In a month or so, I will attend the Home Educators Association of Virginia (HEAV) 2025 convention as a workshop speaker and vendor. I’ll teach about writing a book and sell my books. But that’s not what I want to write about now. To do that, I need to go back in history—my history as a professor.
Soon after earning my doctorate, I began teaching, first as adjunct faculty at Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) and then as full-time faculty at George Mason University (GMU). At the time, my daughter didn’t have children and wasn’t homeschooling. Now she is. At the time, I hadn’t spent years tutoring one of my children and homeschooling one of my grandsons. At the time, homeschooling really wasn’t on my radar. I had no skin in the game.
A Puzzle
As I taught, I became aware of a fascinating puzzle. Since what GMU considered full-time wasn’t, I decided to double up by also teaching at NVCC. Soon, I found myself teaching the same class (cell biology) to undergraduates at both colleges. Of course, I used the same PowerPoint slides, worksheets, and three versions of the exams. I probably even used the same illustrations! Everything was identical, making it easy on the professor (me).
Then came the results. I expected the GMU students to do well. After all, in previous years at NVCC, I’d always had a 90% pass rate, and GMU is at least a bit selective. Sixty percent of the GMU students failed the first exam. Yikes! I took a deep breath. Surely, it was just a fluke. The dismal results continued at GMU, even though the NVCC students were doing well. What was going on?
Research
Concerned, I applied for a grant at the Center for Teaching Excellence, and it was awarded. A graduate student helped me with the analysis. We found that, yes, GMU student results were far worse, and no, the classes were not different. However, there were differences.
Results
- At GMU, the class size was 150-300. At NVCC, classes usually contained 25-50 students max. Often, there were fewer. I knew my NVCC students by name—there was a relationship.
- At GMU, professors were forbidden to take attendance. At NVCC, we were strictly instructed that we should. The result was that GMU students, who were experiencing their first taste of freedom, often didn’t come to class. And our analysis showed that students who missed four or more classes rarely passed the exams. (Incidentally, I also noticed that students with a homeschool background most often turned in their homework.)
- Although GMU’s student body was curated, NVCC’s student body contained older and highly motivated students. I’ll never forget the students who would bring their children to class or walk during lectures so they wouldn’t fall asleep after working a night shift.
- Larger classes meant students found cheating easier, not great for learning.
Relevance
Why am I writing about this before the HEAV convention? Because homeschooling is hard, and those who do it need to be told that they are giving their students exactly what they need for success.
- Students learn better in a relationship, and individual attention produces the best results. At GMU, all we could do was offer study groups, with some but limited success.
- Success at college requires self-discipline, particularly when the college insists that students be taught through consequences alone. Homeschoolers know that maturity and self-discipline don’t magically appear at 18—they result from daily training starting when children are very young.
- Homeschool students learn to study regardless of distractions, whether younger siblings, noises in the home, or something else. Their parents teach them that studying is vital, and they are more likely to be taught to think critically. At home, they don’t learn by guessing at multiple choice, nor do they cheat to get ahead. They often come from stable homes. All of these factors translate to a greater chance of success in college–and life.
Are some of these factors also provided to children who aren’t homeschooled? Of course. Do homeschool parents ever mess up? Of course. This isn’t a scientific paper; it’s a blog. But, for those parents who are homeschooling, be encouraged. You’re doing a wonderful thing for those precious little people in your life.