Talented tenth

[richard duncan]

In case you haven't heard about it, there is a very interesting study
recently reported by the National Home Education Research Institute.

The study found that, on average, home school students outperform
public school students by a *30-37* percentile differential across all
subjects. Interestingly, the study found that the gap between
achievement of minority and non-minority students was much less in home
schools than in public schools. For example, there was *no difference*
in home school reading scores between minority and non-minority
students (compared to a 12-percentile differential in public schools).
Interestingly, minority students in home schools outperformed
non-minority students in public schools by a remarkable 26-percentile
differential (87 to 61).

The study found that 1.23 million children are being educated at home
(this exceeds the public school enrollment for New Jersey which has
the 10th largest student population in the nation).

Now, of course, home school students are, on average, a very select
group of kids with parents who are highly supportive of education. So
it is not surprising that the results are very good. But the size of
the differential is very significant. This study is worth getting.
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             Rick Duncan (rduncan at unlinfo.unl.edu)

"You can observe a lot by just watching." Yogi Berra