Is non-professional homeschooling detrimental to children?

Question

In a comment to another question the following assertion was made:

Are you a qualified and trained teacher? Homeschooling would be detrimental if you are not a professional in this industry.

While detrimental means "tending to cause harm" we can probably lower the bar a bit.

Do children homeschooled by those without professional teacher training or specific teaching qualifications have worse outcomes in life than those schooled by professional, trained, and qualified teachers, as found in public education?

While personal experiences are valuable, I'm specifically interested in research or studies show or demonstrate this.

Answer 1

Do children homeschooled by those without professional teacher training or specific teaching qualifications have worse outcomes in life than those schooled by professional, trained, and qualified teachers, as found in public education? ... I'm specifically interested in research or studies show or demonstrate this.

Studies cost money, usually supplied directly or indirectly by the government, or by interested parties. Since proof of superiority of outcome is not a prerequisite to homeschool, I doubt either the government, educators (who lose money for every child in the district who is being homeschooled), or the parents themselves (who already believe in the superiority of homeschooling for both correct and erroneous reasons) have supplied the considerable money needed for a decent study to be done. On the other hand, educators unfortunately have a vested interest in proving homeschooling is detrimental to children.

Therefore, your request for studies (at least good ones) might be possible, but they will be difficult to find, and studies (of whatever quality) with conflicting results could be found by someone with a particular bias to support.

So, what do we have to work with? How can we infer the value or the harm of homeschooling?

Parental involvement has long been recognized as a primary factor in outcomes of education (i.e. before homeschooling was even a thing).^[1]

You can pick your opinion then support it with studies.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

A notable increase in the number of U.S. families choosing to homeschool their children in recent years has underscored the need to develop more systematic knowledge about this approach to education. Drawing on a theoretical model of parental involvement as well as research on families’ social networks, this study longitudinally examines home- and public-school parents’ motivations for home-based involvement in their fourth through eighth grade children’s education at two time points. The study also examines whether involvement activities predicted student proximal achievement outcomes (academic self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation for learning, and self-regulatory strategy use) across the two groups. Results suggest that parental self-efficacy for involvement, specific invitations from the child, and parent social networks are positively related to home-based parental involvement across the groups, although home- and public-school parents recorded significantly different perceptions of personal self-efficacy, role activity beliefs, social networks, and child proximal achievement outcomes. Findings are discussed with reference to implications for future research and practice.^[2]

Personally, I can think of four National Merit Scholar recipients in my son's high school graduation year. Three were homeschooled. Is that how one measures success? I hope not. The public schooled one has a bad relationship with his parents (moved far away, never calls, etc.) but has a good job (did not pursue graduate degree). One of the homeschooled recipients went on to get a PhD in literature from a prestigious university, but is unemployed, and recently got married to another unemployed PhD. The third graduated art school and has a low-paying job drawing comic strips (his dream). The forth finished a degree in art and photography, worked at a low-paying job for a couple of years, then went back to school, and is now happily married and working as a nurse.

All this says to me is that they are like everybody else in this economy.

Are you a qualified and trained teacher? Homeschooling would be detrimental if you are not a professional in this industry.

This is nonsense espoused by someone with a bias against homeschooling. He might believe (without reason)...

...that homeschool parents [are] either move-to-the-country anarchist goat-herders, or right-wing Bible-thumpers, and their children [are] either mathematically-limited, due to Mama's fear of math, or child prodigies in rocket-science who were unthinkably socially hindered.^[8]

Your question as asked cannot be answered with authority. If you want to discuss the pros and cons of parent's experiences with homeschool with an eye towards trying to find truth and not simply justification, you'll need to ask a different question. The one you ask now will be long on opinion and short on proof.

_{[1] http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1009048817385
[2] Linking Parental Motivations for Involvement and Student Proximal Achievement Outcomes in Homeschooling and Public Schooling Settings
[3] Differential effects of parental involvement on cognitive and behavioral outcomes by socioeconomic status
[4] The Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Urban Secondary School Student Academic Achievement A Meta-Analysis
[5] Parental Involvement in Homework
[6] Parental Involvement as Social Capital: Differential Effectiveness on Science Achievement, Truancy, and Dropping Out*
[7] Exploring Academic Outcomes of Homeschooled Students
[8] Homeschoolers on to College: What Research Shows Us}

Answer 2

This page lists a number of scholarly resources on the subject. However, it's very difficult to compare, because homeschools are not even close to standardized. Homeschoolers often dominate academic events like spelling bees, sports like figure skating (Michelle Kwan), entrepreneurial ventures (Andrew Carnegie), and other fields (Thomas Edison). They have better average scores than public schoolers on standardized tests. Homeschoolers who want to go to college generally excel there as well. On the social front, homeschool graduates have much higher rates of involvement in charities and community projects. Study after study confirms this. Yes, those studies don't separate "professional" homeschoolers from others, but the vast majority of homeschoolers are not professionals.

On the other hand, we have Lindsay Lohan and Adam Lanza. Although in Adam Lanza's case, he was previously in public school for many years and they couldn't handle him either. Most of the worst-case examples of bad homeschooling outcomes would probably have been as bad or worse at school. Same goes for the reverse. How can you know a particular child who did well in school wouldn't do even better in homeschool? It's very difficult to compare with a hypothetical.

Also, many of the positive outcomes are self-selecting. For example, homeschoolers who don't want to go to college don't often bother with standardized tests. Those who aren't good spellers don't try to enter spelling bees.

As far as professional training goes, I have read many anecdotal accounts of public school teachers who found their training almost useless when they decided to homeschool their own children. As Fezzik from Princess Bride said, "You use different moves when you're fighting half a dozen people, than when you only have to be worried about one." Contrary to popular belief, most homeschoolers don't have dozens of children :-)

For just one example, grades are utterly irrelevant in homeschool. You either keep working with the child until he achieves mastery, or you drop the topic and come back to it later when he's better prepared.

When we started homeschooling, I took it upon myself to learn as much as I could about education: how children learn best, how to deal with ADHD, etc. I learn from the same sources a professional educator would. To my great surprise, I found that schools often can't or won't follow their own experts' advice.

When I asked professional educators I know, I found this was an extreme source of frustration to them. They often know methods that would help their students learn better, but their hands are often tied in being able to employ them, because of political or practical considerations. Ironically, homeschoolers are in a much better position to utilize those expert recommendations than professionals are.

For example, I discovered that experts know a 10-minute recess once per hour would solve a good part of the behavior problems ADHD causes in schools. My son's school had one 15-minute recess per day, which he was often held in from due to his ADHD-related behavior problems. Now that he's homeschooled, it's almost a non-issue. He can take as long of a recess as he needs, whenever he needs it.

Some other examples where we're following the professionals' advice better than the professionals can:

• Each topic is geared to the individual level of challenge they need, at the individual pace they need.
• We can go into depth on topics our kids are passionate and curious about at the moment. My seven year-old probably knows more about ancient Egypt than I do.
• We use a computer program that gives instant feedback for math practice, where he often used to fill out entire worksheets incorrectly and not know until the next day or even the next week.
• Our differentiated instruction is able to be much more targeted.
• Our kids have many more opportunities to ask clarifying questions. We never have to move on in order to keep to the schedule or to give other kids a chance.
• Our kids are not overloaded with "homework." They have plenty of time for play, the arts, and family activities.

Do some homeschoolers have worse outcomes than they would have had at public school? Sure, but the statistics are in homeschooling's favor, and I think the outlier cases are mostly due to ideology rather than a lack of training.