www.TheOldSchoolhouse.com
ethnicity/race, special needs status, and
urban/rural location.
Findings
Hypothetically, let us say that the homeschooled turn out to be basically average compared to the state educated. That
is, the scores of the homeschooled are
within five percentile points, or maybe
one-eighth of a standard deviation, of
those of the public schooled. This is for
both achievement and social skills. And
let us say it does not even matter whether
the home educated scores were a touch
higher or lower, but just basically average
or not statistically different.
Questions
Many research critics would say, “Aha,
we told you so. We predicted that if rep-
resentative samples were had and all the
variables were controlled, then there
would be no difference in outcomes,
or maybe the home educated would
perform worse.” Many critics of home-
schooling itself would say, “See, we knew
homeschooling couldn’t do any better.
We thought it would do worse, but at
least we were right that it shows up no
better.”
But this would all beg some questions.
Let me pose a few, if the findings of the
hypothetical study mentioned above
were true.
• Do the home educated need to do better than the public schooled? If yes,
why?
• Is it not interesting that parents who
typically have no formal training in
teaching, in pedagogy, or in child
development can help their children
perform just as well academically as
those taught in schools by university-
graduate experts?
• Should we be impressed that State
certification of teachers seems to not
be associated with academic achievement?
• Is it not interesting that children who
are not with same-age peers and adults
outside their family all day, most days
per week, and nine months per year
are doing well socially when so many
psychological and other experts have
said they would not?
• Should the taxpayer be interested in
the fact that $12,000 (plus capital expenditures, plus the cost of research
and development at all the state university schools of education) is not being spent on each of these 2. 2 million
homeschool children every year in
State/government schools? 2
• Would the de facto negative critics of
homeschooling and the critics of past
homeschool research change their
tunes and start promoting home-
schooling? Would they say, “Hey,
shucks, since these young adults are
doing just as well as the ones on whom
we spend far more than $144,000 for
their twelve-year State education, why
not promote homeschooling?”
Conclusions
My take, based on reading almost all of
the academic criticisms of home-based
education and of research on homeschooling, is that no one should expect
more than a miniscule number of these
critics to start promoting homeschooling
even if the findings of this hypothetical
study were true.
I have carefully reviewed in other articles their criticisms and it appears to me
that something very philosophical underlies their negativism toward parent-led home-based education. 3 For some of
them, homeschooling will not “. . . build
momentum for the large scale [criti-cal theory or socialistic or neo-Marxist]
transformations that are necessary” for
America. 4 For others, no private education is good, and it all must be banned,
and all children must attend State/government schools. 5
I think it would be nearly impossible
for many of these critics to promote or
even be neutral toward homeschooling because parent-led education does
not allow them to affect the religious,
philosophical, and political vision they
have for the United States or any nation.
These critics want to control and have
power over molding children’s minds
and therefore the society in which they
Should we be
impressed that
State certification
of teachers seems
to not be associated
with academic
achievement?
