What Have We Learned About Homeschooling?

Abstract

This article discusses quantitative research on homeschooling, including the available data, pitfalls of using the data, estimates of the number of homeschooled children, part-time homeschooling, and why families homeschool. I compare research on homeschooling to research on charter schools, voucher programs, and private schools.The number of homeschooled children is over 1 million, more than 2% of the total number of school children and roughly equal to the total in charter schools and voucher schools combined. There is approximately one homeschooled child for every five children enrolled in private school. 1 Despite its size, scarce data on homeschooling have impaired our understanding of even the most basic questions, including a precise

Family Involvement, Autonomy, and Social Competency in Homeschooling

“…Research carried out in the United States (U.S.) regarding the academic outcomes of students who learn at home show the success of this educational modality through the high scores they obtain on state standardized tests, 1 higher than the average scores of students enrolled in public and private schools (Isenberg, 2007). Rothermel (2012) pointed to other studies that find homeschoolers to be at least equal to and in some cases significantly better than their peers at school.…”

“…Each of these competencies has its own content, although they are related to each 716 other. Basic competencies are those that "young people should have developed by the end of compulsory education in order to reach personal achievement, be an active citizen, join adult life and be able to develop permanent learning throughout life" (Ministry of Education and Science, 2006;2007).…”

Today’s Choices for Selecting a School: What is the Emerging Story?

“…One of the reasons for this issue is that each state in the Union has a unique way in terms of collecting data and regulating home-schooling guidelines. Those who elect home-schooling have most commonly cited one of three reasons for their choice to educate their child or children through home-schooling: a poor learning environment in school (31%), religious reasons (30%), and a lack of fit with the capabilities of special education to gifted students (31%) (Isenberg, 2007). Then, establishing an accurate count of how many students are being home-schooled is not able to be reported with high accuracy.…”

“…Some students who are receiving home-school are not reported to the government and researchers. This is a practice referred to as underground home-schooling (Isenberg, 2007). This adds complexity to the awareness of levels of students in a home-school setting although it has been estimated that from one to two million children are learning at home (IES/NCES, 2017; Ray, 2011).…”

The Search for School Safety and the African American Homeschooling Experience

“…At best, we arrive at categories which must be broad enough to encompass the multitude of experiences that they claim to capture. Yet, their very broadness undermines their usefulness (Isenberg, 2007). At the heart of this difficulty lies the fact that the homeschooling population"s heterogeneity has considerably increased over the past decades.…”