Author Carol Carter for The Huffington Post is looking at why homeschooling is increasing in popularity—and whether alternative options to traditional school are beneficial for students.

"...according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as of 2013, 1.7 million students in the United States opted out of traditional education and into homeschooling; a number that is still growing rapidly," Carter said.

74% of parents who elect to school their children at home, according to NCES, is because they feel that their child will get a more competitive education there versus what's offered at the local public school.

And research might support them. In high school students, which represents the largest percentage of homeschooled students, these students "frequently outperform their public school counterparts on the SATs and state standardized tests by about 20 percentage points. These students continue excelling into college and beyond with an average college GPA of 3.46 as compared to 3.16 held by their counterparts," the article said.

Additionally, the advancement of technology means that parents can use tech to teach at home, as well. Parents who homeschool their children praise technology for allowing them to offer their children coursework that the local public school is too limited to provide.

"Now, a 13-year-old can learn computer animation and 3D modeling at home, subject areas that are not typically available in public middle schools. They can create beats and sample music instead of simply learning to play Hot Cross Buns on the recorder."

And to the argument that homeschooled children are "weird" as a result of missing out on daily socializing with public school peers? Carter says research supports otherwise.

One study completed by the Discovery Institute, a Seattle based research facility, gathered licensed counselors to watch videos of children at play. The counselors were asked to evaluate the behavior of each child in the video but were not informed of the school status of the children. Overwhelmingly the counselors found that the homeschooled students displayed few adverse behavioral issues and concluded that there was no basis for the belief that homeschooled children are poorly socialized.

Read the full article here and comment with your thoughts below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

09/14/2015