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With U.S. Homeschooling on the Rise, New Research Report Provides Much-Needed Data on Outcomes

Time to end “simplistic, one-dimensional descriptions of American homeschoolers,” think tank argues.  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 3, 2025

No single, overarching profile accurately describes Americans who were homeschooled, according to a new report, Diverse Outcomes for a Diverse Population: Findings About Homeschooled Adults from the Cardus Education Survey. When it comes to economic, mental-health, civic, spiritual, and family-formation outcomes, results are varied and don’t easily fit into the common stereotypes attributed to homeschoolers.

“Homeschooling is on the rise in the United States, so it’s more important than ever to understand both its outcomes and the students and families who participate in it,” says Dr. Lynn Swaner, President – US of Cardus. “If there’s one thing the study makes clear, it’s that the time has come to end the simplistic, one-dimensional descriptions of American homeschoolers.”

The study by non-partisan think tank Cardus surveyed American adults aged 24 to 39 who were homeschooled for a portion of their elementary and high school education, comparing them to adults who were never homeschooled. The Cardus study is one of the few that considers the length of homeschooling: short-term (one to two years), medium-term (three to seven years), and long-term (eight years or more).

Controlling for a range of demographic characteristics, the study found:

  • Fewer than one in five (17%) adults who were homeschooled received all of their elementary and high school education in a homeschool environment.
  • 20% of all homeschoolers were homeschooled for only a year.
  • Short-term homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers earned bachelor’s and graduate degrees at similar rates; medium- and long-term homeschoolers were more likely than short-term and non-homeschoolers to end their education with a high school diploma or an associate’s degree.
  • All homeschooled adults were less likely than non-homeschoolers to have a full-time job or to have an above-average income.
  • Compared to all other educational sectors (public and private), long-term homeschoolers were the least likely to say they “feel helpless dealing with life’s problems” and also reported much less depression and anxiety. They also had the highest levels of optimism, gratitude, and life satisfaction.
  • Short- and long-term homeschoolers were more likely to have volunteered and given to charity in the past 12 months compared to adults who were never homeschooled.
  • Adults who spent any length of time in homeschooling were much more likely to report that they believed in God and life after death and that they regularly engage in religious practices. The longer adults spent in homeschooling, the more likely they were to report religious belief and practice.
  • Long-term homeschoolers were more likely to be married, had the lowest divorce rate, and had more children, on average, than short-term homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers.

Diverse Outcomes for a Diverse Population was co-authored by Albert Cheng, a Cardus senior fellow and an associate professor at the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, and Angela R. Watson, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education where she directs the Homeschool Research Lab and Hub. Watson suggests the study’s value is in the change it can bring.

“This paper is important because it considers the nuance of how many years someone was homeschooled and helps advance the discussion away from considering homeschoolers as a uniform group,” she says. “We also hope these findings spark more study as well as discussion about how homeschooling is done and how to improve it.”

Diverse Outcomes for a Diverse Population: Findings About Homeschooled Adults from the Cardus Education Survey is freely available on the Cardus website.

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Cardus – Imagination toward a thriving society
Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.