Tag Archives: Dr Brian Ray

Educational, Homeschooling, parenting, Research

Homeschooling Swims Against The Conformist Current (And That’s A Good Thing)

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OSMGIKLh6Lgl-320x240As I was filtering through my Facebook feed, I noticed a posting from my good friend, Dr. Brian Ray, of the National Home Education Research Institute (NEHRI). I often share his posts because they always reflect the reality of homeschooling, good and not so good. I have always known Dr. Ray to present homeschooling in a truthful and unbiased light, even though he has home schooled his own children and believes in parent led education as a viable form of schooling. I find it amazing that our society can be so brainwashed into such narrow thought.

The article, in SFGate, features a formerly homeschooled student from Kansas who is now attending Penn State. It was titled, Homeschooling Presents Opportunities, Challenges.

Read the rest of the post on Politichicks.tv

Educational, Homeschooling, Research

Dr Brian Ray Conducts A Study Of African American Homeschoolers And Seeks Your Input

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Fellow Homeschoolers,

PLEASE CONSIDER HELPING OUT …..Pass on to any other homeschool families you know!!!

A fellow homeschool mom assisting Dr. Brian Ray as he looks at the successes of homeschooled AfAm children asks for your help.

Dr. Brian Ray (Education Researcher and Fellow Homeschooler)

…..is conducting a historical study of homeschooling amongst African Americans. He is looking for families from all over the nation to participate in a study looking at the academic scholarship of homeschool students. In particular he is interested in looking at how African American students do on standardized testing areas (i.e. language, math, reading, etc.).

He is most interested in African American homeschooled children between the ages of 9 – 14.

Dr. Ray will work with the family to have an administrator conduct the test and all costs for the tests are 100% FREE!!

***Many homeschool families want their kids tested but either don’t know how to access this opportunity outside of their local public school district and/or can’t afford an independent tester or the cost of the test, especially if they homeschool multiple children. This study is an opportunity to not only help out Dr. Ray, who is interested in learning more about the homeschooling community, but is also a wonderful opportunity to have your kids tested for no cost to you! Note: all testing results will be shared directly with you.

So some of you I know still have anxiety about testing – but testing is a great way to see your child’s areas of strength and areas of growth. It helps you pinpoint just where more support and instruction might be needed. It is also great practice for families who are considering college or professional studies for their children. To enter into college and many professional careers young adults are expected to take any number of standardized tests or assessments. The more practice and comfort they have with this process the better.

If you are interested and/or want more information please contact Dr. Ray directly. His information is below.

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.

President

National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI)

Editor in Chief

Home School Researcher (academic refereed journal)

PO Box 13939

Salem OR 97309 USA

phone (503) 364 1490

www.nheri.org & mail@nheri.org

Brian Ray for research & personal bray@nheri.org

 

Educational, Homeschooling, parenting, Research

Harvard Study Says “Good Teachers” Shape The Futures Of Children. What About Parents?

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The New York Times released a story on a study linking “good teaching” to lasting positive affects on students. The study, conducted by Harvard and Columbia University researchers, tracked 2.5 million students over a 20 year period and concluded:

Elementary- and middle-school teachers who help raise their students’ standardized-test scores seem to have a wide-ranging, lasting positive effect on those students’ lives beyond academics, including lower teenage-pregnancy rates and greater college matriculation and adult earnings.

Value-Added-Ratings, a controversial system now being used to measure teacher effectiveness, is likely to be influenced by the results of this new study, says Robert H. Meyer, director of theValue-Added Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The study, mostly tracked student success based on test scores and found good teachers had a longer lasting impact on students than bad teachers, as summed up by the National Center for Policy Analysis.

The difference between excellent teachers, average teachers and poor teachers had a substantial impact on the income potential of students.

  • All else equal, a student with one excellent teacher for one year between fourth and eighth grade would gain $4,600 in lifetime income.
  • Replacing a poor teacher with an average one would raise a single classroom’s lifetime earnings by about $266,000 for each year of teaching.
  • A low value-added teacher in a school for 10 years will result in about $2.5 million in lost income for his/her students, when compared with an average teacher.

While previous studies suggested that the impact of good/bad teachers does not last beyond a three-or four-year period, this study argues that the impacts have significant longevity, manifesting themselves in areas beyond academics and earnings.

  • Students with superior teachers have lower rates of teenage pregnancy.
  • Students are more likely to enroll in college if they received superior teachers in their younger years of education.

Perhaps the study neglected to include some important information in its research. In 2009, Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute, released a study on homeschooling student achievement and found that homeschoolers, regardless of family income, educational status of parents, or financial outlay for educational material scored 34–39 percentile points higher than the norm on standardized achievement tests, than their publicly schooled counterparts.

So with the great educational reform debate raging in the United States, perhaps some pertinent questions need to be addressed.

Does teacher certification/qualification really have anything to do with student academic achievement? Does teacher influence trump parental influence in the life of students and the decisions they make about higher education and abstinence? Are test scores really the only thing we hang our hats on, in determining longterm personal success of high academic achieving students, or does a solid family influence, such as is found in most homeschooling families, come into play? Bottom line, what studies/research is there to show “good teachers” are more effective at influencing the lives of children than “good” parents?

Homeschooling, Research

A Little Something To Remind Us All Of Why We Do What We Do

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I have been wanting to do this for quite a while and just have never made time to pull it together in a blog posting. Now that we, in Missouri, are fighting against some very restrictive and oppressive education reform, I just want to remind you all, or give you a reason, why it is important to keep an eye on the public education realm and its ever vigilant resolve to get its grip around the mustang, homeschooling. Or maybe, sometimes we just need to remind ourselves that we are making the right choices for our children. Here is a little validation in the form of tangible research.

In 2009, Dr. Brian Ray released a study on the progress of homeschooled students compared to their publicly schooled counterparts.

Drawing from 15 independent testing services, the Progress Report 2009: Homeschool Academic Achievement and Demographics included 11,739 homeschooled student from all 50 states who took three well-know tests–California Achievement Test, Iowa Basic Skill, and Stanford Achievement Test for the 2007-08 academic year. The progress Report is the most comprehensive homeschool academic study ever completed.

National Average Percentile Scores
Subtest          Homeschool          Public School
Reading                89                                50
Language             84                                50
Math                     84                                50
Science                 86                                50
Social Studies     84                                50
Core-a                  88                                50
Core-b                  86                                50
Core-a is a combination of Reading, Language, and Math
Core-b is a combination of all subjects that the students took on the test.

There was little difference between the results of homeschooled boys and girls on core scores.

Boys – 87th percentile
Girls – 88th percentile

Household income had little impact on the results of homeschooled students.

$34,000 or less – 85th percentile
$35,000 – $49,999 – 86th percentile
$50,000 – $69,999 – 86 percentile
$70,000 or more – 89 percentile

Educational level of parents:

Neither parent has a college degree – 83rd percentile
One parent has a college degree – 86th percentile
Both parents have a college degree – 90th percentile

Whether either parent was a certified teacher did not matter.

Certified (i.e. either parent ever certified)-87th percentile
Not certified (i.e., neither parent ever certified)-88th percentile

As for the great debate on whether more money makes a difference in educational excellence ….

Parental spending on home education made little difference.

Spent $600 or more on the student – 89th percentile
Spent under $600 on the student – 86th percentile

The extent of government regulation on homeschoolers did not affect the results

Low state regulation – 87th percentile
Medium state regulation – 88th percentile
High state regulation – 87th percentile

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DOXUjOFZZsk]

Final Thought:

Homeschooling is making great strides and hundreds of thousands of parents across America are showing every day what can be achieved when parents exercise their right to homeschool and make tremendous sacrifices to provide their children with the best education available.

As a reminder, Dr. Brian Ray will be speaking on this topic and others on February 21st, at 7PM at the Family Vision Library.

Legislation, Uncategorized

Legislation Updates and Other Info

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If you have not sent in a witness form to the Senate Education Committee in Jefferson City, there is still time. The Senate Education Committee will debate SB 20, SB 21 and SB 124 on Wednesday, February 9th at 3PM. Fax your form to Senator David Pearce before Wednesday. Let your voices be heard.

Also, Homeschooling United is working on an event that I hope you will all find a “must attend” item in your schedules. Dr. Brian Ray of National Home Education Research Institute will be in St. Louis in February. We will release details as soon as we can finalize them. If you have never heard Dr Ray speak on homeschooling, you are in for a treat. No one in America has more experience in homeschooling research than Dr. Ray. He is a wealth of knowledge and an inspiration to homeschoolers.