The choice of which form of education you want to give to your kids is a big decision. There is private school, charter school, public school, and even homeschooling. So, which will you choose? The logical deciding factor is most likely each type of education’s college prep ability, so today we will look at how homeschooled kids fare in college compared to their peers in the traditional classroom setting.
Test Scores
A big part of college applications, especially before the COVID pandemic, is submitting ACT and SAT test scores. Colleges use these scores to assess a student’s ability to handle college level material and to compare them to other students who are applying. Statistically, homeschool students fall towards the middle of the pack when it comes to ACT scores. In a score analysis from ACT they say, “Mean ACT Composite scores for homeschooled students were consistently higher than those for public school students, with the difference ranging between 1.4 score points in 2007 to 2.2 score points in 2014. Compared to students enrolled in private schools, homeschooled students have scored lower since 2003. In 2014, homeschooled students scored 1.1 score points below private school students, on average.”
The fluctuation between mean scores of homeschool students, public school students, and private school students may not seem like much, but when your child’s scores are being weighed against another’s, those few points might make a difference.
College Prep
Going to college is a big step for students as many move out of their parents’ house and into their own space. This transition creates a lot of new challenges, arguably the biggest of which is time management and personal responsibility.
There is no escaping the fact that students that learn in a traditional classroom setting have an environment and schedule influenced to a great degree by their teachers. Conversely, homeschool students have a greater degree of freedom which requires them to manage their time well and hold themselves accountable for their use of academic time. Lilliana Cardwell, a freshman at Hillsdale College in Michigan, graduated high school as a homeschool student and says that, “Homeschooling taught me how to run my own schedule and how to do more things than just school.” She also claimed that because of that, her college preparedness would be ranked a 10 out of 10.
Something as simple as choosing homeschooling for the purpose of breeding time management and responsibility into your student’s development, could end up having benefits far greater than you could have foreseen.
Curriculum Options
When you choose to put your student in the public, private, or charter school system, you are trusting that the school has the best interest of your student in mind when it comes to curriculum. Sometimes, this can be a little bit stressful or can leave your student feeling as if they are not learning all that they want to be learning. If you decide on homeschooling your student, then, as they get older, you can review and choose a curriculum with your student.
This may be a little bit more work for you, but if having a say in what your student is learning is important to you, then homeschooling could be the best choice for you.
Final Thoughts
Especially amidst the pandemic, homeschooling has become a more attractive option as more students are forced to stay home anyway. With the added benefit of better college preparedness, higher ACT scores than that of their public school peers, and the freedom to choose the curriculum that you want, choosing to homeschool could be the best choice for your student.
