What if you were told that adults who were long-term homeschooled (a) now live in lower income households than do the non-homeschooled and (b) that the long-termed homeschooled value hard work more than do the non-homeschooled? Or, that the long-term homeschooled (a) are the most likely to have done any unpaid, volunteer work than any other group but (b) less likely than the non-homeschooled to have volunteered
with a social-service organization that is non-religious. You might scratch your head and wonder, what does it mean?
Background and Methodology
A new study by Cheng and Watson (2025) is appropriately entitled, “Diverse outcomes for a diverse population: Findings about homeschooled adults from the Cardus Education Survey. In previous research on adults from different school sectors (e.g., public school, private school, homeschool), some
scholars have lumped together all adults who were home educated. In this study, the scholars created three categories: short-term homeschoolers (spent 1-2 years homeschooled growing up), medium-term homeschoolers (3-7 years homeschooled), and long-term homeschoolers (8-13 years homeschooled). Based on a representative panel of US adults, the sample of 2,350 adults aged 24 to 39 included 181 adults who were homeschooled for at least one year during grade kindergarten to
twelfth.
The researchers “… describe how respondents who are short-, medium-, or long-term homeschoolers are faring in life by comparing them across a range of outcomes, including employment, mental health, civic engagement, faith, and family structure” (p. 8). (Continue here to the full summary
article.) And please see comments below.
--Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.
National Home Education Research Institute
P.S. Your donations help NHERI and Dr. Ray:
(1) keep up with new research to give you the facts on what is happening in
the United States and around the world regarding homeschooling research, freedoms, and insights and
(2) be ready to speak to scholars, journalists, courts, policymakers, and parents. NHERI is receiving no tax dollars to do its work and serve the public.
Two ways to help NHERI:
1. Send a check to: NHERI, PO Box 13939, Salem OR 97309 (using a check puts the largest percent of your gift to work at
NHERI)
2. Donate online.
