Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
You have to remember too, that for many homeschoolers, this is all a moot point. Going to college is not a necessary stepping stone to success. Most homeschoolers realize this. A child who graduates from homeschooling and starts his own business at age 18 or who follows in his father's footsteps and learns his trade is NOT a failure. Not every child (dare I say not most kids) actually needs to go to college in the first place.
I guess I am a homeschooler that does not recognize this.
I expect my children to go to college. DH and I both have careers that involve advanced degrees (beyond college even) and my father is a doctor and my grandfather was a PhD college professor.
Dawn
Quote:
Originally Posted by beanandpumpkin
You have to remember too, that for many homeschoolers, this is all a moot point. Going to college is not a necessary stepping stone to success. Most homeschoolers realize this. A child who graduates from homeschooling and starts his own business at age 18 or who follows in his father's footsteps and learns his trade is NOT a failure. Not every child (dare I say not most kids) actually needs to go to college in the first place.
Colleges Coveting Home-Schooled Students, Colleges Aggressively Competing for Home-Schoolers in Quest for Best Students - CBS News (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/30/ap/national/mainD8KF1LRG0.shtml - broken link)
The story does not match up with the headline. Here are the opening sentences:
Quote:
Bombarded by choices at a college job fair, Sara Kianmehr quickly found her match: Columbia College, a small, private school that didn't mind that her transcripts came from her parents.
The college "was the only institution that didn't have a puzzled look and say, 'Home school,' and ask me a million questions," the 19-year-old junior said.
I have no doubt that home schooled students can go to college and do well. All of these articles talk about having a portfolio, etc. I think some homeschooled kids get their GED as well, which is an indication of mastery of basic high school subjects. As I said before, community colleges have open enrollment, though some require some placement testing of very non-traditional students. It seems the usual track for home schooled kids is to go to CC for a year or two, then transfer.
I think any home schooler should prepare their kids for the possibility of going to college. While there are a few examples of people starting their own businesses at 18, etc, the fact is most people find they have to have some sort of post-high school education to get a decent job in today's world. To take the Registered Nurse exam, you have to be a graduate of an approved school of nursing. That is just one example. It is not a good idea to limit your kids by not preparing them for the possibility of going to college, IMO.
Actually, you said most....I think my objection was that it sounded like hsers somehow have some inside scoop that college isn't necessary. I just don't agree.
I may be picking on you and I don't mean to, it is just that I hear this a lot from the hs community. This is NOT why I am hsing at all and I am beginning to think I am alone in this to some degree. (or no degree! ha!)
Another forest that some can't see for the trees is this: homeschooling well into high school, trying to teach subjects one is not qualified to teach, is not helping the child. It's being done in some cases BY the parent FOR the parent. By unqualified I mean, the parent never having taken the course him/her self, have such a limitied knowledge of the material that s/he is learning along with the child. No one would put up with that in a public school.
And yet, all the statistics would seem to argue against your position.
And it bears repeating, teachers are now required to be highly qualified in the area that they teach in, it's a federal law, which mean's states have to comply. Look it up.
Any reason you can't provide a citation?
Quote:
Originally Posted by beanandpumpkin
People who actually LOOK INTO the issues and don't just continuously reiterate the same incorrect information over and over again with no basis in fact see that homeschooling works.
Why would homeschooling be any different than any other subject? Actually researching a subject and coming to a reasoned, thoughtful position about it is very much NOT a part of American culture. Regurgitating what you have been told by people in authority IS.
Hmm - I wonder were we learn to do that?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katiana
I haven't seen any such statistics, on this forum or anywhere else. Please post some.
Many studies have been completed during the past 20 years that examine the academic achievement of the homeeducated (Ray, 2004b). Dozens of researchers have executed these studies. Examples of these studies ranged from a multiyear study in Washington state, three nationwide studies across the United States, and a nationwide study in Canada (Ray, 1994, 1997, 2001c; Rudner, 1999; Wartes, 1991). In study after study, the homeschooled scored, on average, at the 65th to 80th percentile on standardized academic achievement tests in the United States and Canada, compared to the public school average of the 50th percentile.
Quote:
...children in homeschool families with low income and in which the parents have little education are scoring, on average, above state-school averages
Quote:
In addition, research shows that the parents' teacher-certification has little to no relationship with their children's academic achievement, and that the degree of state control of homeschooling (i.e., regulations) has no relationship with academic achievement
Quote:
Numerous studies, employing various psychological constructs and measures, show the home-educated are developing at least as well, and often better than, those who attend institutional schools (Medlin, 2000; Ray, 2004b, ch. 4). No research contravenes this evidence.
Quote:
Her findings on 10- to 21-year-olds showed that the home-educated were certainly not isolated from social and group activities with other youth and adults. They were quite involved in youth group and other church activities, jobs, sports, summer camps, music lessons, and recitals. She concluded that homeschooling nurtured leadership at least as well as does the conventional system.
Quote:
Oliveira, Watson and Sutton (1994) found that home-educated college students had a slightly higher overall mean critical thinking score than did students from public schools, Christian schools, and ACE [private] schools but the differences were not statistically significant.
Quote:
The academic performance analyses indicate that home school graduates i are as ready for college as traditional high school graduates and that they perform as well on national college assessment tests as traditional high school graduates
Quote:
Both the SAT and ACT publishers have reported for several years that the scores of the homeschooled are higher, on average, than those from public schools.
Quote:
A higher percent of them had taken some college courses than the general U.S. population of similar age, and a higher percent of the home-educated already had a baccalaureate.
Quote:
private schoolers and home schoolers are considerably more civically involved in the public square than are public schoolers, even when the effects of differences in education, income, and other related factors are removed from the equation.
Quote:
Research and probability show that the home-educated college applicant is very likely to succeed in college, both academically and socially.
Quote:
Evidence to date points to a high success rate in adulthood in general, and in college in particular, for these individuals who have been raised and educated outside mainstream institutional schools.
I guess I missed that. Here is a relevant quote from your previous post in re: college admissions officials in Ohio concerning homeschooled kids:
Quote:
About nine percent said "far more academically successful," 22 percent reported "somewhat more academically successful," 38 percent said "academically about average," zero percent reported "somewhat less academically successful," zero percent said "far less academically successful," and 31 percent said "don't know."
(Emphasis mine)
Here is the relevant quote from the post just above:
Quote:
Oliveira, Watson and Sutton (1994) found that home-educated college students had a slightly higher overall mean critical thinking score than did students from public schools, Christian schools, and ACE [private] schools but the differences were not statistically significant.
Katiana, are you trying to argue that homeschooled kids do not have a vastly superior advantage over public schooled kids, or that they are disadvantaged?
Because based on what you have said previously, I would say you believe that homeschoolers are disadvantaged because they don't go to school, and their parents are ill-equipped to teach them. But based on what you are picking out of the quotes, it looks like you're actually grasping to prove that while homeschoolers are obviously on par with public schooled kids, they're not THAT MUCH better.
I don't think anyone came in saying that every single homeschooled child would be more successful than 100% of public schooled students... rather, that statistics do not show that they are disadvantaged. The statistics aren't lying. Homeschoolers do as well as or better than public schooled students ingeneral. Whether it's that homeschoolers are either above average or average when compared to public schools, and whether the amount that they're above average is statistically significant doesn't really matter... homeschoolers are well-equipped for college and life, especially when compared to public schoolers. I'm confused as to what you are actually arguing.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
