An Investigation of Factors that Influence Parents' Choice of Schools for Their Children in a Midwestern Suburban School District

An Investigation of Factors that Influence Parents' Choice of Schools for Their Children in a Midwestern Suburban School District PDF Author: Harold E. Wilson (Ph. D.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 28

Get Book Here

Book Description

An Investigation of Factors that Influence Parents' Choice of Schools for Their Children in a Midwestern Suburban School District

An Investigation of Factors that Influence Parents' Choice of Schools for Their Children in a Midwestern Suburban School District PDF Author: Harold E. Wilson (Ph. D.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 28

Get Book Here

Book Description


Resources in Education

Resources in Education PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description


An Investigation of Parent Behavior in and Satisfaction with the Controlled Choice Plan of the Saint Paul Public Schools

An Investigation of Parent Behavior in and Satisfaction with the Controlled Choice Plan of the Saint Paul Public Schools PDF Author: Rita Marie Jandrich Thofern
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Get Book Here

Book Description


Why Parents Choose

Why Parents Choose PDF Author: Pamela N. Berry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Public schools
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Get Book Here

Book Description
During an era of a strong movement toward national school choice and the much-debated topic of school vouchers, it is critical for today’s public school leaders to understand why families make the decision to leave their neighborhood schools and enroll in other school choice options. This study situated school choice within the context of an urban-suburban school district implementing a school-within-school (SWS) program of choice model. Often referred to as multiplex schools, SWS models are becoming more prevalent as public school leaders strive to compete in a market-driven society saturated with public, charter, and open-enrollment school choice options. From this lens, the research examined the factors influencing parents in an urban-suburban school district to participate in one of the eight intra-district, SWS programs of choice. These findings have major implications for the design and marketing of programs that will meet the diverse needs of public school families searching for educational options that meet the individualized needs of their children. The research approach utilized common quantitative analysis techniques to examine parents’ rationale for participating in SWS choice programs and their perception of increased parental involvement and students’ engagement. An SPSS Statistics software program was utilized to evaluate each of these areas by geographic zone of residence. The study concluded with recommendations for future research and public school leaders considering choice programming options.

Parent Attitudes and School Choice

Parent Attitudes and School Choice PDF Author: Carol Rawls Johnson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 624

Get Book Here

Book Description


School Factors and Perceptions of Information Credibility that Influence Parents Considering School Choice in Urban Public Schools

School Factors and Perceptions of Information Credibility that Influence Parents Considering School Choice in Urban Public Schools PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 116

Get Book Here

Book Description
Recent trends have found that urban public schools are becoming more segregated racially and by class at a time when there has been a rapid rise in parents exercising public school choice options, including charter schools, magnet schools and district transfer policies. The purpose of this quantitative study of one high poverty secondary feeder pattern of a top 10 urban school district was to examine what sources of information are most credible and which factors are most important to school choice decisionmakers at transition points to the middle and high school. Analyzing responses from 168 surveys in five languages, T-Test and ANOVA comparisons were used to measure statistically significant differences between racial, language, education and age groups. Issues of safety followed by academic rigor were rated highest in the study while convenience factors were significantly more important to African American and Latino families, non-English speakers, and parents with the lowest educational attainment. Existing school reputation was found to be least important among the youngest parents and more important the older the respondent. Statistically significant differences between those who planned to have their children attended their neighborhood school versus those that planned to exercise school choice options were found on the credibility of siblings Parent Construction of School Choice and the popularity of electives in global citizenship/leadership and AVID/College Preparatory. This study confirmed previous literature around the preeminence of safety over academic factors and limitations of school “choice sets” for low income families. However, unlike previous studies, this very racially diverse, high immigrant and less educated sample was less likely to view information from other parents about schools as credible.

Parents' Experience with School Choice

Parents' Experience with School Choice PDF Author: Daniel Anthony Zaich
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781303444302
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
This qualitative case study sought to understand the experiences of a group of parents residing in the Novato Unified School District, Marin County, CA., as they engaged in the process of deciding where to send their children to school as the students matriculated from eighth to ninth grade, or middle school to high school.The four major constructs that underlie this study are: School Choice; Resegregation; Social Capital Theory; and Social Organization of Schooling. The data from this study demonstrated the ways that the twenty suburban upper-middle class parents in this purposeful sample understand the choices they made in their educational decisions for their children. The data analysis revealed some aspects of education parents consider important in their school choice process, and how they make sense of schooling options for their children. The data consisted of parents' statements from focus group discussions. Based on findings from this study, there is an indication that family history plays a very strong and influential role in the choices that parents make. Also, findings in this study regarding parents' level of education and what parents value in schools indicated that these college educated parents in an upper-middle class socio-economic group consider the sociological attributes of a school important. They believe that a small community environment where teachers and staff know each student and child have a personal relationship with faculty members and administrators is imperative.This college educated sample ranked the learning environment, specifically, teacher quality, as the most important aspect of their child's education. All of the parents expressed concern about teacher preparedness, teacher and staff overload, and the quality of curricular programs. Based on the learning environment's classroom safety data, across all parent focus groups in this study, the conclusion drawn was that these parents are very concerned about their child's well-being.This study indicated the need for educators to make sustained and well planned efforts to increase the connection for parents between their potential school choice options and the educational opportunities the school programs provide. While the school district may have detailed information on measures of school performance which parents find useful, this information is often not easily accessible or understandable to parents. It is recommended that partnerships between neighborhood public high schools and lower grades at their feeder schools should be part of each public high school's community outreach program bridge-building efforts and should extend to the elementary level. Furthermore, public policy-makers should review the current trend to open more and more charter schools. These research finding suggest that more choice is not necessarily better and may in fact be influencing resegregation issues in small suburban school districts. Public high schools might increase program choices and flexibility in the design of students' individual class schedules rather than adding more schools of choice. Creating small communities of students with similar interests within existing public high schools might better serve as a major focus and objective for educational policy-makers at the local district, state, and federal levels. Future research needs to better understand the social-psychological underpinnings of parents' school choice decision process. More in-depth case studies including life history patterns and choices within families could contribute to these understandings. Parents in this study relied heavily on informal, word-of-mouth information-gathering activities. A study to determine the impact of media technologies on the quantity, quality, and type of information used by parents and their children during the search process might shed further light on possible improvements public school administrators could make to retain more students in the public educations system. Finally, educational policymakers need to develop successful strategies to prevent the resegregation of suburban schools. Policies would help change the flow of people in and out of communities to achieve educational objectives to eliminate resegregation. Networks cold be created between the education profession, urban development, housing, civil rights agencies, and the media about the challenge of resegregation and the possible solutions to this problem. Small, suburban school districts are especially vulnerable to resegregation. To deal with this problem small school districts could consolidate into countywide systems to prevent resegregation and achieve a more integrated educational system and better educational outcomes for all students. Further research and investigation of a possible movement toward resegregation of this and other suburban communities is needed. A comparison of local statistics with national data might illuminate the difference in educational outcomes between communities without school integration plans versus communities with integrated plans.

National Forum of Applied Educational Research Journal

National Forum of Applied Educational Research Journal PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description


A Qualitative Study of Parents' Decision to Choose Nonresidential Public Schools Through a School Choice Program

A Qualitative Study of Parents' Decision to Choose Nonresidential Public Schools Through a School Choice Program PDF Author: Joseph L. Koenigsknecht
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Public schools
Languages : en
Pages : 500

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Examination of Key Factors that Influence Parental Choice of Schools Within the Public Sector

The Examination of Key Factors that Influence Parental Choice of Schools Within the Public Sector PDF Author: Terri M. Pieretti
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Academic achievement
Languages : en
Pages : 348

Get Book Here

Book Description