Question: Homeschooling? Pro's/Cons and overall do you think the pro's outway the cons?

[rizolltizide]

The reality is that even at good school systems, there are varying levels of teacher ability, and often drastic levels of teacher motivation. If a school could guarentee a competent, motivated teacher every year for my kids, I wouldn't have ever considered homeschooling. But that, quite frankly, is never the case. I have 3 kids in public school and one in private. Two have great teachers, but one had a weak teacher last year. My older kids change classes, and of their 4 teachers, we have one great, one good, one average, and one outright bad. And this is one of the best schools in the best school system in the state.

Curious as to how they received those classifications. Does the school tell you that? "Hey, Mr UAinAthens, we just want you to know that of the four teachers your kids have, one of them is great, one of them is good, one is average, and one is outright bad. See you at homecoming. Have a good day."

 

[cbi1972]

See my previous post. The issue isn't achievement. It's achievement versus ability. You can't compare a kid with low ability in the public school system to a kid with high ability in the home school arena. There's no significant difference in SAT scores among students of the same ability level. If I can find that study I'll post it.

While you're at it, explain how they are measuring ability level independently of standardized testing.

 

[Hamilton]

While you're at it, explain how they are measuring ability level independently of standardized testing.

I didn't say anything about standardized testing in general. I mentioned two standardized tests...the SAT 10 and the OLSAT. The OLSAT measures ability. The SAT measures achievement. Both are necessary to determine a child's "success" in school. Simply comparing the outcome of the SAT from home school to public school students without the context of the OLSAT just doesn't work.

But on the tests in the first place, who is to say that parents aren't taking them for their children? Some of the tests can be done via mail-order and not at secure testing sites.

 

[TheAccountant]

Curious as to how they received those classifications. Does the school tell you that? "Hey, Mr UAinAthens, we just want you to know that of the four teachers your kids have, one of them is great, one of them is good, one is average, and one is outright bad. See you at homecoming. Have a good day."

It's simply an opinion of how a father views the quality of the teacher. Nothing wrong with that, you'll do the same.

 

[rizolltizide]

It's simply an opinion of how a father views the quality of the teacher. Nothing wrong with that, you'll do the same.

Oh trust me, I have my opinions, and they're frequently wrong. Actually, generally wrong is probably more like it, but I digress.

You kinda proved my point, it's somebody's opinion. This horrible teacher might actually be a great teacher, I don't know. I'm just curious as to what makes her a horrible teacher. What's driving that opinion versus the great teacher?

 

[cbi1972]

What's driving that opinion versus the great teacher?

Is she hawt?

 

[Tide Warrior]

You must have missed where I said it became impossible to do it properly around grade 8, more or less.

What is impossible, because the numbers posted demonstrate that is wrong, college acceptance is at a higher % for homeschoolers in the top tier institutions, and many posters have stated from personal experience your though here is wrong. All I have seen is your opinion with no information to sustantiate it.

 

[Tide Warrior]

I'm in favor of private schools, too. I've taught in both. If you don't like the public school system, I can't blame you. The parent who is homeschooling, however, would be better served to go out and get a job so that private school would be affordable, versus staying at home.

Please provide a link to support your arguement other than your opinion.

My wife scored over a 1500 on her SAT and received her HS diploma when she was 16. She finished her Bachelor's degree when she was 20 with summa cum laude honors at UNC. She is now back in Grad School at UNC and because of her community involvement and her 4.0 has the chance to graduate top of her class and receive egregia cum laude honors. She has no issues with social interaction and like I stated his heavily involved with many community organizations and while in undergrad was a national officer for a fraternity she was in. BTW neither of her parents have a college degree.

Money is not a concern for us, but we will do what is best for our children to obtain an education. Public schooling is at the bottom of the list and between my wife and myself both are probably more qualified to teach than alot of teachers in the public school.

 

[Tide Warrior]

See my previous post. The issue isn't achievement. It's achievement versus ability. You can't compare a kid with low ability in the public school system to a kid with high ability in the home school arena. There's no significant difference in SAT scores among students of the same ability level. If I can find that study I'll post it.

The study does not identify the top homeschoolers. It takes into consideration all demographics. You may need to read the numbers again. It is not selective as your want to suggest. It takes the student in both settings from the same peer group and matches them. I understand the numbers are derived from averages but it is not like those averages are close to each other. There is a huge variance between the two. It would actually be hard to make a fair correlation between the top because of the disparity between the two. I would actually take a guess and say in most studies the top public school performer would be considered an outlier in that comparison.

The studies show the homeschooler out performs the public school student. Achievment is derived from ability. Ability comes from being prepared and taught how to articulate in the classroom. Based on the studies my conclusion would be the public schools fail in preparing the student to achieve success as they progress upward in grades. The studies supporthomeschooler passes the public school students at a greater rate at higher grades.

If you look at the numbers it would actually disagree with your assumptions. At k-4 the disparity between the two is not that big of a gap. It demonstrates the gap with homeschoolers are 1 grade ahead. But between 5-8th grades the disparity grows from 1 year to 4 years. In high school that disparity continues to grow but not at the middle rate. I would have to think social interaction and peer pressure play a huge role between the 5th and 8th grades. So in your unsupported arguement of the negaitve influence for homeschoolers with lack of social interaction, which is very unfounded, demonstrates that homeschool parents who are concerned with negative social interaction may be on to something since academics in the public school drop drastically in comparison to homeschooling during the middle grade years. Years that most experts will tell you are the most important for social development and can be the most detriment. Also these numbers discredit your assumption that specialty teaching should be a concern with homeschoolers. Because as students progress upwards to 12th grade the curricullum should require more distinct material, which in return should require more specializing teaching, which as you have pointed out parents are unqualified to teach. But yet the studies have shown that it is complete opposite. That public school students continue to digress and it becomes more specialized and homeschoolers progress greater and the disparity gap is wider. That even homeschoolers with parents that have no college edcuation or are certified fair just as well as those with. But yet in the public school it seems even with specialized degrees many teachers still may not be qualified to teach because so many students are falling behind. This is demonstrated by lower test scores which continue to decline along with lower acceptances rates compared to those that homeschool.

 

[cbi1972]

 

[rtcjny]

I am a public school teacher. The major problem with homeschooling is I am great at teaching science. That is what I am certified in. I could teach some low level Math and Social Studies wouldn't be a problem. With Language Arts I would be in trouble. There is no way I could teach all subjects and be good at it. Most parents who home school are not qualified to teach one subject let alone all of them.
I know there are problems with public education. I could write all night on that but saying someone who has not had a single college level class is qualified to teach and prepare their child for college is absurd.