Strengths of their Own

Strengths of Their Own—Home Schoolers Across America. (Link to Book

a study performed by Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute, and sponsored by the Home School Legal Defense Association.

from the study:

Several analyses were conducted to determine which independent variables were significantly related to academic achievement. There was no significant relationship between achievement and (a) whether the father was a certified teacher, (b) whether the mother was a certified teacher, (c) family income, (d) money spent on education, (e) legal status of the family, (f) time spent in formal instruction, (g) age formal instruction began, and (h) degree of state regulation of home schooling. Achievement was statistically significantly related, in some cases, to father’s education level, mother’s education level, gender of student, years home educated, use of libraries, who administered the test, and use of computers. The relationships were, however, weak and not practically significant.

This and other studies indicate that very few background variables (e.g., socioeconomic status of parents, regulation by the state) explain the academic achievement of the home educated. It is possible that the home education environment ameliorates the effect of variables that are typically considered a detriment to students. A variety of students in a variety of home education settings have performed very well in terms of academic achievement.