Statistics on Public School Vs Homeschooling

In the past, performance statistics on public schooling vs homeschooling have been scarce. However, in recent years, as the percentages of families who choose to take education matters into their own hands has increased, so too has the amount of research done on how home schooling measures up to public school education.

It will come as no surprise to homeschooling families that the bulk of the evidence collected over the past decade or more has shown that home educated children typically fare better than their public schooled peers on academic achievement tests. According to a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families done in 1997, titled "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America," homeschooled students consistently outperformed public school peers by an average of 30 to 37 percentile points in all academic subjects. The study goes on to say that students who are homeschooled for two years or more score significantly higher than children who have been educated at home for one year or less.

Another important point made by this study is that race made no difference in achievement among homeschooled students, while achievement testing of minority public students showed stark differences, with black and Hispanic students scoring substantially lower than their Caucasian counterparts.

Furthermore, this study states that much less was spent per year to produce these superior results. According to study results, the average cost per home schooled student was $546 every year, as opposed to the average $5,325 spent annually on each child in the public school system.

Yet another finding made by this study that will be of interest to homeschooling families and their opponents in the public school vs homeschooling debate, is that the level of government regulation imposed on homeschoolers made no difference in academic achievement levels. Home schooled students in states with little regulation performed just as well as those living in states where home school programs are closely monitored. Further, parent qualifications had little impact on the performance of home schoolers, those with parents who lack teaching certificates achieving grades comparable to children educated by parents with education degrees.

A number of studies done by the National Home Education Research Institute have yielded similar results. One study, done by Dr. Howard Richman on home educated students in Pennsylvania showed that they score on average at the 86th percentile in reading and at the 73rd in math, as opposed to an average score of the 50th percentile among public schooled children.

So, despite the fears of public educators and other concerned adults, homeschooling has proven to be quite effective. These are but a very few examples of the many studies that have proven that home educated students are not educationally neglected. In fact, home schooled students are much more likely to excel in their educational pursuits than their public school peers. Perhaps these hard facts will quell some of the voices of opposition to the growing homeschool movement.

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