Homeschooling in the News: Your Weekly Update
We thought it be interesting to include a weekly roundup of homeschool-related news stories here on the blog. (If you like this and would like it to be a regular blog feature, let us know! We’ll use your feedback to decide whether this is something we should keep doing. :))
1. Homeschoolers continue to outperform their traditionally schooled peers on the SAT, researchers found after analyzing 2014 test scores. “These are notably large differences,” wrote the researchers. Homeschoolers whose tests were considered in the analysis also had significant demographic differences from schooled participants, notably race (most homeschoolers—more than 70 percent—were white) and parental education level, which tended to be higher in homeschool families.
2. Preschool is the new kindergarten, but do kids really benefit from such early academic readiness? Probably not, discovered a senior fellow in economics studies at the Brookings Institution, who found that preschool attendance had almost no impact on future test scores. (This article also suggests that Sesame Street can work much like a preschool equivalent of Khan Academy.)
3. Though the Department of Defense doesn’t keep track of homeschool statistics, homeschooling seems to be on the rise in military families, where frequent moves and deployments make homeschool’s flexibility a bonus. “We we just kept homeschooling through all of this because it gave us the flexibility we needed,” said Rebecca Owens.
4. It’s too early yet to tell how California’s new, stricter vaccination laws will affect the state’s homeschool numbers, but at least some families are opting to homeschool rather than opt in to the now-required vaccinations for public school.
5. And finally, if you’re planning a trip to Colonial Williamsburg this year, you can enjoy significant savings during the site’s homeschool days from Sept. 10 to Sept. 25. In addition to reduced ticket prices ($8 per student instead of the usual $20), homeschoolers can participate in hands-on activities and interactive experiences.
