Home Schooling

The increasing popularity of homeschooling as an educational option has led it to become the subject of a growing body of research in recent years.

Much of the research supports the conclusion that children benefit from home instruction in many ways. Recently, the Home School Legal Defense Association brought together much of the research on homeschooling academics in Academic Statistics on Homeschooling. The document provides excerpts from national research from 13 different sources, state-level findings from seven states, and local research from four school districts. As the report points out in its closing, “These statistics point to one conclusion: homeschooling works. Even many of the State Departments of Education, which are generally biased toward the public school system, cannot argue with these facts. Not only does homeschooling work, but it works without the myriad of state controls and accreditation standards imposed on the public schools.”

The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics has issued two reports on homeschooling. In August 2001, it issued the first comprehensive look at homeschooling, called Homeschooling in the U.S.: 1999. Among its findings are that about 2 percent (about 850,000) American school-age children were homeschooled in 1999. The report also lists common reasons for homeschooling, including concern for a child's performance, safety concerns, faith-based concerns, and health issues. The report also addresses the demographics of people who homeschool.

In 2004, the National Center for Education Statistics updated the 2001 report in a Homeschooling Issue Brief. The new report, using data from 2003, found that the number of homeschooled children had grown to 1.1 million American children since the 2001 report. The reasons for homeschooling remained the same as in 2001.

Homeschooling works well, according to the 1997 findings of Brian Ray, head of the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), a homeschool research organization affiliated with the Home School Legal Defense Association. Among his findings in Home Education Across the United States is that a parent’s education level does not adversely affect homeschoolers’ instruction, but it does adversely affect the education of a public school student. 

For an overview of homeschooling in North America, the Frasier Institute in Canada offers Home Schooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream, written by the Cato Institute’s Patrick Basham in 2001.