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.

This second edition builds on the original with new research and data. The paper considers the educational phenomenon of home schooling in Canada and the United States, its regulation, history, growth, and the characteristics of practitioners before reviewing the findings on the academic and social effects of home schooling.