Policy makers in California intend to provide free preschool to all 4-year-olds solely within public schools by 2026, becoming the nation's second largest single pre-K program in the United States after Head Start. This initiative builds on the state's existing Transitional Kindergarten (TK) option that has served a modest share of 4-year-olds…

Dual language immersion programs are growing in popularity across America. This article examines the explanations middle-class parents of various racial/ethnic backgrounds give for enrolling their children in Mandarin Immersion Programs. The author addresses the following questions: Why do American parents enroll their children in Mandarin…

"Hybrid homeschools" generally operate as formal schools 2-3 days per week. The rest of the week students are homeschooled. These entities therefore share some aspects of conventional schooling along with some aspects of homeschooling and are classified in a variety of ways by their states, local districts, and even their own…

School choice is a long-standing tradition in the United States. New to the options available to K-12 parents are full-time virtual schools, and this option is an even more recent development for parents of students with disabilities. Very little research exists on why parents are choosing full-time virtual education for their school-aged…

This article uses a survey experiment to examine the effects of public school deregulations on public school leaders' support for a hypothetical private school voucher program in California. There is no evidence to suggest that public school deregulations affect public school leaders' support for private school vouchers overall. However,…

In recent years, districts have paid special attention to the common practice of "district hopping," families bending geographic school assignment rules by sending a child to a school in a district where the child does not formally reside-usually to a district that is more desirable because of higher performing schools or greater…

The purpose of this study is to examine the school selection process of parents whose children attended an urban school district in Northern California. Like numerous urban school districts across the United States, the district highlighted in this study also encountered students exiting its schools for the past decade. The findings shared in this…

In cities where public charter schools serve a large share of students, the costs of ongoing sector divisions and hostility across district and charter lines fall squarely on students and families. Exercising choice and accessing good schools in "high-choice cities" can be difficult for many families, especially some of the most…

The San Joaquin Valley in Central California is known as an abundant agricultural epicenter with an extensive history of farming, migration, and political movements. Though this geography holds a rich representation of agricultural economy, it is also the site of major inequalities and underrepresentation, especially with regard to post-secondary…

In the past 20 years, both school choice policies and dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs have proliferated across the US. This project examines the intersection of the two trends, examining how school choice policies have shaped DLBE at the district, school, and program level, through the eyes of 22 public school administrators in…

This study looked at the factors Latina mothers want to see in their children's preschool centers, in order to provide a more holistic approach for defining high-quality preschools. A qualitative study was conducted in which 40 Latina mothers from a western region of the United States were interviewed to understand their views about quality…

Improving public education has long been a cornerstone of the Democratic platform. Because progressives understand that access to a quality education is the gateway to a better life, their decades-long struggle to promote equal rights and opportunity for all Americans has been deeply tied to their struggle to create an effective public school…

This study explores parents' reasons for enrolling their children in a Korean dual language immersion (KDLI) program. The research focuses on parents' reasons for choosing a school and a KDLI program, respectively, to examine whether a KDLI offering significantly affects parents' decision to enroll their children in a specific school and to…

This article brings together ethnographies of two privileged educational settings in the United States--a private school in California's Central Valley following the progressivist Sudbury model, and an affluent New England boarding school's summer enrichment program. Each of these institutions serves as an alternative to and/or extension of…

The innovative and culturally responsive teaching practices provided in high-quality charter schools are not only providing Hispanic students with an excellent alternative to district public schools, but they are also yielding academic results that show neither race/ethnicity nor income level must determine a child's future. The compilation of…