Parent-led, home-based education, or homeschooling, has grown rapidly over recent decades with participation rates increasing more than 100-fold to now nearly one in 25 students nationwide in the United States. However, the research base has not grown correspondingly, and homeschoolers remain understudied. We systematically surveyed a population…

School choice is spreading across the U.S. at the same time that scores on the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) are stagnant. We examine the association between education freedom and 8th grade student NAEP score levels and gains in states in 2019. We construct the 2019 Education Freedom Index as a composite measure of the…

Background: School is an important place for physical activity (PA); however, little is known about how homeschool students' PA levels compare with public and private school students. This study estimated the national prevalence of PA levels of homeschool students compared to public and private school students. Methods: We used the 2017 National…

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…

The Kansas Graduate and Dropout Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of how the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) calculates and reports the Adjusted Cohort Graduation and Annual Dropout Rates. Sections include: (1) Introduction; (2) Terminology; (3) Data Sources; (4) Kansas Individual Data on Students (KIDS) Reports; (5) Public…

The State of Alaska, by some measures the United States' most rural state, has long supported correspondence schools, a popular school choice option available to all students statewide and used primarily by homeschooled students. This paper first explores Alaska correspondence schools in historical context, and then quantifies capture rate,…

"Wisconsin Public Schools at a Glance" provides in a single page document statistical information on the following topics: (1) Schools & Districts (2019-2020); (2) Staff (2019-2020); (3) School Funding; (4) Students (2019-2020); and (4) Enrollment by School Type (2019-2020). [For "Wisconsin Public Schools at a Glance"…

Giving parents and students the ability to choose their school is promoted by supporters as the key to improving American education overall. On the surface, the idea has great appeal. Who, after all, opposes having choices? Indeed, both Democratic and Republican policymakers, including President Trump, have embraced school choice as a reform…

This doctoral project is a pilot study to assess the effectiveness of a church discipleship co-op designed to convey a biblical worldview to middle and high school students enrolled in charter homeschooling in Southern California. Research by the Nehemiah Institute indicated that 90% of Christian families in the United States send their children…

"Ohio Education by the Numbers" offers busy policy makers, journalists, and civic and business leaders simple and easy-to-use vital statistics about Ohio's schools and the students they serve. The facts and figures contained within offer an overview of Ohio's students; where they go to school; their achievement on national and state…

Many policies and initiatives have been proposed or implemented to address the unique needs of military families who face special challenges while supporting the service of their military member(s). Some of those policies and initiatives have sought to focus on military-connected children (MCCs) and the particular academic challenges they face.…

Concludes that prior research show either no difference between homeschooled children and other children, or a difference favoring homeschooled children. This suggests that homeschooled children's social skills are certainly no worse than those of children attending conventional schools, and are probably better. This study finds that homeschooled…

The purpose of the present study was to compare empathy, altruism, moral reasoning, and prosocial behavior in home schooled children and children attending public schools, and to assess attitudes toward religion and values in their parents. Homeschooling parents were more concerned with teaching their children their values and religious beliefs,…