Public Schools Mimic Homeschooling

Homeschooling is still making waves, but for different reasons. We aren’t the outsiders we once were, and the homeschool model is now a subject of study as researchers, school administrators, and educational reformers are looking to adapt homeschooling methods for their own contexts.

It’s not hard to understand why. We now have a cohort of second- third- and sometimes fourth-generation homeschool students. Homeschool graduates work in every employment sector. And post-pandemic growth has continued as homeschooling makes up an ever-larger share of the educational landscape. With such a seismic shift in education, traditional school sectors are looking for ways to adapt.

The aforementioned Samuel Everett School of Innovation in Tennessee has adopted a hybrid model, with students only coming to campus one or two days a week. The rest of the time, they study at home through parent-led learning.

And there are others. Dallas Hybrid Preparatory at Stephen J. Hay in Texas and Collins Hill High School in Georgia—both public schools—are experimenting with various forms of hybrid education.

And it isn’t just schools that are studying homeschooling. In 2023, two professors from Mississippi State University examined homeschooling parents’ engagement style and methods as a template to increase parent engagement in traditional schools.^[1]

In 2024, researchers at Liberty University and Bath Spa University conducted a pilot study on homeschool students’ use of technology. It was specifically aimed at how homeschooling families foster self-directed learning (SDL).^[2] The researchers noted that SDL was lacking in traditional contexts and that attempts to use technology in traditional education methods had largely fallen flat.

Then in 2025, a doctoral dissertation was published examining homeschool graduates and how self-discipline, adaptability, and problem-solving skills influenced their college transitions.^[3] The author noted several ways that traditional education methods could mimic homeschooling to achieve similar outcomes.

Not so long ago, critics, scholars, and lawmakers were regularly calling into question a parent’s ability to teach their children. The place for children was in the classroom—that was where learning happened. Critics still leverage such arguments today, though they are less frequent and quickly rendered hollow by an ever-growing cohort of successful homeschool graduates.

Now, amid falling scores, a literacy crisis, and increasing dissatisfaction with the current options, the success of homeschooling and its steady growth has caught the interest of parents and educators. It seems they want to know why home education works.

The answer is quite simple: Homeschooling achieves by nature what traditional education must achieve through artifice. Measures like parental involvement, student engagement, and independent learning ability are strong indicators of a student’s future success. However, traditional education methods are not always well equipped to support these outcomes.

Homeschooling has succeeded based on a small handful of core principles. Two of the big ones have always been flexibility and family. The first recognizes that each child is unique in how they learn and what they need. The second acknowledges that those who know the child best—the parents—are the best equipped to address the child’s needs.

Neither of these are particularly contentious claims. Yet the beauty of homeschooling is that these two truths are woven into its very DNA, and despite its relatively small (but growing) share of the education market, homeschooling has had a profound impact on the landscape of education over the past four decades.

What was once a curiosity has become an enduring institution. The modern homeschooling movement has proven that an individualized, personal education isn’t just an option for the elite. It is available to all.

To what degree traditional education is able to leverage homeschooling’s strengths remains to be seen. But what is clear is this: The landscape of education is shifting, and homeschooling is at the forefront of educational progress.