The purpose of this narrative inquiry is to examine factors that influence military parents when they choose between on-base public schools and off-base public schools during a relocation for their child with special needs. According to the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA, 2015) there are approximately 650,000 military dependent…

School district leaders are responsible for creating strategic plans for their districts which include three-year, five-year, and ten-year plans. Prior to 1989, school district leaders anticipated student growth or decline by assessing the housing market and mobility trends in the district. In 1989, the Nebraska legislature passed a law allowing…

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…

School choice draws upon market principles for restructuring education as schools compete for student enrollment by appealing to parents. When parents hold the power to choose where--among several options--to enroll their child for learning, they will select the school that best meets their child's academic and social-emotional needs (Cooper,…

Many individuals prefer the ability to choose options as opposed to being directed toward a certain path. School choice programs in the United States allow parents to exercise their democratic right to choose what is best for their children with respect to choosing a school for them to receive their education. The problem is that many African…

This study offers a better understanding of the reasons why parents from six different countries across the Western hemisphere chose private, non-denominational schools for their children's education. The findings deepen the knowledge in what is currently an underdeveloped field of research in education. The overarching research question was: What…

School choice has influenced several educational reforms in the US and across the world in the last decades. These reforms have often promoted school autonomy, parental choice, and competition between schools to improve quality and equity. Whether those reforms work in practice is well examined, but the roles of policy design such as the extent to…

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…

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…

This study applied quantitative research methods by employing a descriptive research design to collect data from Members of the House of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly regarding their use and perceived importance of information sources to detect the existence of potential controversy or areas of disagreement within the member's environment…

This qualitative study explored how parents make school-choice decisions. I conducted a basic interpretive qualitative study to collect and analyze data. I used criterion purposeful sampling to determine participants who met the criteria for this study: (a) parents who currently had students at schools of choice, and (b) parents who were entering…

Against a background of failure on the part of the focus of this case study to adhere to its founding charter in terms of enrollment, the purpose of this study was to explore how and why rural parents choose charter schools over traditional public schools. Using data collected through individual and focus group interviews, field observations, and…

Increasing numbers of Florida parents are withdrawing their children from traditional public schools in highly-rated school districts to enroll them in tuition-free, startup, charter schools. Since not all parents have equal access or are as equally motivated to elect school choice alternatives, the fiscal sustainability of the traditional public…

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…

Many small rural schools are facing a crisis of declining student populations and in the era of school choice, school districts are looking at innovative ways to attract and retain students. Research is limited on the qualitative experiences of people in communities who are focused on increasing inter-district open enrollment in K-12 schools as a…