During the COVID-19 pandemic, kindergartens in Hong Kong have sought ways in which to support children's learning at home while schools were closed. We report on a proof-of-concept study: short videos intended to support playful learning at home were distributed to parents/caregivers of preschool children via a smartphone app; toys and a storybook…

While a controversial practice internationally, homeschooling is not uncommon in the United States' educational system. Although myriad reasons exist for choosing to homeschool one's children, a framework highlighting reactive versus proactive motivations has emerged to explain why some families choose to homeschool. Using prospective,…

School safety has been widely studied from the perspectives of administrators, teachers, and students in traditional education settings. However, parents' perceptions of school safety have been largely overlooked. Moreover, it is unknown how homeschool parents conceptualize safety in educational settings despite school safety being a known…

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused unprecedented global socio-economic disruptions. One of the areas negatively impacted is the education system. The country's over reliance on traditional face-to-face teaching has brought about serious challenges to policymakers who have to decide how learning would proceed in the…

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to enormous societal changes worldwide and touched many different areas of daily life. One of the most serious restrictions to contain the pandemic was the closure of schools and kindergartens. Particularly in countries with comparatively low levels of digitalization in schools, this situation opened up…

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically disrupted the functioning of U.S. public schools, potentially changing the relative appeal of alternatives such as homeschooling and private schools. We study changes in families' choices of school sector using longitudinal student-level administrative data from Michigan and nationally representative data from the…

Nationwide, public schools began to experience a youth population decline prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. After 14 years of successively smaller U.S. birth cohorts, elementary public schools now face gradually declining student counts. The complex convergence of shifting age demographics, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing…

Crises have a way of shaking up the status quo and creating space for new thinking. When shocked out of their familiarity, people start to ask questions as to why things are the way that they are and brainstorm ways to make them better. Enter entrepreneurs. They are the people who take those ideas that are lying around and attempt to create…

This study reports the results of a survey conducted with a set of "hybrid homeschool" leaders (principals or directors) from around the United States who were asked to describe (1) how their families categorize themselves (as homeschoolers, or as members of private schools); (2) the ways in which their schools operate in terms of…

This report presents data on students in the United States attending kindergarten through grade 12. The focus of the report is on parent and family involvement in the students' education during the 2018-19 school year, as reported by the students' parents. It includes the percentage of students who participated in selected family activities.…

Growing evidence illustrates the size and character of public-school enrollment declines during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, far less is known about where unenrolled students went. Using unique cross-sector enrollment and mobility data from the state of Hawaii, this study provides evidence that demographic changes and movement to private…

In the 2016 General Session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 101, High Quality School Readiness Program Expansion, which expanded access to high quality school readiness programs for eligible students. This program was funded with $120,000 ongoing from the Education Fund for program administration and $9.0 million in Temporary Assistance for…

The study characterized children's literacy, mothers' beliefs, and writing mediation of homeschooled compared to formally schooled kindergartners. Participants were 60 children (ages 4-6) and their mothers (30 in homeschooling). At the children's home, we assessed children's literacy, maternal beliefs, and video-recorded mother-child joint writing…

This report presents findings from the Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program of 2016 (NHES:2016). The Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey collected data on children enrolled in public or private school for kindergarten through 12th grade or homeschooled for these grades.…

The 2012 National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES:2012) Data File User's Manual provides documentation and guidance for users of the NHES:2012 data files. The manual provides information about the purpose of the study, the sample design, data collection procedures, data processing procedures, response rates, imputation, weighting and…