School discipline is a salient challenge in K-12 districts nationwide. The majority of prior studies have focused on suspensions with relatively little attention paid to other forms of exclusionary discipline. This mixed-methods study provides a descriptive analysis of overlooked disciplinary consequences, namely, assignment to alternative…

Approximately 20 percent of the public school students in the City of Los Angeles attend a charter school. Los Angeles is home to the second-largest school district in the nation. The School Choice Demonstration Project research team has documented disparities between traditional public school (TPS) and charter school funding in Los Angeles…

Using a transnational theoretical framework, this study explores U.S. families expatriating to Guanacaste, Costa Rica in search of educational alternatives to U.S. schooling. In order to meet the needs of this influx of U.S. families to the region, schools such as La Paz Community School in Flamingo, Guanacaste have emerged. This qualitative…

This study leverages naturally occurring lotteries for oversubscribed Boston Public Schools prekindergarten program sites between 2007 and 2011, for 3,182 children (M = 4.5 years old) to estimate the impacts of winning a first choice lottery and enrolling in Boston prekindergarten versus losing a first choice lottery and not enrolling on…

Background: Parents are challenged to choose schools for their Grade 1 learners. They believe that the Department of Education's zoning and admission policy is too restrictive. Schools also do not provide adequate information to allow parents to make their choice. Aim: This article aimed to identify factors that influence parents' choice of…

Crises have a way of shaking up the status quo and creating space for new thinking. When shocked out of their familiarity, people start to ask questions as to why things are the way that they are and brainstorm ways to make them better. Enter entrepreneurs. They are the people who take those ideas that are lying around and attempt to create…

Mass media and previous research tend to label Asian parents as "academic-obsessive" in their parenting, which can be reflected in the primary-school choice for their children. While some extant Hong Kong studies conducted a decade ago corroborated the above contention, we aim to provide an updated account of the general criteria…

Many state funding programs are intended to reach directly to students, but in reality funds must go through school districts, which have considerable freedom in how they allocate resources. As such, states have a strong interest in ensuring that districts invest in strategies that are backed by evidence and create opportunity for all students.…

This study reports the results of a survey conducted with a set of "hybrid homeschool" leaders (principals or directors) from around the United States who were asked to describe (1) how their families categorize themselves (as homeschoolers, or as members of private schools); (2) the ways in which their schools operate in terms of…

Through the years, education policy has changed and shifted to include the issue of choice in politics and policy. Charter schools have increased in Texas and tax credit and voucher systems have been implemented in many parts of the United States. Due to this increased presence of choice, public schools responded with the implementation and…

Universal public prekindergarten programs have been expanding in recent years, but not all eligible families apply to these programs, for reasons that are not well understood. Using two cohorts of students (N = 8,391) enrolled in Boston Public Schools, we use geographic information systems to combine administrative records with census data to…

This report explains how Michigan could pursue a flexible funding program that would give learners greater agency, especially for middle-school and secondary students and their families. Charting a path to complete a diploma, every student would be allowed to use a portion of their per-pupil allotment to "purchase" courses from schools…

Is parental involvement a relevant factor in explaining academic performance in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic contexts? This article examines the effect of parental involvement on the Language and Mathematics performance of third grade students attending low-SES schools in Santiago de Chile. Multilevel linear regression models are used…

We examine how low-income parents who apply for North Carolina's Opportunity Scholarship program navigate major obstacles to their full participation in this means-tested private school choice program. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study draws upon administrative data from the state agency that oversees the program, surveys of every…

Low-cost private schools are expanding across sub-Saharan Africa and are often perceived by parents to be of better quality than public schools. This article assesses the interplay between kindergarten (or preschool) choice, household resources, and children's school readiness in Ghana. We examine how child, household, and school characteristics…