A Canadian study shared in a press release from Concordia University yesterday confirms what American researchers have known for several years: Homeschool students score better on standardized tests than public school students. This new research, conducted by Concordian and Mount Allison Universities, added another twist, however, and compared homeschoolers with a structured curriculum with those who use an "unschooling" approach. The former were found wanting.
As early as the mid 1990s, Arizona legislators had discovered that homeschoolers typically scored in the 70-85 percentile on the then-required Iowa test, while the state school pupils averaged around 40-50th percentile. This discrepancy held true for years as Arizona educators tried out different assessments. Homeschool students were dropped from the mandatory testing in 1995, and Arizona become one of the first states to allow freedom to homeschool without government intervention.
Highlights from the Concordia University and Mount Allison University study press release
- This is among the first nonpartisan studies to investigate home education versus public schooling.
- 74 children living in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were compared: 37 homeschoolers versus 37 public schoolers. Participants were between 5 and 10 years old and each child was asked to complete standardized tests, under supervision of the research team, to assess their reading, writing, arithmetic skills, etc.
- The public school children were performing at or above expected levels for their ages, children who received structured homeschooling had superior test results compared to their peers: From a half-grade advantage in math to 2.2 grade levels in reading. This advantage may be explained by several factors including smaller class sizes, more individualized instruction, or more academic time spent on core subjects such as reading and writing.
- Demographics of the homeschool mothers were assessed (marital status, number of children, employment, education and household income) and these factors made virtually no difference in the children's test scores.
- Of the homeschoolers, 12 were using an unstructured, or unschooling, approach which doesn't use formal educational tools such as textbooks, teacher directed lessons or formal testing.
- This subgroup had lower scores on all seven academic measures. "Differences between the two groups were pronounced, ranging from one to four grade levels in certain tests," says first author Sandra Martin-Chang, a professor in the Concordia Department of Education
- "Children in public school also had a higher average grade level in all seven tests compared with unstructured homeschoolers," says Martin-Chang.
The name of the study is The impact of schooling on academic achievement: Evidence from homeschooled and traditionally schooled students. About one percent of Canadian students are homeschooled, and American homeschoolers account for about 2-3 percent of the school-aged children. In Maricopa County, Arizona, homeschoolers make up about 1.5% of the K-12th grade students.
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