Homeschool Studies

National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI)

– Dr. Brian Ray, Ph.D. of NHERI conducts and collects research about homeschooling (home-based education, home schooling), and publishes the research journal called the Home School Researcher. The institute has hundreds of research works documented and catalogued on home schooling, many of which were done by NHERI. Simply put, NHERI specializes in homeschool research.

2017 –

Research on Homeschooling Tells Us Plenty Despite the Claim It Does Not -Dr. Brian Ray, NHERI, 12/28/2017

Homeschooling: The Ultimate School Choice – Pioneer Institute: Public Policy Research, 6/22/2017

How much Money Each State Saves Thanks to Homeschooling – The Libertarian Republic, 7/21/2017

  • Homeschooling is booming!  And the numbers are in… we are saving states and the feds money when homeschool without their “help.”  (See a study done in Nevada in 2007 below – with similar findings.)

2016 –

Research Facts on Homeschooling

Number of Homeschoolers in US 2016-2017 

2013 – Homeschooling Rising Into the Twenty-First Century

  • Other titles in this publication:Resisting the Status Quo: The Narratives of Black Homeschoolers in Metro-Atlanta and Metro-DCHomeschooling and the Question of Socialization RevisitedConfrontation and Cooperation: The Complicated Relationship Between Homeschoolers and Public SchoolsReflections on a Decade of Changes in Homeschooling and the Homeschooled Into Higher EducationHomeschooling Associated with Beneficial Learner and Societal Outcomes but Educators Do Not Promote It

    Saving Democratic Education from Itself: Why We Need Homeschooling

    Hostility or Indifference? The Marginalization of Homeschooling in the Education Profession

    A Question of Resistance to Home Education and the Culture of School-Based Education

    Does Homeschooling “Work”? A Critique of the Empirical Claims and Agenda of Advocacy Organizations

    Tolerance and Liberty: Answering the Academic Left’s Challenge to Homeschooling Freedom

2009 – Exploring Academic Outcomes of Homeschooled Students

2007 – Homeschooling in Nevada: The Budgetary Impact

Nevada Policy Research Institute Study

Commissioned February 10, 2005; Released 2007

We are pleased to announce that Nevada Policy Research Institute has just released it’s much anticipated “Homeschool Study”. This study will not only help us in NV with policy makers, but will surely have a national impact.

Homeschooling in Nevada: The Budgetary Impact says that public school educators should look at home- and private school students as assets, not as liabilities. Because of these students, note authors John T. Wenders and Andrea D. Clements, Nevada school districts realize a net gain of between $25.9 and $42.7 million annually.

Public school advocates have argued that homeschooling costs the school system money through lost per-pupil taxpayer funding whenever a child is homeschooled rather than public schooled. In fact, home school students benefit school districts in the long run by relieving them of the far greater total costs of educating them. In Nevada, these cost savings are well in excess of the lost state aid.

John T. Wenders, PhD, is Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at the University of Idaho. He is also Senior Fellow at The Commonwealth Foundation, a Policy Advisor at the Heartland Institute, and Senior Policy Advisor for Education Excellence Idaho.

Andrea D. Clement, PhD, is Professor of Educational Psychology in the Human Development and Learning Department at East Tennessee State University (ETSU).

We invite your attention to the this study. It is important evidence that more flexibility in our approach to schooling can yield not only superior education but also significant cost efficiencies.

 

Augenblick Study

September 3, 2006

The 2005 Nevada legislature passed a Resolution (ACR10) to set up a “Committee on School Financing Adequacy” consisting of six legislators. The purpose of this committee was to find a contractor to do a study on “funding adequacy” in Nevada’s public schools.

The results of this study, done by Augenblick, Palaich and Associates, Inc. were recently released in a document entitled “Estimating the Cost of an Adequate Education in Nevada” , which NHN has scanned in and made available for downloading.

NHN has not taken a position questioning the validity of the study. Nor does NHN take a position debating the necessity or lack of necessity for additional funding for public education. Several organizations who support the principles of homeschooling have taken a stand against the study and additional public school funding, and their materials can be viewed at http://www.npri.org/mgraphs/ed_adequacy.pdf, at http://www.edwatchnevada.com/ , or at http://www.copacnevada.com/.

NHN has, however, asked legislators to vote against any additional public school funding until such a time that the State Board of Education and the State Department of Education write regulations that cause local districts to comply with Federal law and regulations pertaining to special needs children who are private or home schooled. Several districts have policies or practices that violate the Federal law, and the DoE’s response is to have the affected families file complaints. The DoE recognizes that most families are not willing to take this step, and uses this intimidation to cause families to either leave or enroll their child in public school. This technique has worked in the past when parents consider whether to homeschool or not, reflected in the fact that Nevada’s homeschool population is 1%, whereas the national average is over 2%.

A copy of the letter sent August 28, 2006, to key legislators is NHN’s Letter to Legislators.

NHN will keep you posted as we work to protect the rights and freedoms to homeschool. In this instance we are not asking for anything new, but instead for the State to follow existing Federal law.