Where can I find statistics about homeschooling?

Question

I am looking for studies that might describe HS vs. PS, test scores, college readiness, and yes social issues.

Answer 1

Repeatedly, across North America, the home educated score as well as or better, on average, than those in conventional schools.

Researcher Patricia Lines notes that "virtually all the available data show that the group of homeschooled children who are tested is above average. The pattern for children for whom data are available resembles that of children in private schools."

Brian D. Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute conducted Canada's largest study of its kind and revealed that regardless of income, race, sex, or parents' level of education, homeschooled children scored, on average, at the 80th percentile in reading, the 76th in language, and the 79th in math. Students whose parents were certified teachers did no better than the other students.

Data from the Washington Homeschool Research Project, which has analyzed the SAT scores of homeschooled children in Washington State since 1985, demonstrated that their scores were above average.

For the fifth year in a row, home-educated students have scored higher on the ACT college-entrance exam than their fellow students who are traditionally educated. While the average ACT assessment score was 21 nationally, home-educated students scored an average of 22.8. In previous years, they scored 22.8 and 22.7.

In April of 2003(?), Time magazine reported that homeschoolers scored an average of 1,100 on the SAT - a full 81 points above the national average. Last year, homeschoolers scored an average 1,083 - amounting to 67 points above the national average of 1,016. Similarly, on the 10 SAT2 achievement tests most frequently taken by homeschoolers, they surpassed the national average on nine - including writing, physics and French.

Students schooled at home score higher on standardized tests than their public and private school peers in every subject and at every grade level, according to a study based on 20,760 homeschooled students from 50 states that is being billed as the largest study of its kind.

The study's author is Lawrence M. Rudner, a researcher who also serves as the director of the federally funded Educational Resources Information Center Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation at the University of Maryland College Park.

Among the study's findings:

* Students home-schooled their entire academic careers tested higher than students who first attended other school programs.
* Nearly 20 percent of mothers who home school are certified teachers.
* There was no significant difference in test scores between children taught by parents without a teaching certificate and those whose parents did hold a certificate.

"The implications are there regardless of where the child's education happens," said Bruce S. Cooper, a professor of educational administration at Fordham University in New York City, who tracks private schools. "The message is: Small is better. Strong parent and community involvement is key. We've known that for a long time."

Public school, conventional Christian school, and home school graduates at a large, Christian liberal arts university were examined and compared for their college academic preparedness and college academic achievement. Dr. Rhonda Galloway found that the home educated performed as well or better than the others on these measures.

In a large study, 16,311 students from across the U.S. were tested with the nationally normed Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The nationwide average for the home schooled on the Basic Battery (i.e., reading, language, and math) was the 77th percentile. They were at the 79th percentile in reading, the 73rd in language, and the 73rd in math. (The national average by definition is the 50th percentile.)

Dr. Steven Duvall compared the academic engaged time (AET) and basic skill development of learning disabled students who were home educated to those in public school special education programs. Higher rates of AET and greater academic gains were made by the home educated. "... parents, even without special education training, provided powerful instructional environments at home...".

A nationwide study (Ray, 1990), using a random sample of 1,516 families from one organization's membership, found home educated students to be scoring, on average, at or above the 80th percentile in all areas on standardized achievement tests.

Several individual states have conducted studies with similar results:

Dr. Howard Richman and his colleagues have found that the home educated in Pennsylvania score, on average, at the 86th percentile in reading and the 73rd percentile in math.

Wartes (1989) found that home school students in Washington consistently score at the 66th percentile on the Stanford Achievement Test, with their strongest scores in science, listening, vocabulary, and word reading.

Home education students in Montana scored at the 72nd percentile on standardized achievement tests (Ray, 1990).

The State of Tennessee (1988) reported that the home educated in that state averaged about the 83rd percentile in reading and about the 77th percentile in math on standardized achievement tests.

The state of Oregon (1988) found that 73% of the homeschool students who were tested scored above average.

The research findings across North America are consistent and reveal that the home educated do better, on average, than conventional school students on achievement tests.

Answer 2

Well, for the college entrance exams, Reader's Digest (Sept. 2006) cited a study conducted by Columbia University that found that homeschoolers scored higher on college entrance exams than other students.
As for the college readiness and social issues, ask most of the kids who were homeschooled on here and you'll find that they were plenty social. Of course, there are some bad examples, but there are also bad examples in other schooling settings.

Answer 3

Well, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, check www.hslda.org :) (the smiley is not part of the address, lol)
they have tons of research on their site. I just went to check it out and half of your areas of interest have had articles in the last several weeks.
If you click on homeschooling, then research, you should be able to find everything you are looking for.

Answer 4

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/rudner1999/Rudner1.asp