Parent Management of School Choice in a Large Urban District

With No Child Left Behind legislation permitting students to switch from so-called failing schools, key questions are whether parents will act to select another school and which schools they will choose. Long-standing school choice systems provide evidence about low-income parents’strategies to gath...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Urban education (Beverly Hills, Calif.) Calif.), 2005-05, Vol.40 (3), p.270-297
Main Author: Neild, Ruth Curran
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Decisions
Education
Education, Urban
Educational Improvement
Educational policy
Educational sciences
Educational sector
Federal Legislation
Grade 8
Information sources
Interviews
Legislation
Low Income Groups
North America
Parent participation
Parents
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Policy, reform, legislation
School Choice
School Districts
Secondary schools
Social aspects
Social Networks
United States
Urban Areas
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Summary:With No Child Left Behind legislation permitting students to switch from so-called failing schools, key questions are whether parents will act to select another school and which schools they will choose. Long-standing school choice systems provide evidence about low-income parents’strategies to gather information and negotiate the application process. Interviews with parents of eighth graders in Philadelphia indicate that faced with little high-quality official information about schools, parents’ social networks played an important role in the decision. Most parents were hungry for information about schools but lacked specifics on academic performance or children’s chances of admission. The data suggest that more detailed school information and a district commitment to counseling parents are essential for making well-informed choices. Even so, in districts with few good school options for students, there are limits to parents’ability to find a school that represents a substantial improvement over the school their child already attends.
ISSN:0042-0859
1552-8340
DOI:10.1177/0042085905274538