Hello, , from NHERI and Dr. Ray.
What do rich people think about homeschooling? That is what principals at Spectrem Group[1] wanted to know in their recent study. What is your guess?
Spectrem conducts monthly surveys that address various topics. “The survey is conducted from a panel of affluent investors in the United States. The 1,150 represents those who responded to the July survey”[2] on
homeschooling.[3] These investors were asked a number of questions about homeschooling and those who are home educated. Generally speaking, Spectrem Group has “… found the results [of their monthly surveys] to closely represent the affluent population of the United States."[4]
The monthly research involves 1,150 Investors who have a net worth between $100,000 and $25 million, not including the value of their primary residence.[5] The reader should keep in mind, however, that the conductors of the survey have not claimed that theirs is definitely a statistically representative sample of all affluent people in the United States.
What did Spectrem find? Some 44 percent of
affluent households said they approve of homeschooling, while 56 percent said they did not approve of homeschooling. Those who approved of home-based education gave as their top reasons for approval the fact that it allows parents control over to what their children are exposed (59 percent chose this reason) and homeschooling gives children the opportunity to work at their own pace (55% chose this reason). Further, of those approving of home education, 43 percent said that a positive reason for
it is that it allows a better fit to the family’s “faith” and 39 percent said homeschooling provides a better [academic] education.
With respect to age groups of the affluent, Gen X parents, ages 41-50, “… were most likely to say they approve of homeschooling (53 percent), compared
with Millennials who were most likely to disapprove (61 percent).” The parental control that homeschooling gives was also mostly likely to be mentioned by Gen Xers.
Affluent liberals were notably more likely than their conservative counterparts to disapprove of homeschooling.
Overall, conservative households in this study were more appreciative of certain benefits of home-based education. Nearly 70 percent of the affluent conservatives advocated “… homeschooling as a means of parental control over what their children are exposed to, while 55 percent (vs. the 39 percent of Affluent respondents overall) champion it as a way to keep their children from bad influences.” Additionally, a majority (51 percent) of affluent conservatives believe it gives their children a
better [academic] education.
It is difficult to know how the opinions affluent Americans about homeschooling compare to those of others because there is no comparable research.[6] It would be most interesting to know what it is about homeschooling that some affluent Americans disapprove.
If the 30-year research base is accurate in revealing very positive academic outcomes and positive social, emotional, and psychological outcomes
being associated with parent-led home-based education and if homeschooling is good for children and society in general, advocates of homeschooling might want to do a better job of getting their message delivered to the 56 percent of these affluent Americans who said they do not approve of homeschooling.
--Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.
National Home Education Research Institute
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Endnotes:
[1] See www.spectrem.com. [2] Personal communication, August 6, 2014, with a spokesman at www.millionairecorner.com. [3] Retrieved October 14, 2014 from http://millionairecorner.com/Content_Free/Affluent-homeschool.aspx. [4] Personal communication, August 6, 2014, with a spokesman at www.millionairecorner.com. [5] Personal communication, August 5, 2014, with a spokesman at www.millionairecorner.com. [6] That is, I am not aware of any comparable research.
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