First-Year College Performance: A Study of Home School Graduates and Traditional School Graduates

Journal of College Admission, Spring 2004 by Jones, Paul, Gloeckner, Gene

Background

During the past three decades, the number of families choosing to exercise their legal option to educate their children at home, rather than enroll them in public schools, has grown throughout the United States (Mayberry, Knowles, Ray, and Marlow 1995, Osborn 2000, Ray 2000). According to recent estimates, the home school K-12 population may be as high as 1.6 million students nationwide and may grow nearly seven percent annually, thus reaching three million by the year 2010 (Lines 1996, Ray 1999).

During this period of growth, home school advocates challenged state policy officials' and school boards' compulsory regulations, while the same advocates left many colleges and universities relatively alone. College admission officers across the United States were trying to grapple with how to address a growing population of the newly-graduated, home school students knocking at their doors.

Admission officers know little about the performance of a home school graduate's academic performance in college, but this fact doesn't stop colleges and universities from developing admission policies (accommodating or unaccommodating) for the home school population. Much of the existing research on academic performance centers on K-12, home school students and many of these studies show that home school children outperform their public school peers on several national standardized exams), including the Stanford Achievement Test and the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, and at nearly all grade levels (Rakestraw 1987, Frost 1987, Wanes 1990, Ray 1990, Rudner 1999).

Three empirical studies, specifically focused on the first-year academic performance of the home school college student (Galloway 1995, Gray 1998, Jcnkins 1998), attempted to remedy higher education and policy makers' lack of knowledge. Galloway (1995) found home school graduates outperformed their conventional private school peers on the ACT English subtest. Jenkins (1998) found that full- and part-time community college home school students' average first-year grade point averages were higher than non-home school graduates. Jenkins also found that the home school student's out-performed their peers in reading and mathematics on the Texas Academic Skills Program. Finally, Gray (1998) found no significant differences between home school and traditional students at three institutions in Georgia (including a public university, a private university and a private college) on the SAT scores, English grades or cumulative grade point averages.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine differences, in first-year college academic performance, between home school and traditional high school graduates, measured by grade point average, retention, ACT test scores, and credits.

To accomplish the purpose, nine null hypotheses were tested to determine if there were differences between home school graduates and traditional high school graduates. The results were:

* No significant difference in first-year grade point averages

* No significant difference in college retention during their first-year (fall to spring semester)

* No significant difference in first-year credit hours earned

* No significant difference in the ACT Composite scores

* No significant difference in the ACT English test scores

* No significant difference in the ACT Mathematics test

* No significant difference in the ACT Reading test scores

* No significant difference in the ACT Science Reasoning test scores

* No correlation between the variables: first-year grade point average, first year earned credit hours, first-year retention, and the ACT Composite test score

Method

The samples for this study consisted of 55 first-year, degree-seeking, home school graduates who enrolled in Colorado four-year public college or universities from 1998 to 2000. Once the home school sample was identified, a random sample of 53 traditional high school graduates (public, private, parochial, etc.) who met the same criteria of the home school sample and matched by the home school institution (n = 53). The Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) obtained the data and identified home school graduates by a high school code, a transcript type or an identification number. The dependent variables were: overall freshman cumulative grade point average; cumulative credit hours earned; SAT Combined test score (converted to ACT Composite score and only used for those students who did not have a ACT Composite score); gender; race/ethnicity; and ACT Composite and subtest scores.

Data Collection and Instruments

CCHE collected data, the ACT Composite test scores and the four subtest scores (English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science Reasoning), for the first phase. Additionally, they collected data to determine first-year academic performance, measured by first-year grade point average, retention and first-year credit earned.

Several studies show the ACT Composite test score as a reliable predictor of first-year success in college (ACT Assessment: Technical Manual 1997, Galloway 1995, House and Keeley 1997, Kern, Fagley, and Miller 1998, Rodriguez 1996, Schade 1977, Snyder and Elmore 1983). House and Keeley (1997) also found that the ACT Composite Test score was a valid assessment for Native American students as a predictor of college success, while Rodriquez (1996) found similar results for Mexican American students.