Effects of homeschool on students’ learning and achievement

Literature review

Parents’ educational level and homeschooled children’s academic achievement

The relationship between parents’ educational level and home-schooled children’s academic achievement has a direct influence on what level of education his/her kids receive and when he/she does it. The research shows that parental level of education represents a warm, social climate and eco-friendly learning environment (klebanov, 1994) which translates to thirty percentile higher than the average public/private school that stands at fifty percent. The maternal level of education represented warmth and had a direct influence on kids cognitive and behavior outcomes. This understanding had direct control bring more improvement on the particular subjects for students improvement e.g. mathematics and sciences subjects (Klebanov, 1994).

The level of education was found to have direct influences for choosing home school unlike general population as study showered that such parents had a higher standard of education with 88% to a 50% for the nation respectively (Painter, 2005). The home school had more parent being able to interact with the kids thus able to coach them and discipline them more keenly. Homeschool reflected high morals and standards than the general population. The parental involvement and promoting disengagement of parents from participating in home-school programs as well as gives suggestions on how to overcome these barriers to smoothen the parental participation and hence strengthen the home-school partnerships for the greater benefit of the only beneficiary i.e. the students. The parent level of education had a direct influence on the in calculated beliefs, behaviors and culture thus bring a more focused religious studies as parents have direct and pressing say on curriculum coverage. It enabled quick and thorough coverage of the syllabus unlike its topic bit and sequenced that general public hence theoretical capability efficiency.

An investigation of the relationship between multiple dimensions of involvement of parents with higher education level and eventual outcomes revealed that home-based involvement of family had significantly positive correlation with student outcomes. Home-based involvement was found to be a significant predictor of attention to learning, task persistence, motivation to learn, receptive vocabulary skills, and unbecoming conduct problems. Another dimension of involvement i.e. School-Based in combination with home-based involvement was a strong predictor of unbecoming conduct problems in the classroom in the public education. The student performance of home school based had a better education foundation at grade 12 than average students from the public school if the level of education of the parent was relevant higher as well.

Parents’ economic status and their home-schooled children’s academic achievement

The income inclusion represents families that engage in home school and are not dependent on public tax funded resources for their children education. The unstable environment that exhibit violent and dangerous environment for learning more so in public school at times. The minority group switched to homeschool as it is more convincing secure the home schools took certain measures to reduce this trend by establishing and fostering home-school or parent-kid partnerships. They argue that the decline caused by changing requirements of the curriculum in higher grades, evolved preferences of kids with age, parents’ delegating decisions, and giving more independence to children, and lack of awareness of teachers to involve teachers in higher grades.

Secondly, their research concludes that socio-economic status of parents limits their involvement in school and academic activities of their children, and their frequency and quality of contact with school and teachers. Lastly, parents have compelling commitments to make them more involved in the home school as the school organizes opportunities considering their special needs and circumstance. The significant majority of the parents who were financially stable in the study were married (97.9%), and the families had an average of 3.5 children compared to the general population’s average of 2.0 children.7 (klebanov,1994.) Homeschoolers’ median family income was relatively ($75,000–79,999) closely spanned the nationwide median (about $79,000) for households headed by a married couple and with one or more related children under 18. Of the 19.4% of home-school parents who worked for pay, 84.8% of them worked part-time. Parents held for a wide variety of religious beliefs, although the majority identified themselves with various denominations of Christianity (82.4% Protestant, 12.4% Roman Catholic, and .2% Eastern Orthodox). Other categories included atheist/agnostic (1.1%), Jewish (.4%), Mormon (.8%), Muslim (.1%), and a variety of others (about 2.5%). Almost all (98.3%) of the home-schooled students used a computer at home to enhance learning.

The parents with stable income concentrate more on concept understanding and well-being of the students unlike for the parents with weak income performance implies a great career thus commits all resource in ensuring that the student passes thus compromising the quality of the level of education. The was upsurge increase on the preference of homeschooling to public schooling from the year 2003 to 2010 with most parent preferring this over the traditional system. It means as more parents were financial stable, they opted for the homeschooling system for their children. The parents believed that coaching at home was ideal than at school as kids fully utilized time on education with a minimum interruption e.g. watching television. This particular belief into more investments in homeschooling than private or public education system for their children (klebanov.,1994).

Ethnic background of homeschooled students and their academic achievement

Gidney & Millar, (2012) conducted a nationwide study of the black families and their children who have been engaged in homeschooling for more than half of their school lives. These students then undertook a standard academic test upon which they compared against their fellows from other ethnic groups both in public schools and homeschooling systems. Surprisingly, the homeschooling children recorded high scores despite their parents not having any teaching certificates. This is a wake-up call for social advocacy groups to improve their education systems. In another study involving a comparison between the homeschooling white students and black students (Gidney & Millar, 2012) found that under similar exposure race affiliations was not a factor that defined their academic achievement. However, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (Bielick, Chandler & Broughman, 2001) touches on homeschooling demographics and has indeed found out a higher than average percentage of homeschooling students was whites.  The influence of ethnic affiliations and its effects on academic performance is a critical component of homeschooling though found to be of less significance. Although it has not been tested in previous studies, the student race has no statistical relations and hence inconsequential for student achievement.

Overall effects of homeschooling on students’ academic achievement and learning

Efforts made by Raymond Moore during his reign in the Education sector of USA established the homeschool framework has become a major movement in the education sector of our days. Since that time, home based schooling has turned out to be all the more generally recognized, and numerous individuals contemplate about the likelihood of this modern type of education system. Bielick et al., (2013) postulates a mainstream is thinking that homeschooling children trail backward in terms of social concerns; however, research demonstrates the inverse confirming that homeschooling children have more socializing power than their companions (Windley 55). There are different reasons for the home schooled individuals, including religious and family matters. In another education seminar, some parents expressed the possibility of building up the character of children by educating them from their homes. For instance, Teresa, 38, a homeschooling mother from Los Angeles guarantees that being educated at home will make her youngsters ‘better U.S residents’ on the grounds that homeschooling gives her children the chance to develop a cooperative attitude as opposed to working independently (Walsh 112). In other words, “they learn to become caring for other individuals through repeated observation of older individuals care for them” (Walsh 112). This way, home scholars are truly prepared for survival in the real world contrary to the belief of many. Cooperative engagement with their siblings at home sets them up for better relations even away from home.

Private/public schooling is another conventional type of education with quite a number of followership. The major reason some individuals opt for private schooling systems and leave all other options is duly because they consider that better education only comes at a price. For instance, Brooklyn Carter of San Francisco prefers private school system because she feels that her kids are not fully challenged to equip them with the required skills in the government sponsored school education (Walsh 107). “This school is not challenging,” said Carter (Walsh 107). Furthermore, individuals regard private based schools as having an exceptional management, unlike public schools that are governed by local authorities. According to statistics, national test scores could have fallen drastically if the private based schools were excluded from the aggregate results (Lines, 2009). Non-public school supporters are of the opinion that the administration number crunchers indicate indisputably that much better results are being delivered by these school system. Indeed, there is more regard and appreciation for private school systems as attributed to established religious and ethical foundation.

On the other hand, researchers (Benson & Kosonen, 2013) have collected various drawbacks within the homeschooling system through emailed questionnaires among university students. The cost of buying textbooks is quite high with parents being obliged to pay a premium cost for them (Mondale et al. 80). Additionally, the educational modules required can be an expensive venture for the parent or guardian because parents ought to dedicate some percentage of expenditure on field trips, project materials, and computer learning programs. Another drawback of homeschooling is that parent or tutor assigned to a student may not be competent to teach all subjects (Lines, 2009). Furthermore, parents are required to dedicate a lot of time towards monitoring their children, and it becomes quite challenging in the case of working parents. Homeschooling develops a social interactions problem among scholars with homeschooling education suffering a major blow in interaction and socialization. Lack of the interaction compromises the relationship with other peers. Indeed, research survey indicates that about 65% of the participants engaged believed that homeschooling is bound to produce students with poor skills of social development (Benson & Kosonen, 2013).

 

Conclusion

All of us hold some views about education systems and which among them is best. Homeschooling has newly introduced a form of education that is slowly ascending in prominence hopefully about to beat public and private systems of education. From the ideas discussed, it is evident that homeschooling is a more viable form of education, better than other traditional systems. Students in the homeschooling system accomplish higher test scores and adopt more advanced socialization skills than their counterparts in other types of education who are more exposed to a lot of peer pressure and irrelevant things. For this reason, admissions to college begin to develop more preference for home scholar students as they are perceived to have officially built up the study skills needed at the university level. With no doubt, homeschooling system growth is to become the choice for education regardless of not being popular in the past as it is projected to experience massive growth and gain popularity in future.

 

References

Bagwell,  J. N. (2010). The academic success of homeschooled students in a South Carolina technical college: Exploring Academic Outcomes of Homeschooled Students.

Benson,  C. J., & Kosonen,  K. (2013). Language issues in comparative education: Reasons for homeschooling in Canada. Rotterdam: SensePublishers.

Bielick,  S., Chandler,  K., & Broughman,  S. P. (2001). Homeschooling in the United States: 1999. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement.

Gidney,  R. D., & Millar,  W. P. (2012). How schools Worked: Public Education in English Canada, 1900-1940. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

In Mondale,  S., In Patton,  S. B., & Bernard,  S. C. (1994). School: The story of American public education.

Lines,  P. M., & Educational Resources Information Center (U.S.). (2009). Estimating the home schooled population. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Educational Resources Information Center.

Painter,  F. (2005). Gifted Children: Their Relative Levels of Scholastic Achievement andInterests. Teachers’ Views on Their Educational Needs.

Ray,  B. D. (2012). Homeschooling in America: Capturing and Assessing the Movement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Walsh,  M., & Mary. (2007). “Academic Search Elites.” Homeschooling and the Price of Freedom. Montréal: Distributed exclusively in Canada by TVA Films.

Windley,  C. Klebanov, K. (2006). Homeschooling: Stories. New York: Atlantic Monthly Books.