Home schooling: benefits, challenges, and educational outcomes

Home Schooling

First study

The study entitled "Homeschooling: Adventitious or Detrimental for Proficiency in Higher Education" is conducted on the year 2002. The study used a qualitative approach of data analysis because it is focused on the available data regarding U.S. system of education. Specifically, this paper is aimed at investigating the home schooling provisions of the different states in the United States. A total number of 50 states were taken into consideration and have been subjected for study (Stewart and Neeley, 2005).

Results of this study revealed that out of the 50 states, the numbers of schools with varied regulatory requirements regarding home schooling are (Stewart and Neeley, 2005):

have weak regulatory requirements

have low regulatory requirements

have moderate regulatory requirements have high regulatory requirements

Because of these findings, the research concluded that the educational system in America is inconsistent particularly in its regulations over home schooling (Stewart and Neeley, 2005). This paper has then implied that there is a need for a gradual change in the regulations of the educational system, particularly that focusing on the home schooling program.

The research conducted used credible journal and articles that provide information regarding the different schools across America. This is enough reason for this research to be considered as valid and credible. However, further studies are still recommended to verify the data and to further strengthen the veracity of the results.

Second Study

The second journal regarding home schooling is entitled "Homeschooling: Adventitious or Detrimental for Proficiency in Higher Education."

This is a qualitative study that is aimed at "finding consistent reasons or patterns in professional literature to prove or disprove homeschooled students performed as well or better academically as compared to traditional schooled individuals." Like the first study highlighted above, this research conducted a series of literature review focusing on available sources gathered on the last 10 years from Southeastern Oklahoma State University library (Wtchers, 2001).

A homeschooled students performed as well or better academically as compared to traditional schooled individuals. They also reported that it was not a disadvantage for students seeking admission to college from homeschooled environments..."(Wtchers, 2001)

Based on the research, there are actually 150 college and/or universities in the United States that are encouraging the homeschooled students to enroll in their school because of the astounding academic records of this type of students. In fact, homeshooled students are better in comprehension, information access and even have stronger commitment to education than the students who have taken education in the normal or formal setting (Wtchers, 2001).

The said research have concluded that more and more parents are subjecting their child into non-traditional from of education, such as home schooling, rather than the more formal or traditional one.

This is not only because of the higher academic outcome, but also to prevent their children from facing "gun violence and drug trafficking or lack of individualized education" (Wtchers, 2001).

Third Study

On this third and last study, the topic is still related to homeschooling, although it is more focused on a particular type of students - and these are students with special needs. This study was conducted in 2004, and was entitled "A Preliminary Investigation of the Effectiveness of Homeschool Instructional Environments for Students with Attention Deficit hyperactivity Disorder" (Duval and Ward, 2004).

This paper has specifically subjected four students who were diagnosed with ADHD. This researched undertaking is aimed at having a comparative "benchmark for the experiences of homeschool students in relation to general education peers with similar behavioral profiles" (Duvall and Ward, 2004). The researchers of this study have already gathered reviews of related literature and they have come up with the idea that homeschooling is generally effective for the normal students. Effective, for them, means that the students are attaining average to high grades in school curriculum, while "normal' students for them are those students with no disorder or deficiency and does not require any special attention from the teachers nor any special instructional techniques.

The measures of classroom ecology and achievement generally showed that two homeschools, when compared to two public school classrooms, provided equal, if not better, instructional environments for two children with ADHD by providing higher levels of academic responding. These outcomes are consistent with the "opportunity-to-respond" paradigm developed at Juniper Gardens Children's Project. The results of the present study indicate that, in a situation in which the student-teacher ratio was 10 times lower in homeschools than in public school classrooms, the 2 children in the homeschools generally experienced higher AETs than those in public schools...."(Duvall and Ward, 2004)

Their for ADHD students, who participated Duval and Ward's research were given a series of academic tests with which the results were compared to the average scores given by the normal students. From the summary of the results quoted above, it can be easily inferred that homeschooling for ADHD students is effective because the test results revealed that ADHD students (who participated in the study) performed way better than the normal students enrolled in the public schools.