Thread: Homeschool students welcomed by colleges.

Originally Posted by t714zu

Private schools and homeschools do far better work for far less cost.

And your proof of this is where?

I think the SAT is insufficient to guage homeschoolers and public schoolers. You can prepare for the test. I have my doubts about how homeschoolers compare to public schoolers. There are a lot of measurement problems for homeschoolers. For example, there are high schools with excellent reputations, because they only accept the best. So you know high caliber students are in there. But how can you say the same for a homeschooler? You have no way of knowing how bright or not bright they are, except for the SAT, which is just one test that a homescooled kid can focus on and thus send an over-estimation of his capabilites to a college.


WEB

The high school in my little old blue-collar podunk town just had a student who graduated 2 years ago get her Bachelor's degree this year from a major private university, summa cum laude, in Hisotry and Indian studies, minors in Anthropology and Asian studies, 6 languages, Fulbright finalist, full scholarship for her Doctorate studies, and a list of other stuff in extracuricular junk like Student Senate, etc. Another student is on his way to the Naval Academy.

This is a small district without a lot of money. It's there if you want it, though, and of course many don't want it, and there is no way to force them to be scholars if they don't want to. If their parents are dysfunctional, then I doubt whether a 'home schooling', public schooling, or 'private' schooling are going to be that far apart in results, unless they're sent a boarding school away from negative family influences.

On the other hand, Texas' experiment with 'privatizing' schools has been an utter disaster, with the most recent scandal being several of them falsified test scores to make it appear they were doing their job. Of course, 'private' schools have to show results in order to keep the state funding going, so naturally they are going to cheat.

It's stupid to compare results of scholls that can pick their student body with those who don't. Pronouncing public schools inferior to private schools is merely ignorant. Parents and the student's own motivation are far more important.

Originally Posted by t714zu

Far from it! Taking ALL the money away from inner-city schools run by the government and sending the students to private schools (which cost less money!) would be an awesome blessing to the poor families.

My publicly funded high school had around 6,000 per student, and was comparable to every private school in town (with less hard drug use too) yet the private schools all cost 10,000-30,000.

Originally Posted by Gort

they may want out, but do you have any figures for how the students did compared to when they were in public schools, not just other students in public schools but these particular ones before and after they left the public school system.

By the way I noted you admission that you were mistaken on another thread. I may disagree with you and wonder how you can be a intelligent person and still a member of a church, but I do respect you for your honesty and integrety, at least as far as anyone can tell about anyone else on a board like this.

Thank you for the kind complements. I try to be honest and admit my errors.

As for documentation on the great results and cost effectiveness of home and private schools over government run schools, I appeal to decades of reporting by private and homeschools required by states on standardized tests as well as by the performance of homeschoolers in college and univerity competition. I could search years of websites to provide you figures and you'd accept them, but I don't feel like doing that now. Sorry. But I know the bottom line from listening to reports on alternative media like the 700 Club and Focus on the Family and by reading websites for homeschoolers.

If you think about it a little you will see it is reasonable. Parents who homeschool don't spend much on teachers! And on buildings! And private Christian schools don't spend nearly as much on facilities (rent church space etc.) and even less on teachers' salaries (most do this as a gift to God, a ministry). I knew a woman who was a degreed electrical engineer who left private industry to work for very low wages as a math teacher on the staff of a Christian school.

I have found that the cost of private Christian schools is significantly lower than the price of public school education. It would save the taxpayer a bundle if we gave students' families the choice of where to spend the tax payer dollars. This can be done via vouchers or by tax credits.

Later edit:

You might want to look at this:
Academic Statistics on HomeschoolingMany studies over the last few years have established the academic excellence of homeschooled children.
http://nche.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp

and see this also as a starter...

Homeschooling Research
The best one-stop-shop for homeschooling statistics,
studies, and information!
http://nche.hslda.org/research/default.asp

Later edit:

Please check this out. There is a group that researches homeschooling fulltime.

Welcome to the National Home Education Research Institute!

The National Home Education Research Institute's mission is to:

Produce high-quality research (e.g., statistics, facts, findings) on home-based education (homeschooling).

Serve as a clearinghouse of research for the public, researchers, homeschoolers, the media, and policy makers.

Educate the public concerning the findings of all research on home education.
Whether called homeschooling, home schooling, home-based education, home education, home-schooling, unschooling, deschooling, or a form of alternative education, the movement is growing and the National Home Education Research Institute is tracking and analyzing it, internationally. NHERI's forte is in the realm of research, statistics, technical reports, data, facts, demographics, the academic world, consulting, academic achievement tests, and expert witness (in courts and legislatures) while serving people ranging from researchers and policy makers to professional educators, teachers, homeschoolers (home schoolers), and parents in general to the media, marketing consultants, and the general public.

http://www.nheri.org/

Now I am going to have to look for similar statistics on private Christian schools. Whew!

Originally Posted by Gort

they may want out, but do you have any figures for how the students did compared to when they were in public schools, not just other students in public schools but these particular ones before and after they left the public school system.

By the way I noted you admission that you were mistaken on another thread. I may disagree with you and wonder how you can be a intelligent person and still a member of a church, but I do respect you for your honesty and integrety, at least as far as anyone can tell about anyone else on a board like this.

I see statements like that (what I bolded) and gotta wonder.

Let me guess. YOU would be an "intelligent person" yes ?

That's rich. Really rich

Only dummies would be a member of a church. I'll remember that "factoid". Thanks.

Originally Posted by Thane

Gort wrote:
wonder how you can be a intelligent person and still a member of a church,

I see statements like that (what I bolded) and gotta wonder.

Let me guess. YOU would be an "intelligent person" yes ?

That's rich. Really rich

Only dummies would be a member of a church. I'll remember that "factoid". Thanks.

I never cease to be amazed at the stereotypes of Christians and Jews who hold a strong faith and allegiance to the Bible. We are among the most educated and cultured people in America.

Coni Rice and Laura Bush are two gems that confound liberals snobbery with their literary and musical acumen. There are several tens of millions more like them though with lesser accomplishments.

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This comment is no mere diversion of my own thread. Rather it illustrates the mythology that caused people to reject homeschoolers from colleges in the past. I am glad those days are over.

Originally Posted by Liberal Lil

We all know that home-schooled students are very bright. I home-schooled my own daughter. All home-school parents are not Christian either.

No more bright then the general population.