Results of HA Basic Survey, Part Two: Summary of Findings
Results of HA Basic Survey, Part Two: Summary of Findings
Summary of Educational Findings
Survey respondents were asked to rate the following aspects of their homeschool experience: Math, Science, History, Language Arts, Studying Religions Other Than Your Family’s, Studying Political Beliefs Other Than Your Family’s, Sex Education, Socialization, Life Skills Relevant To All Genders, Job Training/Preparation For The Work Place, College Preparation, Academic Experience (As A Whole), and Intangible Experience (Everything Other Than Academics). Respondents were asked to rate these aspects on a scale from 1 to 5, 1 being “Horrible” and 5 being “Excellent.”
Averaging the scores for all aspects, respondents gave their experience a score of 3.06, barely above the median score category of “So-so.”
2013 Homeschoolers Anonymous Basic Survey.
Respondents consistently and overwhelmingly consider language arts their strong suit. The average score for language arts was 4.22, which makes it the only average score above 4, or “Adequate.” No score’s average reached past 4.5, putting it in the “Excellent” category.
Respondents consistently and overwhelmingly consider the quality of all other aspects of their home school experience (other than language arts) to be less than “excellent” and also less than “adequate,” averaging around “so-so.” Sex education, world religions, and comparative political science are the weakest points.
There was a tie for the aspect that received the most amount of “Horrible” votes between “Studying Political Beliefs Other Than Your Family’s” and “Sex Education.” 106 of the 242 respondents gave each of these categories a 1.
The aspect that received the most amount of “Excellent” votes was “Language Arts,” with 136 respondents (56.43%) giving it a 5. Coming in second to “Language Arts” was “History,” with 80 respondents (33.47%) giving it a 5.
Among core subjects (math, science, history, and language arts), math had the lowest score, with 2.82. Only 28.22% (68) of respondents considered their math education to be “Adequate,” and only 8.3% (20) considered it “Excellent.”
Summary of Abuse Findings
The majority of respondents (60.92%) experienced one or more forms of abuse in their homes or homeschooling environments.
2013 Homeschoolers Anonymous Basic Survey.
Emotional abuse was the most common (52.10%), followed by verbal abuse (44.96%); sexual abuse was the least common (5.46%).
Identification abuse was not common (8.82%, or 21 individuals out of 242), though that number ought to be concerning regardless. It means approximately 1 out of every 10 respondents experienced an environment in which their parent(s) did not provide or withheld/destroyed their identification documents (driver’s license, Social Security card, etc.). Similarly, more than 1 out of every 10 respondents (13.03%) were prevented while growing up from seeking medical care or denied medical care by their parent(s).
Approximately 1 out of every 4 respondents experienced the following forms of abuse in their home or homeschooling environment: economic abuse, educational abuse, and physical abuse.
Summary of Findings on the Relationship Between Christian Homeschooling and Current Religious Beliefs
The overwhelming majority of respondents believe that their homeschool experience influenced what they believe today about religion.
2013 Homeschoolers Anonymous Basic Survey.
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(Since the above categories are difficult to read, here is a text version:)
|
Answer Choices
|
Responses
|
|---|---|
|
My homeschooling experience had no influence on what I believe today about religion.
|
7.47%
18
|
|
My homeschooling experience was fundamentalist Christian, and strengthened my religious beliefs in fundamentalist Christianity.
|
5.81%
14
|
|
My homeschooling experience was fundamentalist Christian, and influenced me towards non-fundamentalist Christianity.
|
37.34%
90
|
|
My homeschooling experience was *not* fundamentalist Christian, and influenced me towards fundamentalist Christianity.
|
0.41%
1
|
|
My homeschooling experience was *not* fundamentalist Christian, and strengthened my religious beliefs in non-fundamentalist Christianity.
|
12.86%
31
|
|
My homeschooling experience was *not* fundamentalist Christian, and influenced me to leave Christianity for another religion.
|
0%
0
|
|
My homeschooling experience was *not* fundamentalist Christian, and influenced me to leave religion altogether.
|
0.41%
1
|
|
My homeschooling experience was fundamentalist Christian, and influenced me towards agnosticism.
|
19.09%
46
|
|
My homeschooling experience was fundamentalist Christian, and influenced me towards atheism.
|
14.94%
36
|
|
My homeschooling experience was fundamentalist Christian, and influenced me towards a religion other than Christianity:
|
1.66%
4
|
*****
Only 7.47% (18) said their homeschool experience did not influence their current religious beliefs. This means homeschool experiences influenced the current religious beliefs of 92.53% (224) of respondents.
78.84% of respondents had fundamentalist Christian homeschool experiences; 13.68% had non-fundamentalist Christian homeschool experiences.
The plurality (37.34%) of respondents had fundamentalist Christian homeschool experiences, and these experiences influenced them away from fundamentalism towards non-fundamentalist Christianity.
The second most common category (19.09%) was graduates whose fundamentalist Christian homeschool experiences influenced them towards agnosticism.
The highest retention value was within the non-fundamentalist Christian category: 33 respondents had non-fundamentalist Christian homeschool experiences, and among these 33 respondents 31 of them felt that experience strengthened their religious beliefs in non-fundamentalist Christianity.
Only 5.81% (14) of the respondents said they had a fundamentalist Christian homeschool experience that strengthened their own beliefs in fundamentalism.
*****
< Part One: Demographic Considerations | Part Three: Economics as a Factor >
Homeschoolers Anonymous 
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Sex education, world religions, and comparative political science are the weakest points.
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i.e. The three most likely to be the Fundagelical Party Line.
Sex
Heathen “Religions”
Politics
“Only 5.81% (14) of the respondents said they had a fundamentalist Christian homeschool experience that strengthened their own beliefs in fundamentalism.”
This made my day. Granted, there is selection bias at work here, but it’s comforting to know that fundamentalist homeschooling did not produce fundamentalist adults in many of these cases.
With these results in mind, I’d love to ask fundamentalist leaders, how’s that whole dominionist culture war thing is working out for them. 😀
On a different note, the high rates of emotional and spiritual abuse were startling. I realized that abuse took place in the homeschooling subculture, just as it does in many other homes, but those high numbers floored me.
There are a lot of interesting rates and trends. Some of the results floored me.
Considering this website clearly caters to those who had a bad homeschool experience, it doesn’t make sense to extrapolate these numbers to saying anything about homeschooling as a whole.
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Pingback: Results of HA Basic Survey, Part Four: Parental Education as a Factor in Educational Quality, Abuse, and Current Religious Beliefs | H . A
Would it be possible to post text versions of all of the results here? Apologies, but the charts are all a little difficult to read.
Hi, I homeschool and I am teachable. I only mean this in the most respectable way. Is this website about christian homeschooling, or homeschooling “lumped into one”. I mean, for me, there is quite a difference. I hope you respond, please forgive me if your website has already spelled this out somewhere (I am not a website guru).