ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION Study looks at home schooling 20 years later

A recent survey shows most graduates are glad they were home schooled.
By GARRY L. CLARK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
There have always been some families who choose to educate their children at home, but compulsory attendance laws for public education were unclear until they were challenged in the early 1980s by parents who wanted to take charge of their children's education.
Twenty years ago, most people thought that home schooling was illegal, and that was a major reason for the founding of the Home School Legal Defense Association, which is based in Purcellville, Va.
According to Ian Slatter, director of media relations for HSLDA, the organization saw it as a legal option. "Parents have the inherent right to educate at home, and states weren't accommodating that," Slatter said.
HSLDA has about 80,000 members now, and Slatter says the reasons parents give for choosing the home school route have changed very little.
"The main reason is still drugs and crime in school, closely followed by the absence of a religious world view. Then come the actual academic standards," Slatter said. "But those are the negative reasons. On the flip side you have the one-on-one, parent-child interaction and the ability to have a flexible curriculum."
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So how does home schooling stand after two decades? Slatter said that "nobody seriously argues that home schoolers are struggling academically."
"Seventy-five percent of colleges have specific home school admission policies," he explained. "They [colleges] seek them out because they come prepared for college. The style [of home schooling] -- one-on-one, independent research and thinking -- is very similar to the skills you need in college."
About two million children are home schooled in the United States, and that number continues to grow.
This year, HSLDA commissioned a survey of adults who were home educated. The study, titled "Home Schooling Grows Up," is the largest of its kind to date and was conducted by Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute in Salem, Ore. Ray is president of NHERI and holds a Ph.D. in science education from Oregon State University.
Answers were tabulated from more than 5,000 adults who had been home-educated for at least seven years.
One of the biggest questions that home schooling parents face is that of socialization.
The survey results show that 71 percent of home school graduates "participate in an ongoing community service activity (e.g., coaching a sports team, volunteering at a school, or working with a church or neighborhood association) compared with 37 percent of U.S. adults of similar ages."
More than 95 percent of home-school graduates were glad they had been home schooled, and more than 92 percent saw it as having been an advantage to them as adults. Eighty-two percent responded that they would home school their children.
College-level courses
Educationally, more than 74 percent of home-educated adults between 18 and 24 have taken college-level courses, whereas 46 percent of the general population has.
When asked to respond to the statement "Having been home schooled has limited my career choices," 94 percent disagree, and more than 75 percent answered "strongly disagree."
For further results from the study, visit www.hslda.org/research/ray2003.
clark@vindy.com