The United States has 1,206 schools, colleges and departments of education. Their
whole purpose is about training and government-certifying teachers who are supposed to be experts.[1] [note 1] According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 176,572 individuals were conferred masters’ degrees in education by degree-granting institutions in the United States in 2006-2007.[2] [note 2] The number of these master’s degrees conferred has grown immensely since the 1990s.
But do Americans need all these government-certified experts? To what extent is the need ever seriously questioned? Are all the tax dollars
taken from one citizen and given to another to become a State-approved teacher justified, in terms of children learning in government and private institutional schools? The modern homeschooling movement is an indirect challenge to the claim that Americans (and others) need professionally trained and state-certified teachers.
An Example
Consider, for example, special needs children. The number of research studies on homeschooling and these children is slowly growing. The purpose of Angie Delaney’s
“…study was to describe the reasons parents give for choosing a learning environment for their child with disabilities.” (p. 5).[3] [note 3] She worked with both public school and homeschool parents. The researcher additionally “… explored the perceptions of parents of students with disabilities who homeschool, parents who have homeschooled in the past, and those who have
considered but decided against homeschooling their children with disabilities …” (p. 5). Hers was a phenomenological qualitative study.
Delaney pointed out that at least 169,000 U.S. students were being homeschooled in 2007 because the “child has a physical or mental health problem” and at least 315,000 were being
home educated because the “child has other special needs.” Many parents homeschool their children because of special needs.
Methods and Findings
The investigator used purposeful sampling to contact, communicate, and interview participants needed. Delaney worked with the local school district to identify parents of students with disabilities whom have enrolled, and/or have re-enrolled their children in public school special education programs. She interviewed 13 participants, and this number of participants (sample
size) falls in the recommended range for this kind of research.
Delaney viewed the data as separate groupings, as follow: “… (a) parents currently homeschooling, (b) parents that had previously homeschooled but now have their children in public school, and (c) parents who have always had their child in public school
special education programs” (p. 71). In essence, the researcher wanted to ascertain the overall satisfaction of public school compared to homeschooling. Also, she “… was able to glimpse participants’ level of contentment with their current and past choices of academic setting for their children with disabilities” (p. 72).
What did the researcher find? Here is the crux. “I found those participants with homeschooling background overwhelmingly felt it was a favorable experience” (p. 73). “Overall, parents who were or had previously homeschooled were more satisfied with homeschooling their children with disabilities than participants overall satisfaction with public school” (p. 74).
Delaney found that “needs” was interpreted in different ways by these parents. She noted the following:
“The term needs and how the participants referred to
this word was relative to their own situation. For example, some homeschooling parents used statements such as, “My daughter needed one on one and she had anxieties (while in public school)” and another stated, “I believe that homeschooling is growing now because public school is not flexible to children’s’ individual needs, especially those with disabilities.” Other parents expressed reasons from their lived experience using the term need to support having their child with disabilities educated
in a public school setting.” (p. 76)
The researcher found notable variety amongst the parents in their use of homeschooling versus public schooling. For example, one parent thought that homeschooling would best fit one of her
children with special needs, but that public school better fit her other child with special needs.
“The parents currently homeschooling overwhelmingly felt that homeschooling
was addressing their child’s needs. One homeschooling
mother said of homeschooling, ‘It’s been good for them and they are not stressed out’” (p. 77).
Conclusion
Researcher Delaney’s findings are complementary to prior research on homeschooling and special needs. For example, Steven Duvall and his colleagues found that homeschool students with learning disabilities were involved in academic engaged time 59.0% of the time versus 22.5% of the time for public school students.[4] [note 4] Further, they found that academic achievement gains favored the homeschooled over the public schooled, who were taught by certified experts, all of whom had a master’s degree or higher.
Can parents with no special educational
training and no government certification successfully teach children with special needs? Most certainly, and most regularly. Is there a genuine and proven need for the nation’s one thousand two hundred schools, colleges and departments of education? The contemporary homeschool movement and the many successes associated[5] [note 5] with it suggest this answer: It is dubious
that all these schools of education are a necessary ingredient of a literate and otherwise successful population turning age 18.
--Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.
National Home Education Research Institute
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Endnotes:
[3] Delaney, Angie Marie. (2014).
Perspectives of parents of students with disabilities toward public and homeschool learning environments. Doctoral (Ph.D.) dissertation, Walden University, Minneapolis, Minnesota. [4] Duvall, Steven F., Ward, D. Lawrence, Delquadri, Joseph C., &
Greenwood, Charles R. (1997). An exploratory study of home school instructional environments and their effects on the basic skills of students with learning disabilities. Education and Treatment of Children, 20(2), 150-172. [5] See: Ray, Brian D. (2013).
Homeschooling associated with beneficial learner and societal outcomes but educators do not promote it. Peabody Journal of Education, 88(3), 324-341; Murphy, Joseph. (2012). Homeschooling in America: Capturing and assessing the movement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a Sage Company. 