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Statistics about homeschooling and the United States


warriormom
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I just finished reading Dumbing Us down today. I read a startling statistic in that book that homeschooled children are 5 to 10 years ahead of their peers in public schools. The statistic is not documented (no reference). Do you know where I can find that statistic?

 

Also, I had a conversation with one of my friend's moms. She mentioned that the United States is one of the only countries in the world that believes that we should wait until our child is 6-7 years old to teach children to read. That most countries start teaching their children to read at 2-3 years of age. I am a huge early literacy mom, but I was wondering whether you know where that information is found.

Edited by cabreban
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I think the 5-10 years ahead sounds pretty unlikely. And I don't know any countries in which reading is taught to 2-3 yr olds. I taught in Poland, where children started school at 7. They were not expected to know how to read until then.

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I just finished reading Dumbing Us down today. I read a startling statistic in that book that homeschooled children are 5 to 10 years ahead of their peers in public schools. The statistic is not documented (no reference). Do you know where I can find that statistic?

 

Sounds bogus to me.

 

Also, I had a conversation with one of my friend's moms. She mentioned that the United States is one of the only countries in the world that believes that we should wait until our child is 6-7 years old to teach children to read. That most countries start teaching their children to read at 2-3 years of age. I am a huge early literacy mom, but I was wondering whether you know where that information is found.

 

I think she's getting this backward. First of all, most schools in the US teach children to read in K now - age 5-6. Other countries are the ones that don't start school until 6-7.

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I totally disagree with the idea/statistic/information that says most other countries teach a child to read at 2-3. Finland has one of the best educational systems in the world and they don't start formal anything until 7.

 

Here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8309153.stm It has a break down of when other countries start.

 

 

and here: http://www.iverna.com/academic This site talks about the dangers of pushing. And this is one of the studies it references: http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED360613.pdf

 

 

In the end, kids are ready to learn to read when they are ready. And trying to teach them when they are not ready is setting up a pattern for failure IMO.

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England is the only country I know of that teaches reading earlier than the US. They start school at 4, and kids are expected to read at about the level they read in kindergarten in the US.

 

The 5-10 years thing is crazy. I have a very bright kindergartner, but she is certainly not at the level of a 5th grader in anything. Let alone a 10th grader! She might, maybe, be able to give a 2nd grader a run for his money in a few subjects, but I'd say she's at a 1st grade level in most things.

 

I personally would not believe any stat about how ahead homeschooled kids are... Many homeschooled kids are pulled out of public school because they were behind, and the school is not meeting their needs: even in the best case scenario, it will take time (possibly years) to catch up. Others are pulled out because they're already light years ahead of their peers, and the school (again) is not meeting their needs: seems a bit unfair to credit homeschooling for that success. Basically, it's much too broad a range to make generalizations about.

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Indian parents often start their kids in school at about 3. They are made to write letters and numbers, etc, but when my ds started the equivalent of 1st grade at age 6 here he was still reading better than a lot of his class.

 

In schools where it's expected that if you are well educated you will go to school in English! I think those first few years may be mosty for language learning in reality.

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Really? When DS had his eyes evaluated, the Doctor mentioned (with respect) that New Zealand waits until 7 or 8 years to teach reading. And I'd wonder on the other statistic too.

 

Wow, that's interesting, because from my experience of children in NZ schools, they start reading when they begin school at 5. Really opens your eyes about investigating for yourself doesn't it. Not only this, but also the original comments made in this thread.

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"Reading" is certainly different from some basic letter recogition!

...with that being said, I can testify for Germany, Switzerland, and France: no "real reading" going on before 6/7.

 

As far as hs kids generally beeing 5-10 years ahead...well, I won't comment on that one.:lol:

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the Doctor mentioned (with respect) that New Zealand waits until 7 or 8 years to teach reading.

 

This is not true. On the day you turn 5, you start school (Yes, this means that every kid starts on a different day). On that first day, you memorize a short book (5 words per page, 5 pages long) and bring it home to "read" to your parents as homework. Kids are typically reading by 5.5, and if they are not reading within the first year of school, they are sent to Reading Recovery, which gives them individualized attention for about 3 hours per week for 2 to 4 months. Reading Recovery teaching phonics as the backup way to learn to read.

 

Ruth in NZ

Edited by lewelma
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Definitely beware HS books that have an axe to grind. You can usually identify them by sweeping generalizations made about either public schools or homeschoolers ;).

 

The truth is that there are fantastic public schools in America (I would cite Horace Mann elementary in St. Paul, MN as one example of a school with brilliantly dedicated teachers who are backed up by forward-thinking administrators who treat teachers as professionals, and district personnel who look at students as individuals and see to their needs quickly, be they special needs on the challenged, gifted, or 2E parts of the wheel, multi-lingual, or economically challenged... That was a hard school to move away from when sabbatical was over...). There are terrible schools in America. There are strong and challenging neighborhoods to teach in from the point of view of engaging families. And there are great and weak homeschooling families.

 

Books that generalize and make all schools evil and all homeschoolers saints really annoy me.

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HSLDA has a page with studies/ statistics, I think there's a link from the homepage.

 

I would believe the "5 years ahead" in some cases... say a 7 or 8 year old who is reading fluently. 3 of my kids so far have been reading at an adult level by age 7 or earlier (math is a whole other matter :glare:). Remember that our standards or concepts of "at level" as homeschoolers tend to be higher than public school.

 

4 of my girls went back to school this year-- 2 are way ahead grade level in reading and slightly above in math. Another is way ahead in reading but very behind in math. But-- there are some kids in the 7th grade class still struggling to read and some can't do basic math like long division. When you have large groups of kids the struggling ones tend to drag the average expectations of the class down.

 

When we've had our testing done by hewitt I'm always amazed by the percentiles between the general population and homeschoolers alone. My kids tend to be 90%tile in average terms but 50%tile when just compared to homeschoolers. So the standards are a lot lower when you look at the general population. In which case, "5 years ahead" may not mean a whole lot.

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If you're interested in seeing a critique of various studies and statistics about homeschooling, the blog Homeschool Research Notes often has really nice, academic, insightful thoughts about it. The blog is pro-homeschooling, but he's not afraid to call out and criticize poorly made conclusions on either side.

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Well, my own personal statistic is that my 8 yo is definately NOT 5-10 years ahead! She works just fine at a 2nd grade level, no worse, no better. She didn't learn to read until K and she was almost 6. I think it is a stretch to say homeschool kids are 5-10 years a head. That would put a 2nd grader at a 12th grade level. If that is the case, I am doing something horribly wrong.

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