Homeschooling: The Research, Scholarly articles, studies, facts, research

The most common reasons given for homeschooling are:

• Customizable curriculum and learning environment for each child.
• Accomplish more academically than in schools.
• Use pedagogical approaches other than those typical in institutional schools.
• Enhance relationships between children and parent and among siblings.
• Provide guided and reasoned social interactions with peers and adults.
• Provide a safer environment for children.
• It is an alternative education approach when public or private institutional schools are closed due to disease (e.g. Covid-19).
• Protect minority children from racism in public schools or lower expectations of children of colour.
• Teach and impart a particular set of values, beliefs, and worldview.

The research base on adults who were home educated:

• 69% of peer-reviewed studies on success into adulthood show adults who were home educated succeed and perform statistically significantly better than those who attended institutional schools.
• They participate in local community service more frequently than the general population.
• They vote and attend public meetings more frequently than the general population.
• They attend and succeed at college at an equal or higher rate than the general population.
• They internalize the values and beliefs of their parents at a high rate.

Homeschool students are regularly engaged in social and educational activities outside their homes and with people other than their nuclear-family members.

Research shows that the home-educated are doing typically above average on measures of social, emotional, and psychological development. Research measures include peer interaction, self-concept, leadership skills, family cohesion, community service participation, and self-esteem.

It is possible that homeschooling causes the positive traits reported by research. But the research designs to date do not conclusively prove that.

There is also no empirical evidence that homeschooling causes negative things compared to institutionalised schooling. Further research is needed to answer the question of causation.