About 1.1 million students (1,096,000) were being homeschooled in the United States in the spring of 2003 according to an NHES study (National Household Education Surveys Program).

This represents an increase from the estimated 850,000 students who were being homeschooled in the spring of 1999.

In addition, the estimated homeschooling rate, the percentage of the school-age population that was being homeschooled, increased from 1.7 percent in 1999 to 2.2 percent in 2003.

In the 2003 NHES study parents were asked what was their most important reason for homeschooling.

• 31% concern about the environment of other schools
• 30% to provide religious or moral instruction
• 16% dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools

Test Scores

In Spring 1998, 20,760 K-12 home school students in 11,930 families were administered either the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) or the Tests of Achievement and Proficiency (TAP), depending on their current grade.

The parents responded to a questionnaire requesting background and demographic information. Major findings include:

• the median scores were typically in the 70th to 80th percentile
• 25% of home school students are enrolled one or more grades above their age-level public and private school peers

Statistics and graph above from:  http://nces.ed.gov/nhes/homeschool/

Also take a look at the following articles by HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) for additional information and graphs on Homeschooling Achievement.

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/comp2001/HomeSchoolAchievement.pdf

http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/rudner1999/Rudner2.asp