One statistic really bothered me. Their 2007 survey showed that the ratio of homeschool boys to girls had shifted to 42% boys and 58% girls. Prior surveys in 1999 and 2003 showed a more even distribution. The 1999 study found that the ratio of boys to girls who were home educated was around 49% boys to 51% girls. In 2003, the ratio was 52% boys and 48% girls.
The 2007 survey's ratio of 42% boys to 58% girls is a huge swing in just four years.
I decided to conduct my own survey. I also asked other homeschoolers if they had any theories on why there could have been such a dramatic change. Here are the numbers from my survey, as of June 5th:
| Gender | None | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6+ | Total Families | Total children |
| Boys | 99 | 218 | 112 | 39 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 488 | 638 |
| Girls | 131 | 215 | 73 | 45 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 474 | 553 |
The first row is the labels. The middle columns are how many families have no children of a gender, or 1, or 2, and so on. The second row is for boys, and the third row is for girls.
The survey has a total of 1190 homeschooled children, of which 638 boys, or 53.6%, and 552 girls, or 46.4%. This is dramatically different that the official government report. While my survey was not scientific, it had a much greater sample size.
What does this mean?
One option is my survey was biased. Maybe many of the people who filled out my survey are parents who homeschool boys. They wanted to respond showing that there are lots of boys being homeschooled.
Another option is that both surveys could be a bit off, and the truth is in between. When ever surveys are conducted on large populations you always sample a small part of the group, and maybe the government's survey was not accurate. The 2007 survey was called "Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey." It had a sample of 10,681 children from kindergarten through 12th grade, of which only 311 were homeschool students. (Check out the Introduction on page 1.)
My guess is instead of getting around 155 boys and 156 girls, the survey ended up with a few families with lots of girls, which lead them to believe there had been a dramatic shift.
At this point in time I don't believe there has been any huge shift in the ratio of boys and girls being homeschooled. There were many thoughtful comments on my survey on why there might have been a shift, but no one indicated that they had seen such a shift in their circles.
I'm pretty sure that the next time the government does such a survey they'll get a boy to girl ratio closer to 50-50.
I also question some of the other conclusions of the 2007 survey. For example I don't think there has been a huge shift in the distribution middle class and upper class families homeschooling.
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11 comments:
Good job Mr. Cate!
Thanks for the follow-up. Your survey sounds more accurate to me based on my personal experience. Keep up the good work.
Your survey was great. Thank you for posting the results along with other data (sample size, etc)
I had problems with many aspects of the other survey. I couldn't find it, did it show where their sampling came from and how large it was? Were specific questions asked of homeschooling parents or were answers predetermined and parents picked the one that best represented their choice?
Also, even though there may be more parents homeschooling with a higher income, this means nothing to me. We would be considered lower middle class for our area, and yet I would not consider us lacking, especially since we have an excellent library system. To seek to pigeonhole us by income does a disservice to parents who are on the fence. They may decide they don't have the means to homeschool.
I'm sorry, I'm thinking out loud now and it sounds like a rant. :o) I'm going to borrow "How to Lie with Statistics" for my oldest to read and then let her critique the surveys. Teachable moment, eh?
Thanks for the kind words.
The "Condition of Education 2007" didn't explain how the results were gathered. I asked a contact person at the U.S. Department of Education and was pointed to National Household
Education Surveys
Program of 2007. It explains they had a sample size of 311 homeschoolers, which is pretty small.
Thanks for letting us know the results of your survey. I'm not surprised to hear that the govt. survey is inaccurate. Personally, I'd prefer they not survey homeschoolers. Govt. bureaucrats should leave us alone. Besides, it's not like they don't have enough on their plates already.....
thanks for posting the results
I appreciated your care to look at sample sizes and methods of collecting data.
Interesting exercise in private vs government initiative!
I enjoyed your article. Even if the survey was not quite scientific, I agree that it sounds more like what I have experienced meeting homeschool families over the last 20 years of our own homeschool adventure.
Interesting survey! But as a mom of four boys ages 8-16 (and also one girl) I *have* noticed that in our area, the older my boys get, the more difficult it is to find other homeschooled boys. My personal observation is that the families of homeschooled boys are more likely to pursue other types of education as they get older, whereas the girls are more likely to continue in homeschooling. We are probably more sensitive to this phenomenon than most families because we have so many boys, and because we actively search out homeschool friendships for them.
I know there must be families out there who have some kids in public or private schools and choose to homeschool their other children for some reason. I know they are out there, but I don't personally know any.
Every homeschooling family I personally know (and I know quite a few) homeschools all their kids. Some families have a good balance of boys and girls and others are slanted (I have 3 girls myself.) But no homeschooling parent I've met has listed gender as a reason for keeping their kids home or sending them to school.
In the end, I think you're right. It's a statistical blip due to a small sample size.
Well, we are 50/50 here with boy and girl. Can't tip the scale either way!
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