A growing body of research indicates that homeschooling graduates excel. Eleven of the 16 peer-reviewed studies on success in adulthood (including college) showed that students who study at home performed better in terms of political tolerance, college GPA and college retention than students in conventional schools. Researchers at Harvard University have just published the findings of their new study that show positive results for students learning at home. In an article published in The Wall Street Journal last week, Brendan Case and Ying Chen, of the Harvard Human Flourishing Program, concluded that public school students “were less lenient and less able to volunteer or attend church services than their homeschooled peers.”.
Students who learn at home do better because they have more control over their school experience. Remote learning is effective, flexible, relaxed and each student has the opportunity to “choose their own adventure, so to speak”. From improvised nature walks to virtual study sessions, the life of a student learning at home can be unique and exciting. The individual time children can have, as well as the kind encouragement of loved ones and the lack of social pressure or harassment from peers, allow students to feel comfortable in their learning environments and to excel in their academic endeavors.
Remote learning and everything it offers provides students with a platform that will catapult them to long-term success. Did you know that in the United States today there are about 2 million children who are homeschooled? This represents an annual increase of between 7 and 15 percent. Globally, nearly 40 countries have banned homeschooling or have restrictive laws. So what are the benefits that these children get and do they actually do well on standardized tests, such as the SAT and the ACT? A study of 20,000 homeschooled children revealed that they definitely scored better on tests.
This was particularly evident in children who had been homeschooled up to the high school level. In another study, students studying at home on the SAT test scored about 67 points higher than the national average. Students who study at home learn autonomously and are not as emotionally and intellectually dependent as public school children. Research helps demonstrate how the strengths of students who study at home overcome their weaknesses, but more extensive knowledge is needed to demonstrate this.
Researchers also suspect that the well-being gap between students studying at home and students in public schools has widened over the past decade, and that those who study at home are faring even better. Students' initiative and agency to pursue their interests, the freedom to reflect and imagine, and inner learning in warm personal relationships are also recognized benefits for homeschooling. The teachers' responses indicate how students who study at home value learning, are prepared for writing tasks, and are more engaged. Homeschooling can be as structured or unstructured as you'd like, however, choosing to make typical school rules more flexible is a great way to ease the burden and leave some room for maneuver within the curriculum.
The study found that in the 2 HSC English units (advanced and standard) there were no statistically significant differences between those who had been homeschooled before and the state's average results. Children who learn at home have the ability to learn in real-life contexts, which could be one of the reasons for their advantageous outcomes. As more families experimented with homeschooling last year, and many of them decided to continue this fall, new data from Harvard should help them be confident in their choice of education. Despite the belief that homeschooling is less effective, it has been shown that students who are given the opportunity to thrive in a remote environment like this often perform better on exams and are even more successful in higher education.
While opponents of homeschooling question the quality of the home-based curriculum, the truth about homeschooling students is that they often perform better on pre-university tests and on standardized tests. Harvard researchers also found that students who studied at home were less likely to attend college than their public school peers. However, some people don't, which is one of several known challenges for conducting research on the homeschooling population. The National Education Association cites concerns about socialization and the integrity and quality of a homeschool curriculum.
It's no secret that homeschooling is very different from the traditional school system and its learning methods. . .
