Basham, Patrick, Merrifield, John, and Hepburn, Claudia R. (2007, October). Home schooling: From the extreme to the mainstream, 2nd edition. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Fraser Institute. Retrieved 7/8/13 from https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/Homeschooling2007.pdf (and retrieved 10/5/07 from https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/Homeschooling2007.pdf). (Review, synthesize, and summarize research and policy matters related to homeschooling in Canada and the United States. Do not conduct new basic research. “Of the thousands of studies published by The Fraser Institute, Patrick Basham’s 2001 study Homeschooling: From the Extreme to the Mainstream has had almost unique popularity and longevity. In 2006, five years after it was published, the study’s PDF was downloaded from our website more than 10,000 times, making it the most frequently viewed study apart from the newly released school report cards and the Tax Freedom Day calculator” (p. 3).Report in executive summary report that (a) “Home schooling continues to grow in popularity among parents in both Canada and the US,” (b) “There are good reasons to be suspicious about easy comparisons between the test scores of home schooled and other students, since it is difficult to ensure comparable testing conditions or levels of student participation, among other reasons. However, the number of scholars and studies comparing the two groups continues to grow, bolstering older studies,” (c) “ Many studies, Canadian, American, and international, have found that home schooled students outperform students in both public and independent (private) schools,” (d) “Home educated children enjoy no significant advantage if one or both parents are certified teachers,” (e) Surprisingly, several studies have found that home education may help eliminate the potential negative effects of certain socio-economic factors. Though children whose parents have university degrees score higher on tests of academic achievement than other home schooled children, home education appears to mitigate the harmful effect of low parental education levels. That is, public schools seem to educate children of poorly educated parents worse than do the poorly educated parents themselves,” (f) “Despite a widespread belief that home educated students are not adequately socialized, the preponderance of research suggests otherwise,” (g) Though the long-term effects of home schooling are less well studied, both Canadian and American findings on previously home schooled adults are encouraging. Canadian home-schooled students report a life satisfaction score well above their public school peers. American studies have found indications of a wide range of non-academic benefits from home schooling,” [p. 3 ends] (h) The widespread use of the Internet has helped the development of social connections and pedagogical resources of home schooling families,” (i) “Home schooling families reportedly spend less than US $4,000 per year per household on home schooling though that cost does place any value on the parents’ time. In the United States, the most recent figures show public school spending to be $9,644 per child” [p. 4]. Report is relatively fair and friendly toward homeschooling. Makes this emphasis: “There is one overriding lesson for policymakers to learn from this survey of home schooling. As home schooling researcher Isabel Lyman pithily described the American experience: “Home schooling has produced literate students with minimal government interference at a fraction of the cost of any government program” (Lyman, 1998)” (p. 18.) (Descriptors: home education, research, summary, synthesis, academic achievement, socialization, economics, public schools, private schools)