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Research Facts on Homeschooling

Research facts on homeschooling, homeschooling: the research.

Research Facts on Homeschooling, Homeschool Fast Facts

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. February 9, 2024    Copyright © 2024 National Home Education Research Institute

This article gives key research facts on homeschooling

General facts, statistics, and trends.

• There were about 3.1 million homeschool students in 2021-2022 in grades K-12 in the United States  (roughly 6% of school-age children). There were about 2.5 million homeschool students in spring 2019 (or 3% to 4% of school-age children) [note 1]. The homeschool population had been growing at an estimated 2% to 8% per annum over the past several years, but it grew drastically from 2019-2020 to 2020-2021.

• Homeschooling – that is, parent-led home-based education; home education – is an age-old traditional educational practice that a decade ago appeared to be cutting-edge and “alternative” but is now bordering on “mainstream” in the United States. It may be the fastest-growing form of education in the United States. Home-based education has also been growing around the world in many other nations (e.g., Australia, Canada, France, Hungary, Japan, Kenya, Russia, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand, and the United Kingdom).
• A demographically wide variety of people homeschool – these are atheists, Christians, and Mormons; conservatives, libertarians, and liberals; low-, middle-, and high-income families; black, Hispanic, and white; parents with Ph.D.s, GEDs, and no high-school diplomas. One nationwide study shows that 41% of homeschool students are Black, Asian, Hispanic, and others (i.e., not White/non-Hispanic) (U.S. Department of Education, 2019).
• Taxpayers spend an average of $16,446 per pupil annually in public schools, plus capital expenditures (National Education Association, 2023). The roughly 3.1 million homeschool students of 2021-22 represented a savings of over $51 billion for taxpayers. This is $51 billion that American taxpayers did not have to spend.
• Taxpayers spend nothing on the vast majority of homeschool students, while homeschool families spend an average of $600 per student annually for their education. Families engaged in home-based education are not dependent on public, tax-funded resources for their children’s education.
• Homeschooling is quickly growing in popularity among minorities. About 41% of homeschool families are non-white/non-Hispanic (i.e., not white/Anglo).
• It is estimated that over 9 million Americans had experienced being homeschooled as of February of 2020.

Reasons and Motivations for Home Educating

Most parents and youth decide to homeschool for more than one reason. The most common reasons given for homeschooling are the following:

• customize or individualize the curriculum and learning environment for each child,
• accomplish more academically than in schools,
• use pedagogical approaches other than those typical in institutional schools,
• enhance family relationships between children and parents and among siblings,
• provide guided and reasoned social interactions with youthful peers and adults,
• provide a safer environment for children and youth, because of physical violence, drugs and alcohol, psychological abuse, racism, and improper and unhealthy sexuality associated with institutional schools, and
• as an alternative education approach when public or private institutional schools are closed due to acute health situations such as related to disease (e.g., Covid-19, Coronavirus)
• protect minority children from racism in public schools or lower expectations of children of color (e.g., black) (e.g., Fields-Smith, 2020; Mazama & Lundy, 2012).
• teach and impart a particular set of values, beliefs, and worldview to children and youth.

Academic Performance

• The home-educated typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests (Ray, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2024). (The public school average is roughly the 50 th 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).
• 78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools ( Ray, 2017 ).
• 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 notably 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.

Social, Emotional, and Psychological Development (Socialization)

• Research facts on homeschooling show that the home-educated are doing well, typically above average, on measures of social, emotional, and psychological development. Research measures include peer interaction, self-concept, leadership skills, family cohesion, participation in community service, and self-esteem.
• 87% of peer-reviewed studies on social, emotional, and psychological development show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in conventional schools ( Ray, 2017 ).
• Homeschool students are regularly engaged in social and educational activities outside their homes and with people other than their nuclear-family members. They are commonly involved in activities such as field trips, scouting, 4-H, political drives, church ministry, sports teams, and community volunteer work.
• The balance of research to date suggests that homeschool students may suffer less harm (e.g., abuse, neglect, fatalities) than conventional school students.
• Adults who were home educated are more politically tolerant than the public schooled in the limited research done so far.

Gender Differences in Children and Youth Respected?

• One researcher finds that homeschooling gives young people an unusual chance to ask questions such as, “Who am I?” and “What do I really want?,” and through the process of such asking and gradually answering the questions home-educated girls develop the strengths and the resistance abilities that give them an unusually strong sense of self.
• Some think that boys’ energetic natures and tendency to physical expression can more easily be accommodated in home-based education. Many are concerned that a highly disproportionate number of public school special-education students are boys and that boys are 2.5 times as likely as girls in public schools to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Success in the “Real World” of Adulthood

The research base on adults who were home educated is growing; thus far it indicates that:

• 69% of peer-reviewed studies on success into adulthood (including college) show adults who were home educated succeed and perform statistically significantly better than those who attended institutional schools ( Ray, 2017 ).
• they participate in local community service more frequently than does the general population (e.g., Seiver & Pope, 2022 ),
• these adults vote and attend public meetings more frequently than the general population
• they go to and succeed at college at an equal or higher rate than the general population
• by adulthood, they internalize the values and beliefs of their parents at a high rate

General Interpretation of Research on Homeschool Success or Failure

It is possible that homeschooling causes the positive traits reported above. However, the research designs to date do not conclusively “prove” or substantiate that homeschooling causes these things. One hypothesis is that the positive findings might be due to the demographics of the homeschool students and families in the studies. The “sources” (articles) below explain limitations and caveats regarding the studies. More methodologically stronger research needs to be done to find whether homeschooling is what leads to or causes better outcomes.  At the same time, there is no empirical evidence that homeschooling overall causes negative things compared to institutional schooling. Future research may better answer the question of causation.

1. For more detail, see How Many Homeschool Students Are There in the United States? The March of 2021 estimate is based on data from state governments (e.g., Delaware, Florida, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Virginia), the U.S. Census Bureau (2021), and the U.S. Department of Education (2019). See McDonald (2020). The spring 2019 estimate was based on an estimate of about 2.5% per annum growth from estimates of 2 million home-educated children during the spring of 2010 and 2.3 million spring of 2016 in the United States (Ray, 2011). The estimate of 2.3 million in 2016 was calculated by Brian D. Ray, the author of this fact sheet, on April 7, 2016. He based it on publicly available research findings.

The above findings are extensively documented in one or more of the following sources, and most are available from www.nheri.org:

• Cheng, Albert. (2014). Does homeschooling or private schooling promote political intolerance? Evidence from a Christian university. Journal of School Choice: International Research and Reform , 8(1), 49-68 [a peer-reviewed journal].
• Fields-Smith, Cheryl. (2020). Exploring single black mothers’ resistance through homeschooling . Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan Cham.
• Mazama, Ama; & Lundy, Garvey. (2012, August 26). African American homeschooling as racial protectionism. Journal of Black Studies, 43 (7) 723–748.
• McDonald, Kerry. (2020). Homeschooling more than doubles during the pandemic: State-level data show just how dramatic the surge in homeschooling has been. Retrieved December 29, 2020 from https://fee.org/articles/homeschooling-more-than-doubles-during-the-pandemic/
• Mead, Sara. (2006). The truth about boys and girls.
• Medlin, Richard G. (2013). Homeschooling and the question of socialization revisited. Peabody Journal of Education, 88 (3), 284-297 [a peer-reviewed journal].
• Murphy, Joseph. (2012). Homeschooling in America: Capturing and assessing the movement . Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, a Sage Company.
• National Education Association. (2023). Rankings of the States 2022 and Estimates of School Statistics 2023,  https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2023-04/2023-rankings-and-estimates-report.pdf
• Ray, Brian D. (2004). Home educated and now adults: Their community and civic involvement, views about homeschooling, and other traits. Salem, Oregon: NHERI.
• Ray, Brian D. (2004). Homeschoolers on to college: What research shows us. Ray, Journal of College Admission , No. 185, 5-11 [a peer-reviewed journal].
• Ray, Brian D. (2010). Academic achievement and demographic traits of homeschool students: A nationwide study. Academic Leadership Journal, 8, www.academicleadership.org [a peer-reviewed journal]. For a free copy, contact us .
• Ray, Brian D. (2013). Homeschooling associated with beneficial learner and societal outcomes but educators do not promote it. Peabody Journal of Education, 88 (3), 324-341 [a peer-reviewed journal].
• Ray, Brian D. (2015). African American homeschool parents’ motivations for homeschooling and their Black children’s academic achievement. Journal of School Choice, 9 :71–96 [a peer-reviewed journal]. For a free copy, contact us .
• Ray, Brian D. (2017). A systematic review of the empirical research on selected aspects of homeschooling as a school choice. Journal of School Choice , 11 (4), 604-621 [a peer-reviewed journal]
• Ray, Brian D. (2024). Reasons for homeschooling and the correlates of home-educated students’ academic achievement: A new U.S. nationwide study. Presented at International School Choice and Reform Conference, Madrid, Spain, January 6, 2024.
• Ray, Brian D.; & Shakeel, M. Danish. (2022). Demographics are predictive of child abuse and neglect but homeschool versus conventional school is a nonissue: Evidence from a nationally representative survey. Journal of School Choice, https://doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2022.2108879  [a peer-reviewed journal]
• Seiver, Jillene Grove; & Pope, Elisa A. (2022). The kids are alright II: social engagement in young adulthood as a function of k-12 schooling type, personality traits, and parental education level. Home School Researcher , 37 (2), 1-9.
• Sheffer, Susannah. (1995). A sense of self: Listening to homeschooled adolescent girls .
• United States Department of Education. (2019) Homeschooling in the United States: Results from the 2012 and 2016 Parent and Family Involvement Survey (PFINHES: 2012 and 2016). Retrieved November 3, 2020 from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2020/2020001.pdf

About the Author

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. is an internationally known researcher  (see Google Scholar Profile for many of his publications), educator, speaker, and expert witness, and serves as president of the nonprofit National Home Education Research Institute. He is a former certified teacher in public and private schools and served as a professor in the fields of science, research methods, and education at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He holds a Ph.D. in science education from Oregon State University, a M.S. in zoology from Ohio University, and a B.S. in biology from the University of Puget Sound. Dr. Ray has been studying the homeschool movement since about 1984.

For more homeschool research and more in-depth interpretation of research, media, journalists, and others please contact:

National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI)

PO Box 13939 Salem OR 97309 USA

tel. (503) 364‑1490 [email protected] www.nheri.org

Copyright © 2024 by National Home Education Research Institute

About nheri.

NHERI conducts homeschooling research, is a clearinghouse of research for the public, researchers, homeschoolers, the media, and policy makers, and educates the public concerning the findings of all related research. NHERI executes, evaluates, and disseminates studies and information (e.g., statistics, facts, data) on homeschooling (i.e., home schooling, home-based education, home education, home school, home-schooling, unschooling, deschooling, a form of alternative education), publishes reports and the peer-reviewed scholarly journal Home School Researcher, and serves in consulting, academic achievement tests, and expert witness (in courts and legislatures).

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Environment

The research on homeschooling, the academic, social, and long-term outcomes for children in home schools..

Posted September 1, 2021 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

About 4 to 5 million children in the United States (or approximately 8 to 9% of school-age children) were homeschooled in March 2021. This statistic increased dramatically during the pandemic: Only 2.5 million (or 3 to 4% of school-age children) were homeschooled in spring 2019.

The most common reason cited for homeschooling (before the pandemic) was concern about the local school environment, including safety and negative peer pressure . Many parents also choose to homeschool due to dissatisfaction with the educational quality of local schools, or for religious reasons.

However, many parents and caregivers considering homeschooling may be especially concerned about how homeschooling might impact their child’s academic progress and social development. Does the research find any differences between children who were homeschooled versus children in conventional school?

Academic Performance

Homeschooled students tend to score higher on tests of academic skills when compared to children in public schools across most studies. However, it is difficult to draw any conclusions from these studies since most do not control for important family demographic factors and compare self-selected homeschooling families’ test scores (from tests proctored by parents) to national averages. Interestingly, children in a “structured” homeschool program — that is, a homeschool program with organized lesson plans — tend to score higher on academic tests than children from conventional schools, while children in “unstructured” homeschool environments without organized lesson plans tend to score lower than children in conventional schools.

Social Skills

The findings on social skills seem to be more mixed. Some studies have found no difference in social skills between children in homeschool environments versus conventional schools, some studies have found that homeschooled children score higher on measures of social ability, and some have found that homeschooled children score lower on overall social skills. Not surprisingly, homeschooled students who have had more opportunities for peer interactions tend to show improved social skills.

Long-Term Success

Most studies find that homeschooled children tend to have higher college GPAs than children from conventional schools. In addition, most studies have found no difference between homeschooled and conventional students in college graduation rates. However, most homeschooled students do not attend competitive four-year colleges and one study found that homeschooled students may have lower math GPAs in college than children from conventional schools. Children who are homeschooled may also be more likely to work in a lower-paying job.

Limitations of this Research

It is important to note that this research is difficult to interpret because families that choose to homeschool are different from families who do not in many other ways — for example, they may have parents with higher income or educational levels — and these factors likely contribute to the results as well. For instance, we cannot conclude that homeschooling will improve your child’s test scores since homeschooled children may have more educated mothers and it may be the mother’s educational level that drives the higher test scores, not homeschooling itself.

Almasoud, S., & Fowler, S. R. (2016). The difference in the academic achievements of homeschooled and non-homeschooled students. Home School Researcher, 32(1), 1-4.

Cogan, M. F. (2010). Exploring academic outcomes of homeschooled students. Journal of College Admission, 208, 18-25.

Coleman, R. E. (2014). The homeschool math gap: The data. Coalition for Responsible Home Education.

Drenovsky, C. K., & Cohen, I. (2012). The impact of homeschooling on the adjustment of college students. International Social Science Review, 87(1/2), 19-34.

Kunzman, R., & Gaither, M. (2020). Homeschooling: An updated comprehensive survey of the research. Other Education, 9(1), 253-336.

Martin-Chang, S., Gould, O. N., & Meuse, R. E. (2011). The impact of schooling on academic achievement: Evidence from homeschooled and traditionally schooled students. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue Canadienne Des Sciences du Comportement, 43(3), 195.

McKinley, M. J., Asaro, J. N., Bergin, J., D'Auria, N., & Gagnon, K. E. (2007). Social Skills and Satisfaction with Social Relationships in Home-Schooled, Private-Schooled, and Public-Schooled Children. Online Submission, 17(3), 1-6.

Medlin, R. G. (2006). Homeschooled Children's Social Skills. Online Submission, 17(1), 1-8.

Montes, G. (2006). Do Parental Reasons to Homeschool Vary by Grade? Evidence from the National Household Education Survey, 2001. Online Submission, 16(4), 11-17.

Montes, G. (2015). The social and emotional health of homeschooled students in the United States: A population-based comparison with publicly schooled students based on the national survey of children’s health, 2007. Home School Researcher, 31(1), 1-9.

Pearlman-Avnion, S., & Grayevsky, M. (2019). Homeschooling, civics, and socialization: The case of Israel. Education and Urban Society, 51(7), 970-988.

Ray, B. D. (2017). A systematic review of the empirical research on selected aspects of homeschooling as a school choice. Journal of School Choice, 11(4), 604-621.

Redford, J., Battle, D., & Bielick, S. (2017, April). Homeschooling in the United States: 2012. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved August 1, 2017, from. (NCES 2016-096.REV) https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2016096rev

Sikkink, D., & Skiles, S. (2015). Homeschooling and young adult outcomes: Evidence from the 2011 and 2014 Cardus Education Survey. The Cardus Religious Schools Initiative.

Cara Goodwin, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in translating scientific research into information that is useful, accurate, and relevant for parents.

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The Academic and Social Benefits of Homeschooling

Homeschooling works. The roughly 2 million children who currently learn at home join a millennia-old practice supported by many government officials, scholars, college officials, and employers.

While mainstream America has embraced homeschooling as a viable and positive educational option—and as 55 million K-12 students and their parents have been thrust into “crisis-teaching at home”—the angst of some academics over homeschooling has abruptly emerged.

Professors Elizabeth Bartholet of Harvard University and James Dwyer of William and Mary School of Law organized a summer meeting to “focus on problems of educational deprivation and child maltreatment that too often occur under the guise of homeschooling, in a legal environment of minimal or no oversight.” In a highly controversial article in Harvard Magazine , Erin O’Donnell advanced Bartholet’s arguments in favor of a homeschooling ban.

Yet, what does the evidence tell us about homeschool educational and social outcomes? Is there any sound corpus of evidence that homeschooled children are actually educationally deprived or maltreated? And what worldview drives anti-homeschoolers such as Bartholet and Dwyer?

Most reviews of homeschooling research reveal generally positive learning outcomes for children.

Joseph Murphy and Brian Ray provide quite optimistic reviews, while other appraisals present positive, albeit more tentative , conclusions. A one-of-its-kind review of only peer-reviewed research by Ray revealed that 11 of the 14 peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement found that homeschool students significantly outperformed conventionally schooled children. Both of the publicly available state-provided data sets showed higher-than-average test scores for homeschooled children.

A similar pattern emerges for the social, emotional, and psychological development of the homeschooled.

The clear majority of peer-reviewed studies show that homeschoolers often have better parent-child relationships and friendships than conventionally schooled children. Homeschoolers are happy, satisfied, and civically engaged .

A growing body of research indicates that graduates of home-based education excel. Eleven of the 16 peer-reviewed studies on success into adulthood (including college) showed that homeschoolers had better results for political tolerance, college GPA, and college retention than students in conventional schools. After reviewing the relevant literature, Gloeckner and Jones concluded that the “comparative results of the studies reported in this review, combined with the data collected from college admission officers provide evidence that homeschooling is an effective alternative path to college for the children of many families.”

Homeschoolers are not being educationally deprived, maltreated, or abused. On the contrary, the research literature suggests that rates of abuse (e.g., physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect) are lower among homeschoolers than institutionally schooled children.

Although there are certainly cases when homeschoolers are abused (and such cases should be prosecuted), banning homeschooling is not the answer, nor will it improve education or make children safer.

As a society we do not, for example, close public schools when a child is abused there. When scholars like Bartholet, Fineman and Worthington, and Dwyer and Peters advocate for a total or presumptive ban on homeschooling, they do so without solid support from the empirical literature. When Bartholet and others advocate for forcing children to enter the public school system, they are ignoring evidence that only approximately 40 percent of conventionally schooled students are at, or above, proficiency in reading and mathematics.

Certainly, many public educators are engaged in terrific efforts to provide high-quality education, but it is also clear that the public school system has significant limitations.

Why, then, do some academics want more government control and restrictions on homeschooling? We think it is not hard to perceive: They do not approve of the values and beliefs of the parents who choose to homeschool.

One of us partially addressed the answer in a scholarly journal some years ago. Ray identified four classes of negativity toward parent-led home-based education. Some scholars make theoretical arguments that government schools are the gold standard of education that advances the common good, while private schooling is bad for society. A second group argues that homeschooling is an attempt to “cocoon” one’s children from ideas and people that the parents disdain. Another category holds that homeschooling harms children philosophically, psychologically, religiously, physically, and educationally. And the fourth group goes against homeschooling by theorizing why the state should have more domination over children and their parents.

In the end, however, all of those categories of opposition are founded on different values, beliefs, and presuppositions than those at the core of parent-led homeschooling. Dwyer and Peters , for example, presuppose that “[t]he state must have the ultimate authority to determine what children’s interests are” and that the state is the entity that shall decide over what aspects of a child’s life his parents have authority.

In a similar vein, Bartholet argues that the state, not the parent, shall have the ultimate authority to decide what and how children shall be taught. Parents, in her world, must prove to the state that they deserve permission to educate their children outside of the government’s control. Fineman’s philosophical zeal is so clear that anything other than state-funded and state-controlled education must be banned by the government.

These kinds of ideas simply stem from their philosophical and religious worldviews. It is “natural” for them to conclude that the civil government must control children’s teaching, training, and indoctrination. It is natural because their worldviews cannot comprehend or tolerate a worldview such as classical liberalism or Christianity that holds the state should not control boys’ and girls’ educational formation, unless parents are abusive.

While the relevant research has limitations , scholarly research shows that homeschooling has positive outcomes for children. There is certainly no body of clear evidence that homeschooling undermines children’s academic and social development and should be restricted. Certain academics’ agitation over homeschooling appears to be based on their perspective that the state—and not parents—should control the education of all children.

Compared to conventional students, homeschool graduates are more likely to

• have higher college GPAs,
• be politically tolerant,
• be agreeable and conscientious,
• have a more positive college experience, and
• be self-employed.

In summary, opponents of homeschooling lack empirical data for their arguments, and judges and governmental officials consistently hold that parents have the right to educate their children at home.

Those arguing for state domination lost their major battles in legislatures, courts, and the public mind in the 1980s and 1990s. Homeschooling advocates have strong support in protecting their freedom to educate outside state-run systems.

College personnel, employers, and independent business advocates should be glad about homeschooling. It is a form of free enterprise. It costs taxpayers less than public schooling and its graduates are well-equipped to be the next generation of entrepreneurs, leaders, parents, householders, creators, and everyday citizens. In summary, we agree with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s analysis of this issue: “The risk to children is not from homeschooling. The risk is from radical leftist scholars seeking to impose their values on our children.”

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D., is president of the National Home Education Research Institute and is internationally known for his research on homeschooling.

Carlos Valiente, Ph.D., is a Professor in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University.

May 13, 2020 › Academics , Politicization

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› Academics , Politicization

Research Paper about Homeschooling

Homeschooling is a topic that is talked about a lot, especially right now with virtual schools. The main points throughout this essay that help show all sides of homeschooling: Pros to homeschooling, cons to homeschooling, and the regulations that should be made to homeschool. Homeschooling has changed so much over the years and has gone up, especially since Covid has hit. During the years 1999-12, the percentage of people homeschooled was around 3.3%, but since Covid has hit it has been reported that 5.4% of households are homeschooling. 

There is a ton of pros and cons to homeschooling, and one of the main concerns of homeschooled kids is the lack of social interaction and skills. But being homeschooled doesn’t mean that since they don’t go to a traditional school they can still have interaction with other kids their age. Parents can enroll their children in a community or town little league sports or things like that. This allows the child to acquire social skills with kids their age and still be homeschooled. This gives the children a chance to learn proper social skills and the people that would be in their class if they did go to school. 

There are some things that public schools cannot teach: such as religion, moral beliefs, and other topics about religion or beliefs that could offend people. One of the main reasons that parents choose to homeschool their children is their religion. Teachers could receive a large punishment if they taught children religion being that it might not be what they believe and the teacher cannot reinforce it. 

There could be a lot of disadvantages to homeschooled children or homeschooling your children. According to Ashleigh Ricardo, “Although parents of homeschooled children may want their children to avoid dating, children in traditional school environments may not begin dating, but they are exposed to good and bad relationships and what are good and bad traits to look for once they do begin dating”(Ricardo). This could be a very possible reason why parents choose this form of schooling for their children. When the child does not experience dating, as well as other relationships in high school this could affect their first relationships and their friendships with their peers and other people they are around. They might not have dealt with some of the issues that could happen with their friends and may not know how to react to them. Children that are homeschooled may not learn how a relationship should be and what a healthy one looks like, they have only seen their parents' relationships. Not only with dating, but their friends’ relationships, bosses, and colleges might have an impact as well. They might have never dealt with certain situations that some other people have. 

Ricardo goes on to say, “As a child is exposed to bullies and peer pressure, children learn how to interact with peers and problem solve, which is similar to the experiences they may encounter in the “real world”.” This is a statement that emphasizes the importance of being put in tough situations that they will face and know how to deal with once they come by a job and into more confrontation with people that they do not know. While homeschooling you do receive human interaction but you may not always have to deal with all the real-world situations. If the child does not do a speech class where they have to stand up in front of a class or room full of people they will never experience that unless they go to a college somewhere. 

In school today there is a big issue with bullying and peer pressure which leads a lot of parents to lean towards homeschooling. Ricardo states that “Furthermore, parents speak strongly against the negative socialization children receive in traditional school environments.” If a child does not experience negative socialization during their younger years how will they know how to say no when they are put into that environment or situation without their parents or parent there? Drugs along with peer pressure are another key thing that makes parents lean more towards homeschooling their children. But they won’t know what to do if they are asked to do something that they don’t know a lot about. Especially if they are going to college, knowing how to say no to certain things could affect their safety. 

In the last couple of years with Covid going on a lot of families have been struggling due to not being able to have internet. In small towns, a lot of families live in the country where intent access to the internet is very limited. Rebecca Jaycox talks about how the internet plays a huge role in homeschooling, “Although rural areas may lack such homeschooling resources as museums, Internet communications, and expansive libraries, other assets abound, as these school-based examples illustrate”(Jaycox) This makes me going against homeschooling especially the location of where some people live. Being in school and seeing people come to school and telling teachers, “Sorry I didn’t do it because I don’t have access to the internet at my house.” This could depend on where you are from and what town you are around. Not being able to have access to certain things that people in the cities have. Living in the country, you may not have access to the internet and things like that so it does limit your use of the internet and deepen your knowledge of certain things. 

Being in elementary school you work on certain problem solving, being homeschooled. While growing up going to school, everyday problems arise that need to be solved fast, when homeschooled you might not earn that skill. Jaycox says, “One concern surrounding the homeschooling movement is that personal independence and self-sufficiency will take precedence over what is best for society at large. Critical observers of homeschooling argue that those who practice this form of education are giving up on solving common problems and that social stratification is a consequence of their actions” This is a disadvantage of homeschooling considering when you go out on your own you need to know how to get yourself through things without the help of others and your parents. Being put in a place where there needs to be a decision made fast you just need to act on it, and won’t need to think. 

“About 40% of U.S. states (n21) mandate the use of standardized achievement tests in specific content domains, usually reading and mathematics in lower grade levels and expanding to include language, science, and social studies in higher grade levels. In the majority of these states, parents submit scores to the local school district. Among the states that require testing, 13 calls for annual assessment or evaluation, and 8 require periodic assessment or evaluation.” This is a great regulation since this is an easy and equal form of testing. The parents of the homeschooled child have to report the scores to their school district which makes sure they are still doing testing and can see where the child needs to continue to improve. 

In certain states, different regulations take place. Janet Carlson talks about how there is, “no testing required”(Carlson). There should at least be some testing requirements. Even though some tests aren’t worth it and don’t calculate what you know, I feel like there should be some sort of testing that needs to be done in that child's schooling career. This lets the teacher know where their child is at in their learning process and know what they need to work on. In college, you are going to have tests that will be very challenging to children that don’t take tests they may not know the proper way to study effectively. 

Buffy Campbell writes about the different ways there is to homeschool, this is what she says, “Part-time homeschool with part-time enrollment in a school district (Competent Private instruction)”(Campbell). This form of schooling is the best form of homeschooling for children or high schoolers. Some parents are incapable of teaching certain subjects to their children. This is a great regulation, you could do both if necessary. Some parents can’t teach them things like bad, agriculture, choir, and others. Coming to school helps them be a part of a team, class, and know-how things work in classrooms for the future. This as well, allows them to meet new people that they could have a bond with and become friends with outside of school. 

Homeschooling has a lot of advantages, disadvantages, and regulations that need to be followed. But after looking more into homeschooling there seem to be more disadvantages to homeschooling. One of the main reasons is the social aspect, but there are ways around getting more social. Overall, there was a lot of information that was found about homeschooled children. There are a lot of regulations that should be more strict with kids that are homeschooled.

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