Your comment makes absolutely no sense. I'll just ignore it.
I was thinking the same thing. In my area, for example, there is a city school district where only 38% of the students graduate; yet in the adjacent suburban public school district, 93% of the students graduate and go on to college. For the homeschool statisitics to mean anything, we need to know how many of the 7000 home schooled students would have gone on to college if they had attended the public high school that services their area (as opposed to any public high school). Maybe 86% would have gone on to college, suggesting that public school is a better choice. I would also like to know how many of the home schooled students actually graduate from college (as opposed to merely taking "some college courses"), as well as the quality of the colleges they are attending. Although home schooling may be a better choice, these particular stats are meaningless.
"These statistics are just nonsense. You have to compare kids with the same social background."
Their called "self-selecting statistics" and I've been attempting to make the same point on another thread. The HSLDA (mentioned in the article) has statistics (oft quoted - and misinterpreted - by posters here) that describe a 30+ point increase in standardized test performance - All just by taking your kids out of public school!
I'm all for homeschooling - but you have to be rational about the potential benefits to academic achievement for each individual kid.
statistics lie, and simply correlating high achievement and saying it's because of homeschooling is simply not true - these high-achieving students are more often than not selected (in the statistical sense) for homeschooling by rightfully concerned parents worried that their gifts will not be sufficiently challenged by being around average-ability peers in public school.
Achievement should be honored and emulated wherever it is found. High-Achieving kids are often homeschooled, and should be held out as examples to other kids.
That's a nonsense conclusion.
The obvious conclusion is that driving in a BMW is a safer than driving in a Beetle.
You could benefit from some homeschooling.
You obviously have every right to be critical of the statistics. However, if I were you I would at least make a cursory effort to be informed first so as not to appear ignorant. The data you seek is readily available. One of many sources is the 1997 study by Dr. Brian Ray of NHERI. This study shows that the superior test scores of home-schooled children were virtually independent of the level of education of either parent (incredible!), independent of parental certification (what does that say about the "trained professionals"?), independent of state regulation (suprise, suprise), and independent of minority status. There was a difference based on gender, however. The reading scores of males were lower than those of females, but by a smaller margin than public schools.
I think you are correct, but I've never known any home-schooled kids that come from very rich or very poor families. All are very middle income.