May 2015 – Homeschooling continues to prosper and grow, according to a National Home Education Research Institute online survey. There are currently 2.2 million homeschooled students in the U.S., NHERI estimates. And that number continues to grow by an estimated 2 to 8% each year. Home education is also gaining popularity among minorities, as about 15% of homeschool families are non-white and non-Hispanic. About 10% of homeschoolers are black students.
Aside from high academic performance – where homeschool students typically rank 15 to 30 percentile points above public school students on standardized tests – they also score well when it comes to faith-based beliefs and moral behavior. The NHERI findings show that homeschool students are three times more likely than public school students to have strong Christian beliefs. Only 16% of homeschool students reported support for same sex marriage compared to 29% from Christian schools, and 33% from public schools. And just 9% of homeschoolers practice co-habitation later in life, compared to 22% of Christian school students and 34% of public school students.
