Interesting homeschool stats

[ElizabethB]

If you know of any other good stats, feel free to add.

 

Arkansas tests all 3rd to 9th grade students with the ITBS reading and math, results for each year are posted. Also, they have interesting stats about the growth of homeschooling in AR and by county and by school numbers.

 

Link to several years of reports:

 

http://www.arkansased.org/divisions/learning-services/home-schools

 

The most recent report, most interesting graphs and info near the end, IMO.

 

http://www.arkansased.org/public/userfiles/Learning_Services/Charter%20and%20Home%20School/Home%20School-Division%20of%20Learning%20Services/2012_2013_Home_School_Report.pdf

[ElizabethB]

To me, the ITBS stats are especially interesting because everyone tests and (I think, we moved out of the state before testing age) that the state pays for the test and there are no penalties for doing poorly, it is for informational purposes only.

 

Also, the growth chart is interesting. Does anyone know the total number of school age students in AR? The same graph but as a percentage of school age children would be interesting.

[MeaganS]

That is interesting, especially as we live in Arkansas at the moment.  I agree that the charts at the end are the most interesting.  It doesn't say how many total students there are, but it does break down the percentage of homeschoolers per county earlier in the document, giving total students enrolled in schools and homeschools, so you could technically add it all up to figure it out.

[joannqn]

What happened between 1997 and 1998 to cause a jump in homeschooling?

[retiredHSmom]

That was fascinating. The two most interesting things to me were

 

1. that there were three districts that had homeschool enrollment of greater than 10% and at least three districts that had fewer than 1%

 

2. Looking at the breakdown by grade, the number of homeschooled students in 12th grade was roughly equivalent to the numbers in grades K-5. The greatest enrollment number was in grade 10. We as homeschoolers often complain that so few people homeschool in high school but in Arkansas that is not true. Makes me wonder about the other states.

[ElizabethB]

What happened between 1997 and 1998 to cause a jump in homeschooling?

I have no idea, but I noticed that too.

[ElizabethB]

That was fascinating. The two most interesting things to me were

 

1. that there were three districts that had homeschool enrollment of greater than 10% and at least three districts that had fewer than 1%

 

2. Looking at the breakdown by grade, the number of homeschooled students in 12th grade was roughly equivalent to the numbers in grades K-5. The greatest enrollment number was in grade 10. We as homeschoolers often complain that so few people homeschool in high school but in Arkansas that is not true. Makes me wonder about the other states.

I just skimmed through those, thanks for the observation, that is interesting. I think most of the middle of the country areas where we lived have similar numbers and commitment to homeschooling high school. I don't know about other areas, but I would suspect that rural Missouri and Illinois and similar areas would have similar stats for high school. I don't know if that would hold true of the coasts or really big cities.