Homeschooling Growing Seven Times Faster than Public School Enrollment

[bonnie]

Report: Homeschooling Growing Seven Times Faster than Public School Enrollment

Dr. Susan Berry 8 Jun 2013 1771 post a comment

As dissatisfaction with the U.S. public school system grows, apparently so has the appeal of homeschooling. Educational researchers, in fact, are expecting a surge in the number of students educated at home by their parents over the next ten years, as more parents reject public schools.

A recent report in Education News states that, since 1999, the number of children who are homeschooled has increased by 75%. Though homeschooled children represent only 4% of all school-age children nationwide, the number of children whose parents choose to educate them at home rather than a traditional academic setting is growing seven times faster than the number of children enrolling in grades K-12 every year.

As homeschooling has become increasingly popular, common myths that have long been associated with the practice of homeschooling have been debunked.

Any concerns about the quality of education children receive by their parents can be put to rest by the consistently high placement of homeschooled students on standardized assessment exams. Data demonstrates that those who are independently educated generally score between the 65th and 89th percentile on these measures, while those in traditional academic settings average at around the 50th percentile. In addition, achievement gaps between sexes, income levels, or ethnicity—all of which have plagued public schools around the country—do not exist in homeschooling environments.

According to the report:

Recent studies laud homeschoolers’ academic success, noting their significantly higher ACT-Composite scores as high schoolers and higher grade point averages as college students. Yet surprisingly, the average expenditure for the education of a homeschooled child, per year, is $500 to $600, compared to an average expenditure of $10,000 per child, per year, for public school students.

The high achievement level of homeschoolers is readily recognized by recruiters from some of the best colleges in the nation. Home-educated children matriculate in colleges and attain a four-year degree at much higher rates than their counterparts from both public and private schools. Schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Stanford, and Duke Universities all actively recruit homeschoolers.

Similarly, the common myth that homeschoolers “miss out” on so-called “socialization opportunities,” often thought to be a vital aspect of traditional academic settings, has proven to be without merit. According to the National Home Education Research Institute survey, homeschoolers tend to be more socially engaged than their peers and demonstrate “healthy social, psychological, and emotional development, and success into adulthood.”

Based on recent data, researchers such as Dr. Brian Ray (NHERI.org) “expect to observe a notable surge in the number of children being homeschooled in the next 5 to 10 years. The rise would be in terms of both absolute numbers and percentage of the K to 12 student population. This increase would be in part because…[1] a large number of those individuals who were being home educated in the 1990’s may begin to homeschool their own school-age children and [2] the continued successes of home-educated students.”

[olger]

Good. In my opinion, we need to pull all christian teachers and students out of the public school system, and let it fall. Let Pharoah's children come to our schools, instead of us sending our kids to Pharoah's school.

[cricket]

My husband and I found it necessary to pull our children out of the private religion-based elementary schools. We home educated our children for eight years, and found it to be a successful venture. Home schooling is not for every family, however. Many families would do well to have their children in a church school, a private school, a charter school or even a public school. It is important to consider the needs of each individual child and whether or not the parent-as-teacher relationship will benefit the children. I do not wish to see public schools fail, or any other type of school fail for that matter. Rather, it is my wish that each school will benefit our children such that each child reach his full potential academically, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

[Gail]

Quote:

As homeschooling has become increasingly popular, common myths that have long been associated with the practice of homeschooling have been debunked.

I like this!

I like that especially they are clueing in to what homeschoolers already knew for ages, that the social life is way BETTER than being restricted to socialising only with age-peers.

[Gail]

Amen to what Cricket said above. We are very fortunate to live with the freedom of choice in this matter. I know kids that have suffered in church school only to do very well once pulled from there and placed in either a different school or public school.

I know kids that have always gone to public school and done well in church. I have known church kids to go wild once placed in a public school.

Then there are the ones that go wild when they move to college.

As time goes on, I am really beginning to think there is something to be said for the theory about the EQ making more of a difference to a child's success than its IQ.

[OzarkWoman]

Good. In my opinion, we need to pull all christian teachers and students out of the public school system, and let it fall. Let Pharoah's children come to our schools, instead of us sending our kids to Pharoah's school.

[Karina Selander]

Homeschooling is a great idea if the parents are confident enough to give their kids quality education. But I guess a child's overall development occurs right from the kindergarten program in schools. The child gets to mingle with other kids of his/her age and this plays a major role in the socialization of the child. The teacher-student relationship also plays a great role in molding a child's personality and character. But I doubt if all this happens in schools these days. All I can hear of is kids getting bullied in schools and they being under a lot of pressure. So I have a neutral take on this.

[cricket]

All I can hear of is kids getting bullied in schools and they being under a lot of pressure. So I have a neutral take on this.

This can be a real problem with the way media reports the "news." There is so much good happening in the schools these days as well as bad. If the media were to report all the good things too, there would be a much more balanced picture of what's going on in the schools.

Though we opted to home educate our children for eight years, we did have them in Lutheran schools for their high school years. My daughter had wonderful, caring friends who have kept in touch with her since high school; and my son has a lot of high quality friends as well.

An example of good things happening: On the last two days of high school this past year, the students at my son's high school spent time raising funds to help the victims of the Oklahoma tornadoes.