HSLDA | Home Education Across the United States

Is Family Income a Predictor of Academic Achievement for Home Schoolers?

Segmenting student test scores by family income shows that socioeconomic status is not a determinant of academic performance for home schoolers (Figure 8.0). Regardless of family income bracket, home school students score between the 82nd and 92nd percentiles.
According to some researchers and officials, family income has a significant impact on public school students’ scores. Concerned about a recent study of student achievement in the Denver public schools, a school board member wrote, “The conclusion is clear. Family income and class are stronger indicators of education success than race.”²

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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.
² Denver Business Journal, February 21, 1997, p. 40A. See also, Coleman, James S., Thomas Hoffer, & Sally Kilgore, (1982) High school achievement: Public, Catholic, and private schools compared, New York, NY: Basic Books, and Snow, Catherine E., Wendy S. Barnes, Jean Chandler, Irene F. Goodman, & Lowry Hemphill, (1991) Unfulfilled expectations: Home and school influences on literacy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.