Recent article on homeschooling demographics, etc.

Of particular note in this article is the section regarding admission of homeschool graduates to colleges. It's reassuring to know there are so many paving the way before us, since we'll be joining those ranks in another nine years!

Full text of article at the Hoover Institution

As Popularity of Home Schooling Grows, Greater Numbers and More Diversity among Families Choosing Option

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 19, 2008

Contact:Milton Gaither, Messiah College

STANFORD – Home schooling is now popular among a broader and more representative group of the American public than ever before. According to recent findings from the Education Next/Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) 2008 national education survey, 45 percent of Americans report that they know a family that home schools a child--up from 40 percent in 2007--and 64 percent of public school teachers report knowing a home schooling family.

Interestingly, household income levels of home schooling families closely mirror those of public school families, reports education professor Milton Gaither in the new issue of Education Next. Among both homeschooling families and public school families, about 26 percent have an income of $25,000 or less; less than 10 percent of private school families come from the same income bracket. On the other end of the spectrum, less than 22 percent of homeschooling families and slightly more than 25 percent of public school families have an income of more than $75,000, compared to 50 percent of private school families.

U.S. Department of Education data shows the overall number of homeschooled children increased by 29 percent to 1.1 million students between 1999 and 2003. Among minorities, h ome schooling increased by 20 percent to over a quarter of a million students over the same period. Movement leaders suggest even higher overall estimates of around 2 to 2.5 million homeschoolers nationwide.

As the popularity of homeschooling has grown, the College Board has seen the number of home schoolers who take Advanced Placement tests more than triple. Colleges and universities are also reporting an increase in applications by students without a traditional high-school background, spurring the creation of new admissions policies to explicitly address home-schooling. In 1986, no more than 10 percent of the nation’s colleges and universities had such admissions policies; by 2004, over 75 percent did.

The advent of online education and the rise of cyber charter schools may account for some of the extraordinary growth in home schooling in recent years. Led by states like Florida, which enrolled more than 52,000 students in its statewide virtual school for 2006-07, there are now 22 states and several local districts with online learning programs which enable students to do some or all of their schooling at home. Cyber charters have seen a similar rising trend of interest: as of 2006, 18 states had a combined total of 147 virtual charter schools educating over 65,000 students.

At the same time, public school districts with high rates of home schooling have seen significant drops in funding as district enrollments have declined. Many school districts, having lost early fights to criminalize home schooling, now openly court home schoolers. With millions of per pupil funding dollars at stake, some districts are being motivated to innovate in exciting ways that are more responsive to the needs of their families. Some school districts are experimenting with programs that allow students to home school for part of the day but take certain classes at the local public school; others are offering à la carte classes and services through satellite campuses at strip malls and other locations.

“It’s likely we’ll see more accommodation, adaptation, and hybridization taking place as U.S. education policy strives to catch up to the sweeping demographic, economic and technological changes that are affecting our schools,” says Gaither .
--snip--- (go to the Hoover Institution to read the article in its entirety)