Article Reviews

Article Reviews

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A review of ‘First-year college performance’ research article

Background

When students join colleges and universities, various issues affect their performance. Their performance may either improve or deteriorate. Parents are faced with a problem of choosing between home education and public school education. This research article talks about the various issues that contribute to each decision made by various parents and guardians. It begins with the recent past, within the past thirty years, whereby there has been a significant growth of parents opting to educate their children at home than enrolling them to public schools (Gloeckner, 2007). The research points out an estimated number of these students were 1.6 million and estimated to grow by seven percent by the end of the year. it means that by 2010, the number had grown to about three million. It is possible to review the truth behind this research including any failures and accomplishments involved. The research method used, the research beneficiaries to education as well as its role to educational psychology would be analyzed as well.

The research background talks of the past difficulties in education that are related to the current trends in education such as the legal issues in education and the pressure behind parents’ choice to train their children at home. It also talks of the statistics on facts such as the initial state and the associated growth in the number of children enrolled in public schools versus those educated at home (Gloeckner, 2007). There is also a discussion on legal issue associated with such trends in education throughout the United States. There is a subject of home advocates challenging the existing regulations by both the school board officials and the state policy officials. The irony in it is that the same advocates had passed through public colleges and universities but are centrally advocating or something they have no experience in (Gloeckner, 2007). There is no any religious point of view about the subject.

The research further goes on to point some other researches that proves home school students and graduates to be better than their public school counterparts. Such evidence argues that home schoolchildren do better in several exams that are nationally standardized than their peers in public schools. Such generalized exams include Iowa basic skills test and Stanford Achievement Tests. This happens at almost all grade levels. These are late use the basic variable of the research (Bartle, 2012).

The first year  performance in academic exams was a major subject in the research. Conducting three empirical studies, it focused on correcting the fact that policy makers in education and the higher education board had little knowledge about the home education positive side. An instance is the outperformance of the public school college students by their peers in home schooling colleges in an ACT English subject. In another aspect of the empirical studies, home college students performed better than Fulltime College students did in both mathematics and reading. This was done in an Academic Skill Program in Texas. The third empirical test was based on insignificant differences between home college students and their peers in traditional schools, both in public and private colleges. A test done on an English test showed all poor and excellent performance extremes in both categories (Gloeckner, 2007).

Purpose

The study was mainly purposed to determine the differences that existed in traditional high school graduates and home schools graduates (Gloeckner, 2007). The major tools used were measures in grades, point averages credits, ACT test Scores and point averaging.

Research Method

It was basically as descriptive qualitative type of research that would describe the strengths and weaknesses of each side of argument. It generated various null hypotheses that would determine the existence of differences between the home school graduates and the high school graduates. The null hypotheses were based on grade point averages, college retention for the first year students, credit hours earned and ACT Tests scores in English, mathematics, reading science and reasoning as well as first year grade average points. It consisted a random sample of 53 students from Colorado and 53 students randomly chosen from homes schooling students. This means that it incorporated a bit of quantitative research .............