The last piece of major research looking at homeschool academic achievement was completed in 1998 by Dr. Lawrence Rudner. Rudner, a professor at the ERIC Clearinghouse, which is part of the University of Maryland, surveyed over 20,000 homeschooled students. His study, titled Home Schooling Works, discovered that homeschoolers (on average) scored about 30 percentile points higher than the national average on standardized achievement tests.
. . . Drawing from 15 independent testing services, the Progress Report 2009: Homeschool Academic Achievement and Demographics included 11,739 homeschooled students from all 50 states who took three well-known tests—California Achievement Test, Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, and Stanford Achievement Test for the 2007–08 academic year. The Progress Report is the most comprehensive homeschool academic study ever completed.
The Results
Overall the study showed significant advances in homeschool academic achievement as well as revealing that issues such as student gender, parents’ education level, and family income had little bearing on the results of homeschooled students.
National Average Percentile Scores
Subtest........Homeschool........Public School
Reading............89................50
Language...........84................50
Math...............84................50
Science............86................50
Social Studies.....84................50
Core a.............88................50
Composite b........86................50
a. Core is a combination of Reading, Language, and Math.
b. Composite is a combination of all subtests that the student took on the test.
... There was little difference between the results of homeschooled boys and girls on core scores.
Boys—87th percentile
Girls—88th percentile
Household income had little impact on the results of homeschooled students.
$34,999 or less—85th percentile
$35,000–$49,999—86th percentile
$50,000–$69,999—86th percentile
$70,000 or more—89th percentile
The education level of the parents made a noticeable difference, but the homeschooled children of non-college educated parents still scored in the 83rd percentile, which is well above the national average.
Neither parent has a college degree—83rd percentile
One parent has a college degree—86th percentile
Both parents have a college degree—90th percentile
Whether either parent was a certified teacher did not matter.
Certified (i.e., either parent ever certified)—87th percentile
Not certified (i.e., neither parent ever certified)—88th percentile
Parental spending on home education made little difference.
Spent $600 or more on the student—89th percentile
Spent under $600 on the student—86th percentile
The extent of government regulation on homeschoolers did not affect the results.
Low state regulation—87th percentile
Medium state regulation—88th percentile
High state regulation—87th percentile
http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/200908100.asp*******
In a Class by Themselves
A wave of homeschoolers has reached the Farm--students with unconventional training and few formal credentials. What have they got that Stanford wants? And how do admission officers spot it?
by Christine Foster
. . . Among the nation's elite universities, Stanford has been one of the most eager to embrace them. Despite the uncertainties of admitting students with no transcripts or teacher recommendations, the University welcomes at least a handful every year. Stanford has found that the brightest homeschoolers bring a mix of unusual experiences, special motivation and intellectual independence that makes them a good bet to flourish on the Farm.
For the past two years, for instance, the University has tracked every application from a homeschooled student. These forms get flagged with a special code that lets reviewers find them among stacks of applications and helps admission officials chart emerging trends. Many top schools do not do this, including Harvard and Yale.
"I don't think anyone has caught on to the fact that these are such interesting kids," Reider says.
The latest Stanford numbers show a rise in homeschooler applications. In 1999, the first year of tracking, 15 applied. Four were admitted, and all four enrolled. In 2000, there were 35 applications, more than double the previous year's. Nine were accepted, and five, including Butler, started classes on the Farm this fall.
That's a tiny subgroup, just 0.2 percent of the applicant pool. So why is the University interested? Admission officers sum it up in two words: intellectual vitality.
It's hard to define, but they swear they know it when they see it. It's the spark, the passion, that sets the truly exceptional student--the one driven to pursue independent research and explore difficult concepts from a very early age--apart from your typical bright kid. Stanford wants students who have it.
Looking very closely at homeschoolers is one way to get more of those special minds, the admission office has discovered. As Reider explains it: "Homeschooled students may have a potential advantage over others in this, since they have consciously chosen and pursued an independent course of study."
Indeed, when he and his colleagues read applications last year, they gave the University's highest internal ranking for intellectual vitality to two of the nine homeschoolers admitted. And an astounding four homeschoolers earned the highest rating for math--something reserved for the top 1 to 2 percent of the applicant pool.
"The distinguishing factor is intellectual vitality," says Reider. "These kids have it, and everything they do is responding to it."
. . . NATURALLY, FAMILIES VARY in how they school their kids. Ross Hensley had a different experience--also self-styled, but decreasingly home-based. . . .
AMONG HOMESCHOOLERS who end up at Stanford, "self-teaching" is a common thread. Parents usually teach in the early grades, assigning and correcting work, but later shift to a supervisory role, spending more time tracking down books and mentors. Stanford-bound homeschoolers typically take several college courses before they apply. The admission office encourages this, both to help with evaluation and to give students a taste of classroom learning before they arrive on the Farm.
. . . Linda Dobson, author of Homeschoolers' Success Stories (Prima Publishing, 2000) and news editor and columnist for Home Education Magazine, believes the very nature of homeschooling--requiring kids to be self-driven and to handle the details of their own education--can give these students an edge as freshmen. "It's not, 'I'm free now--I'm going to go to college and party,'" Dobson says. "These kids know what it's like to handle responsibility."
http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2000/novdec/articles/homeschooling.html*********
from wiki: In the last several decades, US colleges and universities have become increasingly open to accepting students from diverse backgrounds, including home-schooled students.<18> According to one source, homeschoolers have now matriculated at over 900 different colleges and universities, including institutions with highly selective standards of admission such as the US military academies, Rice University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Cornell University, Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Princeton University.<19>
****
MIT has a long history of admitting homeschooled students, and these students are successful and vibrant members of our community.
http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/homeschooled_applicants_helpful_tips/index.shtml********
DUKE UNIVERSITY -
Homeschooled students are encouraged to apply for admission and are eligible for all scholarships offered at Duke. . . Most homeschooled students admitted to Duke have followed varied curricula. We do not support or prefer any particular program. Some of our homeschooled applicants follow packaged curricula with outside evaluators, some enroll exclusively in local college classes, some teach themselves independently, some rely on their parents' instruction—but most offer a combination of different approaches. In an effort to encourage homeschoolers to choose the most appropriate individual academic path, we do not endorse any one pattern.
. . .The number of homeschooled students applying to Duke has steadily increased over the last several years. Each application is read very carefully, and if the Admissions Committee has questions about the information submitted, we will call the applicants themselves. For the past several years,
homeschooled students have been admitted to Duke at a rate equal to or higher than that for the entire applicant pool. We hope that you may be among the next group of homeschoolers to apply.
http://www.admissions.duke.edu/jump/applying/apply_homeschooled.html
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