Hello,
, from NHERI.
Multiple
studies over thirty years have consistently found positive things associated
with homeschooling. Some critics, both of the research and of home-based
education, claim that almost no research tells us anything significant about
the academic achievement of the home educated.[note 1]
A
new study by Martin-Chang, Gould, and Meuse [note 2], however, supports the hypothesis
that at least a certain form of home-based education causes higher academic
achievement than does public schooling. Their research, "The Impact of Schooling on Academic Achievement: Evidence
from Homeschooled and Traditionally Schooled Students," was just made public.
Martin-Chang and her colleagues
considered some of the limitations on research to date and worked for a design
with more built-in controls. For example, they chose solely home educated and
solely public schooled students, and matched homeschool and public school
students on variables such as geographical area in which they lived, did fresh achievement
testing of both groups, and found that all but one of the mothers were "married
or living in committed relationships."
Although the sample sizes
involved probably appear small to a lay audience - 37 homeschool and 37 public
school students of ages 5 to 10 - it should it should be kept in mind that having
a "large" sample size is not necessarily more important than carefully
controlling for certain variables. For example, the researchers adjusted test
scores for the mothers' educational attainment and household income, although "mothers'
education and median income were slightly
higher for the public school group" (p. 6). In a sense, they used a
matched-pair design and were exploring for causal relationships.
Once
into the study, the researchers found that "structured" and "unstructured" homeschoolers
were two distinct groups. The authors focused their analysis on comparing students
from structured homeschool settings with public school students.
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