Time: Fri Sep 12 15:24:42 1997
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Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 13:42:01 -0700
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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: SAFAN NO. 701. Solid Evidence to Support Home Schooling
>From: SafanNews@aol.com
>Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 15:39:30 -0400 (EDT)
>To: SafanNews@aol.com
>Subject: SAFAN NO. 701. Solid Evidence to Support Home Schooling
>
> @@@@
> @ O O @
> @ ( > ) @ STOP ALL FEDERAL ABUSES NOW!!!
> \ 0 / SAFAN Internet Newsletter, No. 701, Sept 12, 1997
> / \
> *
>SOLID EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT HOME SCHOOLING
>by Michael P. Farris (The Wall Street Journal, Wed., March 5, 1997)
>
>Secretary of Education Richard Riley has announced that this spring he
>will host a national forum to bring "the nation's best teachers" together
>to address our country's education challenges. If he is willing to break
>through institutional prejudice, Mr. Riley will include a number of
>homeschooling parents in his forum: A new study by the National Home
>Education Research Institute again shows that home education is far
>more successful that public education.
>
>Home-school students score significantly higher on standardized
>achievement tests than their public-school counterparts do. While by
>definition public school students average at the 50th percentile on
>standardized tests, this nationwide study conducted by Brian Ray,
>president of the National Home Education Research Institute, reveals
>that home schoolers have average scores between the 80th and 87th
>percentiles on every subtest (including reading, listening, language,
>math, science, social studies and study skills). The average score on
>the basic battery of skills is in the 85th percentile, while the average
>complete battery score is in the 87th percentile -- a phenomenal 37-
>percentile differential.
>
>And no one should think that home schooling is limited to a few former
>hippies and fundamentalist Christians. There are 1.2 million school-age
>children home schooled in America. This is more students than are
>enrolled in New Jersey, the state with the 10th largest publicschool
>enrollment. There are also more home schoolers nationally than there
>are public school students in Arkansas, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana,
>North Dakota, South Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming
>combined.
>
>Public-school defenders will undoubtedly chafe at our test scores,
>arguing that public schools have more minority students than home
>schools do. But the study quickly dispels the myth that minorities
>cannot achieve as well as whites.
>
>Ethnic minorities make up 5% of home-school students, and home
>schooled minorities and whites both score on average in the 87th
>percentile on reading tests. In public schools, however, whites signifi-
>cantly outpace minorities in reading scores (whites: 57th percentile;
>blacks: 28th percentile; Hispanics: 28th percentile). In public schools,
>the disparity in math scores is huge: 58th percentile for whites; 24th
>percentile for blacks; and 29th percentile for Hispanics. Public school
>officials have some explaining to do. Why is it that despite their constant
>lip service to the goal of equal opportunity, public schools continue to
>deliver abysmally low academic quality to minority students? Home
>schoolers have broken out of the ugly, demeaning stereotype of racial
>underachievement.
>
> Why can't government schools do the same?
>
>Whatever the reasons for the dilemma of public-education failure, they
>don't include inadequate funding. For each home-school child, the
>average schooling cost is $546 per year; the annual public-school per-
>pupil expenditure is $5,325. Both figures exclude the capital costs of
>the building in which each child is taught.
>
>"But what about socialization?" you ask. There is no need to fear that
>home schoolers are isolated at home all day. Home-school children are
>involved in an average of 5.2 outside activities -- including scouts,
>ballet, church activities, sports and 4-H clubs -- each week; 98% are
>involved in two or more outside functions on a weekly basis.
>
>The No. 1 political goal of home schoolers is quite modest. We just want
>to be left alone. Those who believe that government regulation is
>essential for success would do well to look at the cold, hard numbers
>that prove otherwise. There is no significant statistical difference in
>student test scores between those taught by a parent who is or has been
>a certified teacher and those whose parents were never certified. And
>there is no significant statistical difference in student test scores between
>those taught by parents with a college degree and students taught by
>those who have never attended college. In fact, students taught by
>parents who have not finished high school score 30 percentiles higher
>than students in the public schools. Students from state that highly
>regulate home schooling score exactly the same as students from state
>with little or no regulation.
>
>The success of the modern home-schooling movement can be
>explained with a couple of old-fashioned concepts: Hard work and
>parental involvement lead to the best individual academic achieve-
>ment. But there is perhaps an even more fundamental reason. Home schooling,
>by its nature, focuses on the individual child. Public-school reformers with
>new ideas for "all children." Such programs, like the
>federal government's Goals 2000, invariably lead to one-size-fits-all
>ediocrity. Programs that allow each child to maximize his or her own
>individual abilities lead to success.
>
>There is no reason that public schools cannot also adopt the "each
>child" theory that underlies home education. No reason, that is, except
>the politically difficult obstacles that the centralized bureaucrats pose
>to parents and teachers. If Mr. Riley is serious about learning from
>educational success, he'll find that the home is a pretty good place to
>start looking.
>
>Mr. Farris is president of the Home School Legal Defense Association
>of Purcellville, VA.
>
>Rod D. Martin
>http://members.aol.com/roddmartin/vanguard.htm
>
<snip>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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