Parents who are concerned about public school environments and curricula are turning to homeschooling in order to control the content and atmosphere of the learning environments of their children. Although employment as a public school teacher requires a bachelor€™s degree in education or a subject area, the educational background of homeschool teachers is quite varied. The educational background of a sample of n 500 parents involved in homeschooling their children in 2003 are provided in the first table that follows, along with the corresponding percentages for parents who homeschooled in 1999. The education levels for U.S. citizens in general are given in the second table.

Education Level %                  U.S. Population, 2003
High school or less.................................................47.5
Some college..........................................................25.3
Bachelor€™s degree or higher....................................27.2

a. Is there a significant change in the educational backgrounds of parents who home-schooled their children in 2003 compared with 1999? Use α = .01.

b. If there is a significant change in the educational backgrounds of these parents, how would you describe that change?

c. Using the second table, can we determine if home-school teachers have the same educational backgrounds as the U.S. population in general? If not, which groups are underrepresented and which are over-represented?

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Parent's Education 1999 Percentages 2003 High school or less Some college/technical 121 153 127 99 18.9 33.7 25.1 22.3 Bachelor's degree Graduate/professional degree