A Review of Homeschooling Outcomes

• In Event: Homeschooling: Legal Considerations, Outcomes, and Future Research Directions

Abstract

Research on parent-led home-based private education (i.e., homeschooling) over the past 40 years has provided indications of what homeschooling can offer to children and society. Homeschooling is a millennia-old practice that has grown in the United States to include more students than in Catholic schools and about three-fourths as many as in public charter schools. It is logical, therefore, to consider how this old-but-new family-based education/schooling affects child development and long-term outcomes.

There were an estimated 2.5 million K-12 homeschool students during the 2019-2020 school year and health-related (e.g., Covid-19) government restrictions and controls on schools pushed thousands more families toward considering or choosing homeschooling (which is different from public school at home or crisis schooling at home). Early empirical evidence suggests that the homeschool population might grow by at least 20 percent during the 2020-2021 year (Ray, 2020).

At the same time that more parents are choosing homeschooling, some scholars are warning that there are dangers to homeschooling that the government must control. Bartholet (2020), for example, claims that homeschooling is often used to hide child abuse. Still others claim that homeschooling cannot offer a “comprehensive” education to children (National Education Association, 2020).

The purpose of this paper is to present a careful review of research on the student outcomes of homeschooling, as compared to students in conventional institutional public and private schools. A focus will be placed on how findings can inform future research. There will be coverage of children’s academic achievement, social and emotional development, physical health, and success (or not) in adulthood (including in post-secondary education). The main data used for the review are studies published in peer-reviewed journals and some other key methodologically sound research reports. Quantitative and qualitative studies are included in the analysis.

Preliminary findings based on the review of research show that the home educated perform, in general, above average on academic achievement and on measures of social and emotional development. There are also indications that adults who were homeschooled do better, on average, on several measures, including performance and success in post-secondary education endeavors. A minority of studies show mixed results for the homeschooled compared to the institutionally schooled, and an even smaller portion of studies find that conventionally schooled students perform better than the home educated.

A few research recommendations are indicated at this point. For example, more studies should (a) address the stated goals and objectives of large portions of homeschool community (rather than continuing to compare the homeschooled to institutionally schooled), (b) utilize methodologies that can identify direction of effects (e.g., from parents to children and vice-versa), and (c) be conducted to help understand the mechanisms of homeschooling that may be contributing to successful homeschooling experiences.

Author

• Brian Ray, National Home Education Research Institute
  Presenting Author