (http://www.hslda.org/bookstore/catalog/ray1997.html).
National Home Education Research
Institute P.O. Box 13939, Salem, Oregon 97309 (503)
364-1490 ~ (http://www.nheri.org) Home School Legal Defense
Association P.O. Box 3000, Purcellville, Virginia 20134 (540)
338-5600 ~ http://www.hslda.org