What do parents want? Courtney A. Bell Center for Education Policy Analysis Neag School of Education University of Connecticut presented at the “Who Chooses Schools and Why?” conference October 11,

Why are parents looking for a new school? All children are assigned to a neighborhood school Parents have to choose to choose

Why are parents looking for a new school? Push Reasons Parents want to avoid certain schools They avoid schools that are Unsafe Bad Inconveniently located Expensive Poor matches with their values Composed of students they do not want their child involved with

Why are parents looking for a new school? Pull Reasons Parents are pulled away from neighborhood schools They are drawn to schools that Another family member attends The child’s friends will attend Have a special feature Small class size Specialized curriculum Computers for every child Special education services

How do they go about looking for a school? No Search Have a school already in mind Check into it and go Closed Search Consider just 2 or 3 schools Gather information and compare Open Search Start with a large set and narrow down “Covering all my bases”

How do they go about looking for a school? Networks, networks, networks Advertising TV, radio, media coverage, mass mailings Chance Drive past

How do they go about looking for a school? Develop a choice set Middle class choice sets differ from poor and working class choice sets Non-failing Selective Tuition-based Choose among very different schools

Why do parents choose a particular school? Holistic Reasons Happy, thriving, getting everything she needs Academic Reasons Test scores, teachers, curriculum, post-grad plans, class size Social Reasons Child’s friends, demographic make-up Logistic Reasons Location, timing of school day Administrative Reasons Poor leadership, documentation requirements, safety

What can you take away from this? Parents don’t all use the same process Social networks are the most used source of information Parents are not choosing from the same sets of schools Reputation is crucial Parents prefer schools that are academically rigorous and develop the whole child