Millions of parents have an important decision to make this fall: Should I leave my child in a venerable, but uncertain, school environment, or try to teach at home? Before jumping in, it might help to understand more about what homeschooling (also known as ‘home-based education’) looks like. The practice is already firmly established as a school choice option in this country, but is often overlooked as being a fringe practice—or at least not one that is mainstream. It also involves a degree of effort that may not be a good fit for the family. However, as the nation wrangles with the decision in the context of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there is potential for the movement to blossom as parents don the new mantle of pandeducation.
If you did not catch that, I am talking about Pandemic Education. The decision to educate children at home requires an understanding of why other parents choose responsibility for what has largely become a publicly regulated institution. It also demands an understanding of local regulations, childhood behavior, best practices for learning outcomes, and even a basic knowledge of first aid. Furthermore, parents must weigh how the decision has the potential to influence parent-child relationships, children’s social networks, and family income.
Like the choice to place children in a “school-chosen” public school (different from the one that is “regularly assigned”), the decision to provide children with a home-based education is already trending upward.1 Assigned public schools are trending down, and private schools are experiencing a decline after recent gains 2. The homeschool option is exercised more often in rural areas than in cities and suburbs, which is why it might seem unfamiliar, and it occurs most often if families have three or more children.3 But home-based education is also managed by families with fewer children, or by those who pool resources with other parents (increasingly called ‘pods’. Current estimates are that there are between 1.7 and 2.1 million students nationwide.4,5 That is about three percent of all kindergarten through 12th grade students, with enrollment concentrated much more heavily for children younger than grade 5. 6,7
So, Why Educate at Home?
Aside from the health concerns raised by the recent pandemic, why would parents want to educate from home? And what are the factors that go into a well-informed decision? Globally, the outcomes are encouraging. Standardized achievement tests typically average higher (65th to 80th percentile) compared to the public school average (by definition, 50th percentile) for academic learning.8 In the socio-emotional realm, home-schooled children tend to be very engaged in their communities, have fewer “problem behaviors,”9 and increased self-reliance and critical thinking skills.
Agency and Cultural Sensitivity
A recent study published in School Psychology10 (before the pandemic and the rise of social justice awareness) examines some of the reasons that families choose to homeschool. The authors determined that the practice is often grounded in a desire to retain a sense of agency and control of both the content and environment of their children’s education, rather than an outright rejection of public programming. Dennison and her colleagues at Texas State University found that homeschooling also appeals to parents who want to retain their child’s sense of self-worth, or who believe that their cultural values will be under-represented in traditional settings. Their article focuses on Black families, but also acknowledges that Latinx families may have similar concerns.
In fact, The United State Department of Education11 reports that Hispanic students were about as likely as White students to be educated at home in 2016 (3.5% and 3.8% respectively). Black and Asian students are also similarly enrolled (1.9% and 1.4% respectively).
Concerns About Traditional Choices
By far (33%), parents worry about the school environment, which might include safety (perhaps higher during the COVID-19 pandemic), drugs, and peer pressure. Dissatisfaction with academic instruction (17%) and the desire to provide religious instruction (15.9%) follow, with special needs (5.8%), nontraditional lifestyles (5.6%), health problems (5.5%), and moral instruction (4.7%) also being cited. These figures could change as long-term pandemic-related decisions increase family concerns about health and generate internal conflicts while wrestling with conflicting opinions about proper social behavior.
Flexibility
To be sure, the decision to transition from traditional schooling to pandeducation can be stressful and filled with the growing pains associated with an abrupt and unexpected routine change.12,13 But for parents who decide that the approach works for their families, several factors can make the option flexible. Home-based instruction can take many forms: parents can assume full teaching responsibility (whether working-from-home or not), hire a private or semi-private instructor, or enroll in fully-online public, private, or charter school.
The latter option, in particular, has become more firmly established in recent years as electronic books, and web-based interfaces have become more advanced. Yet, the graduation rates and standardized test results can be abysmal in online charter schools,14 a fact that is complicated by the varying degrees of administrative competence and the engagement or propensity for learning of the students who are enrolled. For example, a programs might attract enrollment by students who are managing severe medical or emotional issues, are struggling with academic special needs, or who have prioritized developing other skills, such as the pursuit of professional or training opportunities in sports, dance, or theater. Like all learning environments, there is a delicate balance between the efforts of the educators, and the efforts of the students. Understand your family needs, and do your research.
Other options, such as managing a child’s education completely, or while working from home also have the benefit of well-established resources for helping parents through the transition. The National Home School Association (NHSA) offers links to curriculum resources, social connection, and extracurricular activities. There are also other networked, or locally based organizations that can be researched. It is important that parents evaluate the philosophies of any organization they join, to make sure the belief system is a good fit.
Legal Requirements
If you decide to make the change to home-based education, it is imperative that you understand the legal requirements for educating children on your own, should you switch from accepting remote instruction that is offered by your local school district. The U.S. Department of Education website is a fine place to gather authoritative, big-picture guidance about legislation, regulations, and policy. However, the site is so comprehensive that it can be overwhelming.
Instead, parents may want to consult their state agencies first, followed by the local school district web pages for information about curriculum and instruction standards, testing information, and enrollment requirements (such as school entrance ages, immunizations, and attendance). If you do not have a way to organize the information digitally, consider creating a reference binder because you may need to produce documentation of your efforts to ensure that you are meeting the laws and standards set by your home location.
If you decide to share the responsibility for teaching very young children outside of your family, you will also need to ensure that you are following state licensing requirements. Many states have laws and safety regulations that define how to care for friends and relatives (also called “kith and kin”), especially if you expand your program to care for other children as a business. You can usually find this information by searching terms like ‘early childhood licensing’ or ‘child health and safety’.
Teaching Skills
The bottom line is that although you may have the right and desire to make decisions about your own child’s education, professional educators are often highly trained in several domains.15 Consequently, you will want to ensure that you build an awareness about teaching skills related to:
- cognition (skills for developing intellect, strategy, math and verbal problem solving, time management, and so on)
- affect (skills for developing appropriate emotional responses)
- psychomotor activities (skills for developing hand-eye coordination, motor skills, reflexes, and healthy lifestyles)
You may not have all the skills to start, but as you weigh your desire to protect your child from the risks of a pandemic with your desire to educate your child according to accepted norms, they are certainly skills you can learn. There are other considerations, such as the opportunities for bonding with your child, how to maintain social development with children outside your home-based environment, and the financial risks and rewards of setting up a home-based learning environment. In the end, if you make a considered decision about your options, you will have grown in understanding about what successful home-based education looks like.
Related Topics
- Pandeducation: Setting Up the Learning Space: Essential Items at Home
- Pandeducation: Setting Up the Outdoor Classroom
- Pandeducation: What Are Other Countries Doing?
1 Ke Wang, Amy Rathbun, and Lauren Musu, “School Choice in the United States: 2019,” n.d., 106.
2 Wang, Rathbun, and Musu.
3 Wang, Rathbun, and Musu.
4 Brian D. Ray, “A Systematic Review of the Empirical Research on Selected Aspects of Homeschooling as a School Choice,” Journal of School Choice 11, no. 4 (October 2, 2017): 604–21, https://doi.org/10.1080/15582159.2017.1395638.
5 Wang, Rathbun, and Musu, “School Choice in the United States: 2019.”
6 Brian Ray, “A Review of Research on Homeschooling and What Might Educators Learn?,” Pro-Posições 28, no. 2 (August 2017): 85–103, https://doi.org/10.1590/1980-6248-2016-0009.
7 Wang, Rathbun, and Musu, “School Choice in the United States: 2019.”
8 Ray, “A Review of Research on Homeschooling and What Might Educators Learn?”
9 Ray, “A Systematic Review of the Empirical Research on Selected Aspects of Homeschooling as a School Choice.”
10 Andrea Dennison et al., “Understanding Families Who Choose to Homeschool: Agency in Context,” School Psychology, Homeschooling, 35, no. 1 (January 2020): 20–27, https://doi.org/10.1037/spq0000341.
11 Wang, Rathbun, and Musu, “School Choice in the United States: 2019.”
12 Emily Cavanagh and Eleanor Goldberg Fox, “Parents Won’t Homeschool in Coronavirus Pandemic Because of Stress,” Business Insider, March 25, 2020, https://www.insider.com/parents-wont-homeschool-in-coronavirus-pandemic-because-of-stress-2020-3.
13 Katherine Sellgren, “Coronavirus: Home-Schooling Has Been Hell, Say Parents,” BBC News, July 8, 2020, sec. Family & Education, https://www.bbc.com/news/education-53319615.
14 Arianna Prothero Harwin Alex, “Many Online Charter Schools Fail to Graduate Even Half of Their Students on Time – Education Week,” Education Week, April 18, 2019, https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/04/18/many-online-charter-schools-fail-to-graduate.html?s_kwcid=AL!6416!3!266402628863!b!!g!!&cmp=cpc-goog-ew-dynamic+ads+recent+articles&ccid=dynamic+ads+recent+articles&ccag=recent+articles+dynamic&cckw=&cccv=dynamic+ad&gclid=CjwKCAjw1K75BRAEEiwAd41h1AxrJTWFcK6dD4uYns0BVIy8pCbnldFpBxV3Y6uTivrhMEv1vY_nGxoCm8wQAvD_BwE.
15 Center for Educational Innovation, “Domains of Learning,” University of Buffalo, August 2020, http://www.buffalo.edu/ubcei/enhance/designing/learning-outcomes/domains-of-learning.html.
