www.sxc.hu/ hvaldez1
If you are looking for statistics on homeschooling you might have a hard time finding recent figures. However, since homeschooling is growing at a faster rate than ever before, so is the research. The National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) is a non-profit research and educational organization that has published recent findings that are quite interesting.
In certain states you can homeschool your child without notifying anyone. Here in Louisiana, we are considered a moderately regulated homeschool state. In other words, we do have to send notification to the state that we are homeschooling, but the state can’t tell us what curriculum to use or request annual test scores. Louisiana has it pretty easy. Some states are much more regulated, requiring home visits by state officials, a state approved curriculum and even teacher qualification of the parents. The interesting news is a study by the NHERI in August 2008 found “No relationship between the degree of state control of home-based education and the college SAT scores of the homeschooled.”
Sounds like parents in those states with no regulation still want to successfully educate their children. Who would have thought? Even though public educators and old-fashioned adults don’t believe moms and dads can handle educating their own, the research has proven that parents are more than capable.
Achievement test scores for homeschooled students are exceptionally high. Kids taught at home score across the board between the 75th-80th percentile. Public school children tested on the same material consistantly produce scores at the 50th percentile. The children in the study came from a mixture of gender, racial and financial backgrounds. Each level of education was represented, ranging from Kindergarten to 12th grade. All 50 states were also represented, including Guam and Puerto Rico.
Well, the burning question in the mind of a skeptic is always, "What happens after these homeschooled kids are released into the real world?". University of Michigan professor Dr. Gary Knowles, spent time researching adults who were home educated. An amazing 96% said if they could do it all over again they would want to be homeschooled. Not a single one was unemployed or on welfare. That is pretty impressive.
Comments
I'm part of that 96%, and many of my friends are, too. I homeschooled for years, and now have two very successful teens with promising futures in promising careers. Was it easy? Heck no. But the gain was worth the pain, and the decent alternatives were limited.
We homeschooled one of our teenage sons during the 1990's, and as Donna, National Edu. Examiner, says, it was not easy, but it was successful.
yayayyyyy
yay for homeschooling
they want your kids in public schools to brainwash them away from any traditional values, to poison them with vaccines, to convince them that sex outside of marriage is okay, and to push other social agendas on what they deem, their children, from cradle to grave. I support all who home school their children; I give kudos to the parents.
We've homeschooled for five years and I'm a retired teacher. We started because our son is gifted and there are no programs in this state for gifted (how foolish!). Teachers just have no training and didn't know what to do with him. He may be gifted, but he's a kid so boredom is painful. The other problem was teachers found it embarrassing or intimidating when he would know things they didn't (between ages 5 and 9). When I retired, we decided to homeschool. We have loved it.The first grades at home (5th-8th) were easy for me because of teaching them. Now that he's older, (15) I'm learning a lot. Thanks to educational websites, we're doing fine. We found a group of parents homeschooling their gifted kids, but they aren't very close to us. That's the only difficulty -- finding other gifted kids as friends that understand what he's talking about and his area of interest--computer graphic design. Colleges are close so it is easy to take him on a field trip to these. Well worth it.
I'm in eleventh grade and have went to public school all my life except this year.It was my mom's choice and I don't like it at all!!!I got straight A's in public school,but I find it hard to take challenging classes at home without a real teacher and the motivation from my peers that I received in school.
I wasn't homeschooled, but all the homeschool kids I've ever met were socially awekward and dorky. They only socialize with other homeschoolers or people their parents approve of.
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!