Another nail in the coffin

Many critics of homeschooling claim that only properly trained, certified teachers can really teach children. They close their eyes to the evidence that homeschooled children do just fine at college, and often better.

Joanne Jacobs reports Certification route doesn’t matter:

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Alternatively certified elementary teachers are as effective as those who took a traditional path to certification, concludes a Mathematica study for the U.S. Education Department. It didn’t matter whether the teacher prep program required many hours of coursework or just a few: Students’ reading and math scores were the same. However, scores were lower for students whose teachers were taking coursework while teaching.
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This should be another nail in the coffin of the attack that homeschoolers can't teach. Though I'm afraid the critics will plug up their ears and continue the mantra "Only properly certified teachers can teach. Only properly certified teachers can teach. ..."


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