What is NHERI? NHERI is the National Home Education Research Institute. NHERI conducts and collects research about homeschooling (home-based education, home schooling), and publishes the research journal called the Home School Researcher. The institute has hundreds of research works documented and catalogued on home schooling, many of which were done by NHERI. Simply put, NHERI specializes in homeschool research, facts, statistics, scholarly articles, and information.

NHERI exists to do the following things:

  • To research, study, and understand those who teach their children at home;
  • To publish the peer-reviewed research journal called the Home School Researcher, which chronicles the current research being done about home schooling;
  • To speak to the media, legislators, and national organizations about the home schooling movement, showing factual evidence-based research about those who teach their children at home;
  • To serve as conference speakers and teachers for groups interested in home schooling; and
  • To work with legislators on issues related to parental rights and children’s rights, freedom that parents —  internationally and globally — have to teach their children at home, and homeschoolers coordinating with local school officials.

Services that NHERI provides on a regular basis include:

  • Speaking to homeschooling and other types of conferences about homeschool research;
  • Giving seminars and lectures on how to teach children at home;
  • Doing state-, national-level, and international-level research about the home schooling community; and
  • Speaking to the media (television, radio, newspaper, etc.) about homeschooling issues.
  • Providing referrals to expert witness services in courts and legislatures.

Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. and others founded the institute in 1990 as a 501(c)3 non-profit research organization, and is the president of the institute. He holds his Ph.D. in science education from Oregon State University, his M.S. in zoology from Ohio University, and his B.S. in biology from the University of Puget Sound. Dr. Ray has been a middle school and high school classroom teacher in both public and private schools, an undergraduate college professor, and a university professor at the graduate level. He is a leading international expert with regard to homeschool (home school, home education) research. Dr. Ray executes and publishes research (see list below), speaks to the public, testifies before legislators, and serves as an expert witness in courts.

Google Scholar Profile shows many of Dr. Ray’s publications.

For more information about NHERI’s services, to subscribe to the Home School Researcher journal, to get started in your own homeschooling, or if you would like to obtain information about homeschool research, you may contact the institute:

National Home Education Research Institute
PO Box 13939
Salem, OR 97309
phone (503) 364-1490
fax (503) 364-2827
www.nheri.org
Comments and queries email: mail [at] nheri [dot] org