Most of you probably already know that I think one of the best ways to
educate young Indian children (or any other kids, for that matter) is at
home.  I've given stats on achievement test scores of home school kids
once in a while to show it's workable.  Like, did you know that the
average home schooled child scores at the 80th-90th percentile brackets
on standarized acheivement tests versus 50th-60th percentile for public
schooled students.
Well, folks, I just read the results of a study done by Dr. Brian Ray
on home schooling; and I am even more convinved that Indian children in
the US should be kept out of public schools (and Hispanic and Black
kids, too.)
I'll go over the results with you.  People who oppose home schooling
(like the NEA) have been saying that the reason home schoolers do so
much better than public school kids is because most homeschooled kids
are white, and a lot of public school kids are minorities.  And,
according to them, minorities simply score lower than whites on
achievement tests, pulling the overall score down.  (Of course they're
not being racist or anything when they say that).  So Brian Ray
separated the minority home schooled kids from the whites. Lo and
behold, Indians, Blacks, Hispanics, Orientals, and Whites *all* had
similar scores when homeschooled.  Every category of minority kids (and
he separated them into Black, Hispanic, Indian, and Oriental) scored the
same as whites in reading (the 87th percentile bracket). There was
some difference in math, with the minority kids scoring the 77th
percentile and the white kids scoring the 82nd.  Ray then compared these
scores to kids of similar racial and economic backgrounds who were
attending public school.  In reading (remember there is no difference in
reading scores between home schooled Indians and homeschooled whites),
the average white kid scored the 61st percentile, and the average
minority kid scored the 49th (a 12 point difference for public schooled
versus a 0 point difference for homeschooled). In math, the average
white kid scored the 60th percentile, and the average minority kid
scored the 50th (a difference of ten points versus 5 for homeschooled
kids).
There are other arguements presented by the NEA for sending your kid off
to public school.  They say that uneducated parents cannot do a good job
educating their kids.  So Ray checked that out (with a sample of 5,402
home schooled kiddies).  He compared test scores of kids who were being
homeschooled by parents who had never even finished high school with
those whose parents had finished high school, and with those who had
graduated from college.  There *was* some difference, but not a lot.
Kids being educated by mothers who had not finished high school averaged
only the 83rd percentile, versus the 88th for kids being educated by
mothers who had finished four years of college (a difference of 5
percentile points). He then checked to see whether education of parents
affected public schooled kids.  It did, to an even greater degree than
it affected home schooled kids.  The average kid in public school whose
mother had not completed high school scored at the 28th percentile
bracket.  The average kid in public school whose mother had completed 4
years of college scored at the 63rd percentile bracket (a difference of
35 percentile points).  So it was even more advantageous for high school
drop outs to home school their kids than for college graduates to do so.
Since the child of the average high school drop out, educated in the
public schools, scores the 28th percentile bracket; and, if educated at
home, scores the 83rd percentile bracket, that is an increase of 53
percentile points.  The difference for children of college grads is only
25 percentile points.
Furthermore, the more years the child had been homeschooled, the greater
the difference between the public school scores and the home school
scores; and that was true whether the child had never been homeschooled,
or had been pulled out of public school in high school.  Which indicates
that it is the homeschool setting itself that creates that difference.
Even when they have to admit that homeschooling is good for academic
development, the NEA type folks still say that homeschooling kids are
isolated from other kids, and that isolation could have a negative
impact on their social development. Ray decided to check that out. He
alreading knew that studies done by the University of Wisconsin and by
UCLA had shown that homeschooled kids consistently scored a lot higher
on tests of social skills than public schooled kids; but where these
kids actually doing things outside the home?  He interviewd 1,657
families, educating 6,000 children) to see whether homeschooled kids
were involved in extracurriculr activities. He learned that the average
homeschooled child was involved in 5 structured activities outside the
home per week (activities like ballet, 4-H, group sports, etc.), and
that 98% of the kids were involved in at least two structured
extracurricular activities per week. And that a whopping 87% percent
spent some time every day playing with kids outside the family. He did
not do a comparsion study to public schooled kids in this area. However,
it is clear that homeschooled kids *do* have opportunities for social
interaction outside the family.
So, if you're stil thinking about homeschooling your young Indian child;
talk to me.  I'm willing to exchange ideas.
                   Sondra
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ One golden day redeems a weary year.   Cecil Alexander
--- Opus-CBCS 1.7x via O_QWKer 1.7 
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