"Education" Policy Analysis Archives
Volume 7 Number 8
March 23, 1999
ISSN 1068-2341
A peer-reviewed scholarly electronic journal.
Editor: Gene V Glass Glass@ASU.EDU.
College of Education
Arizona State University,Tempe AZ 85287- 2411
Copyright 1999, the EDUCATION POLICY ANALYSIS ARCHIVES. Permission is hereby granted to copy any article provided that EDUCATION POLICY ANALYSIS ARCHIVES is credited and copies are not sold.
Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998
Lawrence M. Rudner ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation College of Library and Information Services University of Maryland, College Park
Abstract:
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.
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. Such comparisons would be fraught with problems. Home schooling is typically one-on-one. Public schools typically have classes with 25 to 30 students and an extremely wide range of abilities and backgrounds. Home school parents are, by definition, heavily involved in their children's education; the same, unfortunately, is not true of all public or private school parents. Home schools can easily pace and adapt their curriculum; public and private schools typically have a mandated scope and sequence. The list of differences could continue.
This study seeks to answer a much more modest set of questions: Does home schooling tend to work for those who chose to make such a commitment? That is, are the achievement levels of home school students comparable to those of public school students? Who is engaged in home schooling? That is, how does the home school population differ from the general United States population?
Methods:
Bob Jones University Press Testing and Evaluation Service provides assessment services to home school students and private schools on a fee-for-service basis. In Spring 1998, 39,607 home school students were contracted to take the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS; grades K-8) or the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP; grades 9-12). Students were given an achievement test and their parents were asked to complete a questionnaire entitled "Voluntary Home School Demographic Survey." A total of 20,760 students in 11,930 families provided useable questionnaires with corresponding achievement tests. The achievement test and questionnaire results were combined to form the dataset used in this analysis.
This section provides descriptions of the achievement measures, the questionnaires, the Bob Jones University Press Testing and Evaluation Service, and the procedures used to develop the dataset.
Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS)
Home schooled students in Grades K-8 took the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) Form L, published by Riverside Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Houghton Mifflin. Developed by University of Iowa professors, the tests were designed and developed to measure skills and standards important to growth across the curriculum in the nation's public and private schools.
The ITBS reflects more than 50 years of test development experience and research on measuring achievement and critical thinking skills in Reading, Language Arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, and Information Sources. The scope and sequence of the CONTENT measured by the ITBS were developed after careful review of national and state curricula and standards, current textbook series and instructional materials, and research (Riverside, 1993).
All items were tried out and tested for ethnic, cultural, and gender bias and fairness prior to the development of the final form of the tests. Data on a nationally representative sample of public and private schools were collected in 1992 and used to form the initial national norms. The norms were updated in 1995 by Riverside. This study used these 1995 spring norms. Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP)
Home schooled students in Grades 9-12 took the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP), Form L, also published by Riverside Publishing Company. The TAP was designed and developed to measure skills and standards important to growth across the high school curriculum. Like the ITBS, the TAP scope and sequence were developed after careful review of national and state curricula and standards, and current textbook series and instructional materials. Developed as an upward extension of the ITBS, the specifications, format, and design of the TAP tests are similar to that of the ITBS. TAP is fully articulated with the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) Form L (Riverside, 1993).
Background Questionnaires
Questionnaires were designed by the staff of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). Questions were determined by reviewing the questions in previous surveys, prioritizing them, and selecting only those that were most germane to the objectives of the study. Where possible, questions and responses were made to match those used by the U.S. Census, U.S. Department of Labor and the National Assessment of Educational Progress to facilitate comparisons of home school students with students nationwide.
HSLDA designed the survey to be much shorter than previous survey instruments. They also sought to pose all questions in an objective format, rather than a constructed response format. In keeping with this approach, HSLDA worked with National Computer Systems to design forms to be computer scanable, thereby removing the need for manual data processing. Bob Jones University Press Testing and Evaluation Service
The Bob Jones University (BJU) Press Testing and Evaluation Service is the largest and oldest of four organizations providing home school families access to standardized achievement tests. The Testing Service began offering the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and Tests of Achievement and Proficiency in 1984. In subsequent years they added other helpful tools including practice materials, a personality inventory, and diagnostic tests. In 1993, the Stanford Achievement Test series was added as BJU Press assumed the testing that the Home School Legal Defense Association had been providing for its members. Since that time, a full range of writing evaluations (grades 3-12) and a career assessment have been added to the growing number of evaluation tools offered by the Testing Service. Just as home school families were the impetus behind the start of the Testing Service, home schoo> families continue to be the largest sector utilizing the service. However, there are also a number of private schools that have chosen to use the services provided. Testing is provided for students throughout the United States and Canada, as well as many foreign countries.
The BJU Press Testing and Evaluation Service sends testing materials to qualified testers who administer the tests and return them to the Testing Service for scoring. The results are then returned to the parent. Many parents test primarily for their own information to verify that their home schooled students are progressing academically at a normal pace. Other parents use the results to meet a state testing requirement or to provide documentation when they choose to return their students to a public or private school setting. Data Generation Procedures
The following steps were followed to produce the data set: Parents contracted with Bob Jones University to be administered the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills or the Tests of Achievement Proficiency (39,607 students in probably 22,000 families). Bob Jones certified test administrators, many of whom were the students' parents. BJU sent questionnaires and answer forms to the test administrators. Tests and questionnaires were returned to BJU. BJU bundled the tests and sent them to Riverside Publishers for machine scoring. BJU bundled the questionnaires and sent them to National Computer Systems for scanning. Unlike in previous studies, the parents did not know their scores ahead of time. Electronic copy of the 23,415 test results and 23,311 questionnaire results were sent to the author of this report. These sets were merged to provide 20,900 cases with matching identification numbers. In order to weight by state public school enrollment, 140 cases with missing state data were dropped. A total of 20,760 students formed the initial dataset used in the study. After we formed the dataset with 20,760 students, we asked for the remainder of the 39,607 achievement test scores. We were informed that it would not be possible to disaggregate the remaining home school students from students in private schools also contracting testing services.