Founder's Findings

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Founder's Findings

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Anonymous:
Lawrence Rudner's (University of Maryland) 1998 study shows that homeschool parents have a higher income than average (1.4 times by one estimate),[53] and are more likely to have an advanced education. Rudner found that homeschooling parents tend to have more formal education than parents in the general population; that the median income for homeschooling families ($52,000) is significantly higher than that of all families with children in the United States ($36,000); that 98% of homeschooled children live in "married couple families"; that 77% of home school mothers do not participate in the labour force, whereas 98% of homeschooling fathers do participate in the labour force; and that median annual expenses for educational materials are approximately $400 per home school student.[64]

There is some self selection for success in that sample pool, rather then an argument for one method over another. HE must not have even read the study or LIED about it thinking that no one else would.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling

Ursus:
Excellent find, Flounder! :tup:

It turns out that this study actually does make that statement, however that statement does not quite claim to mean what Gauld would have you believe.

Lawrence Rudner notes, with regard to GES interpretations (colored emphasis mine):

--- Quote ---Grade Equivalent Scores are particularly useful for estimating a student's developmental status in terms of grade. But, these scores must be interpreted carefully. An GES Score of 6.3 in reading for an 9 year old in the 3rd grade, for example, clearly indicates that the third grader is doing well. This does not, however, mean that the third grader belongs in the 6th grade. It only means that the third grader can read as well as a sixth grader.

The usual interpretation of a Grade Equivalent Score of 6.3 for a third grader is that this third grade student can read third grade material as well as a sixth grader can read third grade material, not that he or she can read sixth grade material.
--- End quote ---

As to Joe's specific claims, namely: "A University of Maryland study of 24,000 home schooled students found that by ninth-grade, they were academically four grades ahead of their public school counterparts!" ...Well, the study was actually of "20,760 students in 11,930 families" (not 24,000), but that might be too petty a fact to quibble over. And he also got the grade wrong, but I'll assume for the sake of simplicity that this was due to faulty memory or a typographical error. The original from whence Joe's prose was gleaned is from the following section discussing Table 3.5 (colored and underlined emphasis mine):

--- Quote ---Compared to students nationwide, the median fourth-grade home school student test performance is 1.1 grade equivalents above his public/private school peers. By 8th grade, the median performance of home school students on the ITBS/TAP is almost four grade equivalents above that of students nationwide. Similar trends hold for all subject areas.

The reader should recognize that the grade equivalent scale tends to magnify differences at the high school level and that the percentile scale is more meaningful in these higher grades. While 50% of eighth grade home school students have scores that are 4 grade equivalents above the public school median, so do some 20% of eighth grade students in public schools. The revealing statistics are the percentiles which are consistently high across grade levels and subject areas.
--- End quote ---

This certainly does point to a statistically higher academic performance in home-schooled kids (in THIS particular study), but does not, by any stretch of the imagination imply or infer that home schooled 8th graders are ready to commence their college matriculations by the following year.

Joe choose to interpret "Grade Equivalent Scores" to be ... equivalent to ... GRADES:

"4 grade equivalents above the public school median" (Rudner)

.........DOES NOT EQUAL.........

"four grades ahead of their public school counterparts" (Gauld)[/list]

Anonymous:
My point is that Joe is contrasting good family values vs the corrupting influence of money. The study shows that the families that home school have more money. Family incomes in this group were much higher then the median income of 1998 AND the Moms were able to stay at home AND Mom and Dad were more highly educated then the norm. So you are comparing a socio-economically advantaged population with the norm, then contrasing that with inner city kids that are motivated by money. Am I missing something here?

Ok if that was not enough Mr Attitude over Aptitude, who is so high and mighty about rejecting the achievement culture of public schools, is using a public school achievement metric in his argument.

Something is fishy and I don't think it is sole.

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "A fluke is not a flounder" ---My point is that Joe is contrasting good family values vs the corrupting influence of money. The study shows that the families that home school have more money. Family incomes in this group were much higher then the median income of 1998 AND the Moms were able to stay at home AND Mom and Dad were more highly educated then the norm. So you are comparing a socio-economically advantaged population with the norm, then contrasing that with inner city kids that are motivated by money. Am I missing something here?

Ok if that was not enough Mr Attitude over Aptitude, who is so high and mighty about rejecting the achievement culture of public schools, is using a public school achievement metric in his argument.

Something is fishy and I don't think it is sole.
--- End quote ---

I have just a couple more points to make before going on to the next "Finding"... Not that this one necessarily deserves so much attention, but just because I still have said points percolating in my mind...

To recap thus far (if I interpret the other comments correctly):

1. Joe sees fit to compare the incomparable, i.e., a socio-economically advantaged population with the whole student population, which includes kids from all socio-economic strata (btw, this is exactly the strategy used by some conservative charter school proponents to skew interpretation of school test results in their favor, i.e., they compare results with districts that include large urban districts instead of just their own, often more affluent neighborhoods).[/list]
2. Joe decries money-based incentives used by inner-city parents in an effort to better their kids' motivation to excel, saying, "this practice replaces the character quality of curiosity with the crass new value of personal gain." Geeeezzzz... Some folk can ill afford the "curiosity" when they are just barely surviving the economic gauntlet. For shame that these parents should resort to gauche tricks in the hopes that their kids have a better life than they do.[/list]
3. Joe is using public school standards of comparison (i.e., standardized tests) to evaluate the relative strengths of a public vs. a home schooled education. These are, of course, but a small portion of the entire educational experience.[/list]
4. Joe cannot read or interpret data correctly. 'Nuff said.[/list]

Okay... Two more points:

5. The study Joe chose to cite may well be atypical. The demographics of the population in Lawrence Rudner's study would appear to be significantly different, on certain axes, than that found in a 2000–2001 Barna Survey of homeschooling parents. Wikipedia (same article) summarizes those demographics as follows (italics as per original):

--- Quote ---According to a 2000–2001 Barna survey,[61][62] home school parents are 39 percent less likely to be college graduates, 21 percent more likely to be married, 28 percent less likely to have experienced a divorce, and that the household income is 10% below the national average. Barna found that homeschoolers in the U.S. live predominantly in the Mid-Atlantic, the South-Atlantic, and the Pacific states. It found that homeschoolers are almost twice as likely to be evangelical as the national average (15 percent vs 8 percent), and that 91 percent describe themselves as Christian, although only 49 percent can be classified as "born again Christians." It found they were five times more likely to describe themselves as "mostly conservative" on political matters than as "mostly liberal," although only about 37 percent chose "mostly conservative", and were "notably" more likely than the national average to have a high view of the Bible and hold orthodox Christian beliefs.
--- End quote ---

One might even say that ... Joe seeks results to match his premise?

6. The reference to homeschooling in Joe's Finding #5 is not trivial. I imagine that home schoolers are, in fact, a significant portion of the target audience that The Biggest Job materials are marketed to. Or, for that matter, the Hyde Foundation materials...

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