What About the Gender Gap in Academics?      When segmented by gender, test scores for home schoolers reveal that boys are slightly better in math (the 84th percentile versus the 79th percentile), and girls are somewhat better in reading (the 88th percentile versus the 87th percentile). Public school student performance in math follows a similar pattern, but public school boys’ reading scores are markedly behind girls’, the 43rd percentile versus the 58th percentile — a 15 point difference (Figure 7.0).

Continue to next page Footnote: * See Ray (1997) for more detail about the non-equal-interval nature of a simple percentile scale which has distortion especially near the ends of the scale.      ** Public school achievement data are for eighth grade based on tables from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research & Improvement, National Center for Education Statistics (1996, November). National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) trends in academic progress [trends report and appendices]. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.      Home school data are for grades K-12. Copyright © 1997 Brian D. Ray & HSLDA This report may not be reproduced.

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Choose a page below 1 - Cover 2 - Introduction 3 - Number of Home Schoolers 4 - Home School Student Scores 5 - Long-Term vs. Midstream 6 - Teacher Certification 7 - Parent Education Level 8 - Success of Minorities 9 - Gender Gap 10 - Family Income 11 - Spending and Achievement 12 - Government Regulation 13 - Test Administration 14 - Types of Curriculum 15 - Trips to the Library 16 - Computers in Home Schools 17 - Socialization 18 - Hours Spent on TV 19 - Ages of Students in Study 20 - Occupations of Parents 21 - Length of Home Schooling 22 - Home Education of Grads 23 - After Graduation 24 - Conclusion 25 - About the Researcher

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