From Home School to College: The African American Experience

There is a gap in the research aimed at exploring the college transition experiences of homeschooled African Americans into Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). The past research has been rudimentary, demographically limited, and anecdotal with predominantly White homeschoolers as research subjects. In 2013, Dr. Taj'ullah Sky Lark conducted a first of its kind qualitative study that explored the transition experiences of eight homeschooled African American students into PWIs guided by Tinto’s student transition theory. The qualitative study found the transition experience of homeschooled African Americans into college and university learning environments of PWIs consisted of typical transitional experiences common to most college students learning the culture of a new environment. This study also found that while homeschooled African Americans faced similar transition challenges as identified by established empirical research on the experience of African American college students attending PWIs, these challenges were not barriers to their academic success or retention.