Home school students do exceptionally well when compared with the nationwide average. In every subject and at every grade level of the ITBS and TAP batteries, home schoolers scored significantly higher than their public and private school counterparts.

Because home education allows each student to progress at his or her own rate, almost one in four home school students (24.5%) is enrolled one or more grades above age level. It should be noted that home school scores were analyzed according to the student's enrolled grade rather than according to the student's age level. In other words, a 10 year-old home school student enrolled in 5th grade would have been compared to other students in the 5th grade, rather than to his age-level peers in the 4th grade.

Figure 2 - Enrolled Grade Compared to Age of Home School Student *Footnote: "Other" includes all those enrolled more than 2 grades ahead or more than 1 grade behind

Thus, the demonstrated achievement of home schoolers is somewhat conservative. On average, home school students in grades 1-4 perform one grade level higher than their public and private school counterparts. The achievement gap begins to widen in grade 5; by 8th grade the average home school student performs four grade levels above the national average.

Figure 3 - Home School Median Scaled Scores (and Corresponding Grade Equivalent Scores*) * Footnote: Grade Equivalent Scores (GES) are a reference point for interpreting DSS scores. A GES approximates a child’s development in terms of grade and month within grade. (For example: A DSS composite score of 170 can be viewed as the typical DSS score earned by students in the ninth month of the second grade or a GES score of 2.9.)

Information on Home School Statistics was reproduced from “The Scholastic Achievement and Demographic Characteristics of Home School Students in 1998,” an independent study by Lawrence M. Rudner, Ph.D., Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation (made possible by a grant from the Home School Legal Defense Association).