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How Does the Education a Homeschooled Child Receives

Compare with That of Conventionally Schooled Children?

Lines notes that "virtually all the available data show

that the group of homeschooled children who are tested is

above average.  The pattern for children for whom data are

available resembles that of children in private schools."51

Ray notes that, regardless of income, race, gender, or

parents' level of education, homeschooled children consis-

tently score between the 82nd and 92nd percentiles on

achievement tests.52  The data from the Washington Home-

school Research Project, which has analyzed the SAT scores

of homeschooled children in Washington State since 1985,

demonstrated that the scores of those children were above

average.  Jon Wartes, writing on behalf of the project,

notes that "fears that homeschooled children in Washington

are at an academic disadvantage are not confirmed."53  One

significant piece of evidence of the educational progress

homeschooled children are making: the National Merit Schol-

arship Corporation chose more than 70 homeschooled high

school seniors as semifinalists in its 1998 competition.54

What Type of Young Adults Does Homeschooling Produce?

The homeschooling movement has produced its share of

talented young adults.  Barnaby Marsh, who was homeschooled

in the Alaskan wilderness, went on to graduate from Cornell

University and was one of 32 Rhodes Scholars selected in

1996.  Fifteen-year-old country singer LeAnn Rimes skipped

two grades as a result of homeschooling.  Army specialist

Michael New, a decorated medic who was court-martialed for

refusing to don a United Nations uniform, was homeschooled.

Jason Taylor, a Miami Dolphins football player, was a home-

school graduate.

The movement is even old enough to have begun to estab-

lish a second generation of homeschoolers--homeschooled

children who choose to homeschool their own children.

Assessing the outcome of that choice remains a future task

for researchers, but some information about first-generation

homeschooled adults is available.  J. Gary Knowles of the

University of Michigan studied 53 adults to see the long-

term effects of being educated at home.  He summarized his

findings as follows: