Public PreK programs are an increasingly popular policy tool to equalize early learning opportunities. Programs can be universally available or targeted to support children's readiness. At the intersection of early childhood and K-12 education, their hybrid status can be difficult for families to negotiate. Based on interviews completed in 2018,…

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the decision-making process of school choice for Christian parents with preschool through elementary aged children. Hall's et al. (2002) values-based decision-making theory (VBDM) guided this qualitative descriptive study that incorporated two research questions. The two sources of data included…

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed preschool education, expanding beyond traditional methods to include digital learning innovations, even in early childhood education. This study investigates the implementation of Islamic education through an Online Preschool Program in Indonesia. Using a qualitative approach, the research involved 20 parents…

To better understand how parent choice and program participation fosters socioeconomic diversity within community early learning programs, this in-depth case study examined two high-quality, socioeconomically diverse community early education program sites operating in Baltimore City. Key findings of this study include, (1) Despite their shared…

The middle-classes use school choice as a strategy of class reproduction and comparative advantage. In this article, we show how middle-class parental school choice strategies are spatially dependent and how schooling preferences and final choices are bounded by the social and educational characteristics of the local education market of their…

This study was conducted in a middle-class area where school districts are largely average. The purpose of this study was to better understand how families choose among the options available to their child for entering kindergarten. These options include the neighborhood public school, open enrollment into another public school, homeschooling, or…

The goal of this study was to investigate the expectations of the parents with a child enrolled at a preschool education institution from preschool education institutions. This research was designed as a survey study. The sample of this study consisted of 326 children, enrolled at preschool education institutions in the center of Usak province,…

Parents compare the costs of sending their children to private Christian schools with the benefits of their children attending the schools. Christian school leaders benefit from understanding the factors influencing parents' decisions to enroll their children in Christian private schools. In this qualitative study, the researcher interviewed nine…

Although the Montessori Method of education is more than 100 years old, the number of Montessori schools in the United States has exponentially increased since 1990. Montessori methods and practices can be complex and difficult for parents to understand, even among parents whose child attends Montessori schools. Moreover, it is unclear why parents…

As school choice expands in different states and districts, it appears in several different forms: (1) open enrollment policies among traditional public schools; (2) charter schools available to students regardless of their neighborhood (including online charter schools); or (3) school vouchers that families can use to enroll in other districts or…

This community-based, participatory action research study examined the outcomes of parent participation in the Best Classroom Project, an organized group of parents in Detroit seeking the best school options for children about to enter kindergarten. These parents' residency and school choices have emerged against the grain of public schools that…

Voucher systems are based on the theoretical assumption that giving parents a choice of schools subjects institutions to the mechanism of market forces, which, in turn, pushes them to reform their services. While the ability of parents to make sound educational choices on behalf of their children is questioned by opponents of school choice,…

Today's child care and early education landscape has vastly changed from a few years ago; parents have more choices and they are better informed. More than ever before, it is important to hear what parents tell they are searching for and to act on the specific information provided. When it comes to finding the right provider for their children,…

Set in the context of a choice-saturated public school system, this study examines the school choice process of low-income parents who participated in Louisiana's 2008 voucher program. Based on semistructured interviews with 16 parents at 1 Catholic school, we report that spirituality, small class and school size, character/values, familiarity,…

Background: This study investigated parental decision making about non-parental child care programs based on the technological and quality components of the program, both child-focused and parent-focused. Child-focused variables related to children's access to technology such as computers, educational television programming, and the internet.…