The performance of home-schooled students in community colleges

Abstract

An increasing number of students are being educated at home throughout high school. These students are seeking admission to local community colleges upon completion of home schooling or to enhance their home school curriculum. This study focused on the performance of home schooled students at community colleges in Texas and on the attitudes of community college admissions officers from Michigan, Oregon, and Texas toward home schooled students. Admissions policies for home schooled applicants were also examined. A total of 101 transcripts for students who had been home schooled were evaluated. Analyses were made on the basis of part-time or full-time status, age of the student at the time of admission, grade point average (GPA), and scores on the Texas Academic Skills Program (TASP) test. Comparisons were made to average GPAs of first-time, full-time and first-time, part-time community college students and to TASP test scores for community college students statewide. A significant difference was found between GPAs, TASP reading, and TASP math scores of home schooled students and non-home schooled students. Home schooled student performed significantly better than non-home schooled students regardless of part-time or full-time status or age at the time of admissions. There was no significant difference found between home schooled and non-home schooled students on TASP writing scores. Only 27% of the admissions officers expected home schooled students to be more successful than students admitted from accredited high schools. Approximately 47% of the institutions had official policies for admitting home schooled students, yet 87% accepted home schooled students. Documents required for admission varied widely and many institutions reported difficulty with tracking home school students.