Thanks to Rachel Gathercole for this morning's post

Thought this might interest folks.

This is the biggest study of homeschoolers to date, to my knowledge. They
studied almost 12,000 kids, in all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and Guam,
through 15 different testing services. It focuses on homeschoolers'
standardized test scores, and how various factors affect them.

Interesting results, including the following findings:

--Homeschoolers scored on average 34 to 39 percentile points higher than the
norm. The homeschool national average ranged from the 84th to the 89th
percentile depending on subject area. (The overall national average is the
50th percentile.)

--Degree of government regulation by the state had no impact whatsoever on
student test scores.

--Whether or not parents were teacher-certified had "no impact" on scores.
In fact, "students received slightly higher scores if neither parent had
ever held a state-issued teaching certificate than if one or both parents
had."

--There was "hardly any difference" (.5% or less) based on homeschooling
style/degree of structure (i.e., full-service curriculum, unschooling,
eclectic, etc.) or amount of time spent in parent-directed learning
activities.

--There was a "slight difference" based on parents' education, but those
whose parents were in the lowest education bracket still scored in the 83rd
percentile (vs. the 90th percentile for those whose parents both have
college degrees)

--There was a "slight difference" based on parents' income level, but those
in the lowest income bracket still scored in the 85th percentile (vs. the
89th percentile for those in the highest income bracket).

There is more, but those were some of the findings I found most interesting.
Check it out for yourself if you like:

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/ray2009/2009_Ray_StudyFINAL.pdf

Happy homeschooling!

Rachel G.