Sandra Dodd

http://unschooling.blogspot.com/2009/05/oh-yeah-school-about-that.html

Also it quotes Ren Allen.

What they say is "one 2006 article said that the number of unschoolers
in the U.S. could be anywhere between 100,000 to 200,000, and is
growing by 10 to 15 percent each year."

The article they link was quoting Pat Farenga, on the possible numbers.

Sandra

=======================

This was in my drafts folder and I don't remember whether I figured I
had lost it and wrote another one, so if this is duplication I can
cover that by asking the question where would a number like 100,000 or
200,000 come from? I think if I were on a TV game show with money at
stake and someone could magically have known the real numbers, I
wouldn't have guessed over 30,000 unschooling families in the U.S.,
and if they're counting kids, I'd go 2.5 and say 750,000. But my
way of coming to that number is pretty much wild guess. Is there
anything better than wild guess on which to base the other number? A
percentage of total registered unschoolers? But Texans don't
register. Just because someone buys a curriculum doesn't mean they
didn't give up and put the kids in school a week later.

Now that I'm looking at my own numbers they seem too high, too.

Sandra

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Joyce Fetteroll

On May 8, 2009, at 8:34 AM, Sandra Dodd wrote:
> But my
> way of coming to that number is pretty much wild guess. Is there
> anything better than wild guess on which to base the other number?
>

There was an article about a government study done in 2007 that
someone posted at familyrun.ning.com with the astonishing number of
65% of the 1.5 million homeschoolers who were unschooling.

It was a bit much to believe ;-) So I poked around looking for the
study and found the person overseeing it and wrote to her to get that
cleared up.

Bottom line is a study indicates 65% are interested in "non-
traditional approach" (as one of many reasons for homeschooling.) But
7% (of the 65%) of homeschoolers follow a "non-traditional approach"
to homeschooling. That doesn't mean unschooling! It means they define
their approach as non-traditional (and the parameters of non-
traditional are a little clearer in the full questions). Contained in
that 7% are people that could be identified as unschoolers (if they
were given some unschooling test ;-)

So, it doesn't give an exact figure but it gives an upper limit
(68,250).

Joyce

> From: Joyce Fetteroll [jfetteroll@...]
> Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 4:00 AM
> To: Mulligan, Gail
> Subject: Question about report: 1.5 Million Homeschooled Students
> in the United States in 2007
>
> Hello Ms. Mulligan,
>
> I was looking over
>
> 1.5 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2007
> http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009030
> http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2009/2009030.pdf
>
> And the chart shows that 65% of parents have an "interest in a
> nontraditional approach to child's education" but the text below it
> says "interest in a nontraditional approach to education, 7 percent".
>
> I assume one of them is incorrect unless I'm misreading something.
> (From personal experience with homeschooling for 13 years the 7%
> figure seems to match what I've seen even in more liberal
> Massachusetts.) Is it possible to clarify that?
>
> Thank you very much,
>
> Joyce Fetteroll
>
====
> Hi Joyce,
>
> Sixty-five percent of parents of homeschoolers said that was a
> reason that they homeschooled, but they were asked about many
> reasons; they could say yes, they homeschool for that reason or no,
> they do not homeschool for that reason. Seven percent said that,
> of the reasons to which they said yes, a nontraditional approach to
> education was their most important reason for homeschooling. Does
> that make sense? If you would like, you can see the structure of
> the questions yourself in the questionnaire, which is available
> here: http://nces.ed.gov/nhes/pdf/pfi/07_pfi.pdf (see questions
> PC14 and PC15).
>
> Thanks,
> Gail
> ***********************
> Gail M. Mulligan, PhD.
> Project Officer, Early Childhood Longitudinal Studies
> National Center for Education Statistics
> 1990 K Street, NW
> Washington, DC 20006
> (202) 502-7491
> Gail.Mulligan@...
===
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joyce Fetteroll [mailto:jfetteroll@...]
> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 6:09 AM
> To: Mulligan, Gail
> Subject: Re: Question about report: 1.5 Million Homeschooled
> Students in
> the United States in 2007
>
>
> Thank you very much! Cleared it all up.
>
> I'm still surprised that 65% included nontraditional approach as one
> of their reasons.
>
> But I'm interpreting "nontraditional approach" to mean unschooling
> and probably not everyone did.
>
> I bet there was a broad range of interpretations to "nontraditional
> approach" among the 65%. To many of that 65% "nontraditional
> approach" might have meant watching educational television and using
> computer software instead of sitting at a table with a workbook.
>
> But the 7% who chose "nontraditional approach" as their primary
> reason meant something more radical like unschooling.
>
> Joyce
===
> From: Gail.Mulligan@...
> Subject: RE: Question about report: 1.5 Million Homeschooled
> Students in the United States in 2007
> Date: January 12, 2009 11:52:12 AM EST
> To: jfetteroll@...
>
> Hi Joyce,
>
> That's exactly how I would interpret those findings.
>
> Gail