The Washington Post is reporting on new statistics released by the U.S. Department of Education yesterday in which it found that home-schooled students represent 3.4 percent (1.8 million) of the U.S. student population between the ages of five and 17. In 1999, there were approximately 850,000 representing 1.7 percent of the U.S. student population.

The report found that the number of home-schooled students rose the fastest between 1999 and 2007, then slowed between 2007 and 2012.

Most home-schoolers were found to be white and living above the poverty line. About a third live in rural areas while slightly more than a third live in the suburbs. Slightly less than a third live in cities.

Four in ten homeschoolers were being taught by college educated parents with only about one in 10 who were learning from parents who did not graduate from high school.

According to the report, it was difficult to tell if parents’ reasons for homeschooling have changed much in recent years. In 2007, 36 percent said that providing “religious or moral instruction” was the most important reason for homeschooling. In 2012, the question was asked differently – with moral and religious reasons asked separately - and found that 17 percent did so to impart religious instruction and five percent to impart moral instruction.

Safety issues, such as protecting children from violence and drug and peer pressure was another reason for homeschooling with 21 percent citing this concern in 2007 and 25 percent naming it in 2012.

The report also documented the methods of homeschooling and found that:

• Websites, homeschooling catalogs, public libraries, and bookstores were the more frequently cited sources of curriculum for homeschooled students in 2012. Curricula from public and private schools were among the least cited (figure 2).

• About a quarter of homeschooled students had parents who took a course to prepare for their child’s home instruction (figure 3).

• About a third of middle school-level homeschooled students (35 percent) and a third of high schoollevel (34 percent) homeschooled students took online courses (figure 4).

Whatever the method used, homeschooled students continue to outpace their public school peers.

According to statistics gathered by the National Home Education Research Network:

• The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public school average is the 50th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.) A 2015 study found Black homeschool students to be scoring 23 to 42 percentile points above Black public school students (Ray, 2015).

• Homeschool students score above average on achievement tests regardless of their parents’ level of formal education or their family’s household income.

• Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement.

• Degree of state control and regulation of homeschooling is not related to academic achievement.

• Home-educated students typically score above average on the SAT and ACT tests that colleges consider for admissions.

• Homeschool students are increasingly being actively recruited by colleges.

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