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…

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…

China has witnessed significant growth in the number of children affected by internal rural-urban migration. These children predominantly suffer from educational inequalities. Most relevant studies have primarily attributed such inequalities to "hukou"-based exclusion. However, the active agency of rural migrant parents in their…

Massive online user review platforms, with their star ratings and text reviews, are reshaping the information available for consumer and public service decisions. We study the leading K-12 schooling platform, GreatSchools, applying machine learning (Natural Language Processing, NLP) to 600,000 reviews that encompass the vast majority of the…

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…

Even the most effective education reforms and initiatives are unlikely to have a uniform effect on all students. In fact, much like in medicine, some beneficial efforts can have adverse side effects. Yong Zhao takes up this idea as it applies to school choice and voucher programs. When researchers tout the benefits of vouchers, they focus on the…

This study examines the extent to which there is a difference in satisfaction between parents of children attending private schools that participate in the Louisiana Scholarship Program (LSP) and of children who attend non-LSP private schools, using parents' expressed commentary as proxies for satisfaction. This is the first study to consider…

This poll was conducted between February 2-5, 2024 among a sample of 2,252 Adults. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of Adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race, and region. Results based on the full survey have a measure of precision of plus or minus 2.41 percentage…

I review the literature on how parents select schools when participating in private choice programs in the United States. I address two sub-questions. First, do parents have the incentives and motivation needed to participate in a schooling market? Second, when selecting a school, what school characteristics do parents consider? I find three…

This poll was conducted between April 21-April 23, 2022 among a sample of 2,200 adults. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted to approximate a target sample of adults based on gender, educational attainment, age, race, and region. Among the key findings are: (1) Americans do not agree on who should decide whether or not a…

Aiming to explore factors affecting Malaysian Chinese parents in sending their children to either national secondary schools or Chinese independent schools, 494 parents were surveyed using a questionnaire. Results showed that parents who sent their children to Chinese independent schools have different priorities compared to those who sent theirs…

There are various studies, primarily conducted in the Western World, that have investigated the reasons why parents select a school, which they perceive best meets their children's needs and parental aspirations for their children. In order to contribute to the established knowledge it was essential to conduct an investigation into parents'…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the reasons of school choices of middle-class families and their children within the context of the neoliberal education policies in Turkish education system. The study adopts a qualitative descriptive research approach. The data were collected via semi-structured interviews. The first study group…