Hello, , from NHERI.

Researchers keep trying to find ways to control the variables. They want to know: Controlling for this variable and that, do the home educated do worse, the same, or better academically than students in institutional schooling?

Dr. Dale Clemente added her piece to the puzzle while studying students in college.The purpose of her study was to determine whether there was a difference in academic achievement and college aptitude of home-educated high school seniors attending Christian colleges and universities, when compared to their conventionally schooled counterparts. [note 1] Her measure of achievement and aptitude was the SAT (formerly called the Scholastic Aptitude Test).

The fact that all the students in the researcher's study - whether homeschooled, public schooled, or private institutional schooled - were attending Christian colleges guaranteed, in a sense, that they were more like one another than if she had drawn them from state (public) universities. When a researcher cannot randomly assign people (e.g., K-12 students) to "treatments" - such as homeschooling, public schooling, and private schooling - she needs to find ways to make them similar on various traits (e.g., family income, religious beliefs, parental education level) if meaningful contrasts are going to be made regarding a key variable like type of schooling. Sampling from Christian colleges and universities likely meant Dr. Clemente was comparing apples to apples, and not to oranges.

The researcher analyzed the SAT scores of 1,792 public, 945 private, and 222 homeschooled college student (N = 2,959). These were comprised of 1,441 males and 1,518 females, yielding a total of 2959 test scores.

Statistical analyses revealed that the mean rank of homeschooled students was higher than their public-schooled or private-schooled counterparts. Although the private-schooled students placed second of the three groups, the difference between public-schooled and private-schooled students was not statisticallysignificant.

Dr. Clemente pointed out certain limitations of her study. For example, she only considered SAT scores and thought it would be helpful to also consider other indicators of achievement or aptitude such as grade point average. Second, she was not able to ascertain for how many years of their grades K to 12 each college student had been in public school, private school, or homeschooling. Also, the researcher pointed out that her causal-comparative design only suggests that there might be a cause-and-effect relationship between homeschooling and higher scores, and that her design does not allow for a conclusive statement about causation.

One of Dr. Clemente's conclusions follows:

This study does not and cannot prove that homeschooling causes students to perform better academically or be better prepared for college. However, it does suggest that homeschool parents have proven themselves up to the task. ..... A plethora of evidence paints a vivid picture of children and adults who have greatly benefited from this scorned method of delivering academics to young people.  (p. 46)

In the end, the researcher challenges academics and educators to ask some more deeply philosophical and pedagogical questions regarding parent-led home-based education. Her own study and her review of other research leads Dr. Clemente to see positive things associated with homeschooling. Along these lines, she poses the following questions and comments:

To continue to mitigate these findings [e.g., a strong academic education for the home educated] with myriad questions surrounding socialization issues (and doing so by the way, unsuccessfully), begs the question: have homeschool educators latched onto something we should be paying attention to, and, if so, what? Continuing to pour resources into antagonizing this group of individuals, as well as attempting to discredit their methods and/or motives will in all likelihood, continue to prove futile. (47)

It appears that this researcher is on to something important. It might behoove more academics and policymakers in the field of education to pay attention to Dr. Clemente and other research on homeschooling. [note 2]

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.
National Home Education Research Institute
http://nheri.org/
 
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Notes:
1. Clemente, Dale. (2006). Academic achievement and college aptitude in homeschooled high school students compared to their private-schooled and public-schooled counterparts. Doctoral (Ed.D.) dissertation, Regent University, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

2. For examples: Ray, Brian D. (2010, February 3). Academic achievement and demographic traits of homeschool students: A nationwide study. Academic Leadership Journal, 8(1). Retrieved February 10, 2010 from http://www.academicleadership.org/emprical_research/Academic_Achievement_and_Demographic_Traits_of_Homeschool_Students_A_Nationwide_Study.shtml.