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Research Outline
Prepared for Ron G. | Delivered March 16, 2020
Trends in the U.S. Homeschooling Space
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Goals
To obtain information on between three and five trends in homeschooling in the United States, with a particular focus on changes in pricing and the competitive landscape.
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Early Findings
General homeschooling trends
For the last 10 years, the number of
h
o
m
e
s
c
h
o
o
l
e
d
students in the United States has remained
relatively stable
. In 2007, according to the National Center of Education Statistics,
3% of American students
were
h
o
m
e
s
c
h
o
o
l
e
d
; that number peaked at
3.4% in 2012
, and declined to
3.3% in 2016
.
While overall numbers haven't shown much distinct growth, the racial demographics of
h
o
m
e
s
c
h
o
o
l
e
r
s
are changing rapidly. White families continue to
dominate the homeschooling market
, but the number of Hispanic
f
a
m
i
l
i
e
s
homeschooling their children has
nearly quintupled
since 1999.
Non-profit homeschooling companies
Many companies
offer homeschooling products for free or reduced prices. Examples include
Khan Academy
, which is funded by donations and grants, and
Zearn Math
, which charges for some services but allows individual teachers to open accounts with no charge.
Z
e
a
r
n
was recently named the
default math curriculum
for grades K-5 in New Mexico, demonstrating that nonprofit homeschooling organizations are increasingly being legitimized by existing educational systems.
For-profit homeschooling companies
For-profit corporations in the homeschooling space are growing quickly. K12, a publisher of online educational resources, grew its revenue from
$917.7 million in 2018
to
$1.015 billion in 2019
. However, much of K12's profit comes from
lobbying
American states to purchase their materials using taxpayer funds.
Connections Education, another for-profit educational resource company, was acquired by Pearson
in 2011 for $400 million
, in a move that suggests there are long-term revenue opportunities in the homeschooling space.
Microschools
Microschools
have recently emerged as competitors to both traditional private schools and
h
o
m
e
s
c
h
o
o
l
s
. In 2015, Bay Area
m
i
c
r
o
s
c
h
o
o
l
network AltSchool raised
$33 million in venture capital
while maintaining an
8-to-1 student-instructor ratio
.
M
i
c
r
o
s
c
h
o
o
l
s
are not strictly defined, but tend to share some characteristics: small class sizes, individualized curricula, and
a reliance on educational software
.
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