The National Home Education Research Institute's mission is to:

1. Produce high-quality research (e.g., statistics, facts, findings) on home-based education (homeschooling).

2. Serve as a clearinghouse of research for the public, researchers, homeschoolers, the media, and policy makers.

3. Educate the public concerning the findings of all research on home education.

Whether called homeschooling, home schooling, home-based education, home education, home-schooling, unschooling, deschooling, or a form of alternative education, the movement is growing and the National Home Education Research Institute is tracking and analyzing it, internationally. NHERI's forte is in the realm of research, statistics, technical reports, data, facts, demographics, the academic world, consulting, academic achievement tests, and expert witness (in courts and legislatures) while serving people ranging from researchers and policy makers to professional educators, teachers, homeschoolers (home schoolers), and parents in general to the media, marketing consultants, and the general public.

NHERI was founded by its president Brian D. Ray, Ph.D., who has been the editor of the refereed academic journal "Home School Researcher" since 1985.

In fulfilling its mission, NHERI engages in professional research for various clients throughout the nation and internationally. In addition, Dr. Ray and his associates serve as consultants to the growing number of those presently engaged in research on home education topics. Dr. Ray or another representative of NHERI will be speaking in several places around the country.

NHERI, a 501(c)(3) non-profit research and educational organization, also makes available for public purchase many print, audio, and video productions ranging from basic bottom-line fact sheets about homeschooling to more technically sophisticated academic reports.

Homeschooling is growing worldwide, and as more and more parents homeschool (home school) their children, NHERI will be studying them, striving to understand them, educating others about them, and serving them.

Some of the research reports, books, and videos (video) available at NHERI's site are as follow:

- Home Educated and Now Adults: Their Community and Civic Involvement, Views About Homeschooling, and Other Traits; newest nationwide study of "graduates" of homeschooling; family history, demographics, community service, occupations, reasons for homeschooling, attitudes toward homeschooling, satisfaction with life

- Worldwide Guide to Homeschooling; research, history, charts, how families get started homeschooling; like a small almanac

- Strengths of Their Own; nationwide study of homeschool families and their children; academic achievement, demographics, et cetera

- Home Schooling on the Threshold; full-color synopsis (booklet) of dozens of research studies

- Home-Based Education: The Informed Choice; video with research, statistics, charts, philosophy of education, history, and more

- Home School Researcher journal subscription and back issues

The U.S. Department of Education (Institute of Education Sciences; NCES) released in August a report dated July 2004 entitled "1.1 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2003" (by Princiotta, Bielick, & Chapman) in which the authors estimate the number of homeschooled students in the United States (i.e., homeschool population size). Dr. Ray, however, still estimates that there were 1.7 to 2.1 million K-12 homeschool students in the US during the 2002-2003 year Consistent with Dr. Ray's findings (see Worldwide Guide to Homeschooling), the researchers found that homeschooling has grown about 7% per year during the past 4 years.

Dr. Ray, in "A Brief Review of Educational Neglect and Compulsory Schooling: A Status Report," provides a critical look (as of January 28, 2006) at a new report written by Philip Kelly, Robert Barr, & James Weatherby that relates to homeschooling.

In summary, the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) is a key leader when it comes to conducting and reporting on homeschooling as it relates to homeschool research (i.e., home-school research), homeschool statistics, homeschool data, homeschool reports, homeschool facts, homeschool consulting, homeschool studies, homeschool population, homeschool demographics, and homeschool expert witness.