OSSE Ed Digest
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Vol. 4, Issue 10
November 2007
Bringing urban P-16 education resources to policymakers, parents, advocates, and district and school staff in the District of Columbia
Research on DC Schools
National Lessons Learned
New Ideas
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education does not endorse the views expressed in the resources and reports contained in the OSSE Ed Digest.
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In 2003, the National Center on Education Statistics (NCES) reported that almost 1.1 million students in the United States were being homeschooled. This represents a 29 percent increase from 1999 - marking the onset of some of the earliest studies - when there was an estimated 850,000 home-schooled students. As a proportion of American students, this represented an increased from 1.7 percent in 1999 to 2.2 percent in 2003. This increase has resulted in the development of policy at state and local levels, as well as within the nation’s colleges and universities, to address the existence of this growing student population. In 2004, for example, 85 percent of colleges had established policies to evaluate home-school candidates, compared to 52 percent in 2000. This issue of the OSSE Ed Digest presents a range of research and information on homeschooling. As homeschooling becomes more popular across the country, and as responsibility for this function is established in the Office of the State Superintendent of Education for these students in the District of Columbia, we are examining the evolution and state of this education sector in order to effectively address our oversight responsibility for home-schooling families in the District.
Home-school Organizations
Articles
Research
Home-school Organizations
Articles
Research
Until 1999, little empirical information existed about the prevalence of homeschooling nationally. In 1999 and 2003, the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) collected nationally representative data that can be used to estimate the number of home-schooled students in the United States. Data from the 1999 NHES showed that there were an estimated 850,000 homeschoolers in the United States—about 1.7 percent of the school-age population. This Issue Brief provides estimates of the number and percentage of home-schooled students in the United States in 2003, and compares these estimates to those from 1999. In addition, parents’ primary reasons for homeschooling their children are described. Estimates of homeschooling in 2003 are based on data from the Parent and Family Involvement in
Education Survey (PFI) of the 2003 NHES.
This paper examines how cyber and home-schooling charter school models are emerging within the larger public school and charter school communities, with particular attention to recent developments in California and Pennsylvania. In these two states public scrutiny of cyber and home-schooling charter schools has led to considerable debate and demands for public accountability. Of particular concern is the need to modify the regulatory framework to accommodate cyber and home-schooling charter schools as well as consideration of the differing financial allocations that are appropriate for schools that operate with reduced personnel and facilities and the division of financial responsibility between state and local educational agencies.
This study examined the lives of over 7,000 adults from across the United States who were home-educated during their elementary and secondary school years. The purpose of this study was to describe and gain more understanding about these adults. In particular, the focus was on their general demographics, attitudes toward their own home-education experiences, and successes in life. Success was evaluated with respect to civic, social, educational, employment, and worldview traits. The target population was all adults in the United States who had been home educated, regardless of whether thought positively or negatively about having been homeschooled. A written survey (questionnaire) and follow-up interviews were used to gather information about the participants. Findings include the following: for participants who were homeschooled for 7 or more years, 46.2% had attained some college courses or higher; 74.2% of the home-educated had attained some college courses or higher; on a 5-point scale (i.e., 1=Strongly Agree, 5=Strongly Disagree), the mean response to “I am glad that I was homeschooled” was 1.3; 71% of subjects were participating in any ongoing community service activity (e.g., coaching a sports team, volunteering at a school, or working with a church or neighborhood association.
This paper considers the educational phenomenon of homeschooling in Canada and the
United States, its regulation, history, growth, and the characteristics of practitioners before reviewing the findings on the academic and social effects of homeschooling. The paper finds the following: homeschooling continues to grow in popularity among parents in both Canada and the US; many studies, Canadian, American, and international, have found that home-schooled students outperform students in both public and independent (private) schools; home-educated children enjoy no significant advantage if one or both parents are certified teachers; several studies have found that home education may help eliminate the potential negative effects of certain socio-economic factors; despite a widespread belief that home educated students are not adequately socialized, the preponderance of research suggests otherwise, for example, the average Canadian home-schooled student is regularly involved in eight social activities outside the home; though the long-term effects of homeschooling are less well studied, both Canadian and American findings on previously home-schooled adults are encouraging; the widespread use of the Internet has helped the development of social connections and pedagogical resources of home-schooling families; and home-schooling families reportedly spend less than US $4,000 per year per household on homeschooling though that cost does place any value on the parents’ time.
This report represents 2003 survey information from the National Center for Education Statistics on the prevalence of homeschooling in the United States. The report estimates the number and percentage of home-schooled students in the United States in 2003 and describes the characteristics of these students and their families. It reports on the race and ethnicity, income level, and educational attainment of students’ parents; compares the characteristics of homeschoolers to those of public and private schooled students; examines how home-schooling rates have changed between 1999 and 2003 for different segments of the student population; and describes parents’ primary reasons for homeschooling their children, as well as the resources and curricular tools home-schooled students use in their education. The estimated number of home-schooled students in the spring of 2003 was 1,096,000, a figure which represents a 29 percent increase from the estimated 850,000 students who were being homeschooled in the spring of 1999. Parental reasons for homeschooling include: concern about the environment of schools (31%), the ability to provide religious or moral instruction (30%); and dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at schools (16%). In 2003, the home-schooling rate for White students (2.7 percent) was higher than for Black students (1.3 percent) or Hispanic students (0.7 percent). The home-schooling rate was also higher for students in families with three or more children in the household than for students in families with fewer children and higher for students in two-parent households with only one parent participating in the labor force than for students with other parent labor force participation patterns.
Homeschooling is a subject of great fascination, but little solid knowledge. Despite its importance, it has received less research attention than some other recent changes in the educational system, such as the growth of charter schools. It could be argued that homeschooling may have a much larger impact on educational system, both in the short and long run. This report uses the 1994 October CPS, and the National Household Education Survey of 1996 and 1999 to examine popular characterizations of the home-school population. The article assembles evidence from several sources to confirm that homeschooling is growing. It finds home-schooled children more likely to be middle income, white, from larger families, and from two-parent families with one parent not working. While some authors have described a division between religiously-motivated and academically-motivated homeschoolers, this research finds more support for a divide based on attitude towards regular schools.
This paper reviews evidence on homeschooling and home-based education in the US (as reported up to 2004). Using various sources including state-level information and data on homeschoolers who took the SAT in 2001, the authors describe the characteristics of homeschoolers and analyze the motivation to homeschool. They then evaluate homeschooling in terms of freedom of choice, efficiency, equity, and social cohesion. Throughout the evaluation, the authors note difficulties in identifying the treatment effect of homeschooling. On freedom of choice, they find that homeschooling may be highly liberating. On efficiency, they compare SAT test scores of homeschoolers with students in other types of school (noting the lack of evidence on home-school costs). There are serious methodological concerns in ascribing overall test score differences to home-school provision, including self -selection of test-takers and absence of controls for co-variates; but the authors do find relative differences between results for Verbal and Math tests for homeschoolers. Issues of equity in relation to homeschooling arise because families are now the ultimate determinants of a child's welfare and prospects; they find relatively strong intergenerational academic transfers for homeschoolers. The research on social cohesion, which has been published primarily in general media, reports positive effects but focuses entirely on the individual homeschooler and not broader societal impacts. Finally the authors trace the consequences of this evaluation for policies on regulation, finance, and support services for homeschooling.
Homeschooling has grown rapidly and now comprises over two percent of school children. This report models home-schooling choice using household-level data from the 1996 and 1999 National Household Education Survey and, in a separate model, district-level data from Wisconsin. For families living in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), the likelihood of homeschooling for high-income parents increases as academic school quality decreases; for low-income parents, as the percentage of school funds spent at the local level decreases. Outside MSAs, homeschooling is popular among evangelical Protestants, although through peer effects or political influence the elasticity of home-schooling demand with respect to the local percentage of evangelical Protestants decreases globally. Household characteristics are also important. The likelihood of homeschooling increases when a mother's time budget is expanded by extra members of the household. The presence of a husband contributes strongly to the likelihood of homeschooling outside MSAs, but inside MSAs married couples exiting the public school system have a greater tendency to substitute to private schools. Despite paying a higher implicit tuition, highly educated women are more likely to homeschool younger children. Their children tend to return to school in later grades.
US students now have four choices of schooling: public schooling, private-religious schooling, private-independent schooling, and homeschooling. Of these, homeschooling is the most novel: since legalization across the states in the last few decades, it has grown in importance and legitimacy as an alternative choice. Thus, it is now possible to investigate the motivation for homeschooling, relative to the other schooling options. Here, we use two recent large-scale datasets to assess the school enrollment decision: the first is the National Household Expenditure Survey (1999), and the second is micro-data on SAT test-takers in 2001. The authors find that, generally, families with homeschoolers have similar characteristics to those with children at other types of school, but mother's characteristics - specifically, her employment status - have a strong influence on the decision to homeschool. Plausibly, religious belief has an important influence on the schooling decision, not only for Catholic students, but also those of other faiths.
An exploratory study that involved two male and two female elementary students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was carried out in homeschools and public schools. The general purpose of the study was to determine whether parents could provide instructional environments that facilitated the acquisition of their children’s basic skills over time. Students were observed using the Mainstream Version of the Code for Instructional Structure and Student Academic Response (MS-CISSAR), an eco-behavioral direct classroom observation instrument that produces information on ecological, teacher, and student behavior processes. Pre and post standardized achievement test scores and rate-based measures were analyzed to determine gains in reading and math for all students. The results indicated that home-school students were academically engaged about two times as often as public school students and experienced more reading and math gains. The key variable appeared to involve student to teacher ratios that existed between the two settings.
This report provides an overview of the prevalence of homeschooling, public opinion about homeschooling and legal options for homeschooling. It also reviews homeschoolers' academic performance and social development, home-school/public school partnerships, the relationship between homeschooling and distance education and homeschoolers' attendance in college.
This book reports on the practices of states and school districts experimenting with partnerships between home-schooling families and public educators. The author provides a chapter on state-level policy considerations. Recommendations include enacting legislation requiring districts to extend services requested by families and developing well-designed studies of the efficiency and academic effectiveness of these programs.
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