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A review of the article Contemporary Homeschooling, Persistent Debates, and the Need for a New Generation of Research, by Daniel Hamlin, Ph.D. published in the Journal of School Choice

Review by Douglas Pietersma, Ed.D.

NHERI Research Associate

Background

Dr. Hamlin’s (2024) review of existing research on home education highlights numerous methodological challenges. The rapidly changing landscape of home education complicates this effort. Limitations identified included “modest descriptive analyses, small nonrandom samples, and uniform operationalizations of homeschooling practice that treat homeschooled children as a homogenous group.” Hamlin notes that research is generally not “responsive to changes in the practice that have occurred in recent years,” and that many studies are poorly designed. 

Methodology

The studies reviewed in this analysis were derived from the reference sections of three “comprehensive scholarly syntheses of research on home education.” Additional studies were identified through online searches of scholarly journals known to publish empirical homeschool research. 

Hamlin focused exclusively on “quasi-experimental and correlational studies using statistical controls” in order to “describes methodological strategies that researchers can use to produce reliable evidence with a focus on addressing methodological limitations in existing work and being responsive to contemporary homeschool practice.”

Findings

From the review of these studies, Hamlin focused on conclusions in three areas: academic performance; social development, health, and welfare; and post-secondary and life preparation. 

Academic Performance

Although Hamlin acknowledges that research on academic performance of the home educated is more positive than negative, much of the extant research does not provide strong causal conclusions. Most studies have the limitation of selection bias, and the nature of home education makes true experimental designs difficult to conduct. Naturally occurring experiments remain elusive without a way to randomly assign home educators to one group and others to a control group. Parental involvement almost certainly acts as a confounding variable, both in the case of the home educated, as well as those who are not. 

Hamlin found few quantitative analyses completed since the year 2000. The most compelling study among these had a large sample size and used comprehensive control variables. It showed that home educated students generally score higher on the SAT math and reading sections.

Continue here for the full review, click here. 

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Thank you,

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.

President, National Home Education Research Institute (www.nheri.org)