Homebound instruction in Texas: an explanatory sequential mixed methods inquiry

Homebound instruction is a rapidly growing alternative educational placement for students who become injured or ill and miss over four or more weeks of school during one calendar school year. While the Texas education system has put great effort on improving the quality and rigor of classroom instruction, little, if any, efforts have been made on improving the quality of homebound instruction.
The explanatory sequential mixed methods study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of homebound instruction on the academic achievement of grade 6, 7, and 8 students. The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) was used to measure academic achievement in reading and mathematics. The characteristic-present group consisted of 50 homebound students. The comparison group consisted of 50 non-homebound students matched on the basis of race, gender, and at-risk status. External validity was limited to study participants and no causal inferences were drawn due to non-experimental nature of the study. Analysis of the data showed that non-homebound students outperformed the homebound students on all measures of mathematics and reading. The qualitative data, which were obtained from seven middle school teachers, resulted in three themes, namely, lack of teacher training, insufficient teaching time, and inadequate qualifications to instruct homebound students in all core subject areas. Based on the quantitative results, it was concluded that homebound instruction is not as effective as is non-homebound instruction in influencing academic achievement in mathematics and reading. Based on the qualitative results, which complemented the quantitative results, it was concluded that teachers are not adequately trained to provide the homebound students with proper learning opportunities. The results of this study should persuade school administrators and personnel that homebound students need to be provided a type of instruction that is similar to that of what student receive in a daily classroom setting. The impact of quality instruction for homebound students on academic achievement is potentially valuable to educators as schools strive towards higher assessment scores and accountability ratings.