|
US study on homeschooling
|
Quintessence
|
Aug 19, 1999 03:25 PDT
|
I appreciate your comments, Marion; I hereby submit the URL of another
study, this time a US study. I copy only the top part of the abstract:
[start copied text]
This report presents the results of the largest survey and testing
program for students in home schools to date. In Spring 1998, 20,760
K-12 home school students in 11,930 families were administered either
the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) or the Tests of Achievement and
Proficiency (TAP), depending on their current grade. The parents
responded to a questionnaire requesting background and demographic
information. Major findings include: the achievement test scores of this
group of home school students are exceptionally high--the median scores
were typically in the 70th to 80th percentile; 25% of home school
students are enrolled one or more grades above their age-level public
and private school peers; this group of home school parents has more
formal education than parents in the general population; the median
income for home school families is significantly higher than that of all
families with children in the United States; and almost all home school
students are in married couple families. Because this was not a
controlled experiment, the study does not demonstrate that home
schooling is superior to public or private schools and the results must
be interpreted with caution. The report clearly suggests, however, that
home school students do quite well in that educational environment.
By current estimates, there are between 700,000 and 1,200,000 students
enrolled in home schools in the United States. Further, by all accounts,
the movement has been growing steadily over the past few years (Lines,
1998). Yet, there is very little scientific literature concerning the
population of home school students or even large samples of home school
students.
This study describes the academic achievement levels and some basic
demographic characteristics of a large sample of students and their
families. While the academic levels of home school students are
described in terms of public and private school norms, this study is not
a comparison of home schools with public or private schools.
[end copied text]
I end the copied text on that note; the study seems aware of the point
that you brought up, Marion, that such studies tend to compare
homeschoolers and schoolstudents in terms of academic performance,
rather than on, say, communication skills, personal developments,
initiative, creativity, self-confidence, spontaneity, etc.
Anyway, for more details about the study, go to:
http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n8/
Ben Mettes
Quintessence
==================================================
Marion wrote:
| | Thanks for posting, Ben. It's always great to read something about
homeschooling, because so little attention is given to it in the
media.
In this case, it says that "the only negative finding related to
four-year-olds. Rothermel tested more than 30 home educated infants
and found they made slower progress than school pupils during the
reception year." My feeling is that this 'progress' was measured
mainly using literacy and numeracy tests, ignoring the fact that many
homeschoolers successfully postpone these subject until later years.
I also got the feeling that the study is not representative. It
mentions "50,000 UK children who have opted out of the school
system". I bet there are a lot more than that in the UK!
Marion.
Quintessence wrote:
| | Hi, I copied this from another list, it's about a study by
Paula Rothermel, School of Education, University of Durham.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
