Quote: "The largest data set on the academic success of the home educated reveals positive things. 16,311 students from across the country were tested with the nationally normed Iowa Test of Basic Skills. The nationwide average for the homeschooled on the Basic Battery (i.e., reading, language, and math) was the 77th percentile.
They were at the 79th percentile in reading, the 73rd in language, and the 73rd in math. (The national average is the 50th percentile.) See the table on this sheet.5
Reading: Conventional Schools 50 - Home Education 79 Language: Conventional Schools 50 - Home Education 73 Math: Conventional Schools 50 - Home Education 73
Canada's largest study of its kind revealed similar findings on the academic success of the home educated. Dr. Brian Ray found the students scoring, on average, at the 80th percentile in reading, the 76th in language, and the 79th in math. Students whose parents were certified teachers did no better than the other students.6 "
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What I found during homeschooling is that we could drop conjugating verbs for a few days and chase down multiple avenues of whatever topic fascinated us that day. Was it true that I couldn't pull out of my memory XY & Z? Absolutely. OTOH, I didn't have to say, "sorry sweetie, it's now 9:15 and we have to do our multiplication tables." Instead, I could say, "let's go to the library, find several different books, audios, videos, magazine articles, scientific/historical journals, haul them all home and spend the next 5 days looking into it. And by the way, there is an exhibit at the museum/park/historic/factory/industry/building on just that very topic. We'll head out there tomorrow."
When it comes to depth, homeschooling has the ability to dig in ways that a schooling situation cannot. OTOOH, there were parents who shoved workbooks at their kids and called it a day. Quality varies. Research shows that overall, homeschooling has been a very succesful way of educating children.
