The latest peer-reviewed research reveals what we’ve all known for decades: homeschool students test consistently higher than their public school peers. The data hasn’t changed in 40+ years.
Dr. Brian Ray of National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) recently published a brand new study, revealing that across all 50 states, homeschooled students tested 25-29 percentile points higher than the average.
Among the findings:
- Homeschool students scored 29 percentile points higher in reading than the norm group
- 25 percentile points higher in language
- 25 percentile points higher in math
- 26 percentile points higher in social studies
- 27 percentile points higher in science
The study also found that student achievement was generally not associated with family income, parent education levels, or whether the teaching parent held state teacher certification.
In fact, two interesting things stood out to me in these results:
- Test scores were not at all affected by the parents’ education level
- Test scores were affected slightly negatively by state homeschool regulations
- Test scores were affected slightly negatively if the parent was a certified teacher
My interpretation of this, as I’ve been saying for years, is that you should not copy public school methods in your home. They are failing the masses! Why would we copy a system we left behind??
And listen to Dr. Brian Ray of NHERI explain it on my podcast:
If you’re considering homeschooling, I hope you’ll check out my book, Anyone Can Homeschool, and visit my comprehensive Homeschool 101 page.
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