Homeschooling Statistics

New homeschooling statistics are finally available! Until now, the latest research on homeschool academic achievement was completed in 1998 by Dr. Lawrence Rudner of the ERIC Clearinghouse. Because of his research, you will find that few will deny that homeschoolers excel in academics.

The newest research, conducted by Dr. Brian Ray of NHERI, uses data from the 2007-2008 academic year.

This study included nearly 12,000 homeschool students for all 50 states who took one of three nationally normed tests, the CAT, ITBS, or SAT.

Dr. Ray's findings are consistent wil that of Dr. Rudner from over a decade ago. Homeschoolers, as a group, consistently have higher academic scores than their public schooling peers.

National Average Percentile Scores

There are well documented academic achievement gaps in public school between boys and girls, higher and lower income levels, and higher and lower education levels of parents. These are academic achievement gaps are not as extreme in the homeschool community.

Core (Reading, Language, and Math) Percentile Scores of Homeschoolers

Parent Education Level

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that:

88% of families who homeschool choose to do so because of concern about the school environment

83% homeschool for religious or moral reasons

73% homeschool because of dissatisfaction with academic instruction.

65% homeschool because they want a non-traditional approach to their child's education.

Obviously, many families have mulitple reasons for homeschooling.

The National Center for Education Statistics reports that:

78% Public Library

77% Homeschool catalog, publisher or individual specialist

69% Retail Bookstore

60% Other non homeschooling educational publisher

41% Distance learning program

Many homeschool families use several sources for their curriculum.

Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute has done several studies on homeschool achievement. His report contains many interesting homeschooling statistics. Visit their website for full details of the studies summarized below.

Homeschool national average K-12 scores are 30-37 percentage points higher than public school national average K-12 scores in math, language, science, social studies, and basic and complete battery tests.

Homeschool students with college educated parents tend to score about 8 percentage points higher than homeschool students with parents who have less than a high school education. Not a significant difference when you consider that public school students with college educated parents score 27 (writing) to 35 (math) percentage points higher than those public school students whose parents have less than a high school education.

Homeschool composite percentile scores for 8th graders shows that the amount of money spent on education per child doesn't make a significant different in test scores. Those who spent between $0-$199 scored in the 80th percentile. Those who spent over $600 scored in the 83rd percentile.

Dr. Ray's study showed that 98% of homeschoolers participate in 2 or more activities in the community.

National Average Percentile Scores

According to these homeschooling statistics, the amount of money spent educating a child at home, the level of government regulation and having at least one parent as a certified teacher did not make a significant difference in test scores.

National Core Percentile Scores

Amount spent per homeschooled student per year

Each state has different homeschooling laws. Families in some states do not have to initiate any contact with the state, while families in other states must fullfill numerous requirements and document them to state officials. Surprisingly, this does not affect homeschool achievement according to the research that produced these homeschooling statistics.

Level of Government Regulation

Are you interested in the pros and cons of homeschooling?

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