Summary of Major Findings
Major findings: Demographics
- Home school parents have more formal education than parents in the general population; 88% continued their education beyond high school compared to 50% for the nation as a whole.
- The median income for home school families ($52,000) is significantly higher than that of all families with children ($36,000) in the United States.
- Almost all home school students (98%) are in married couple families. Most home school mothers (77%) do not participate in the labor force; almost all home school fathers (98%) do work.
- Home school students watch much less television than students nationwide; 65% of home school students watch one hour or less per day compared to 25% nationally.
- The median amount of money spent annually on educational materials is about $400 per home school student.
- The distribution of home school students by grade in grades 1-6 is consistent with that of all school children. Proportionally fewer home school students are enrolled at the high school level.
Major findings: Achievement
- Almost 25% of home school students are enrolled one or more grades above their age-level peers in public and private schools.
- Home school student achievement test scores are exceptionally high. The median scores for every subtest at every grade (typically in the 70th to 80th percentile) are well above those of public and Catholic/Private school students.
- On average, home school students in grades 1 to 4 perform one grade level above their age-level public/private school peers on achievement tests.
- The achievement test score gap between home school students and public/private school students starts to widen in grade 5.
- Students who have been home schooled their entire academic life have higher scholastic achievement test scores than students who have also attended other educational programs.
- There are no meaningful differences in achievement by gender, whether the student is enrolled in a full-service curriculum, or whether a parent holds a state issued teaching certificate.
- There are significant achievement differences among home school students when classified by amount of money spent on education, family income, parent education, and television viewing.
Discussion:
Incorporating the largest sample ever used to study home school students and their families, this study is a rich source of information concerning their demographics and achievement. It clearly shows that home school students and their families are a select population. Family income and education levels are well above national averages. The family structure is traditional with married couples as parents, several children, father as bread winner, and a stay-at-home mother. A large percent of home school students have a parent that has held a state-issued teaching certificate. Home school families do not spend a great deal of money on educational materials and tend not to subscribe to pre-packaged full-service curriculum programs.
In spite of the large size of this assessment, there are notable limitations to this study. Foremost, home school students and their families are not a cross-section of the United States population. The act of home schooling distinguishes this group in terms of their exceptionally strong commitment to education and children. There are major demographic differences between home school families and the general United States population. Further, it should be noted that it was not possible within the parameters of this study to evaluate whether this sample is truly representative of the entire population of home school students.
The content of the Riverside tests is another major limitation of this study. While home schools teach the basic skill areas of reading, mathematics, social studies, and science, they do not necessarily follow the same scope, sequence, or emphasis as traditional public and private schools. The primary focus of many home schools is on religious and moral values. Home schools can and do place a greater emphasis on study skills, critical thinking, working independently, and love of learning. Public and private schools usually select the Riverside test due to its close alignment with their curriculum; home schools select the test primarily out of convenience.
We were conservative in our analysis of achievement test results. Even though some 25% of home school students are enrolled in an advanced grade level, we used current grade placement rather than the age appropriate grade placement when determining percentiles and grade equivalents. When looking at test scores, we chose the composite score with mathematics computation, even though mathematics appears to be a weaker subject for older home school students. As a result, we have probably underestimated home school academic performance levels.
Even with our conservative approach, the achievement levels of the home school students in this study are exceptional. Within each grade level and each skill area, the median scores for home school students fell between the 70th and 80th percentile of students nationwide and between the 60th and 70th percentile of Catholic/Private school students. For younger students, this is a one year lead. By the time home school students are in 8th grade, they are four years ahead of their public/private school counterparts.
Our results are consistent with previous studies of the achievement of home school students. A 1990 national home schooling survey of 1,516 families in the United States noted that, on average, home education families have parents with greater formal education, more children, and higher family income (Home School Court Report, 1990). Two-parent families were the norm and they were predominantly Christian. The average age of the children was just over eight years--a majority of the children had never attended public or private schools. There were equal numbers of male and female students. On standardized achievement tests, the home-schooled students performed at or above the 80th percentile on national norms in reading, listening, language, math, science, social studies, basic battery, and complete battery scores.
Calvery et.al. (1992) compared the achievement of Arkansas home schooled and public schooled students in grades 4, 7, and 10 using 6 subscales of the MAT-6. Home schooled students scored higher than their counterparts in reading, mathematics, language, total basic battery, science, and social studies at grade 4 and grade 7. They also scored significantly above public school means for grade 10 in reading, mathematics, total basic battery, science, and social studies, but scored significantly lower in language.
Ray (1997) analyzed demographic and achievement data from 5,402 home school students in 1,657 families. While Ray used a different approach to analyze achievement data, he noted exceptionally high average achievement levels and that students with long histories of being home schooled had higher achievement scores.
Home school students did quite well in 1998 on the ACT college entrance examination. They had an average ACT composite score of 22.8 which is .38 standard deviations above the national ACT average of 21.0 (ACT, 1998). This places the average home school student in the 65th percentile of all ACT test takers.
These comparisons between home school students and students nationwide must be interpreted with a great deal of caution. This was not a controlled experiment. Students were not randomly assigned public, private or home schools. As a result, the reported achievement differences between groups do not control for background differences in the home school and general United States population and, more importantly, cannot be attributed to the type of school a child attends. This study does not demonstrate that home schooling is superior to public or private schools. It should not be cited as evidence that our public schools are failing. It does not indicate that children will perform better academically if they are home schooled. The design of this study and the data do not warrant such claims. All the comparisons of home school students with the general population and with the private school population in this report fail to consider a myriad of differences between home school and public school students. We have no information as to what the achievement levels of home school students would be had they been enrolled in public or private schools. This study simply shows that those parents choosing to make a commitment to home schooling are able to provide a very successful academic environment.Note:
This report was supported with a grant from the Home School Legal Defense Association, Purcellville, Virginia. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Home School Legal Defense Association.
References
ACT, Inc. (1998). The 1998 ACT High School Profile Report--National Data. Iowa City, IA. Available on-line: http://www.act.org/news/98/98data.html
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Calvery, Robert; and Others (1992). The Difference in Achievement between Home Schooled and Public Schooled Students for Grades Four, Seven, and Ten in Arkansas. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Educational Research Association (21st, Knoxville, TN, November 11-13, 1992).
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Acknowledgments
This report relied on the creativity and expertise of several individuals. Michael Farris, Esquire, President of the Home School Legal Defense Association conceived the study and secured the cooperation of the author and three contributing organizations - Bob Jones University Testing Service, National Computer Systems, and HSLDA. Earl Hall of HSLDA worked out the numerous logistics and details of working, was the primary architect of the background questionnaire, and provided responses to my thousand questions regarding home schooling. Janet Abbott of BJU provided information about the testing program and the datasets. BJU staff also hand coded the student identification numbers to make corresponding background and achievement information possible. Tom Perry of National Computer Systems handled the logistics of scanning the background questions. Edward Drahozal, Janet Adair and Vesna Plavsic of Riverside Publishing Customer Support were wonderful, knowledgeable resources helping the author understand the ITBS/TAP norming process and data disks. Finally, the author is deeply indebted to H.D. Hoover of the Iowa Testing Program, Gene V Glass of Arizona State University, and Michael Scriven of Claremont Graduate University for their invaluable comments on drafts of this report and for helping to assure appropriate analytical methodology.
About the Author
Lawrence M. Rudner
Email: rudner@ericae.net
Dr. Rudner is with the College of Library and Information Services, University of Maryland, College Park. He has been involved in quantitative analysis for over 30 years, having served as a university professor, a branch chief in the U.S. Department of Education, and a classroom teacher. For the past 12 years, he has been the Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation, an information service sponsored by the National Library of Education, U.S. Department of Education which acquires and abstracts articles and manuscripts pertaining to educational assessment, evaluation, and research; builds and maintains on-line databases; publishes articles and books; and provides a wide range of user services. Dr. Rudner holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (1977), an MBA in Finance (1991), and lifetime teaching certificates from two states. His two children attend public school.
