Chapter 8: Behind The Trend: Increases in Homeschooling among African American Families

An increasing number of African American families are choosing to homeschool their children. This paper examines the meaning and implications of African Americans’ removal of their children from the very public schools into which the Brown v. Board of Educationdesegregation decision granted them admission five decades ago. The 50 years since the Brown decision have seen a persistence of the Black-White achievement gap in U.S. public school systems, and a growing number of African American parents have determined they can better educate their children at home, employing strategies that are not available in most classrooms: low pupil-teacher ratio, focused attention on academic problem areas, elimination of “tracking,” and deeply committed teachers with high expectations. Higher academic achievement regardless of parental educational attainment and the flexibility to conform to a variety of family conditions and income levels make homeschooling one of the best options to prepare African American children to compete in the twenty-first century.