Compared behaviors and social development test scores of two groups of seventy children ages eight to ten. One group was being educated at home while the other group attended public and private schools. He found that the home-schooled children did not lag behind children attending public or private schools in social development. Dr Shyrs further discovered that the home-schooled children had consistently fewer behavioral problems. The study indicated that home-schooled children behave better because they tend to imitate their parent(s) while conventionally-schooled children model themselves after their peers. Shyers states, "the results seem to show that a child's social development depends more on adult contact and less on contact with other children as previously thought."2. J. Gary Knowles, University of Michigan Assistant Professor of Education, released a study done at the University of Michigan which found that teaching children at home will not make them social misfits.
Knowles surveyed 53 adults who were taught at home because of ideology or geographical isolation. He found that two thirds were married, which is the norm for adults their age. None were unemployed or on welfare. He found more than three fourths felt that being taught at home had helped them to interact with people from different levels of society. He found more than 40% attended college and 15% of those had completed a graduate degree. Nearly two thirds were self-employed. He stated, "That so many of those surveyed were self-employed supports the contention that homeschooling tends to enhance a person's self-reliance and independence." Ninety-six percent of them said that they would want to be taught at home again. He stated, "Many mentioned a strong relationship engendered with their parents while others talked about self-directed curriculum and individualized pace that a flexible program of homeschooling permitted.
3. John Wesley Taylor study using the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale to evaluate 224 home-schooled children:
They study found that 50 percent of the children scored above the 90th percentile, and only 10.3 percent scored below the national average. Another researcher compared private school nine-year-olds with homeschool nine-year-olds and found no significant differences in the groups in virtually all psycho-social areas. However, in the area of social adjustment, a significant difference was discovered: "private-school subjects appeared to be more concerned with peers than the home-educated group.4. Dr. Linda Montgomery studied homeschool students between the ages of ten and twenty-one and concluded that home-schooled children are not isolated from social activities with other youth. She also concluded that homeschooling may nurture leadership at least as well as the conventional schools do.
5. Rudner, a professor at the ERIC Clearinghouse, which is part of the University of Maryland, surveyed over 20,000 homeschooled students. His study, titled Home Schooling Works, discovered that homeschoolers (on average) scored about 30 percentile points higher than the national average on standardized achievement tests.
6. Homeschool students also score better than average on college entrance exams. For example, the average SAT score for home school students in 2000 was 1100, compared with the 1019 national average.
7. A survey of 5,402 home schooled children revealed that, on average, they were engaged in 5.2 activities outside the home, and that 98% were involved in two or more. This substantiates a 1989 study finding that home schoolers are not socially deprived or isolated.
-Ninety-five percent of homeschoolers had an adequate comprehension of politics and government, compared to 65% of U.S. adults.
-Seventy-one percent of homeschool graduates participate in ongoing community service activities, including politics, compared to 37% of adults in similar ages.
-Eighty-eight percent of HS graduates are members of organizations (community groups, church, or professional organizations) compared to 50% of U.S. adults.
-Significantly, 76% of homeschool graduates voted in a national or state election within the past 5 years, compared to 29 percent of similar U.S. adults.9. In 1997, a study of 5,402 homeschool students from 1,657 families was released entitled, "Strengths of Their Own: Home Schoolers Across America." The study demonstrated that homeschoolers, on the average, out-performed their counterparts in the public schools by 30 to 37 percentile points in all subjects.
10. Homeschooled children are "more mature and better socialized than are those sent to either public or private school" and data suggests they are "friendlier than their public school peers, as well as more independent of peer values as they grow older." They are also found to be "happier, better adjusted, more thoughtful, competent, and sociable children" (Basham, 2001. 14).
11. By eighth grade, the average home-educated student "performs four grade levels above the national average" (Basham, 2001, 12).
12. Of the general U.S. population ages 18 to 24, "46.2% had attained some college courses or higher" while "74.2% of the home-educated had attained some college courses or higher" (Ray, 2004).
