There are over one million school-age children in Missouri, and we estimate 61,000 (6% of all school-age children) are homeschooled. Missouri is one of 29 states that does not require homeschooling to be reported. Using methods that can be replicated elsewhere with publicly available data, we test three approaches to estimating homeschool…

Diverse learners with exceptional needs require a specialized curriculum that will help them to develop, socially and intellectually, in a way that traditional pedagogical practice is unable to fulfill. As educational technologies and theoretical approaches to learning continue to advance, so do the opportunities for exceptional children.…

The "Report on the Condition of Education" is a congressionally mandated annual report from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Using the most recent data available (at the time this report was written) from NCES and other sources, the report contains key indicators on the condition of education in the United States at…

Since the early 1990s when the nation's first charter school was opened in Minneapolis, the scope and availability of school-based options to parents has steadily expanded. No longer can public education be characterized as a monopoly. Sponsored by the National Center on School Choice (NCSC), this handbook makes readily available the most rigorous…

This article discusses quantitative research on homeschooling, including the available data, pitfalls of using the data, estimates of the number of homeschooled children, part-time homeschooling, and why families homeschool. I compare research on homeschooling to research on charter schools, voucher programs, and private schools.

This document consists of a collection of the first 14 issues of the "Home School Researcher," an interacative newsletter dedicated solely to Home Centered Learning Research. Purposes of the newsletter are to: (1) profile researchers of home schooling; (2) provide information on resources for research activities; (3) discuss problematic…

Curriculum suppliers, state departments of education, and home school leaders, are the sources used to estimate that between 248,500 and 353,500 school-aged children (K-12) were educated at home in the 1990-91 school year. This paper explains how this estimate was derived. It provides information on process, possible bias, alternate survey…

Using the pooled 1998-2000 GSS data, this study examines what kinds of parents tend to select non-public schools for their children, a question that is fundamental but lacks direct, adequate answers in the literature. The results of logistic regression analysis show that religion, socio-economic status, age, nativity, number of children and region…

The Theory of Reasoned Action was used to ascertain students' salient beliefs, correlations between constructs in the theory, relative weights of the determinants of intention, and the effect of type of schooling, gender, and grade level on the determinants of intention. This exploratory study generated baseline information and used correlational…

Observations and interviews conducted in three different series over an 18-month period provided data about the operation of one family's home school. When combined with data from observations conducted in two other home schools, the information led to a number of conclusions concerning both potential strengths of home schools as learning…

This paper presents selected results of some initial attempts to describe and understand the home school phenomenon. Two types of research activities investigating the nature of family curricula are reviewed: (1) informal descriptions of home schools and their participants' reflections as already published, and (2) several case studies of families…

This study investigated home school graduates' potential for success in college by comparing their performance with that of students who had graduated from conventional public and private schools. The basis for comparison was student aptitude for college English as measured by the American College Testing (ACT) English sub-score and the ACT…

Asserts that parents, especially mothers, were expected to assume responsibility for the early education of children in preindustrial England. Discusses the role that mothers played regarding education at home or through church-related agencies. Concludes that women accepted the responsibility of providing for the education of children. (CFR)

This paper describes an ethnographic study of how fundamentalist Christian parents new to home schooling are socialized to norms, beliefs, and values of the Christian home schooling organizations with which they are affiliated. Research involved participant observation and interviews with "home schoolers" and educators over an 18-month…

Describes the changing role of schools and schooling among Dutch middle and upper middle class adolescents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Discusses the evolution from home schooling in the early 1800s to boarding schools for a small portion of the school-age population to secondary girls' schools for most females between 1867 and 1900.…