Over the past decade, new tools and technologies have changed how we think about education and family life. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have expanded access to free learning opportunities. In 2006, Sir Ken Robinson’s “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”, the most popular TED Talk of all time, inspired many families and teachers to start rethinking their views on the effectiveness of the traditional school model. Founded in 2008, Khan Academy made it easier for any family to homeschool than ever before. Documentary films like Class Dismissed gave families an inside look at what modular learning can look like at its best (highly personalized, intellectually challenging, socially rich, diverse and eclectic) inspiring a new generation of families to start homeschooling.
But, the trend toward modular learning was supercharged in March 2020 when 300 million families around the world were forced into homeschooling overnight. A plethora of Edtech startups emerged to support the new wave of modular learners: marketplaces for learning pods, adaptive learning apps, and online classes.
While most families returned to school post-pandemic, many chose to keep going. They experienced that homeschooling gave their family greater flexibility and improved their children’s learning.
The internet is full of statistics and studies on homeschooling run by organizations with private interests on one side of the debate or the other.
We decided to sift through all the research and take an in-depth look at scholarly, peer-reviewed statistics and forecasts on homeschooling to determine if there are key indicators that prove homeschooling is really on the rise, what research suggests homeschooling can impact learning for the better, and how trends in other industries such as remote work and travel might point to a global shift towards decentralized K12 education.
But, the trend toward modular learning was supercharged in March 2020 when 300 million families around the world were forced into homeschooling overnight. A plethora of Edtech startups emerged to support the new wave of modular learners: marketplaces for learning pods, adaptive learning apps, and online classes.
While most families returned to school post-pandemic, many chose to keep going. They experienced that homeschooling gave their family greater flexibility and improved their children’s learning.
The internet is full of statistics and studies on homeschooling run by organizations with private interests on one side of the debate or the other.
We decided to sift through all the research and take an in-depth look at scholarly, peer-reviewed statistics and forecasts on homeschooling to determine if there are key indicators that prove homeschooling is really on the rise, what research suggests homeschooling can impact learning for the better, and how trends in other industries such as remote work and travel might point to a global shift towards decentralized K12 education.
Here’s what we found