Homeschooled adults

For those of you who are thinking about home schooling or perhaps those of you trying to convince a spouse or family member of why you should homeschool, this is for you!

Per the HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) web-site a recent study entitled “Homeschool Progress Report 2009”, conducted by Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute, surveyed more than 11,000 homeschooled students. This report showed that the average home school student scored 37 percentile points higher on standardized achievement test than the average public school average.

Another study was done in 2003 entitled “Homeschooling Grows Up” and dealt with how homeschoolers were faring as adults. Per the web-site: “The news was good for homeschooling. In all areas of life, from gaining employment, to being satisfied with their homeschooling, to participating in community activities, to voting, homeschoolers were more active and involved than their public school counterparts.”

There has been a follow-up to that report entitled “Fifteen Years Later: Home-Educated Canadian Adults” from the Canadian Centre for Home Education. This study was essentially a chance to follow up with homeschooled students whose parents took part in a comprehensive study back in 1994 on home education and compared homeschoolers who are now adults with their peers.

In a brief summary, the study compared the adults at ages 15-34 years of age. It showed that the homeschooled adult was more socially engaged (69% of homeschooled adults participated in some sort of organized activity once a week compared to 48% of non-homeschooled); the average income was higher for the homeschooled adult; Homeschoolers were happier, 67.3% described themselves as very happy compared to 43.8% of their counterparts; and 96% of homeschooled adults felt that their homeschooling experience had prepared them well for life.  For a complete look at the results you can click here.

And to end on a positive, happy note: both of these studies clearly showed that homeschool graduates are active, involved, productive citizens. As stated on the web-site: “Homeschool families are leading the way in Canadian and American education, and this new study clearly demonstrates homeschool parents are on the right path.” Yes we are!