Reply #112: 100,000? [View All]

[mzteris]

:rofl:


"Homeschooling is the education of school-aged children under their parents' general monitoring, and it replaces full-time attendance at a campus school. Some homeschooling children enroll part time at a campus-based school, or share instruction with other families, but most of their educational program is under the direct oversight of parents. While many activities take place in the home, parents often draw on their community, neighboring institutions, and travel opportunities to complete the program. The definition used for this paper includes families who self-identify as homeschoolers, even if they utilize part-time school enrollment.

Homeschooling has more than doubled possibly tripled – in the 5 years between the 1990-91 school year and the 1995-96 school year. By the 1995-96 school year, from 1 to 2 percent of the total school-aged population were in homeschooling. Within the private education world, it has become a major sector, where it represents approximately 10 percent of the privately-schooled population. In some states homeschooling may exceed 20 percent of the privately-schooled population.1

Given the evidence provided here, the total number of homeschoolers in the 1990-91 school year seems to have been between 250,000 to 350,000 children nationwide; and around 700,000 to 750,000 in 1995-96. Based on limited evidence from four states, the number is still growing; the rate was between 7 and 15 percent from the 1995-96 school year to the 1996-97 school year.2 Assuming the larger growth rate, which is more consistent with past growth,3 the number could have reached about 1,000,000 children by the 1997-98 school year.

Growth has persisted over three decades. Earlier estimates, based on different methodologies, suggested 60,000 to 125,000 school-aged children for the fall of 1983; and 122,000 to 244,000 for fall of 1985; between 150,000 to 300,000 for fall of 1988; and between 250,000 to 350,000 for fall of 1990. A retroactive estimate done in 1988 suggested 10,000 to 15,000 children received their education at home in the late 1970s and early 1980s, close to an estimate made at the time by an early leader of the homeschooling movement, educator and author, John Holt.

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/SAI/homeschool/index.html



and the numbers keep growing as schools fail to meet the needs of many children.