The Effectiveness of Home Schooling

Paper Summary:

The paper explores the literature to determine the position of both the advocates and critics of home schooling. The paper reveals that home schooled children consistently outperform their mainstream counterparts, they have better adaptability skills, relate better to a wider range of age groups and have no problems with violence. The paper concludes that these studies definitely suggest that home schooling offers more than just educational benefits.

Outline:
Abstract
Review of the Literature
Background and Overview
Are You Ready to Rumble?
What the Advocates Say About Home Schooling
What the Critics Say About Home Schooling
Analysis and Discussion
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Home schooling has experienced an enormous amount of attention over the decade. Home schooling is a form of education in which most of a child's instruction is conducted in the home. Home schooling, once largely regarded as being the sole territory of fundamentalist Christians or far-left hippies, the home school movement has become more mainstream today. Home schooling is now legal in all 50 states, although requirements vary widely from none to highly restrictive. The research shows that between 850,000 and 1.3 million U.S. children ages 6 to 18 are home schooled, and there is an impressive amount of educational material and support available for any and all educational philosophies. By and large, home schooled students tend to score at the top on standardized tests, display little gender gap in test scores (girls and boys do equally well), watch less television, have more time to pursue their own interests and gain admission to selective colleges in record numbers."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Burns, J. M., Peltason, J. W., & Cronin, T. E. (1985). Government by the people. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Byfield, J. (December 3, 2001). Home is where the smarts are. Report/Newsmagazine (Alberta Edition), 28(23) 43.
• Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities: Children in America's schools. New York: Crown Publishers.
• Lorion, R. P. (1998). Exposure to urban violence: Contamination of the school Environment. In D.S. Elliott, B. Hamburg, & K.R. Williams (Editors), Violence in American schools: A new perspective, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 293-311.
• Mattox, W. R., Jr. (March 19, 1999). Homeschooling benefits: Children less preoccupied with peer acceptance. San Francisco Chronicle. [Online]. Available: http:// www.sfgate.com.

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