Research FACTS ON HOMESCHOOLING

Homeschooling: The Research

Research Facts on Homeschooling, Homeschool Fast Facts

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.
March 26, 2022 Copyright © 2022 National Home Education Enquiry Constitute

This article gives key research facts on homeschooling

General Facts, Statistics, and Trends

  • There were about 3.7 million homeschool students in 2020-2021 in grades Thousand-12 in the U.s.  (roughly six% to 7% of schoolhouse-age children). In that location were near ii.5 million homeschool students in spring 2019 (or three% to 4% of school-age children) [note 1]. The homeschool population had been growing at an estimated two% to 8% per annum over the past several years, but it grew drastically from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021.

  • Homeschooling – that is, parent-led home-based education; habitation didactics – is an age-old traditional educational practice that a decade ago appeared to be cutting-border and "culling" but is now bordering on "mainstream" in the United States. It may exist the fastest-growing form of instruction in the United states. Home-based education has too been growing around the world in many other nations (east.chiliad., Australia, Canada, French republic, Republic of hungary, Japan, Kenya, Russian federation, Mexico, Southward Korea, Thailand, and the United Kingdom).
  • A demographically wide multifariousness of people homeschool – these are atheists, Christians, and Mormons; conservatives, libertarians, and liberals; low-, middle-, and high-income families; black, Hispanic, and white; parents with Ph.D.due south, GEDs, and no high-school diplomas. One nationwide study shows that 41% of homeschool students are Black, Asian, Hispanic, and others (i.e., non White/non-Hispanic) (U.Due south. Department of Pedagogy, 2019).
  • Taxpayers spend an boilerplate of $15,240 per pupil annually in public schools, plus capital expenditures (National Pedagogy Association, 2021). The roughly 3.vii million homeschool students of 2020-21 represented a savings of over $56 billion for taxpayers. This is $56 billion that American taxpayers did not have to spend.
  • Taxpayers spend zippo on the vast bulk of homeschool students, while homeschool families spend an boilerplate of $600 per educatee annually for their education. Families engaged in home-based education are non dependent on public, tax-funded resources for their children'due south education.
  • Homeschooling is chop-chop growing in popularity among minorities. About 41% of homeschool families are non-white/not-Hispanic (i.e., non white/Anglo).
  • It is estimated that over 9 million Americans had experienced being homeschooled equally of February of 2020.

Reasons and Motivations for Home Educating

Most parents and youth decide to homeschool for more than i reason. The near common reasons given for homeschooling are the post-obit:

  • customize or individualize the curriculum and learning environment for each child,
  • accomplish more academically than in schools,
  • utilize pedagogical approaches other than those typical in institutional schools,
  • enhance family relationships between children and parents and among siblings,
  • provide guided and reasoned social interactions with youthful peers and adults,
  • provide a safer environment for children and youth, considering of physical violence, drugs and alcohol, psychological abuse, racism, and improper and unhealthy sexuality associated with institutional schools, and
  • as an culling pedagogy approach when public or private institutional schools are airtight due to acute health situations such as related to affliction (e.m., Covid-19, Coronavirus)
  • protect minority children from racism in public schools or lower expectations of children of colour (e.1000., black) (e.g., Fields-Smith, 2020; Mazama & Lundy, 2012).
  • teach and impart a particular set of values, beliefs, and worldview to children and youth.

Academic Performance

      • The habitation-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-schoolhouse students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public schoolhouse boilerplate is the 50thursday percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.) A 2015 written report establish Black homeschool students to be scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above Blackness public school students (Ray, 2015).
      • 78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement testify homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools (Ray, 2017).
      • Homeschool students score above average on accomplishment tests regardless of their parents' level of formal education or their family's household income.
      • Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is non related to their children'southward academic achievement.
      • Degree of land control and regulation of homeschooling is not related to bookish accomplishment.
      • Domicile-educated students typically score above average on the Sabbatum and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions.
      • Homeschool students are increasingly being actively recruited by colleges.

Social, Emotional, and Psychological Development (Socialization)

        • Inquiry facts on homeschooling evidence that the home-educated are doing well, typically above average, on measures of social, emotional, and psychological development. Research measures include peer interaction, self-concept, leadership skills, family cohesion, participation in community service, and self-esteem.
        • 87% of peer-reviewed studies on social, emotional, and psychological development show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in conventional schools (Ray, 2017).
        • Homeschool students are regularly engaged in social and educational activities outside their homes and with people other than their nuclear-family unit members. They are usually involved in activities such as field trips, scouting, 4-H, political drives, church building ministry building, sports teams, and community volunteer work.
        • Adults who were home educated are more politically tolerant than the public schooled in the express inquiry done so far.

Gender Differences in Children and Youth Respected?

        • 1 researcher finds that homeschooling gives young people an unusual chance to ask questions such equally, "Who am I?" and "What exercise I really want?," and through the procedure of such asking and gradually answering the questions home-educated girls develop the strengths and the resistance abilities that requite them an unusually strong sense of self.
        • Some think that boys' energetic natures and tendency to concrete expression can more than hands be accommodated in dwelling-based education. Many are concerned that a highly disproportionate number of public school special-educational activity students are boys and that boys are 2.5 times as likely as girls in public schools to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Success in the "Real World" of Machismo

The enquiry base on adults who were home educated is growing; thus far it indicates that:

        • 69% of peer-reviewed studies on success into adulthood (including college) show adults who were home educated succeed and perform statistically significantly improve than those who attended institutional schools (Ray, 2017).
        • they participate in local community service more frequently than does the general population (e.m., Seiver & Pope, 2022),
        • these adults vote and attend public meetings more frequently than the general population
        • they go to and succeed at college at an equal or higher rate than the general population
        • by adulthood, they internalize the values and behavior of their parents at a high rate

General Estimation of Enquiry on Homeschool Success or Failure

It is possible that homeschooling causes the positive traits reported to a higher place. However, the research designs to date do not conclusively "show" that homeschooling causes these things. At the same time, there is no empirical evidence that homeschooling causes negative things compared to institutional schooling. Time to come inquiry may amend answer the question of causation.

Notes:

i. For more than detail, see How Many Homeschool Students Are At that place in the United States? The March of 2021 estimate is based on information from state governments (e.g., Delaware, Florida, Minnesota, Nebraska, Due north Carolina, and Virginia), the U.S. Census Bureau (2021), and the U.S. Department of Education (2019). See McDonald (2020). The bound 2019 judge was based on an estimate of about ii.5% per annum growth from estimates of 2 million abode-educated children during the bound of 2010 and 2.3 meg spring of 2016 in the United States (Ray, 2011). The estimate of 2.3 million in 2016 was calculated by Brian D. Ray, the writer of this fact sheet, on April 7, 2016. He based it on publicly bachelor research findings.

Sources

The above findings are extensively documented in ane or more of the following sources, and near are available from www.nheri.org:

  • Cheng, Albert. (2014). Does homeschooling or private schooling promote political intolerance? Testify from a Christian university. Journal of Schoolhouse Choice: International Research and Reform, viii(one), 49-68 [a peer-reviewed periodical].
  • Fields-Smith, Cheryl. (2020). Exploring single black mothers' resistance through homeschooling. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan Cham.
  • Mazama, Ama; & Lundy, Garvey. (2012, August 26). African American homeschooling as racial protectionism. Journal of Black Studies, 43(7) 723–748.
  • McDonald, Kerry. (2020). Homeschooling more than than doubles during the pandemic: State-level data bear witness only how dramatic the surge in homeschooling has been. Retrieved December 29, 2020 from https://fee.org/articles/homeschooling-more-than-doubles-during-the-pandemic/
  • Mead, Sara. (2006). The truth about boys and girls.
  • Medlin, Richard Grand. (2013). Homeschooling and the question of socialization revisited. Peabody Journal of Educational activity, 88(three), 284-297 [a peer-reviewed journal].
  • National Education Association. (2021). Rankings of united states 2020 and Estimates of School Statistics 2021. Retrieved July 1, 2021 from http://www.nea.org/home/44479.htm
  • Ray, Brian D. (2004). Home educated and now adults: Their community and civic involvement, views most homeschooling, and other traits. Salem, Oregon: NHERI.
  • Ray, Brian D. (2004). Homeschoolers on to college: What research shows us. Ray, Journal of College Admission, No. 185, five-11 [a peer-reviewed journal].
  • Ray, Brian D. (2010). Academic achievement and demographic traits of homeschool students: A nationwide study. Bookish Leadership Periodical, 8, world wide web.academicleadership.org [a peer-reviewed journal]. For a gratis copy, contact u.s.a..
  • Ray, Brian D. (2013). Homeschooling associated with beneficial learner and societal outcomes just educators practice not promote it. Peabody Journal of Instruction, 88(iii), 324-341 [a peer-reviewed journal].
  • Ray, Brian D. (2015). African American homeschool parents' motivations for homeschooling and their Black children'due south academic accomplishment. Journal of Schoolhouse Choice, 9:71–96 [a peer-reviewed journal]. For a free copy, contact us.
  • Ray, Brian D. (2017). A systematic review of the empirical inquiry on selected aspects of homeschooling as a school choice. Journal of Schoolhouse Selection, 11(4), 604-621 [a peer-reviewed journal]
  • Seiver, Jillene Grove; & Pope, Elisa A. (2022). The kids are alright II: social appointment in young adulthood as a function of grand-12 schooling blazon, personality traits, and parental education level. Habitation Schoolhouse Researcher, 37(two), 1-9.
  • Sheffer, Susannah. (1995). A sense of self: Listening to homeschooled adolescent girls.
  • United States Department of Educational activity. (2019) Homeschooling in the U.s.: Results from the 2012 and 2016 Parent and Family Involvement Survey (PFINHES: 2012 and 2016). Retrieved November 3, 2020 from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020001.pdf
Near the Author

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. is an internationally known researcher, educator, speaker, and expert witness, and serves as president of the nonprofit National Home Instruction Research Institute. He is a former certified teacher in public and individual schools and served as a professor in the fields of science, inquiry methods, and education at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He holds a Ph.D. in science teaching from Oregon Country University, a Yard.Southward. in zoology from Ohio University, and a B.S. in biology from the University of Puget Sound. Dr. Ray has been studying the homeschool movement since about 1984.

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