School Choice Matters

Everyone needs an option other than public schools.  The following article appeared on EAGNews.org

STUDY: Black home schooled students outperform white public schoolers

Kyle Olson

Kyle founded Education Action Group in 2007.
Find Kyle on Twitter.

SALEM, Ore. – A new study proves all students can learn – provided they’re in the right setting.
A new analysis of standardized test data conducted by the National Home Education Research Institute reveals black home schooled students outperformed white children in public schools.
“The Black homeschool children’s high achievement test scores were remarkable. Parents without teaching certificates helping their children from a traditionally low-achieving minority group excel this way should cause all educators and social advocacy groups to take special note,” Dr. Brian Ray, the researcher and president of NHERI, says in a news release.
Ray looked at black home schooling families nationwide and children who learned by that educational option for more than half their school-age lives.
According to NHERI:

These Black homeschool students’ achievement test scores were quite high, all things considered. They scored at or above the 50th percentile in reading (68th), language (56th), math (50th), and core (i.e., a combination of reading, language, and math; 58th) subtests. By definition, the 50th percentile is the mean for all students (of all ethnicities/races) nationwide in institutional public schools.

After controlling for the gender and family socioeconomic status of students, Ray’s analysis found home schoolers had an effect size in reading scores of about 42 percentile points higher than children educated in a government school.

For language, home schoolers outpaced public schooled whites by about 26 percentile points. For math, being homeschooled had an effect size of about 23 percentile points higher than if they attended a government school.
NHERI reports some of the top reasons black parents gave for home schooling their children:

* “Prefer to teach the child at home so that you can provide religious or moral instruction,”
* “Accomplish more academically than in conventional schools,”
* “For the parents to transmit values, beliefs, and worldview to the child,”
* “To customize or individualize the education of each child,” and
* “Want to provide religious or moral instruction different from that taught in public schools.”

Other research indicates black families have increasingly been moving towards home schooling. Rates have increased 127 percent over the last four years, according to the Heartland Institute.
“I wonder how teachers unions, African American advocacy groups, certified teachers, public school administrators, and professors of education will look at these findings. Will they start encouraging Black families to homeschool?” Ray asks.