Skeptics of school choice are concerned that parents, especially low-income ones, will not choose schools based on sound academic reasoning. Many fear that, given choice, parents will sort themselves into different schools along class lines. However, most surveys find that parents of all socioeconomic groups cite academic aspects as important when…

One of the most contentious policy areas in the United States today is the expansion of school choice. Although many dimensions of parental choice behavior have been analyzed, perhaps the most enduring questions center on the aspects of schools parents prefer and how these preferences will affect the socioeconomic and racial composition of…

Used an Internet-based tool about a city's choice schools to study parental preferences about school choice revealed through information search patterns and compared these findings with the literature, largely based on telephone interviews. Findings suggest that unfettered choice may lead to undesirable outcomes in the distribution of students and…

Across the United States, charter schools have become one of the most frequently used means of increasing choice among educational alternatives. In this article we use data from a recent telephone survey of Washington D.C. parents to evaluate the success of the District's large and growing charter school program. We find that parents with children…

Parental satisfaction is critical to the politics of school reform. Many charter school advocates have no qualms in talking about a charter school movement, linking charter schools to a larger political effort to reform the system of education in the United States. If this movement is to have traction, parents who are satisfied with their…

This study used data from a recent telephone survey of Washington, D.C. parents to evaluate the success of the Districts large and growing charter school program. Results for 384 parents show that parents with children in charter schools rate their teachers, principals, facilities, and schools overall higher than their traditional public school…