Learning isn't about what curriculum you use. Yet so many fear that they will fall behind that they allow fear to keep them from taking the leap to homeschool.
Every parent wants to make sure that their child will succed in life. With the way public schools test and compare students there is this faulse beliefe that students will fall behind if they don't attend public schools.
The truth is The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public school average is the 50th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.) A 2015 study found Black homeschool students to be scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above Black public school students (Ray, 2015).
78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools (Ray, 2017).
Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income.
Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement.
69% of peer-reviewed studies on success into adulthood (including college) show adults who were home educated succeed and perform statistically significantly better than those who attended institutional schools (Ray, 2017).
they go to and succeed at college at an equal or higher rate than the general population
87% of peer-reviewed studies on social, emotional, and psychological development show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in conventional schools (Ray, 2017).
Homeschool students are regularly engaged in social and educational activities outside their homes and with people other than their nuclear-family members. They are commonly involved in activities such as field trips, scouting, 4-H, political drives, church ministry, sports teams, and community volunteer work.
The reasearch shows that homeschool students do better than their public school peers.
Why does the fear persist?
Parents especially those who didn't think they would become homeschool parents fear that they might not teach everything their child should know. This is eccoed over and over in homeschool support groups with new homewschoolers asking for curriculum recomondations, how to know if they taught what they should, and parents sharing fear about not covering all the things they should.
For parents who fear this you can always look to your state standards to see what the public school students are learning in each grade. For parents who fear their child falling behind this may help relieve worries that they cover all of the things that their childs public school peers are learning.
Choosing Curriculum
This is something that I think each parent need to consider several things when they choose something. Each student is different and their learning styles are different. Picking something that will work for your student and their learning strengths can make all the difference in the world. When you try and fit the child to the curriculm instead of the curriculum to the child a missalighnment between the two causes furstration.
There are great curriculems out there but a great curriculm that teaches in a way that doen't work for your child will not be a great curriculm for them. Keep in mind that each student is different and what works well for one may not work well for another.
Ray, Brian D. (2015). African American homeschool parents’ motivations for homeschooling and their Black children’s academic achievement. Journal of School Choice, 9:71–96 [a peer-reviewed journal]. For a free copy, contact us.
Ray, Brian D. (2017). A systematic review of the empirical research on selected aspects of homeschooling as a school choice. Journal of School Choice, 11(4), 604-621 [a peer-reviewed journal]