Contrary to the stereotype that homeschooling provides inferior academic preparation than public schools, another recently released study showed that homeschooled children outperform their peers before and during college.

The National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) has released a study that estimates that there were 2.040 million K to 12 homeschooled students – or 4percent of all school-aged children – in the United States in the spring of 2010.

“The growth of the modern homeschool movement has been remarkable,” commented Michael Smith, president of Home School Legal Defense Association, which contributed data for the research. “Just 30 years ago there were only an estimated 20,000 homeschooled children.”

Research author Dr. Brian D. Ray arrived at the figure after looking at data collected from state and federal education agencies and private home school organizations. According to the study, he has high confidence that the true number of homeschooled children lies between 1.735 million and 2.346 million.

Ray notes in the study that he expects a “notable surge” in the number of homeschooled students in the next five to 10 years as those who were educated at home in the 1990s begin to homeschool their own children…

In a study entitled “Exploring Academic Outcomes of Homeschooled Students,” which covered homeschoolers at a mid-sized college in the upper Midwest, homeschoolers were shown to do better on AP tests, get high GPAs and achieve a higher graduation rate than students of public schools.

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