The Evidence is So Positive

An Article by Brian D. Ray, PhD...

Many people ask, “Are you hiding something?” after hearing a researcher present the research findings to date about homeschooling. Whether an advocate of home-based education or a negative critic, the questioner finds the plethora of positive information a little difficult to accept. It is now about 25 years into the modern homeschool movement in the United States—what does the research tell us?

Standard thought in many nations for about 100 years has been that only professionally trained and state-certified persons can effectively teach children to read, write, and cipher. Almost all teachers in state-run institutional schools are trained in teaching institutions and certified by the state, while a small minority of homeschool parents are such. The question arises, therefore, “Can and does homeschooling work academically?” Numerous studies by dozens of researchers have been completed during the past 25 years that examine the academic achievement of the home educated (see reviews, e.g., Ray, 2000b; 2005). Examples of these studies range from a multi-year study in Washington State to three nationwide studies across the United States to two nationwide studies in Canada by various researchers. In study after study, the homeschooled have scored, on average, at the 65th to 80th percentile on standardized academic achievement tests in the US and Canada, compared to the public school average of the 50th percentile.

Read Dr. Ray's entire article at http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=1812612&sp=102656&event=1016TOS1806673102656