THE 1987-88 OREGON HOME SCHOOL SURVEY: AN OVERVIEW OF THE…

The 1987-88 Oregon home school survey examines a growing group of diverse people who have posed a formal challenge to the public institution of schooling.  The goals of this study are threefold.  First, results from a state-wide Oregon survey and follow-up interviews are used to examine the variety of religious, political, and educational attitudes held by home schoolers. The survey was designed specifically to provide a comparison of attitudes between Oregon home schoolers and larger populations.  Questions comparable to the National Opinion Research Corporation (NORC), Gallup Education Polls, and the Oregon Census were used.  Second, the study examines the relationship between the attitudes of home schoolers and their
motivation for choosing to educate their children at home. Finally, the research assesses the decision to eschew both private and public schools in the broader context of social change. 
            In order to achieve these goals, a research design was developed that could generate detailed information about home schooling families.  First, a questionnaire containing 154 variables was mailed to home school families in the winter of 1987.  Data from 435 home education families throughout the State of Oregon are used in this report. Second, it was a goal to learn something about the `lived experiences’ and meaning systems that inform the values and beliefs of home schoolers.  In-depth interviews were later conducted with 15 home school families during the fall of 1987.  The interviews allowed participants to articulate their visions and beliefs and to explore the relationship between their biographical sketches, the social context of their lives, and their decision to home school.
 
            The intent of this article is to provide an overview of the survey findings.  The following sections will (1) present a profile of the home schoolers and compare them with larger populations in terms of social and economic characteristics, religious and political characteristics, and educational attitudes, and (2) discuss the commonalities and cleavages that exist within the home school population. A later article will undertake the task of discussing the applicability of several theoretical models for understanding the impetus behind home schooling in the 1980’s.
 
A Profile of Oregon’s Home Educators
 
Social and Economic Characteristics
 
            Home educators appear to differ from the general Oregon population in their education, occupational, income, and demographic characteristics.  The most striking difference appears in the numbers of home schoolers that finished college (42.0%) and those who went on to complete some graduate school or an advanced degree (37.3%).  Comparing this to Oregon census data, it was found that 21% more home schoolers finished college and 17.6% finished at least some graduate school, if not an advanced degree.  At the other end of the educational spectrum, only 6.0 % of home schoolers didn’t finish high school, whereas 29.1% of Oregonians didn’t complete their high school education.
            The higher educational levels of home schoolers appears to translate into occupational and income success.  Slightly over 1/3 of home schoolers (33.7%) are employed in professional/technical fields while less than a quarter (15.0%) of Oregonians are. The most significant occupational difference appears in the self-employed category; 28.8% of home schoolers work in self-employed occupations while only 9.1% of the Oregon population can make that claim.  Another surprise is the types of occupations (as opposed to occupational categories) that were found. They are commonly those with a high degree of personal control (minister, craftsman), located in small organizations (accountant for small pet products firm, salesman for local Oregon health food product chain), and where there is a high degree of work schedule flexibility (owners of family businesses).
            Given the high educational and occupational levels of home schoolers, it was expected that this group would be financially secure.  This prediction was supported.  45.7% of home school families list a family income of $25,000 a year or more, while 34.9% earn less than $20,000 a year.  Oregon family incomes are almost the reverse:  27.8% earn $25,000 or more a year while 59.2% earn less than $20,000 a year.
            Finally, home schoolers in Oregon tend to reside in smaller cities and rural areas.  While 48.1% of Oregonians are large city or suburb dwellers, only 26.1% of the home school sample can make this claim.  Almost three-quarters of the home schoolers (73.3%) reside in small cities, towns or villages, or rural areas with less than 2,500 inhabitants.
 
Religious Characteristics
            The Oregon home school population is more religiously mobile than the national population.  National figures comparing `religious tradition raised in’ to `religious tradition now belonging’ are relatively stable.  However, in the Oregon sample there was found a significant shift from established traditional religions (e.g. Methodist, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Baptist) into what are termed “new religious movements”.  National studies show that while some small segments of the population have joined new religions, the number is insignificant.  In other words, traditional established religions have held their own. Home educators, by contrast, seem to be quite interested in what the new religions have to offer. 
            The importance of the religion dimension becomes clearer when one considers the levels of church attendance and religious commitment. An overwhelming majority of home schoolers (72.7%) attend church every week or several times a week, compared to 28.3% of the national population.  The national population is more infrequent about its church attendance– 50.9% attend church, at most, several times a year.  Comparatively, only 12.3% of the home schoolers are as infrequent in their attendance.
            While church attendance taps only an activity, the question pertaining to `religious commitment’ is more indicative of how religious people feel they are.  Of the national population, 53.1% believe that their religious commitment is `very important’ or `somewhat important’.  This is a greater percentage than one might predict given the low levels of church attendance.  Oregon home schoolers, on the other hand, are almost unanimous (89.2%) in their agreement that religious commitment is very important. This would be expected given their high levels of church attendance.
            It appears that both church attendance and religious commitment are more important for home educators than for the national population.  Moreover, a significant portion of home schoolers have moved out of traditional Protestant religions and into newly formed religious organizations.  Thus, home educators appear to support the argument that, for some, religion is of increasing importance for a segment of the population in a rapidly secularizing world.   
 
Political Characteristics
            Oregon home schoolers are more politically conservative then the national population.  Over half (57.4%) of the home schoolers surveyed preferred the Republican label compared to less than a quarter (23.6%) of the national population. This conservatism appears even stronger when one examines political viewpoints.  78.3% of the home school population considered themselves either `slightly conservative’, `conservative’, or `extremely conservative’.  Only 12.0% saw themselves having a `moderate’ political viewpoint and only 9.6% considered themselves to be `liberal.’  The national population is more moderate in its political orientation with significantly fewer people (only 32.3%) maintaining a conservative viewpoint. 
            Oregon home schoolers exhibit a general lack of confidence in social institutions.  They have significantly less confidence than the national population in a spectrum of institutions (an exception to this is the executive branch).  It is interesting to note, however, that organized religion is also suspect among this group. While this may appear contradictory, if one considers the religious mobility of home schoolers (from established traditional religions into new religious organizations) and their relatively autonomous ccupational location, the lack of confidence in organized religion is more explainable.  Home schoolers may identify “organized” religion with older established bureaucratized religions (e.g. Methodist, Episcopalian).  Finally, Oregon’s home schoolers and the national population see themselves as keeping current about public affairs and agree that public officials are not really interested in the problems of the average person.   
 
“Educational Attitudes”
            The educational attitudes of home schoolers are congruent with their political orientation.  Here one can perceive a strong trend toward reducing the amount of government influence. Overwhelmingly, home schoolers want less federal and state influence in education, 84.0% and 76.3% respectively.  Local government influence has more support with almost half (49.3%) stating they would like to see more influence by local governments.  It is interesting to note, however, that 36.3% also desire less local government influence over education.  The large number of written comments in the survey help explain this
result. Those desiring less local government control often stated that they were interested in parental control of schoolsonly and would like to get the government out entirely. 
            The national population, by comparison, indicates that both state and local government control is the desired option (55% and 62% respectively).  Moreover, significantly more support is found for the intervention of the federal government in education (37.0% nationally as compared to 4.8% of the home school population).      
            We also found other cleavages between the two populations. Oregon home schoolers have less confidence in public education (57.0% have `hardly any’ confidence at all) and give public schools lower grades (42.8% graded them with a `D’ or `Fail’ mark).  Given the conservative nature of home schoolers and the fact they have elected not to send their children to public schools, these differences are not surprising.
            In general, the home school sample maintains a more negative image of public education, is less confident in it, and more adamant about returning the control of public schools back to either local agencies or to parents than is found in the larger population sample.
            These findings examine the commonalities and differences home schoolers have with the general population.  However, if one examines the home school population by itself, the data clearly show that home schoolers are not a monolithic group.  The next section of this article addresses this issue by examining the
similarities and cleavages existing within the group’s membership.
 
Cleavages and Commonalities Among Oregon Home Educators
 
            Research examining the relationship between the characteristics and attitudes of home schoolers and the motivations for home schooling has never before existed.  This section provides such an examination. 
            Four motivational categories among home schoolers became apparent during the analysis of the survey data and are similar to those identified in other home schooling research.  First, the largest group of home schoolers in Oregon are those motivated by religious beliefs (65.2%).  The second category consists of those concerned specifically about the academic achievement of their children (21.6%).  Third, those who are concerned primarily with the socio-relational development and environment in which their children’s education is conducted (11.1%).  Finally, a much smaller group consists of those specifically desiring an
Alternative or New Age orientation to their children’s education (2.1%).  Please note that these categories are not mutually-exclusive, but represent the primary motivation behind the decision to home school.
            Given these four motivational dimensions, the analysis was planned to see how they compare and contrast in terms of social and economic characteristics, religious and political viewpoints,
and educational attitudes.
 
“Social and Economic Characteristics”
            A look within home schoolers as a group reveals much less variation than the diversity found between home schoolers and the national population.  Educationally, a greater percentage of religiously-motivated people did not finish high school, yet a relatively large percentage of them did finish college.
Alternative/New Age home schoolers seem to have higher educational levels overall, with 27.8%  having some graduate school or finishing an advanced degree.  With the exception of the percent of religiously-motivated not finishing high school, the distribution of these fiqures does not indicate any significant differences among the educational levels of home schoolers.
            Income and occupational data show somewhat more diversity. As with education, the biggest difference appears between the religiously-motivated and the alternative/New Age groups.  The religiously-motivated segment of the population is somewhat better off finacially with only a little over 20% listing family
incomes of under $15,000.  By contrast, 50% of the alternative/New Age families are surviving on less than $15,000 yearly. 
            Occupationally, 50% of the alternative/New Age families  are employed in craft-type occupations, 25% in sale/clerical or service occupations, and 12.5% are self-employed, typically in small family businesses.  This is different for other home school groups who are more likely to be employed in professional/technical or service and semi-skilled occupations. 
             Other interesting contrasts appeared.  First, husbands employed in professional/technical jobs are almost equally distributed among the first three categories (religious, academic, and socio-relational) while alternative/New Age husbands are not represented in that category at all.  Second, while large majorities of women from the religious, academic, and socio-relational categories are not in the labor force, 66.6% of the alternative/New Age women are actively employed outside the home.
            Overall, educationally, economically, and occupationally, home schoolers as a group do not appear to be as diverse as they do when compared to the national population.  The exception to this, as it has been shown, is between the religiously-motivated and the alternative/New Age categories.  The distinctions between these two groups will become more dramatic as one examines their religious and political attitudes.
 
“Religious Characteristics•
            Several factors were used to look at the religious characteristics and attitudes of home schoolers:  the importance of religion in the decison to home educate, religious orthodoxy, and the effect of the Bible on day-to-day decisions as indicators.  As expected, the religiously-motivated placed the greatest significance on each of these indicators.  While the academic and socio-relational groups were somewhat less emphatic about the importance of religion, they too exhibited a strong orientation toward religion as an important element in their lives and decisions.  Almost all (98.9%) of the religious home schoolers felt that religion was a `very important’ or `somewhat important’ ingredient in the decision to home school.  For socio-relational and academic home schoolers religion is somewhat less important (75.0% and 48.4% respectively).  The greatest contrast again appears in the alternative/New Age category where religion, as a factor in the decision to home school, was `very’ or `somewhat’ important to only 33.3% of that group. 
            In terms of religious orthodoxy and the effect of the Bible on daily decisions, it was found that a religious orientation is important not only for the religiously-motivated, but for academic and socio-relational home schoolers as well.  All three groups tend to be quite orthodox in their religious beliefs and feel that the Bible does have a direct effect on their daily decisions.  Thus, all groups except the alternative/New Age display a strong religious orientation.
            When people were asked about the degree of their religious commitment, predicting to find the same cleavage between the religiously-motivated and the alternative/New Agers, a surprise was found. Religious commitment, as opposed to orthodoxy, was `very important for both New Age folks (90.0%) and the religiously-motivated (95.8%).  Religious commitment in the two other categories was almost equally as strong.
            Religious commitment appears to be an important variable for most home schoolers regardless of their motivation.  However, religious orthodoxy, the Bible, and the effect of religion in the decision to home school are all unimportant to the alternative/New Age group. 
 
“Political Characteristics”
            The political similarities and differences within the home school population provide other interesting results.  Although the importance of politics in the decision to home school is quite salient for all groups, the content of political beliefs is quite dissimilar.  The religious group, as expected, is largely Republican and conservative.  By contrast, alternative/New Agers see themselves as Independent or Independent/close-to-Democrat and politically liberal.
            While these groups did contrast in their political orientation, it was found that Oregon home schoolers share a general lack of confidence in social institutions.  Each group has very little confidence in the military as well as major companies, organized labor, the press, and Congress. Given the religious and political conservatism of all but the alternative/New Age group, it was expected that there would be at least some support for the executive branch and the military. However, even in these institutions confidence is quite limited. The lack of confidence in social institutions is even more dramatic among the alternative/New Agers.  The major companies, the executive branch, and the military are overwhelmingly held in low regard, while organized labor, the press, and Congress are viewed with only slightly more confidence.  Given the consistency of these figures throughout the home school population, it is here suggested that one of the variables uniting home schoolers is their lack of confidence in all types of contemporary social institutions.  The lack of confidence in social institutions among the national population (refer back to the national comparisons) is especially apparent among home schoolers.
 
“Educational Attitudes•
            The public schools are not held in high esteem by any home school group.  This is predictable given their common decision to either remove their children from public school or not enroll them in the first place.  However, some differences within the population do exist.  Alternative/New Age home schoolers tend to grade the public schools somewhat lower than others, yet they seem to have slightly more confidence in public education.  Religious, academic, and socio-relational home schoolers rate the schools only slightly better, but do not express the same degree of confidence in them that alternative/New Agers do. Specifically, 66.7% of the alternative/New Age population give a D or Failing rating to public schools in comparision to 47.5% of the religious segment, 56.8% of the academically-motivated, and 34.8% of the socio-relational folks.  However, 66.7% of the alternative/New Age group has some confidence in public schools, while the other three groups appear to be somewhat less confident in them.  Thus, alternative/New Agers, as compared to other home schoolers, have low regard for public education as it is, but seem more optimistic about its improvement in the future.
            Generally, Oregon’s home educators would like less federal and state involvement in public education.  In terms of local government involvement, the figures are mixed.  Religious home schoolers would like more local influence as would the socio-relational group while academically-motivated and
alternative/New Age parents are fairly evenly split between wanting more or less local involvement.  Written comments indicate that many home school families would like to see no government influence at all, but if they did have to choose, local involvement would be the favored option.  These attitudes are consistent with the decision to be personally responsible for their children’s education.
            Several curriculum issues were also examined.  Religious and alternative/New Age groups differ significantly in their belief about the content of curriculum.  Religious home schoolers are overwhelmingly opposed to both the teaching of evolution (70.7%) and sex education (88.6%), while in favor of the teaching of creationism (91.3).  Academic and socio-relational home educators agree with both the teaching of creationism and evolution.  They request curriculum that present both points of view.  Moreover, majorities in each of these three groups oppose sex education. Again, alternative/New Agers are the contrasting group.  They are strongly in favor of teaching evolution (75.0%), opposed to creationism (77.8%), and unified in their belief that schools should teach sex education (100.0%).
            We suggest that these curriculum issues are most salient in the home school decision made by religiously-motivated parents. Public schools are secular and do not present the religiously-oriented curriculum desired.  In contrast, those subscribing to alternative/New Age philosophies do not take issue with the public schools on these matters.  The content of public school curriculum, at least regarding these issues, is similar to what New Age parents would want for their children.
 
“Conclusion”
            This article has provided an overview of the results of the 1987-88 Oregon Home School Survey.  The Oregon sample of home schoolers suggests that there are a number of significant differences between those who choose home schooling and the broader Oregon and national populations.  Home schoolers in
Oregon tend to be highly educated, economically secure, live in small residential areas, and are either self-employed or employed in small-scale organizations that offer a relative degree of job autonomy.  They tend to be religiously committed, active church-goers, and often belong to new Protestant religious groups.  Their political attitudes are congruent with the conservative doctrine of these religions.  They have little confidence in a wide spectrum of major social institutions, especially those that are traditionally liberal in orientation.
They tend to have a more cynical view of public education, desire less government control of public schools, wishing to return schools to either local or parental control.
            The commonalities and cleavages within the Oregon home school sample were examined and it was seen that they are not a monolithic group.  Four general motivational dimensions for home schooling were identified.  Among these, the greatest diversity appeared in the `content’ of religious and political philosophies subscribed to.  While the majority of all home schoolers expressed political and religious interests, the type of values and beliefs maintained are dramatically different.  However, Oregon’s home schoolers were found to share a common lack of confidence in numerous social institutions, not just public
education. 
            Given the diversity of values and beliefs among Oregon’s home schoolers and their common lack of confidence in social institutions, it is here suggested that the decision to home school is linked to a more generalized belief among home schoolers that the social institutions in American culture are no longer protecting the `life-style’ concerns and meaning systems maintained by this group.  Home schooling families have responded to what they perceive as the ill-effects of modern society by taking the education of their children into their own hands.  The decision to home school reflects their commitment to regaining control over one aspect of their lives that is fundamental to the maintenance of the value and belief system that maintains and restores family unity.
 
(Editor’s note:  Compiled data charts are available for the above overview.  If interested, please contact the author).