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Upgrade Chapter 2 - The Data on Education: What Every Parent Needs to Know · Passing On The Faith

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Perhaps the most interesting educational study conducted in the last decade was performed by Dr.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: Lawrence Rudner and the ERIC Clearinghouse, involving more than 21,000 homeschooled students.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: The study, analyzing student performance on standardized tests, found that the average homeschooled eighth grade student tested four grade levels above the national average.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: On average, homeschoolers tested above their public and private school counterparts in every grade and in every subject.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: The average scores of home educated students in various subjects and grades ranked between the 75th and 85th percentiles.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: The strongest piece of analysis coming from the Rudner study considered the performance of homeschooled children according to the number of years they had been homeschooled.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: The data showed that students who had been homeschooled for four years or longer exhibited the greatest difference in higher scores over national average scores.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Evidently, sustained improvement relies on a commitment to the process.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Every week, we bring you a powerful moment from one of our sermons, audiobooks, webinars, or conference talks, handpicked to help you build a strong biblical foundation for your family.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: This week's episode is a chapter from our audiobook, Upgrade, entitled The Data on Education, What Every Parent Needs to Know.
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  SPEAKER_00: Written by Kevin Swanson.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: For the Lord gives wisdom.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Proverbs 2.6.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Considering average scores from nationally standardized tests administered to American schoolchildren, some forms of education clearly produce better results.
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  SPEAKER_02: However, these studies alone cannot recommend a single approach for every child on Earth.
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  SPEAKER_02: This is because of the principle of individuality.
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  SPEAKER_02: Also, one must remember that no scientific study is definitive.
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  SPEAKER_02: There is always a margin of error.
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  SPEAKER_02: Moreover, these studies typically compare the averages in the study group and do not consider the whole distribution of the range.
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  SPEAKER_02: When you look at the academic performance of a group of students on a standardized test, the data make up a bell curve.
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  SPEAKER_02: Many of the students will be grouped around an average, while a few students fall at the high and low ends of the spectrum.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: Each child is an individual, and some children may perform well in one environment and not in another.
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  SPEAKER_02: There are other factors that contribute to the success or failure of a student besides the factors looked at in one particular study.
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  SPEAKER_02: These factors might include the quality of parenting, economic conditions, intellectual ability of the student, and so forth.
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  SPEAKER_02: Scientific studies can identify areas in which there are problems and areas in which we might look for solutions, but the studies hold no ultimate answers.
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  SPEAKER_02: This is why most of this book will be concerned with the principles of good education established by historical example and biblical revelation.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: A major study Twenty years ago, only sixteen percent of Americans considered homeschooling a good idea.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: A radical shift has occurred in the American view of homeschooling since then.
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  SPEAKER_02: According to a recent poll, the percentage has risen to forty two percent.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: Undoubtedly, the media has made a strong contribution to this change.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Over the last several years, the majority of media coverage of homeschooling has been positive.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: Recently, homeschooled youngsters dominated the national spelling bee, taking home all three of the top prizes.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: In the National Geography B last year, three of the top six winners were homeschoolers.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: Homeschoolers are capturing 10% of the top full ride college scholarships, yet they make up only 1-2% of the high school graduates.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Homeschoolers are scoring well over the national average in the nationally standardized tests, including the SAT and ACT college entrance exams.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Perhaps the most interesting educational study conducted in the last decade was performed by Dr.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Lawrence Rudner and the ERIC Clearinghouse, involving more than 21,000 homeschooled students.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: The study, analyzing student performance on standardized tests, found that the average homeschooled eighth grade student tested four grade levels above the national average.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: On average, homeschoolers tested above their public and private school counterparts in every grade and in every subject.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: The average scores of home educated students in various subjects and grades ranked between the 75th and 85th percentiles.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: The strongest piece of analysis coming from the Rudner study considered the performance of homeschooled children according to the number of years they had been homeschooled.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: The data showed that students who had been homeschooled for four years or longer exhibited the greatest difference in higher scores over national average scores.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Evidently, sustained improvement relies on a commitment to the process.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: This does not mean that homeschooling is for everyone.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: Neither does it mean that everyone who homeschools does a good job.
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  SPEAKER_02: Every distribution has what statisticians call the lower tail, and that would include the academic performance of homeschoolers.
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  SPEAKER_02: While some score in the 80th percentile, there are also those who score in the 10th to 20th percentile.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: In 2009, Dr.
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  SPEAKER_02: Brian Ray from the NHERI, the National Home Education Research Institute, conducted another significant study on the academic performance of home educated students in this country.
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  SPEAKER_02: Over the previous decade, the homeschool population had doubled, producing a wider distribution of participants in the movement, so of course academic leaders were interested in the results of the study, which included in excess of twelve thousand students over a wider variety of testing services.
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  SPEAKER_02: The results are contained in the chart below.
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  SPEAKER_02: Average percentile national average fifty percentile.
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  SPEAKER_02: two thousand nine Ray Study Reading eighty nine, language eighty four, math eighty four, nineteen ninety nine Rudner Study, reading eighty five, language seventy three, math seventy seven.
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  SPEAKER_02: This data indicates a substantial improvement over the previous study conducted ten years earlier, with the most significant improvement seen in the areas of language and mathematics.
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  SPEAKER_02: Compare this study also to a significant study just issued by Stanford Center for Research on Education Outcomes on Charter School Performance.
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  SPEAKER_02: The study of collective reading and math progress in two thousand four hundred and three charter schools in fifteen states and cities, including the District of Columbia, that was released in June 2009 showed that almost half of the charter schools produced results similar to those from comparable public schools.
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  SPEAKER_02: Charter schools producing worse results than the traditional schools outnumbered those with better numbers by more than two to one.
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  SPEAKER_02: Factors that do not contribute to success or failure.
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  SPEAKER_02: Nevertheless, a study of this magnitude demonstrating such outstanding results cannot be ignored.
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  SPEAKER_02: This should direct the attention of every school administrator, teacher, and parent in America toward the homeschooling option.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: What is it that homeschooling parents are doing right?
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  SPEAKER_02: Is it simply sitting at home and being taught by parents that brings out in children the kind of success seen in the Rudner study and substantiated by dozens of other studies?
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  SPEAKER_02: Or is it something else?
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  SPEAKER_02: These studies have found that there are a number of things that do not contribute to the success of the homeschool.
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  SPEAKER_02: For example, there is no statistically significant difference between the performance of homeschooled children with teacher certified parents and those whose parents do not have teacher certification.
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  SPEAKER_02: Moreover, there was little significant difference between the performance of homeschooled children whose parents had doctoral and master degrees versus those parents with only a high school diploma.
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  SPEAKER_02: The data also seem to indicate that the economic status and race of the parents has little to do with the academic performance of a child.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: Interestingly, the same cannot be said for children enrolled in public schools.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: Students who attend conventional state schools and whose parents have master's and doctoral degrees perform at a significantly higher level than children whose parents do not have high school diplomas.
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  SPEAKER_02: In addition, parental economic status, race, and teacher certification remain more significant factors for those children attending the conventional state schools.
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  SPEAKER_02: More interesting data.
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  SPEAKER_02: Another recent study indicates that children tend to perform better in smaller schools than in larger schools.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: While a number of studies have not indicated that a reduction of class size contributes to higher test scores, at least one study showed modest gains in performance for the early grades.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Most recent studies indicate that the quality of student performance in state schools has much to do with the quality of the teachers in those schools.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: However, what makes for quality teachers is a matter of debate and is difficult to analyze.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: According to data recently obtained from the U.S.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: Department of Education, students enrolled in private schools perform higher on National Assessment of Education Progress than do those from public schools.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: National assessment and evaluation program results public versus private schools.
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  SPEAKER_02: Grade four science public school 148, the private school 163.
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  SPEAKER_02: Math public school 226, the private school 238.
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  SPEAKER_02: Science, the public school 149, the private school one hundred sixty six.
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  SPEAKER_02: Math public school two hundred seventy four.
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  SPEAKER_02: Private school two hundred eighty seven.
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  SPEAKER_02: Science at public school one hundred forty five.
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  SPEAKER_02: Private school one hundred sixty one.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: The problem with these studies is that they do not flesh out the reasons why smaller schools are better than larger schools, or why homeschoolers tend to outperform children enrolled in private or public schools.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: Therefore, pulling your children out of larger schools and placing them in smaller schools, private schools, or homeschools may not improve the situation for your particular children.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: We live in the data age, the scientific age.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: We trust data, but we do not always interpret the data well.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: That is because everybody interprets data in light of their worldview framework.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: Besides this, every researcher has his or her biases that eventually determine how the study will be conducted, which factors will be analyzed, which will be blocked, and which will be ignored.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Even if we accept the results at face value, the studies are still based on nationally standardized tests.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: These tests are incapable of determining the overall success of the education program over the life of one particular student.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Success is a slippery term that is defined on the basis of one's worldview assumptions.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: The definition of success given in the first chapter simply cannot be tested by any of the nationally standardized exams presently used.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: Conclusion.
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  SPEAKER_02: So why look at the data at all?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: The data can redirect our attention back into a general area that we have failed to consider.
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  SPEAKER_02: Scientific studies can force us to reevaluate our pre-commitments.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: They can force us to reevaluate the ancient method of home education and the principles behind it that make it work.
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  SPEAKER_02: After all, something must have worked with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Patrick Henry, Robert E.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Lee, C.
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  SPEAKER_02: S.
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  SPEAKER_02: Lewis, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Douglas MacArthur, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Charles Dickens.
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  SPEAKER_02: Each was homeschooled in his early years by father, mother, or both.
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  SPEAKER_02: What is it that these fathers and mothers did in their homes that proved to be effective?
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  SPEAKER_02: Did they capture the time tested secrets of a successful education for their children?
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  SPEAKER_02: This book is not meant to sell homeschooling as the only approach to education.
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  SPEAKER_02: Yet there must be something operating in a homeschool far more effective than a five year teaching degree that produces such outstanding results.
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  SPEAKER_02: What is happening in the homeschool that takes the national average for test scores sitting at the 50th percentile and ratchets it up twenty to thirty percentile points?
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  SPEAKER_02: At a time when American education has seen a sharp decline in academic performance, home education is doing something right.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: There is something about homeschooling that works.
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  SPEAKER_02: What are those factors that produce such incredible success?
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  SPEAKER_02: Many of the factors for success in education discussed in this book are predominant in most homeschooling environments.
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  SPEAKER_02: At the same time, these factors appear to a far lesser extent in the conventional school environment.
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  SPEAKER_02: If we refuse to learn from others who are deeply stuff with a relative exception, we are doomed to fail.org slash media.