Homeschoolers changing face of education

The homeschooling movement continues to grow, and homeschoolers continue to show what education can be.

In the past 10 years, the number of homeschooled students has more than doubled.

In 2001, estimates placed the number of homeschooled kids around 1 million nationwide. According to a recently released report by Brian D. Ray, Ph.D., of the National Home Education Research Institute, there are 2.03 million children, or 4 percent of all American children, in homeschooling, as of 2010.

The growth of homeschooling shouldn't be a surprise. With the continued decline of quality in public education, news of homeschooling's successes has gotten around despite ongoing media and political efforts to squelch it.

According to a 2009 study by the NHERI, homeschoolers score an average of 34 to 39 percentile points higher than public schoolers on standardized achievement tests. Nationally, the homeschool students' average ranged from the 84th percentile for language, math and social studies to the 89th percentile for reading.

Rep. Jaime Herrera, R-Wash.

Further findings showed that the boy-girl performance gap so obvious in public schools disappears under homeschooling. Homeschooled boys and girls scored equally well on standardized tests. Income level disparities also shrank in a homeschooling environment, with only a 4 percentile difference in test performance between the poorest and wealthiest students. And even children of parents without college educations still scored in the 83rd percentile, well above the public school average.

Studies also show the trend continues in college. College students who had been homeschooled have higher GPAs, higher test scores and higher graduation rates.

As for the oft-repeated canard that homeschoolers aren't "socialized" properly, studies consistently show that homeschoolers have much higher levels of civic involvement than public school kids. In fact, this past month saw a swearing in of the first homeschooled member of Congress since 1940, Jaime Herrera, R-Wash., to the House of Representatives.

The NHERI expects the growth trend of homeschooling to continue. It can only mean good things for our children and our country.