Current Statistics on Homeschoolers?

[CyndiLJ]

It seems there are very few statistics that are current about homeschooling. I am very curious to know how many children today are actually being homeschooled, because it seems that even in the past 5-7 years or so it has become far more mainstream around our area that it used to be.

 

I wonder if anyone has bothered to look beyond their own personal prejudices about government home education programs, and looked at the number of students enrolled in government school connected home education programs. Yes, I realize many don't consider that "real" homeschooling, and I actually understand the arguments against it. But if we want to get a sense of the real trend toward alternative education that is home based, it would be very interesting to me to know how many additional children are being educated at home that are still technically being called "public school" children, despite the fact that 90% or more of their education is Mom directed.

 

These programs are springing up all over (we belong to one, as long as I continue to find their requirements logical...I wouldn't hesitate to pull out if I were not given pretty much complete freedom. Of course, we homeschool secularly, so that issue is not one we have a problem with), and I think it could only serve to prove the point that, no matter what label is applied, home education is growing by leaps and bounds, and I am betting at a far faster rate than anyone might imagine.

 

Anyone have anyplace to look for more recent numbers, or student counts that include both public and private home educated learners?

 

And yea... I am totally waiting to get slammed for this one, but my curiosity is calling out to me! Haha!

 

Cindy

[AimeeM]

I think it's impossible to get ACCURATE stats for this. Not all states require a homeschool family to report, not all states require homeschool student to paticipate in standardized testing, etc.

[Lily_Grace]

Where would you get the statistics from?

 

I homeschool under the jurisdiction of the federal government, not a state. We have no paperwork, no tests required. We have nothing to turn in. We move frequently.

 

We are invisible.

 

I can tell you our area demographics if I count only those who I know. I know that here, we number under 100, a high number for a small area. Most of our parents are upper middle class, with various degrees under their belts. Most homeschool with a religious bent, but don't homeschool for religious reasons.

 

That is about all I know, outside of my own family's demographics. And there isn't a study out there that counts homeschoolers accurately because of this exact situation.

[jelbe5]

Here is a report done by the government:

 

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/

 

And there may be useful info here:

 

http://www.nheri.org/

 

I agree it will be hard to obtain accurate numbers as not all states require reporting.

[Wheres Toto]

I think it's impossible to get ACCURATE stats for this. Not all states require a homeschool family to report, not all states require homeschool student to paticipate in standardized testing, etc.

 

This.

 

I live in the most densely populated state in the country and we are not required to report at all, not even notification. There is no way to get a good idea of how many homeschoolers there are in New Jersey.

 

Texas is another one that doesn't keep track.

 

Those two states alone could probably skew the statistics quite a bit.

[chepyl]

Oklahoma has a very large homeschooling population and no reporting laws. As far as the school district is concerned, my kids don't exist. You could get the count for families attending the annual convention, but it is a Christian group that runs it, so you may be missing any non-Christian homeschoolers.

[Guest inoubliable]

Anyone have anyplace to look for more recent numbers, or student counts that include both public and private home educated learners? There is no resource for the numbers you're asking for. You'd have to look at individual states and not all of them require parents to report. And yea... I am totally waiting to get slammed for this one, but my curiosity is calling out to me! Slammed for what? :confused1:

 

 

[dbmamaz]

I follow this blog - they summarize every new article and study published about homeschooling. not necessarily what you are looking for, but interesting.

[Amy in NH]

NCES does cyclical studies of schooling. The last numbers they have listed for homeschooling are from 2007. I believe they should have collected in 2011, so that data will probably be released in the next year or so.

[Ellie]

It seems there are very few statistics that are current about homeschooling. I am very curious to know how many children today are actually being homeschooled, because it seems that even in the past 5-7 years or so it has become far more mainstream around our area that it used to be.

 

I wonder if anyone has bothered to look beyond their own personal prejudices about government home education programs, and looked at the number of students enrolled in government school connected home education programs. Yes, I realize many don't consider that "real" homeschooling, and I actually understand the arguments against it. But if we want to get a sense of the real trend toward alternative education that is home based, it would be very interesting to me to know how many additional children are being educated at home that are still technically being called "public school" children, despite the fact that 90% or more of their education is Mom directed.

 

These programs are springing up all over (we belong to one, as long as I continue to find their requirements logical...I wouldn't hesitate to pull out if I were not given pretty much complete freedom. Of course, we homeschool secularly, so that issue is not one we have a problem with), and I think it could only serve to prove the point that, no matter what label is applied, home education is growing by leaps and bounds, and I am betting at a far faster rate than anyone might imagine.

 

Anyone have anyplace to look for more recent numbers, or student counts that include both public and private home educated learners?

 

And yea... I am totally waiting to get slammed for this one, but my curiosity is calling out to me! Haha!

 

Cindy

 

You'd have to find statistics from the public schools that indicate test scores for their homebased charter school students. I don't know if they separate those out from classroom-based students. And homebased public-school students are only marginally taught by their parents (depending on which instructional methods/materials are used; those who use Internet-based instruction such as K12 are primarily taught by the computer, not their parents). Even then you'd only get statistics for homeschooled children in states that require testing and for the test results to actually be reported, and probably even then only if there are requirements for the students' test scores or achievements/advancement.

[Aelwydd]

Ellie, it is untrue that parents who use K12 don't teach their kids. Our son used a state charter K12 program for third grade. We averaged 6 hours a day teaching him all the lessons prescribed by the curriculum. There is no way our son could "self teach" in that progrom.

[Ellie]

Ellie, it is untrue that parents who use K12 don't teach their kids. Our son used a state charter K12 program for third grade. We averaged 6 hours a day teaching him all the lessons prescribed by the curriculum. There is no way our son could "self teach" in that progrom.

My apologies.

 

Perhaps I have misunderstood the process with older children. OTOH, charter schools which provide/require K12 are careful *not* to refer to the parents as "teachers," even though it is the parents who are actually on-site with the children.

 

K12 itself is not a charter school, of course, just to clarify.

[Farrar]

There is almost no reliable data about homeschoolers. It's a gaping hole in educational statistics. There are estimates. There are studies, but the studies usually use biased sampling.

 

In addition to the blog dbmamaz linked, this blog about homeschool studies is excellent and I've never understood why more people don't seem to follow it.

[CyndiLJ]

Thanks everyone for the really interesting responses! It is just my own curiosity speaking, and I just keep wondering how much larger the homeschooling population is than we currently realize. I hadn't realized that there were states where absolutely no reporting was required, how surprising! I just assumed you had to register somehow with someone, even if there was no accountability beyond that (which I am all for).

 

I was worried about being slammed because I know there are some very strong sentiments on the part of many about government intrusion on homeschooling, and how the freedoms we may now have might be taken away as more government schools start offering alternatives within home education. While I enjoy the funding we receive being part of a public ed program, I can also understand why many would shy away and I do agree to some degree with the logic of where this might all lead.

 

But it still leaves me wondering, as there absolutely has to be more homeschoolers than are being recorded in HSLDA and other data, as many are not considered "pure" homeschoolers because of the technical component of being enrolled in a public school. It seems like every year I am reading of more and more of these programs springing up, and I find it fascinating to see where openness to alternative education is leading our country. I am so hopeful that eventually, all school settings will look far different than they do today.

 

Thanks for the suggested links...off to go read!

[CyndiLJ]

There is almost no reliable data about homeschoolers. It's a gaping hole in educational statistics. There are estimates. There are studies, but the studies usually use biased sampling.

 

In addition to the blog dbmamaz linked, this blog about homeschool studies is excellent and I've never understood why more people don't seem to follow it.

 

 

I'll be following it now, this is a great link! Thanks Farrar!

[Aelwydd]

 

My apologies.

 

Perhaps I have misunderstood the process with older children. OTOH, charter schools which provide/require K12 are careful *not* to refer to the parents as "teachers," even though it is the parents who are actually on-site with the children.

 

K12 itself is not a charter school, of course, just to clarify.

 

 

Yes, we enrolled ds in Texas Virtual Academy, which is basically K12's curriculum and online classroom software, and augmented with additional material deemed necessary by the state. Parents are called "coaches," and students are assigned a teacher.

 

However, whatever they want to call it, in the lower grades, the student is heavily dependent upon his/her parent to navigate through K12's email program, attendance records, lesson plans, tests, assignments and so forth, as well as for having the material, itself, explained. The teachers do not send emails about assignments to the students in the lower grades--they send them to the parents, because the parents are the ones responsible for tutoring, etc.

 

This is why I get my ire up when people make general statements about home schooling with online public charters. The TXVA program is absolutely dependent upon parents to teach their elementary aged children, and because it covers a great deal of material, and involves a lot of test prep, it is very time intensive. I would say that even in grades 6 through 8, it would be putting a lot on the student to expect them to be autonomously self-taught, even with a "teacher" assigned to them.

 

We spend a lot less time teaching ds now than we did using TXVA. We are covering the same topics as we would in their 4th grade material, but we aren't required to log hours, spend time completing assessments for the state, and covering complex material in great leaps and bounds.

 

My one big criticism of the program was the unrealistic assignments it put upon students, without adequate prep time. For example, last year ds was given the assignment of writing a 5 paragraph expository paper--with a minimal amount of time devoted previously to things like developing a main topic, fleshing it out, so forth. They hadn't even introduced the concept of outlining! So, that meant we had to spend hour and hours and hours in a 3 week time period trying to cover all those concepts so he could turn out a paper, that IMO, should have been the culmination of months of preparation and learning.

 

That's what I mean by time intensive and most definitely parent-led education. I would actually advise most parents looking to use such charter programs that they had better plan on devoting more time to teaching each day, not less.