A Review of the Empirical Research on Private School Choice

Parents in the United States have had the legal right to choose the school their child attends for a long time. Traditionally, parental school choice took the form of families moving to a neighborhood with good public schools or self-financing private schooling. Contemporary education policies allow parents in many areas to choose from among public schools in neighboring districts, public magnet schools, public charter schools, private schools through the use of a voucher or tax-credit scholarship, virtual schools, or even homeschooling. The newest form of school choice is education savings accounts (ESAs), which make a portion of the funds that a state spends on children in public schools available to their parents in spending accounts that they can use to customize their children's education. Opponents claim that expanding private school choice yields no additional benefits to participants and generates significant harms to the students “left behind” in traditional public schools. A review of the empirical research on private school choice finds evidence that private school choice delivers some benefits to participating students—particularly in the area of educational attainment—and tends to help, albeit to a limited degree, the achievement of students who remain in public schools.     

Book reviews

This paper explores the relationship between parents and schools. Over the last 30 years the importance attached to parents’ views on education has increased significantly throughout the Western world. Policy‐makers encourage parental participation and involvement through the creation of councils in which parents have a say. In Flanders in Belgium in 2004 a new participation law was passed. We study the impact of this law on the micropolitical relations between parents, school heads and teachers. We conducted in‐depth interviews with teachers, parents, school heads and members of the organizing body in four primary schools and observed parents’ gatherings. Starting from the partnership–conflict opposition, we focus on the functioning of the parents’ associations and the way parents’ associations, school heads and teachers are dealing with this new law. We found that the parent–school relationship differs greatly from school to school. While the socio‐economic middle class predominates in the four parents’ associations, the results show that parental empowerment is enhanced only in those schools with mainly socio‐economically weak families.     

Book reviews

Whilst there is now clearly an expectation upon parents to become more involved in schools and to take a greater part in their children's education, there is still little attempt to address the constraints upon achieving such aims. These constraints have been shown to include social class factors, gender relations, ethnicity and power relationships. This paper will take the analysis of some of these constraints further and, in particular, will focus on the views of working‐class parents on their relationships with, and role in relation to, their children's secondary school. The paper will explore the reasons for the orientation by working‐class parents which would seem to differ markedly from that of middle‐class parents. It will be shown that working‐class parents are committed to their children achieving educational success, and that they perceive their own role as supportive in a variety of ways. However, their position in relation to schools is to view the school as separate from their everyday social and cultural world and that the parent‐teacher role comprises a division of labour. It will be argued that teachers tend to adopt the same strategies for promoting parental involvement irrespective of class, parental needs, individual circumstances, and so on. Hence, because they take no account of differences, and because their strategies are constructed essentially from a logocentric position, then they serve to reinforce the parents’ perception of teachers as the professional ‘who knows best’: as the powerful knower which thus reinforces working‐class parents’ fatalistic view of schooling and their role as passive. The paper draws on data from a three‐year research project into the parents’ relationship with their children's secondary school. The data set which formed the basis of the analysis presented here comprises interviews with 58 parents from one of the case‐study schools which will be known as Acre Lane, and 15 of the school's teachers.     

教育惩戒:内涵阐释、价值分析与实施策略

教育惩戒是学校、教师等教育和管理主体以法定的教育惩戒权为依据,以法定限度内的惩罚为手段,依法对损害教育教学秩序的学生作出否定性、不利性和制裁性的评价,在制止其错误行为的基础上进行正确引导。教育惩戒是教育生态的客观要求,是惩戒性教育评价的实践形式。在我国,教育惩戒还反映了特殊的国情需要和教育现实需要。实施教育惩戒,应遵循教育性、合法性、多样性、伦理性等原则,在实践上推进教育惩戒法治化建设,正确定位学校和教育行政部门角色,规范学校的惩戒方案制定以及引导家长理性参与学校监督。     

Legitimating status: perceptions of meritocracy and inequality among undergraduates at an elite British university

Given the frequent critiques of elite universities for admitting low numbers of state school graduates and, more recently, British Afro‐Caribbean students, how do students attending those universities make meaning of the admissions process? Through an analysis of 46 one‐on‐one in‐depth interviews with undergraduates attending Oxford University, we show that students believe in the fairness of the admissions process, while lamenting the lack of opportunities for educational advancement faced by some disadvantaged youth in British society. Despite their understanding that many British youth do not have access to educational experiences that make Oxbridge an attainable goal, most students do not support changes to make access more equitable across class or racial/ethnic lines. This perspective, which legitimates the status students gain through matriculation at an elite university, supports the maintenance of unequal access to an Oxford education despite the advantages that education is known to confer to graduates. The findings demonstrate elites acknowledging the disadvantages of particular groups in society without acknowledging their own advantages in the same system. They do so by recognizing two elements of merit: (1) intelligence, which most students assumed led to their own admission; and (2) cultivation of that intelligence, which requires elite secondary schools and which most students see as disadvantaging particular groups in society. In the paper we highlight differences in meaning‐making between graduates of grammar, comprehensive and private schools.     

The impact of community schools on student dropout in pre-vocational education

Dropout prevention is highly ranked on the political agenda in many countries. It remains unclear, however, how dropout can be effectively reduced, as many different factors determine student dropout. Community schools recognize this and aim to modernize education such that it better accommodates students’ personal needs. As a result these schools cooperate more with external organizations, stimulate parental involvement in the educational process, and organize more extracurricular activities. This study examines the impact of Dutch community schools on student dropout. It focuses in particular on pre-vocational education, because dropout is particularly high in this educational track. Moreover, the focus is on the city of Rotterdam because this city is a frontrunner in the Netherlands in establishing community schools. Use is made of unique registration data on all Rotterdam students who were enrolled in pre-vocational education between 2004 and 2008. The impact of community schools is identified by exploiting the fact that community schools were not created before the beginning of the school year 2006/2007. This enables us to estimate the community school impact by means of a difference-in-differences estimation model combined with an iterative matching approach. The estimation results suggest that community schools are as effective as regular schools with respect to dropout reduction. Community school subsidies do not seem to contribute to reducing dropout.     

Students with reading difficulties/dyslexia: a longitudinal Swedish example

The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal development of students having difficulties with reading and their decoding ability in Swedish compulsory school. Another aim was to relate this to the experiences of educational activities expressed by students and parents. The decoding ability was assessed by a word chain test given at three occasions and was compared with results on a letter chain test. Retrospective interviews were performed with students and parents. The decoding ability tended to improve for most of the students over time, although some of them failed to improve or even decreased their scores, indicating a lack of environmental adjustment. Special educational support was according to students and parents organised in small and often very heterogeneous groups where the students sometimes received adequate support but often felt deviant from friends in their regular classes. The responsibility for helping the children with their schoolwork was allocated to the parents. Research in this area demonstrates the necessity of a well‐structured and stimulating learning situation. Yet, the development of these students’ decoding abilities, personal experiences, and parental involvement indicate that competence and resources at school regarding children at risk for developing reading difficulties are often lacking in the Swedish educational system.     

Social class and parental agency

This paper explores the relationship between social class and parental agency. It does so through an analysis of the findings of a recently completed qualitative research project exploring parental voice in relation to secondary schools. The first part of the paper presents a summary of a typology of parental interventions. This illustrates some of the differentials between parents in terms of their access to and deployment of a range of social, cultural and material resources, all of which translates into varying levels of effectiveness in finding and using a voice in their relationship with their children's school. The second part of the paper focuses on the middle-class parents at both schools, suggesting that more nuanced differences in their attitudes to various educational issues (namely discipline and appropriate parental involvement) are closely linked to the class fractions which they belong. It is argued that, despite the broad title of 'middleclass', variations within this general grouping in parental education, occupational pathways and spatial mobility affect their approaches to the education of their children.     

British South Asians and pathways into selective schooling: social class,culture and ethnicity

This article is a theoretical and empirical study of the ways in which different South Asian groups, Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani, achieve entry into the selective education system, taking into consideration the factors of social class, ethnicity and culture. In‐depth interviews with 42 South Asian school pupils from three single‐sex selective schools (one independent and two grammar), 47 South Asian school pupils from three secondary modern schools, and 25 South Asian parents are used to interpret perceptions, attitudes towards, and experiences of selective school entry. It is found that that certain working‐class South Asian parents possess strong middle‐class attitudes towards selective education, irrespective of their ability to facilitate it as a function of their financial, cultural, or social capital. Middle‐class South Asians were not only highly motivated but also possessed the economic, social and cultural capital to ensure successful selective school entry. In general, social class status was the strongest factor in the likelihood of gaining entry into selective schools. This research contributes to the literature on selective education as well as on the intricacies of the British South Asian educational experience.     

School educational project as a criterion of school choice: discourses and practices in the city of Barcelona

In its advancement towards an education quasi-market, Catalonia has recently been driving the development of school educational projects in all schools (both public and private) as a tool to facilitate school autonomy and family choices. A school educational project is a formal document in which schools identify their pedagogical goals, missions and orientations, their academic resources and organisational structures. Through the analysis of 60 in-depth interviews with parents of children at the age of commencing universal pre-primary education (three years old) and data collected from surveys completed by a representative sample made up of 3245 families, this article explores the impact of this policy on discourses and practices of school choice amongst families in the city of Barcelona. On the one hand, we observe that interest in educational projects has penetrated the discourses of the most educated parents, even though, at the same time, we detect a generalised lack of knowledge of the content of such projects. On the other hand, we note that the social composition of schools is still a prominent factor in choice practices. Such findings question the ideal of the autonomous and rational citizen-consumer that underlies the policy of establishing educational projects.     

Markets,schools and the convertibility of economic capital: the complex dynamics of class choice

While economic capital is not synonymous with cultural, social or symbolic capital in either its constitutional or organizational form, it nevertheless remains the more flexible and convertible form of capital. The convertibility of economic capital has particular resonance within ‘Celtic Tiger’ Ireland. The state’s reluctance to fully endorse an internal market between schools has resulted in middle‐class parents using their private wealth to create an educational market in the private sector to help secure the class futures of their children. Using data from recent studies of second‐level education in Ireland, and data compiled on the newly emerging ‘grind’ schools (private tuition centres), we outline how the availability of economic capital allows middle‐class parents to choose fee‐paying schooling or to opt out of the formal school sector entirely to employ market solutions to their class ambitions. The data also show that schools actively collude in the class project to their own survival advantage.     

THEORETICAL PROBLEMS IN THE EXPLANATION OF DELINQUENT BEHAVIOUR

The study investigated the extent of different types of contacts between home and school for a representative sample of 60 families of children with Down's syndrome who attended a range of different schools in 13 local education authorities (LEAs). The children were aged between five and nine years old. Data were obtained in semi‐structured interviews with mothers as part of a larger study of parents’ views of their children's schooling.

Basic links between home and schools (e.g. parents’ attendance at events such as open days, occasional visits to see a teacher) were common but parental involvement in the class‐room or in carrying out work at home on the teacher's suggestion was less common, and there was little evidence of parent‐professional partnership in areas such as joint decision‐making on educational programmes. Contacts between the children and their school friends outside school were few and there was a significant relationship between the frequency of these and the amount of parental contact with the schools. The factors related to amount of parental involvement were the child having started at the school before the age of four and the amount of support the mother received at home. There were no significant effects of social class or type of school.

The majority of mothers appeared to be motivated to maintain home‐school links, and many wanted more opportunities to be provided for involvement, particularly in areas such as helping or observation in the classroom.     

Success and failure in secondary education: socio‐economic background effects on secondary school outcome in the Netherlands, 1927–1998

In the Netherlands, educational attainment is the result of a sequence of separate educational transitions. Because of the tracked nature of the Dutch educational system, students do not make binary stay‐or‐leave‐decisions at each transition. After having entered one track of secondary education, students can change tracks during the entire secondary course. The initial track and the secondary school outcome therefore are incongruent for a significant proportion of the Dutch students. As social background partly predicts initial track placement, track changes and successful termination of the course, we suggest distinguishing conditional and unconditional effects of family background in the transition to secondary school outcome. This paper complements findings of previous research by taking into account the tracked structure of the Dutch educational system and the entire sequence of transitions in secondary education. For the empirical analysis, repeated cross‐sections from the Family Survey Dutch Population (1992, 1998, 2000 and 2003) are used. Multinomial logistic regressions reveal that inequality in the outcome of secondary education is partly explained by the fact that initial track placement is socially selective and because this initial inequality is even enhanced by track changes during secondary education. The remaining ‘conditional’ effect of parental education, however, indicates that parental education works on top of this selection to prevent drop out. Inequality in secondary school outcome thus is a cumulative result of social background effects in a sequence of educational transitions throughout secondary education. Decreasing inequality over time is entirely explained by decreasing inequality in the transition from primary to secondary education.     

Parental choice,social class and market forces: the consequences of privatization of public services in education

This paper is part of a research project into parental choice, social class and market forces carried out by a team in Zaragoza (Spain). The main objective was to evaluate parents’ choice of school and the consequences this may produce in terms of social exclusion and inequality. Additionally, our aim was to determine whether certain populations, ethnic minorities, economically disadvantaged groups and immigrants, are concentrated in the same schools. The methodology was ethnographic. We studied 13 private and public schools in Zaragoza, in which 40 students carried out research for 5 months, using interviews, observations and document analysis. The interviews were fully transcribed and analysed using a Straussian methodology. We found three micro‐markets, varying according to different socio‐cultural factors, that share the patterns of an ‘old and stable’ market. This kind of market does not work strictly under the rules of the marketplace, where there is tough competition between schools. However, its outcomes are similar. This ‘old and stable’ market is a mechanism of social class reproduction. The middle and upper classes go to private schools, while ethnic minorities, economically disadvantaged groups and immigrants attend the public sector. The parents’ expectations, experiences and ideology play a key role in the marketplace, as well as in the several micro‐markets. Middle class families have more chances to choose a school, due to greater resources and cultural status. Among several conclusions I emphasize that a market system is not necessary for social inequalities to take place. It will occur when the possibility of choice arises. The middle class are favoured under current circumstances, while the working class are disadvantaged. What are the prospects of disadvantaged classes if a market system is developed, with full freedom of choice being promoted and no compensatory actions carried out? Everybody would have the same rights, but would everyone enjoy the same conditions or possibilities? It is possible to predict that the struggle between a public education monopoly and a market system will produce greater differences between social classes. In fact, these policies could provoke a decline of the public school in Spain.     

Classing schools

School prospectuses and promotional videos appeal to parents by presenting idealised images of the education a school provides. These educational idealisations visually realise the form of discipline a school is expected to provide, depending on the social habitus of the parents. This paper presents a content analysis of the images used in 33 sets of marketing materials from a maximally diverse sample of schools from the state of Victoria. These images are interpreted using the lenses of Bernstein's control and Bourdieu's habitus and cultural capital. The promotional images are found to vary systematically in terms of content and form depending on the perceived social class of the students which the schools attract.     

Gender and school choice: factors influencing parents when choosing single‐sex or co‐educational independent schools for their children

This paper explores factors influencing parents' choices of single‐sex or co‐educational schools in the independent sector. In doing so, it explores two relatively under‐researched aspects of school choice by focusing upon gender and upon the middle classes. The paper draws upon research conducted in three independent schools—a boys' school, a girls' school and a co‐educational school. Data were generated via questionnaires (225 responses) and semi‐structured interviews (15 sets of parents). The findings suggest that the reputation and exam results of schools are key features guiding parents' school choices. However, whether a school is single‐sex or co‐educational is an important factor for many parents. Furthermore, the long‐held view that single‐sex education has advantages (especially academic) for girls, whilst co‐education has advantages (especially social) for boys, still prevails.     

Parental Involvement and Educational Achievement

Parental involvement is seen as an important strategy for the advancement of the quality of education. The ultimate objective of this is to expand the social and cognitive capacities of pupils. In addition, special attention is paid to the children of low‐educated and ethnic minority parents. Various forms of both parental and school‐initiated involvement are examined. On the one hand, the connections between a number of characteristics of parents and schools such as the social and ethnic background of the parents and the composition of the school population will be examined. On the other hand, the connections between a number of outcome measures such as the language and mathematics skills of the pupils will be examined. Data will be drawn from the large‐scale Dutch PRIMA (primary education) cohort study, which contains information on more than 500 schools and 12,000 pupils in the last year of primary school and their parents. An important finding is that predominantly schools with numerous minority pupils appear to provide a considerable amount of extra effort with respect to parental involvement, but that a direct effect of such involvement cannot be demonstrated.     

African American Students in Private, Independent Schools: Parents and School Influences on Racial Identity Development

Although much research has focused on the public school experiences of African American students, few studies exist that explore their race-related experiences within an independent, private school context. Studies have suggested that, while private, independent schools may elevate the quality of African American students’ education, many of these students experience social isolation from their peers. Using a qualitative methodology, the current study explores the experiences of African American students attending a private, independent school. Moreover, this investigation explores how schools as well as parental contexts contribute to racial identity development. Results indicated the importance of parents, schools and other significant institutions as racial socialization agents as well as their influence on specific identity-related processes. Educational implications for findings are also discussed.     

Understanding inclusive education practices in schools under local government jurisdiction: a study of Khon Kaen Municipality in Thailand

This article investigates inclusive education practices in schools under the jurisdiction of Thai local government through a study of schools in Khon Kaen Municipality in Northeastern Thailand. Thailand’s 1997 Constitution and 1999 National Education Act both legislated that the educational system must become inclusive, and under these laws schools are required to admit all groups of children, including children with special educational needs (SEN). This study sheds light on the situation of inclusive education in schools with regard to administrators’ policy implementation, teachers’ practices, and parents’ perception of inclusive education management. The findings derive from a survey of 11 school administrators, 114 teachers, and 274 parents (of 137 regular and 137 students with SEN), together with six focus groups with administrators and teachers from six schools. The results demonstrate that most school leaders support inclusive classrooms, most teachers are willing to work with SEN students, and parents of regular students accept the concept of inclusion. Actual practices of inclusive education vary, however, depending upon the perception of administrators and the will of the teachers to implement inclusive education. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the policy of the municipality may have resulted in the development of inclusive practices in schools under its jurisdiction.     

The effect of the Free High School Tuition law on upper-secondary school choice in Japan

The aim of this study was to analyse the determining factors behind parents’ and students’ decisions when choosing upper-secondary schools in Japan and how these factors were affected by the implementation of the new “Free High School Tuition” law introduced in 2010. Public and private upper-secondary schools can be either vocational or academic. This school choice was analysed using the characteristics of families and schools included in the PISA 2009 and 2012 questionnaires in a multinomial logit model. The most influential family characteristics in the upper secondary school choice in Japan are related to the family budget, parental education, class, and status. Moreover, the results show that the implementation of the new law affected families’ school choice. Nevertheless, the law did not have the same equalising effect on families with more than one child and low-budget families in areas with a limited offer of private schools.