Free Textbooks

Textbooks can be costly, but homeschooling through high school doesn’t have to break the bank. OpenStax offers free downloadable textbooks. While the textbooks are intended for college students, many of the courses offered could be completed by motivated high school students. These free textbooks are high-quality, peer-reviewed, and frequently updated to ensure that the material is current and accurate.

Instructor Materials

In addition to the student textbook, each course also has numerous instructor resources, including an instructor guide, answer guide, PowerPoint presentations, and more. To access these instructor materials, you’ll need to sign up for a free account. To keep these materials secure, OpenStax requires that anyone requesting access verify that they are an instructor or staff. Fortunately, they do allow home educators to access the instructor materials! To sign up, you will need to submit some type of document or other proof that you are a home educator. Some examples of proof you may submit are:

• Link to your homeschool website
• Link to a website for a homeschool collective or other organization that mentions you
• Letter from your state certifying you as a homeschool teacher
• Letter from your cover school or other homeschool organization you are affiliated with
• Homeschool Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) membership card

If you have questions about what types of documentation OpenStax will accept, contact their customer service department.

Textbooks Offered

These are the textbooks currently offered by OpenStax.

• Math– Pre-Algebra, Elementary Algebra, Intermediate Algebra, College Algebra, Algebra & Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus Volumes 1 to 3, Introductory Statistics, and Introductory Business Statistics
• Science– Anatomy & Physiology, Astronomy, Biology, Concepts of Biology, Microbiology, Chemistry, College Physics, and University Physics Volumes 1 to 3
• Social Sciences– American Government, Principles of Economics, Principles of Macroeconomics, Principles of Microeconomics, Psychology, and Sociology
• Humanities– U.S. History
• Business– Introduction to Business, Business Ethics, Principles of Accounting: Financial Accounting, Principles of Accounting: Managerial Accounting, Introductory Business Statistics, Principals of Management, Entrepreneurship, and Organizational Behavior