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Homeschooling Statistics: Structured vis-à-vis Unstructured Environment

Homeschooling statistics continually provide evidence that homeschooled children do very well with their education and in many cases exceed publically schooled children.  According to researcher, Martin-Chang and her colleagues in a May 2010 report, this evidence is confirmed. Chang’s controlled research gathered their data from tightly controlled groups based on geographic location and the marital status of mothers.  The two groups were made up of publically schooled children and homeschooled children. All but one of the mothers from both test groups were married or living in a committed relationship.  Therefore, the familial stability of both test groups was equal.

Mothers’ Education

The homeschool statistics study involved 37 homeschooled children and 37 children who attended public school.  Their ages ranged from 5 to10.  The study found that the mothers of homeschooled children had attained slightly lower test scores than those mothers who sent their children to public school.  Additionally, these same mothers also earned slightly less. In both cases, researches adjusted their data to take these factors into consideration.  However, with regards earnings, mothers who homeschool their children are obviously more involved in their children’s lives and are considered stay-at-home moms, who are unlikely to make a financial contribution to the home at all.  Secondly, women who choose to be stay-at-home moms are less motivated to pursue higher degrees due to employment pressure.  There is no evidence to prove that the intelligence of either group of mothers was superior to the other; the numbers were only based on test scores, which do not necessarily prove that either group was more competent to teach their children.  In fact, stay-at-home moms have more time to spend with their children learning, as well as more time to consider the academic issues at hand, whereas fulltime working mothers do not.  Overall, homeschooling statistics are based on the achievements of children, not their parents.

Structured vis-à-vis Unstructured Environment

Another consideration of the research was to distinguish between those homeschooled children who came from either a “structured” and “unstructured” home learning environment. Evidence proved that homeschooled children from a structured homeschooling environment scored higher in seven academic areas than children who attended public school.  The areas in which the children were tested were:

• Letter-Word
• Comprehension
• Word Attack
• Science
• Social Science
• Humanities
• Calculation

Again, these outcomes emphasizes the fact that a homeschooling mother’s education, even when slightly lower, was not a significant factor in the outcome of their children’s test scores and education.

The data used for the homeschooling statistics came from tests that were geared to test the outcome of standardized achievement in each group and were subjected to Woodcock-Manley subtests, which considered the variables of publically schooled children and children who learned in a structured homeschool.  The number of children who were homeschooled in an unstructured homeschool scored significantly lower, even though their numbers were comparatively small in the sample groups.  Overall, however, even with factoring in the unstructured homeschool numbers, still leaves a very telling result that homeschooled children who learn in a structured homeschool environment are academically superior to children who attend public school.

Written by Brenne Meirowitz, BA, MA, MS
©2011 Brenne Meirowitz & Great Neck Accredited Homeschool Programs. All Rights Reserved.