Homeschooling by the Numbers
My dh found an interesting "infographic" about homeschooling statistics. Click the image to enlarge.
Where do I start with Math Mammoth?
Where do I start with Math Mammoth? is a question I often hear (or read 😃 ). Most of the time, the best starting place is this page: https://www.mathmammoth.com/complete/placement_tests.php Looking over the tests will give you an idea of what is covered in each grade level of Math Mammoth. A natural next step is to administer a placement test or several (instructions for this process is explained on the page), but it's not always necessary to administer a test. Sometimes the teacher/parent can see just by looking at the tests, where the child would place. Often, the test reveals gaps, and you can use the TOPICAL books of the BLUE series to fill them in: https://www.mathmammoth.com/blue-series.php Or, you can use other materials you might have, or Khan Academy, etc. Sometimes it works out to use one of these review books to help a child get more solidified before starting a particular level in MM: https://www.mathmammoth.com/skills_review_workbooks/ https://www.m...
Comments
1) homeschoolers don't have to take the SAT, so there is an enormous self-selection bias, with only the better-prepared students choosing to take the exam.
2) the demographics of the three populations are not matched. The effect that is being observed may be due entirely to the education level and income level of the parents, and have nothing to do with the education method.
The evidence is that the biggest determinant of outcomes for public school students is the value their parents place on education. Parents who care a lot about their children's education tend to do better in whatever educational setting they attend.
Clearly parents who homeschool place a high value on their children's education, and thus one would expect them to do better in general.
As for point #1), nobody has to take the SAT (homeschooled or otherwise), so the self-selection bias is not confined to homeschoolers.
Alaska subsidized homeschooolers through it's government-operated correspondence schools. Students in these schools take standardized tests and perform as the statistics above indicate. Aggregate State-level NAEP statistics suggest that this is not sample bias induced by self-selection, since Alaska has (had, last I looked) the highest 90th percentile score (NAEP 8th grade Math) of all US States.