In the past decade or so, there has been more research into the reasons for and the result of home schooling. A study referenced by Woodruff compared public school students' scores using the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills and the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency with those of home-schooled students. The median score for home-school students in the eighth grade was about the same as the median score for 12th-graders in public schools. The study ended in 1999 and was conducted by Lawrence Rudner, whose children are not home-schooled.
An article in the Missourian bemoaning the fact that Home schooling operates on 'honor system'. Even after providing evidence that homeschoolers for the most part had higher scores on the IOWA test then their public school counterparts.
Relatives sometimes call local school districts with suspicions of poor home schooling.
"Sometimes we have grandparents that will call being very concerned, knowing that their grandchildren are not being educated even though they know the parents are saying that the child is home-schooled," Barnett said. In cases like these, the district directs the caller to the state hot line.
I would hazard a guess that in a majority of these cases the grandparents either do not like the parent doing the homeschooling or are prejudiced against homeschooling, and that the parents in fact are doing a wonderful job homeschooling their children.
Or perhaps that the grandparents do not agree with the parents' educational philosophy. Many homeschoolers take a more laid-back approach to when students "should" be able to do certain things than people with a traditional "schoolish" mindset. So the grandparents may be all freaked out that their grandkid is 7 but not yet reading independently and they simply cannot understand why the parents are not similarly concerned. So "obviously" the parents must be neglecting the child's education and off the grandparents go making complaints to the child welfare authorities...
ReplyDeleteExactly, or they think because the neighbor kid is doing such and such in public school their homeschooled grandchild should be doing the same thing.
ReplyDeleteAnd some Grandparents do not understand that homeschooled children can and do go to college. They think that if they are pulled out of public school and homeschooled they will be unable to get a college education and that is so not true.