Can Homeschooling be an Alternative Schooling Choice?

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2015-12
Authors
Sun, Xiaodong
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[Honolulu] : [University of Hawaii at Manoa], [December 2015]
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Abstract
Chapter 1: This chapter reviews the literature on homeschooling’s historical and social origins, and, for the first time, uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 dataset to study the characteristics of homeschooling families and their homeschooled youth. I use probit and multinomial regression models to investigate if these characteristics have any correlations with homeschooling. I found that parents’ education level, religion, child health and number of children have significant roles in the choice of homeschooling. The structure of homeschooling family is more fragile and both parents’ education attainments are lower than parents of children attending regular schools. Finally, the homeschooled population is more homogeneous than previously thought. Chapter 2: How homeschooling affects homeschooled youth is critical to the public acceptance of homeschooling as a viable education choice. I focus on homeschoolers’ college admission tests, college enrollment and degree, and labor income in their early career. I found that generally homeschoolers fall behind regular school students. I also use OLS and probit models to test for a relationship between homeschooling and college degree and labor income. I found negative and statistically significant effects of homeschooling on both completion of college degree and labor income. To control for selection issue I use propensity score matching and a methodology developed by Altonji et al in 2005 to reexamine the relationship between college degree and homeschooling. The results confirm the negative effect from homeschooling. Chapter 3: Previous empirical studies have not considered whether schooling type such as public, private or homeschooling influences age at first marriage. Homeschooling could be an important factor in this decision, as it could allow parents to mold their attitudes toward marriage more closely. I use Cox Hazard Model to explore the relationship between schooling style and the timing of marriage along with other factors widely used in other literatures. As I find comparable results for many other factors that could have impact on the age of marriage, it shows little evidence that different schooling modes affect the age at first marriage. I argue the reason behind this phenomenon might be due to homeschooling efficiency and homeschoolers’ sociability.
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Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2015.
Includes bibliographical references.
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homeschooling, characteristics, academic outcomes, first marriage age
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Theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Economics
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