A U.S. government survey released last week showed interest in homeschooling appears to have leveled off in the last five years. Education analysts pointed to the results as evidence that the homeschooling “fad” had reached its peak after three decades, but homeschooling experts disputed that conclusion—and the data it’s based on.
Before he reviewed the numbers, Brian Ray with the National Home Education Research Institute expressed doubt about their accuracy. But when he drilled down to state-level data, he knew for sure the federal researchers missed something.
“I don’t think I can say there’s an obvious problem,” Ray said of the government data. “But what they found defies what’s on the ground in state-specific data.”...
