Home Schooling vs. Traditional Schooling Achievement, Essay Example

Completing the study regarding home schooling and traditional schooling outcomes has had several revealing results. The findings and conclusions, as well as the impacts will be reviewed below.

The completion of the assignment has had an impact on my understanding on preschool to K12 learning outcomes. I have realized that parental involvement positively impacts learning outcomes. Collaboration between teachers, school and parents was creating better learning and atmosphere, while home schooling did not have a negative effect on test results, indeed: statistics showed that home-schooled children achieved higher scores in mathematics, literacy and writing.(Barwagen et al. 2009) The reasons, I believe, lie in parental commitment towards children’s achievement. Gaining more commitment from parents, therefore, would result in better learning outcomes in traditional schooling, as well.

In my professional teaching practice I will look at the possible reasons why there is an achievement gap in public schools between minority group children and those who are from non-minority background. The completion of the study has revealed that it is possible to eliminate these gaps, and indeed the current initiatives of the U. S. Federal Government are aiming to achieve this goal. I will always see the statistics in front of me stating that home-schooled children’s achievements do not depend on ethnic or economic background. I will work hard to eliminate language, cultural and attitude-based barriers that stand in the way of communication between parents and educators. (Belfield, 2009) I will look for ways to strengthen parental involvement in education and provide the most suitable development support for those from disadvantaged groups. Bilingual education should start from early years, in order to bring children up to the level of expected achievement by the time they need the language. I will work on providing opportunities for language development in order to reduce the gap in achievement between disadvantaged children and their peers.

References

Belfield, C., (2004, June 29). Modeling school choice: A comparison of public, private-independent, private-religious and home-schooled students. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 12(30). Retrieved [Date] from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v12n30/

Barwagen, L., Falciani, N., Putnam, J., Reamer, M., Stair, E. (2004) Academic achievement of homeschool and public school students and student perception of parent involvement. The School Community Journal. 2004. Retrieved from: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ794828.pdf