The Home School Legal Defense Association commissioned a study of adults who were homeschooled. If you happen to run in homeschooled circles, it's likely that you will hear of this study soon. The survey was conducted over the internet in early 2003, and had about 7000 responses.
I have a few comments on the study. I took the survey, as did my sister, and we both agreed that the design and distribution of the survey were statistically questionable. There were questions that were worded in such a way that it was pretty clear what answer they were hoping for (and the other answers to those questions were so outlandish that there really was no other option). On one question in particular, I was forced into an answer that I don't think to be theologically correct, but which was the only answer that wouldn't have made me look like a heretic. That wasn't the biggest reason that I don't think that the study is accurate though. The big problem is that the survey group was self-selected--that is, those that were surveyed were not randomly selected from a group of all known homeschoolers nationwide, the survey group was instead a self-selected group of people who happened to hear of the survey, primarily through homeschooler channels, such as the HSLDA e-mail list, Crosswalk.com, or other similar sources (I learned of it through an e-mail forwarded by my parents). As a result, the people who chose to participate in the survey were already likely to have favorable impressions of homeschooling--the survey is not likely to have reached former homeschoolers who had bad experiences and who now have nothing to do with homeschooling, and is also not likely to reach low income former homeschoolers who do not have computer access. And, it's certainly not going to reach people like the guy I graduated with who is now a heroin addict (which has nothing to do with his being homeschooled, but which shows that even former homeschoolers aren't immune from stuff like that).
The study may be accurate despite what I've just described, it might not be, but the problems that I've mentioned mean that there is no way to tell. I doubt that's going to be a problem for those homeschool parents who are just using the survey results to show concerned relatives that they aren't going to warp the kids for life by homeschooling them. However, if outside researchers look into the study and find out that sloppy research methods were used, it's not going to look good for homeschoolers and for the National Center for Home Education.
I tend to agree with the study that most homeschoolers are well adjusted, but if we're going to prove that, we need to do so with studies that are more statistically sound.
Posted by kathryn at Octubre 23, 2003 08:30 PM | TrackBack