Ambiguous Outcomes of Home Schooling | Teachers College Columbia University

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Ambiguous Outcomes of Home Schooling

The success of home schooling is debatable, and Clive Belfield noted that comparisons drawn between those educated at home versus more traditional settings may not reflect sufficient data from which to draw conclusions.
The success of home schooling is debatable, and Clive Belfield noted that comparisons drawn between those educated at home versus more traditional settings may not reflect sufficient data from which to draw conclusions. The assistant director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education said that looking solely at test scores might simply show the contrast between the academic performances of advanced and average students. "It is possible some [of the students who are home schooled] are fantastically educated and some are not, and all we're seeing in the data is the fantastically educated," he said.

For these reasons, Belfield urges caution when looking at one group relative to the other. He expressed greater concern about child-abuse issues, stating that having children in school in a public space at least provides a venue for identifying if they are mistreated at home.

The article, entitled "Unhappy in Class, More Are Learning at Home" appeared in the November 10 edition of the New York Times.

Published Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003

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