The research behind home education

United States, government survey

Safety came first. Academics came fourth.

Asked what mattered in the decision to homeschool, 83% of parents rated concern about the environment of other schools as important. Providing moral instruction followed at 75%, wanting to emphasise family life together at 72%, and dissatisfaction with academic instruction at 72%. Asked to name the single most important reason, 28% chose the school environment.

Public domain National Center for Education Statistics, Homeschooling in the United States: Results from the 2023 NHES (NCES 2024-113). Read the study

United States, 2023 nationwide sample

Families ranked time together above everything else.

In a nationwide sample of homeschooling families, the reason rated highest was wanting to emphasise family life together, followed by moral instruction, then wanting to provide a customised education. Only 5% of the main homeschooling parents had ever been certified to teach by a state.

CC BY 4.0 Ray, B. D., & Hoelzle, B. (2026). A Nationwide Study on the Academic Achievement of Homeschool Students and Parents' Reasons for Homeschooling. Peabody Journal of Education, 101(2), 193-211. Read the study

Worth knowing: this sample was recruited through testing services and homeschool organisations, and by the authors' own table it is whiter and better off than homeschooling families nationally. Read the achievement figures with that in mind.

United States, National Household Education Survey 2019

Home educated children were out in the community more often, not less.

In the month before the survey, 60% of homeschooling parents had taken their child to a library, against 32% of public school families. Art gallery visits ran 42% against 24%, bookshops 49% against 32%. In the week before, 80% had worked on a project with their child against 55%, and 73% had done arts and crafts against 44%. Only 4% had done no educational activity with their child at all.

Paywalled, abstract free Sikkink, D. (2026). Homeschooling and the Social Life of Families and Communities. Peabody Journal of Education, 101(2), 149-165. Read the study

United States, university sample

More homeschooling was associated with more political tolerance.

One of the more rigorous studies in this area tested the belief that a common public system is needed to teach young people to tolerate views they dislike. It found the opposite association: students with more exposure to homeschooling tended to be more politically tolerant, and private schooling was not associated with any less tolerance.

Paywalled, abstract free Cheng, A. (2014). Does Homeschooling or Private Schooling Promote Political Intolerance? Journal of School Choice, 8(1), 49-68. Read the study

Every peer reviewed study, 2017 to 2026

Mostly positive, often no difference, rarely worse.

A systematic review counted only studies that were peer reviewed or used a properly representative sample. On academic achievement, 15 of 24 favoured the home educated, 4 found no difference, 4 were mixed and 1 favoured conventional school. On social and emotional development, 16 of 25 favoured home. On how those children fared as adults, 13 of 24. The review's own conclusion is modest: positive or neutral effects, and not negative ones.

CC BY 4.0 Ray, B. D., Hoelzle, B., & Pietersma, D. (2026). A Systematic Review of the Empirical Research on Selected Aspects of Homeschooling: Updated 2017-2026. Peabody Journal of Education, 101(2), 132-148. Read the study

Worth knowing: the lead author heads a homeschool research institute and wrote several of the studies counted in the review. It is peer reviewed. It is not independent of the field it reviews.

United States, nationally representative

Better on some measures, worse on one that matters.

Following a nationally representative group into young adulthood, those who had been homeschooled volunteered more, reported greater forgiveness, and used fewer substances. They also went on to lower college degree attainment than their public schooled peers. Both halves of that come from the same study.

CC BY Chen, Y., Hinton, C., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2021). School Types in Adolescence and Subsequent Health and Well-Being in Young Adulthood. PLoS ONE, 16(11). Read the study

Canada, matched pairs

Unstructured home learners fell behind their schooled peers.

Comparing children aged five to ten, those in structured home education outperformed schooled children, while those in unstructured home education scored below them. The unstructured group was twelve children and the authors treated that part as exploratory rather than as their main result. It is a small finding rather than a verdict, and it is the reason this product exists: unstructured learning is real, and on paper it is invisible.

Argues against us Martin-Chang, S., Gould, O. N., & Meuse, R. E. (2011). The Impact of Schooling on Academic Achievement. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 43(3), 195-202. Read the study

United States, state law analysis

On child safety, the evidence does not say what either side claims.

A study of what happened after states changed their homeschool rules reports that most of its estimates were not statistically significant, but that some specifications found a statistically significant increase in child homicide rates in the years following homeschool legislation. We have seen this study summarised elsewhere as finding no difference. It does not say that, and we will not repeat that it does.

Argues against us Dills, A. K. (2022). Homeschooling and Child Safety: Are Kids Safer at Home? Journal of School Choice, 16(4), 529-554. Read the study

None of these studies can prove that home education caused the results. Children are not randomly assigned to a way of learning, and families who choose it differ from families who do not in ways no statistical control fully removes. The researchers say so themselves, repeatedly. What the body of work supports is narrower and still worth knowing: children learning at home tend to do as well as or better than their schooled peers, and a great many careful studies find no meaningful difference at all.

Nearly all of this is United States data. Canada has very little published research of its own, and that gap is one reason we publish what each of the thirteen provinces and territories actually requires.

We post one of these a week

Each study here becomes a plain language card on Instagram, caveats included. If you would rather read them as they land than scroll this page, that is where they go.