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This is to certify that the
dissertation entitled

School Choice: How and Why Parents
in Rural Areas Select Schools

presented by

Brian L. Metcalf

has been accepted towards fulfillment
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2/05 p:lCIRC/Date0ue.indd-p.1

SCHOOL CHOICE: HOW AND WHY PARENTS
IN RURAL AREAS SELECT SCHOOLS

By

Brian L. Metcalf

A Dissertation

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Department of Educational Administration

2006

Abstract

SCHOOL CHOICE: HOW AND WHY PARENTS
IN RURAL AREAS SELECT SCHOOLS

By
Brian L. Metcalf

While a school of choice policy proposes that parents can select the best school
for their child, research has discovered that parents more often settled for mediocrity. For
many parents, the pattern of choice behavior suggested that they chose a school that
would be simply satisfactory, not exceptional.

One way to learn more about how parents gather information related to the factors
that make a school desirable for their child, and about how they approach these
significant choices, is to explore the criteria and rationales currently used by the parents.
Thus far, few studies have sought information directly from the parents who have made a
school choice to identify the rationale and process used in making that choice. However,
no research is found that specifically focused on school choice in a rural setting.
Therefore, this study seeks to learn directly fi'om the parents how the selection for school
of choice works.

This research was conducted in a very small town in Southwest Michigan. The
cooperating district, which has been referred to as Durban, has approximately 400
students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The purpose of this study is to gain an
understanding of how and why parents in rural areas select schools for their children to
attend. Research in urban areas suggests that parents are making these decisions based
on many factors not having to do with best instructional practices (convenience, race and

socio-economic considerations appear to top the list of considerations in urban areas).

Consequently, this study is important for two reasons. First, school districts throughout
the state of Michigan are seeing revenues out due to a loss of students for a variety of
reasons. These districts have to cut programs, which have a detrimental effect for the
students who stay. Second, if parents are making choices based on factors unrelated to
instruction, or other academic reasons, such as race, then the entire premise of market-
forced improvement may create incentive for non-academic school improvement. This is
contrary to the rationale of school choice.

This study describes how and why parents in this rural area selected a school.
Included are connections between this study and prior urban and suburban research, as

well as new revelations that have not been mentioned in prior research.

Copyfight by
Brian L. Metcalf
2006

This dissertation is dedicated to the two most important people in my world: My
wife Pam, who is truly my best friend. She continues to support and encourage me
through all of my challenges and desires. Additionally, this work is dedicated to my
mother. You also continue to support and encourage me in all of my aspirations.
Over the many years, your direction has kept me well grounded, focused, and has
been instrumental in making me the person that I am today.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During the past 11 years, I have served as a teacher, high school principal and
now as an assistant superintendent. In that period of time, I earned a masters degree from
Michigan State University (MSU), and with this dissertation, a PhD. from MSU. My
success, in part, is due to my hard work. However, I would not have had the
opportunities or the accomplishments, without the help of exceptional professors, and
outstanding professional mentors.

Dr. Chris Dunbar has provided extraordinary direction throughout my graduate
studies. His guidance in both my masters’ work and as my advisor for this doctoral work
have both challenged and encouraged me. His expertise in qualitative research has
channeled my work as a researcher in a positive direction.

Dr. David Arsen has also been instrumental in my learning about writing a
dissertation. More specifically, his research in School of Choice policy was a guiding
light to my work. His thoughts and ideas consistently challenged my thinking and
improved my thought processes regarding school of choice policy, doctoral research, and
writing in general.

Additionally, Dr. Mark Conley and Dr. Susan Printy have also worked diligently
to provide suggestions and ideas that have helped to improve this work. I greatly
appreciate their support, encouragement and efforts. I will always be grateful and
indebted to this committee for their efforts in helping me complete a project of this

magnitude.

vi

From the professional realm, I must mention three very important people. First,
Dr. Joyce Phillips has been an exceptional mentor during the past two years. As the
superintendent of Marshall Public Schools, Joyce hired me for the assistant
superintendent position. She has encouraged my doctoral work and continued to help me
in challenging my thinking. Her knowledge and skills have helped me both to improve
my performance as an administrator, and as a student at MSU. Joyce has become not
only a mentor, but also a friend.

Second, Mr. Robert Luchenbill provided me with the opportunity to serve as a
high school principal. His guidance helped to improve my knowledge as an
administrator. He also took time to work with me and guide me through the many
challenges that public school administrators face. His friendship and mentorship have
continues to mean a lot to me.

Next, Mr. Robert Lange was my first professional mentor. Bob was the principal
of Baton Rapids High School. He hired me as a teacher and a coach. He helped to
improve my skills as a teacher, and he truly inspired me to become an administrator. His
friendship and guidance will be with me forever.

Finally, I want to thank my dissertation committee, and the professional mentors
listed above. While I am not sure where I would be today without one or all of these
special individuals, I know that my life has been greatly improved with their guidance

and fi'iendship.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures ................................................................................... .xi
Chapter 1 - Introduction ........................................................................ 1
Choice as School Improvement ............................................. 1
Parents Settel for Mediocrity ................................................ 1
Urban and Suburban Research ..2
Lack of Criteria for Selection ...................................................... 4
History of Choice ...................................................................... 4
Rational Choice ................................................................. 5
Competition ............................................................................. 7
Choice Policy Debate ................................................................ 10
Summary: A Need for Research ................................................. 11
Chapter 2 - Literature Review ................................................................ 13
Introduction .......................................................................... 13
Choice Defined ................................................................ 13
Chapter Overview ........................................................... 13
Rural Areas Overlooked .................................................... 16
History of Choice .................................................................... l7
Compulsory Attendance .................................................... 17
School Choice Embraced ................................................... 18
State Mandates ................................................................ 19
Innovative and Efficient Education ............................................. 20
Improved Access vs. Segregation ................................................ 23
Key Issues ............................................................................. 27
Decision Making Process of Parents ..................................... 27
Information Gathered ....................................................... 29
Parental Involvement ....................................................... 33

Student Enjoyment .......................................................... 35 1
Sustainability .................................................................. 37
Conclusions .................................................................... 39
Chapter 3 - Strategy for Inquiry ............................................................. 41
Research Questions .................................................................. 41
Introduction .......................................................................... 41
Pilot Study ............................................................................. 42
Participants .......................... . ................................................ 43
Participant Selection Rationale .................................................. 44
Research Method .................................................................... 45
Data Collection ....................................................................... 47
Instrumentation ...................................................................... 49

viii

Site of Interviews ................................................................ 50

Procedures for Data Analysis ................................................ 51

Limitations of the Study ....................................................... 52

Chapter 4 - Influential Factors of Parents .................................................. 53
Introduction ...................................................................... 53

Parents School .................................................................... 57
Convenience ............................................................................ 62

School Is Close to Work ....................................................... 62

Bus Transportation ............................................................. 65

Summary .......................................................................... 67

Chapter 5 - Parents Judge Schools ........................................................... 68
Introduction ...................................................................... 68

Class Size .......................................................................... 69

District Size ....................................................................... 74

District Response ...................................................................... 78

Push Factor ....................................................................... 78

Pull Factor ........................................................................ 86

Discipline ................................................................................ 89

History of Problems ............................................................ 89

Avoiding Discipline Problems ................................................ 94

Chaos ............................................................................... 95

Summary ........................................................................ 100

Chapter 6 - Information Gathered ......................................................... 101
Introduction .................................................................... 101

N 0 Information ................................................................. 102

Friends and Neighbors ....................................................... 105

Family ............................................................................ 109

School ............................................................................ 111

Summary ........................................................................ 114

Chapter 7 - Participants Making Decisions .............................................. 115
Introduction .................................................................... 115

Student Enjoyment .................................................................. 116

Social Beings .................................................................... 117

Sports and Extra-Curricular ............................................... 118

Special Fit ....................................................................... 120

Hates School .................................................................... 122

Decision Makers ..................................................................... 124
Elementary Participants ..................................................... 124

High School Participants .................................................. 128

Both High School and Elementary ...................................... 130

Summary ...................................................................... 132

Chapter 8 - Conclusions and Implications ............................................... 134
Scope of the Research ...................................................... 134

Data Supports Previous Research ............................................... 135
Parents School ................................................................ 135

Convenience ................................................................... 135

District Response/ Teachers Response .................................. 136

Information Gathered 136

Students Enjoyment ........................................................ 137

Parents and students making decisions ................................. 137

New Concepts Revealed by the Data ............................................ 138
District Size ................................................................... 138

Discipline ...................................................................... 139

Chaos ........................................................................... 139

Limitations of this study ................................................... 140

Coding .......................................................................... 140

Future Research .............................................................. 141

Implications of the Study .................................................. 142
Recommendations ............... . ............................................ 143

Apendix A ....................................................................................... 146
Apendix B ....................................................................................... 147
Apendix C ....................................................................................... 148
Apendix D ....................................................................................... 149
Apendix E ....................................................................................... 150
References ....................................................................................... 156

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1 - Participants Responses to Common Themes ......................................... 55
Figure 4.2 - Numbers of Students Transfering between Districts ............................... 56
Figure 8.2 - Overview of District Information ......................................................... 134

xi

Introduction

Chapter I

A school of choice plan was initially implemented as a method to provide parents
the opportunity to select the best school for their child. Convinced that school choice has
the potential to improve efficiency, spark innovation, and improve the overall quality of
public schools, Chub and Moe state: “. . . choice is a self-contained reform with its own
rationale and justification. It has the capacity all by itself to bring about the kind of
transformation that for years, reformers have been seeking to engineer in myriad other
ways” (Chub and Moe p. 217, 1990). Perpich (1989) supports that rationale by stating:
“Choice is the key. Choice has fostered an atmosphere in which everyone is taking a
closer look at schools. Educators and education policy makers are taking a fresh approach
to what makes a good school. Public school choice is a key strategy to help improve our
nation’s education system.” (p. 3)

While a school of choice policy proposes that parents can select the best school
for their child, research in Europe found that parents more often settled for mediocrity.
For many parents, the pattern of choice behavior suggested that they chose a school that
would be simply satisfactory, not exceptional. In essence, it is a matter of finding an
acceptable alternative to the district school rather than making an optimum choice from a
large range of possible schools. At the secondary level, for example, the majority (62
percent) considered only one alternative to the district school and a further 27 per cent
chose between two alternatives. At the primary level this tendency was even more

marked: of the 183 requesting and considering parents, 144 (79 percent) considered only

one alternative and a further 32 (17 percent) only two alternatives. The picture is very
much one of choice between one or, at most, two alternatives rather than extensive
comparison. (Adler, Petch, Tweedie, 1989).

One way to learn more about how parents gather information related to the factors
that make a school desirable for their child and about how they approach these significant
choices is to explore the criteria and rationales currently used by the parents in selecting
their child’s / children’s school. As part of this exploration, it seems important that
legislators, school administrators, and educators hear clearly the parents’ voices as they
describe the decision-making process and the criteria used in assessing their children’s
needs and selecting their children’s school of choice. Thus far, very few studies
(Henig1994 and1996; Bell, 2004; Pleasants, 2000; Koenigknecht, 1998) have sought
information directly fi'om the parents who have made a school choice to identify the
rationale and process used in making that choice. Most certainly, there have been
quantitative studies which gathered information regarding inner city schools. However,
no research is found that specifically focused on school choice in a rural setting.
Therefore, this study seeks to learn directly from the parents how the selection for school
of choice works. Understanding the reasoning by parents for school selection could
enable state legislators and school administrators to make education-related decisions
based on facts rather than on speculation.

While the literature shows that parents with higher levels of education are more
likely to participate in schools of choice, these studies failed to address the parents’
selection criteria or decision making process used by parents. Specifically, researchers

have shown that Chilean parents with higher levels of education and greater

socioeconomic status are more likely to enroll their children using a school of choice
model (Camoy and McEwan, 2000; Aedo and Larranaga, 1994; Gauri, 1998; Winkler
and Rounds, 1996). While these findings are interesting, they do not explain how those
parents made the decision to choose one school over another. One possible method
identified by Carney and McEwan (2000) comparing the characteristics of the schools
chosen by parents would be to examine certain factors, such as test scores or the
socioeconomic status of school populations to determine if these were the driving force
for the decisions.

Additionally, research in urban and suburban districts indicate that parents are
making choices due to “revealed” preferences, such as race, socioeconomic status, or
cultural ideas rather than their stated preferences, such as the quality of instruction or the
reputation of high standards in the district (Adler, Petch, Tweedie, 1989; Buckley and
Schneider, 2002; Bell, 2004). The plan of this study is to look through a rural lens
provided by the parents to determine specifically how and why parents’ in rural districts
select a school for their child. Parents may provide insights that differ from studies that
have been conducted in the urban/suburban studies. Further, I hope to uncover the
parents stated preferences and seek information that may be further revealed through
quantitative inquiry in the future.

If a parent chooses a school based on characteristics other than the quality of the
academic offerings and the potential of improved educational opportunity presented for
his/her children, then how will parental choice have a positive effect on the quality of
schools? Additionally, if parents are making decisions regarding the schooling of their

child based on criteria not typically associated with the policymakers’ official rationale

for implementing a school of choice policy, who will truly benefit from the decision? In
the end, this study will identify the stated reasons why parents select schools in a rural

setting in Southern Michigan.

Lack of Criteria for Parent’s Choice

Criteria serve as benchmarks or yardsticks against which quality can be measured.
Accreditation standards, for example, set forth the minimum level of qualifications
schools must achieve. School choice is designed to give parents the opportunity to select
a school that will best meet the unique educational needs of their children. However, up
to this point, rarely do experts on school quality, researchers, educational administrators,
teachers, or even state legislatures, provide a set of criteria that parents may use in
making significant choices for their children. Since no clear criteria have been
established, parents are forced to make school choices without understanding what
factors would indicate high quality in a school or on what basis one school rather than
another might better serve the needs of students. If Michigan’s state legislators or Board
of Education have been unable to delineate criteria for measuring quality in schools in
spite of having the opinion of experts and the support of research on education, then how

can parents identify criteria on which to base school choices?

The History of School Choice

In an effort to increase student accessibility to a high quality, publicly funded
elementary or secondary education, and with the hope of improving the quality of all

schools by this process, individual state governments (including Michigan) have taken

actions that fundamentally changed the concept of public education in the United States.
In 1995, the State of Michigan opened the door for charter schools and all schools that
lie within contiguous counties of a local district for all students. This legislation allowed
parents to enroll their children in any school within or near their county, providing that
district opted to accept school of choice students. Thus, students could choose to attend a
school that was not in their immediate vicinity. Another aspect of this state action was
that it opened the door for charter schools, which like public schools would be state
funded, but, unlike public schools, would be “for profit” entities (Moe, 1994).

In this way, the legislature created a market-driven educational concept. Parents
may be unaware that the claims of these schools may have had more to do with marketing
strategies directed toward increasing the numbers of students enrolled in their programs
than with finding the right school for their child’s academic and social needs. In S_clflgl_
Choice Policies in Michigan: The Rules Matter (1999), Arsen, Plank and Sykes indicate
that this lack of an enlightened consumer may be a difficult problem for school choice:
“One of our key points here relates to information. An efficient and effective market
requires information. If parents are making choices based on insufficient information, it is
difficult to get an efficient market. This is not just true in education; it is true for other
markets. So, if you buy a grocery item there will be a requirement to put on the box the
ingredients. If you want to buy a stock, you want to know there is a common accounting
standard used in company reporting because there are information problems here. These
kinds of issues must be addressed.” (p.27)

This is a trend that can be seen across the world (Adler, Petch, Tweedie, 1989;

Gauri, 1998). Legislatures have initiated a process that defines secondary education as a

commodity and parents as consumers of that commodity. Plank and Sykes (2003)
indicate that, “The convergence of four interrelated trends lies behind the growing
enthusiasm of governments around the world for school choice policies. Changes in the
intellectual, institutional, political, and demographic environments of national education
systems are all pushing govermnents in the same direction, toward policies that offer
parents more choices about the schools their children attend and encourage schools to
compete for students and revenues.” (p. 8)

A central question regarding the advent of schools of choice in the United States
today is whether schools of choice, that were conceptualized as a response to multiple
needs within the education system, such as enriched curriculum or smaller class sizes, are
in practice effective in meeting those needs. Evidence used in answering this question is
whether parents, who currently are charged with matching their children’s needs and
abilities to a specific school system, have the tools or information, and, secondly, have a
rational decision-making process to make this choice. These two factors weigh heavily in
assessing the effectiveness of the school of choice concept. The first factor relates
whether parents possess adequate information upon which to base their decisions on
schools, includes knowledge about their child’s academic and social needs, about what
constitutes quality in a school system, and about the quality of the multiple school
systems under consideration. The second factor relates to whether parents have and
apply a rational decision making process that would allow them to use this knowledge to

set priorities, to make assessments, and to make effective school choices.

Competition Driving School Improvement

There are both advantages and disadvantages to school selection. The theory
behind school of choice is that competition between school systems will drive schools to
make improvements; however, little evidence could be found to support this. Without
understanding the rationale upon which parents base their school decisions, it is
impossible to understand how competition drives schools to improve their performance.
Neither is there evidence that parents possess the ability to assess their children’s
academic needs. Further, parents seldom, if ever, receive information regarding the
districts accumulated Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) scores or
other generalized student achievement results.

The negative side of schools of choice may be that school competition is not
driven by student achievement (e. g., MEAP scores); then will schools rise and fall based
on football game scores? Will other factors not related to academics drive parental
choice? prarent sentiment is to be the key to defining quality in schools, where will the
line be drawn? Will parents be allowed to set the school schedule to fit their vacation
plans to the detriment of their children’s and other children’s educations? Also, why is
there no mention of the current accountability practices of electing local citizens to serve
on the school board who represent the whole of the community?

There are strong advantages for schools of choice. Convinced that school choice
has the potential to improve efficiency and the overall quality of public schools, Chub
and Moe (1990) state, “Choice is a self-contained reform with its own rationale and
justification. It has the capacity all by itself to bring about the kind of transformation that,

for years, reformers have been seeking to engineer in myriad other ways.”(p. 217)

Perpich (1989) supports that rationale by stating: “Choice is the key. Choice has fostered
an atmosphere in which everyone is taking a closer look at schools. Educators and
education policy makers are taking a fresh approach to what makes a good school. Public
school choice is a key strategy to help improve our nation’s education system.” (p. 3)
School improvement may be initiated through a school of choice policy. This
policy could be synonymous with capitalism, survival of the fittest, or possibly by
capturing market shares. Those who are efficient, effective, and successful at selling
their “education” product, will draw more students and subsequently more money.
Arsen, Plank, and Sykes (1999) state, “New policies in Michigan create options for
parents to send their children to schools beyond their immediate neighborhood and to
new or converted schools that are chartered by agents of the state. The new policies seek
to decentralize control over education by allowing individual parents and local
communities to have a greater say in their schools. The new policies also promise to
introduce the advantages of market-based competition into the public school system. If
schools must compete with one another for students and dollars, they are likely to be
more attentive to what parents want. Schools that lose students and dollars will receive
sharp signals that they must improve to stay in business.” (p. 23) However, Urbansky
(1989) believed that there was more needed than just improving public schools; rather he
suggested a need to “find new and more effective ways to educate more students.” (p.
236) Plank and Sykes (2003) suggest that charter schools and schools in general will
have to be innovative in order to attract and maintain a stable student body in order to
survive. Further, schools will now have to be more responsive to their public, to their

customer, if they are to expect to continue to provide services for their students (Plank,

Sykes, 2003).

Will competition for students improve the schools at the bottom of the student
performance distribution? This question cannot be answered at this time. Improvement
may be the goal of schools of choice plans, but Ladd (2002) indicates that research may
actually show otherwise. She states, “Of particular interest in the United States is whether
the competition for students induced by giving parents more choice over the schools their
children attend will provide effective incentives for schools at the bottom of the
performance distribution to improve. The international evidence shows that not only is
competition unlikely to improve such schools, but it is likely to exacerbate their
problems.” (p. 12-13) Schools may actually lose the funding that they desperately need
in order to improve or in order to provide training to improve.

Even with school of choice, there is no guarantee that schools will improve.
Plank and Sykes (2003) asks: “If you introduce choice policy into a public education
system, will those policies serve to stimulate innovation? That is, create some kind of
dynamic through which schools of choice or other schools will begin to develop
innovative and improved practices.” (preface) Innovation in this context means new
ideas that promote new best practices. Seeley (1985) embraced choice as the answer to
the tremendous problems found in public education: “Instead of trying to make
educational governance more responsive to the voice of parents, students, and citizens, or
to get school bureaucracies to share power or change direction of militant teacher
unionism, choice simply allows dissatisfied parents to pick a school better suited to their
children’s needs and their family’s values.” (p. 85) However, none of these authors shed

light on the simple question as to how a simple sorting of students through the school of

choice plan will actually drive school improvement.

Choice Policy Debate

School of choice is controversial. While there are strong beliefs that support
school of choice, there are also opponents that argue that this movement is not in the best
interest of the student, the community, or the school district. Ladd (2002) acknowledges
this polarized debate by stating: “Disagreements about school choice and the role of
competition in elementary and secondary education feature prominently in education
policy debates across the United States. Advocates of giving parents more opportunities
to choose the schools their children attend whether through greater choice among public
schools, the introduction of charter schools, or the use of vouchers that can be used at
private schools, argue that greater choice will improve the education system. More
choice, they claim, will expand educational opportunities for poor children, promote
innovation, and, through the discipline of competition, increase student achievement.
Defenders of the traditional public school system challenge many of these arguments.”
(P- 3)

While many argue that competition will improve public education, such as Chub
and Moe, others believe the jury is still out. Ladd (2002) indicates a need for more
research and better research: “Unfortunately, the recent grth in charter schools and the
few small experiments with school vouchers provide at best limited and, to date, not very
complete evidence on the validity of competing claims. For example, well-designed
studies of small-scale voucher programs can shed light on whether the children who use

vouchers to attend private schools achieve at higher levels than those without the voucher

10

option. Because the voucher experiments are small, however, such studies provide no
information on whether competition from private schools will improve the quality of

education in the traditional public schools.” (p.6)

Summary

Currently, there is ongoing research regarding school of choice; however, Ogawa
and Dutton (1994) write, “Research on parental choice is sparse. Very few studies of
choice programs have been reported. In addition, the research base is very fragmented,
thus, the little research on educational choice that has been reported is spread over a wide
array of program types. This may be due to the scarcity of choice programs. Whatever
the reasons, it leaves a body of literature that is not only thin, but also contains many
important gaps.” (p. 275) Similarly, Fuller and Ehnore (1996) indicate: “If we want to
develop (school) choice systems that are sensitive to the cultural and social differences
among groups of parents and students, then it seems clear that we have to understand a
good deal more than we presently do about how individuals understand and construct
their choices from their cultural backgrounds.” (p. 200) These authors support the need
for research that will provide a foundation of knowledge related to the informational
basis and decision making process that parents use as they make school choice decisions.

The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of how and why parents in
rural areas select schools for their children to attend. Research in urban areas suggests
that parents are making these decisions based on many factors not having to do with best
instructional practices (race and socio-economic considerations appear to top the list of

considerations in urban areas). Consequently, this study is important for two reasons.

11

First, school districts throughout the state of Michigan are seeing revenues out due to a
loss of students for a variety of reasons. Subsequently, these districts have to cut
programs, which have a detrimental effect for the students who stay (Arsen, Plank,
Sykes, 1999; Buckley and Schneider, 2002; Bell, 2004; Wells, 2004; Ladd, 2002).
Second, if parents are making choices based on factors unrelated to instruction, or other
academic reasons, such as race, then the entire premise of market-forced improvement
will be null and void (Wells, 1996; Buckley and Schneider, 2002). For instance, if we
find that parents in rural communities choose to send their child to another school
because the football team wins 10+ games per year, then the market analogy would
suggest that schools across the state should all improve athletics, not academics. This is
contrary to the rationale of school choice. In order to study the decisions of parents

' regarding school choice in a rural setting, this study will be guided by the following four

questions:

1. What factors are influential in the parents’ decision to choose a school in a
rural community?
a. Proximity or convenience for the parent?
b. Poor experience with a former district?
c. Perception that the receiving district matches the parent’s values?
(1. Perception of peers, colleagues, or community — reputation of the
school?
2. How do parents judge the quality of a rural school?
e. Are parents making decisions by evaluating curriculum?
f. Are parents making decisions by evaluating
staff/service/responsiveness?
3. What sources of information do parents use in choosing a school in a rural
community?
4. Who is involved in making the decision for schools of choice?

12

Literature Review

Chapter 11

Introduction

As defined earlier, inter-school choice, or schools of choice as it is commonly
known (Buckley and Schneider, 2002), provide parents with an opportunity to select a
school of their liking (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Wells, 2004; Ladd, 2002, Vassallo,
2000). A school of choice policy is a topic that can be discussed from several points of
view.- Typically, a person sees it as a positive opportunity for students or believes that
choice may also cause more harm than good (Ladd, 2002; Wells, 1996). Interestingly,
both sides seem to use some of the same arguments to defend their position. For
example, advocates and opponents alike use the education of poor children to defend
their point of view. Advocates say that a school of choice policy will provide poor
parents a way to select a good school without purchasing housing in a wealthy area.
However, opponents indicate that the poor parents are the least likely to utilize their
opportunity to choose.

As you maneuver through this chapter and the topics presented, you will see that
there has been substantial research conducted in regard to schools of choice (Arsen,
Plank, Sykes, 2000; Koenigknecht, 1998; Pleasants, 2000; Bell, 2004, Vassallo, 2000;
Buckley and Schneider, 2002). What you should also see as a glaring omission is that not
one study has focused on school of choice policy in a rural setting. In the review of the
literature, it became clear that there is a shortage of research conducted on parental

choice in rural communities. Further, this research is important not only for educators

l3

and parents, but also for the legislators who are making up the rules for schools of choice
(Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Vassallo, 2000; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001).

This chapter provides a brief glimpse at the history of a school of choice policy
that begins with compulsory attendance in or around 1900. The idea centered on the
rationale that parents were responsible for educating or making sure that their child
became educated. Through the last decade, in most cases, this meant enrolling a child in
a public school setting. Only the very wealthy could afford to pay for private schools,
and similarly only the middle class and above could afford to move to a different
neighborhood in order to select a school of their liking for their child. Now, through a
school of choice policy, parents may choose where to send their child (Bell, 2004;
Friedman, 1962; Moe, 1990; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Arsen, Plank, Sykes,
1999)

A comparison and a contraSt are made of the differing view points and the
arguments supporting or condemning schools of choice policy. First is a look at the
main reasoning behind a school of choice policy, which is to create a discipline that is
innovative and efficient. A school of choice policy was designed to encourage
educational reform, improve instruction, and to improve student achievement (Arsen,
Plank, Sykes, 1999; Moe, 1990; Ladd, 2002; Wells, 2004). However, innovation has not
occurred, and improvements are not visible due to a school of choice policy (Ladd, 2002;
Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Buckley and Schneider, 2002). What has occurred is
simply the providing of choices that are more of the same: more publicly funded schools
with the same teaching pool, the same administrative pool, the same curriculum, and the

same instructional strategies (Ladd, 2002; Buckley and Schneider, 2002; Wells, 1996).

14

Second, a school of choice policy was designed to improve access for better educational
opportunities to minorities and economically disadvantaged students, thus reducing
segregation in our schools (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer,
2001; Ladd, 2002; Wells, 2004; Bell, 2004). This has not been effective and may work
contradictory to this goal.

Key issues of this study begin with the parents’ decision making process in how
parents decide where to send their child (Bell, 2004; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001;
Pleasants, 2000). A market analogy would suggest that parents will select the best school
option for their child (Moe, 1990; Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Bell, 2004; Ladd, 2002).
We find, however, that parents do not necessarily act as wise consumers. Parents make
decisions in a myriad of ways that sometimes ignore the overall quality of a school.
Quality as defined by instructional best practices may not be the criteria that parents use
to base their decision. Second, parent information is a key component to good decisions
(Bell, 2004; Pleasants,2000; Koenigknecht, 1998; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001;
Buckley and Schneider 2002; Vassallo, 2000). This section will look at parent
information and the problems that parents face in finding factual information with which
to base a decision. Third, parental involvement is discussed as an indicator of both
student success, and as an indicator for selecting a school of their choice. For example, if
parents are involved with their child and/or their child’s school district, then the parent is
more likely to use the opportrmity for selecting a school. Further, this study will show
that the child’s voice is often important in selecting a school. When a student is happy at
his/her school, then more often than not that student is going to be successful.

Information here suggests that school of choice policies are here to stay.

15

This chapter also discusses the potential of sustaining a school of choice policy.
Schools of choice policies have been in existence around the world for quite some time.
Though the United States have more recently joined this movement it seems apparent that
allowing parents to choose where to send their children to school is here to stay. There is
no indication in the near future of reducing the parent’s option.

It is observed that the research that has been conducted has obviously overlooked
rural Michigan. Students in rural Michigan are often found to be at-risk, economically
disadvantaged, and poorly prepared for any level of schooling. These students and
parents may be similar in socioeconomic status to their counterparts in urban or suburban
settings but may select schools in a very different way. One difference is the lack of
school choices in the rural setting. Bell(2004), Pleasants(2000), and Koenigknecht
(1998), Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, (2001), Buckley and Schneider (2002), all
conducted studies that contained inner city contexts. Bell looked specifically at a myriad
of schools, including inner city and suburban public school districts as well as magnet,
charter, secular, and non-secular schools, all within a five mile radius. Parents in rural
Michigan may not have a second school of choice option within a 15 or 20 miles radius,
much less having at least six different choices. This gap in the research will identify four
questions that could be addressed:

1. What factors are influential in a parent’s decision to choose between or among

rural schools?

2. How do parents judge the quality of a rural school?

3. What sources of information do parents use in choosing a rural school?

4

. Who is involved in making the decision for schools of choice in rural
Michigan?

16

History of School of Choice Policies

The concept of public education in the United States grew from Thomas
Jefferson’s notion that democracy requires an educated citizenry (F azzaro, Walter, 2002;
Ladd, 2002; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001). Over the last hundred years, the
concept of public education has been in transition. Compulsory school attendance is one
example of that transition (Ladd, 2002). As early as 1900, the government was exerting
its power to require parents to provide an education to their children. In 1901 the
Supreme Court of Illinois proclaimed:

The natural rights of a parent to the custody and control of his infant child

are subordinate to the power of the State . . . . One of the most important

natural duties of the parent is his obligation to educate his child, and this

duty he owes not to the child only, but to the commonwealth. If he

neglects to perform it, or willfully refuses to do so, he may be coerced by

law to execute such civil obligation. The welfare of the child and the best

interests of society require that the state shall exert its sovereign authority

to secure to the child the opportunity to acquire an education (Grubb and

Lazerson, p. 25, 1982).

Thus began a government bureaucracy committed to the concept of public education as a
child’s right and a parent’s obligation. School systems that began as one room school
houses that dotted the country began to grow and grow, eventually turning into one of the
largest governmental machines in the United States (V assallo, 2000; Gill, Timpane, Ross,
Brewer, 2001; Wells, 2004). Tyack (1976) compares school systems to machines stating
that, “School systems grew in size and complexity, new techniques of bureaucratic
control emerged, ideological conflict over compulsion diminished, strong laws were
passed, and school officials developed sophisticated techniques to bring truants into

school” (p.359). Further, schools identified new ways of finding children and getting

them into school and also developed new programs to cope with the unwilling students

17

whom truant officers brought to their doors, among these were day-long truant schools,
disciplinary classes, and a host of special educational opportunities promoted by state and
federal laws (Tyack, 1976). However, there is some concern that legislators and judges
are not the best equipped to direct or administer public school systems, as Tyack points
out that “advocates of these new forms of governance argued that education should be
taken out of politics and that most decisions were best made by experts” ( pp. 373-374).

Alternative schools or schools of choice were first discussed in the 1960”s
(Friedman, 1962; Bell, 2004; Ladd, 2002; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001). However,
it was not until 1986 that schools of choice were recognized by political forces. In the
report of the National Governors’ Conference, A Time for Results. the Governors’
position was summarized thus: “If we first implement choice, true choice among public
schools, we unlock the values of competition in the marketplace. Schools that compete
for students, teachers and dollars will, by virtue of the environment, make those changes
that will allow them to succeed” (Paulu, 1989 p. 14). Subsequently, in 1989, President
George H. W. Bush convened a White House workshop on school choice where he came
out openly in support of the concept.

School choice was then embraced in the 1990’s as a way to address a number of
perceived problems in the public education system. Chub and Moe (1990) state that
“Without being too literal about it, we think that reformers would do well to entertain the
notion that choice is a panacea, choice is a self-contained reform with its own rationale
and justification. School choice has the capacity, all by itself, to bring about the kind of
transformation that, for years, reformers have been seeking to engineer in a myriad of

other ways” (p. 217). Thus, the improvement of public schools was linked to a market

18

economy, and parents became the consumers of the educational product (Arsen, Plank,
Sykes, 1999; Ladd, 2002; Bell, 2004; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Buckley and
Schneider, 2002).

Currently, public school systems find themselves caught between a
bureaucratically restrictive government and the demands of the market place, which
suggest that they be autonomous in responding to the needs of the consumer. For
example, No Child Lefi Behind (NCLB) regulation places very clear demands on states
to be accountable, to abide by and document compliance for nearly 900 pages of
legislative regulations. Further, more restrictions, and demanding state reforms, and
mandates require districts to conform until each district is a mere reflection of every other
district. For example, during the fall of 2005 the state passed a requirement that no
district will begin school until after Labor Day in the fall. The reasons are that students
will be working their summer jobs and that our economy needs the tourists, with neither
reason having anything to do with education. The state also revealed in October 2005
that beginning with the 2006-2007 school-year, all high schools in the state will have
mandated class requirements, with unit tests to follow. These mandates continue to drive
public schools to become more homogenous and have reduced the autonomy of
individual school districts. In direct contrast, federal, state, and local governments tout
parental choice as a way to bring about change or innovation and to improve schools,
thereby acknowledging that schools must have autonomy to improve and grow. If one is
to have competition among schools, parents must be allowed to choose among schools.
Further, competition requires that schools have great autonomy in order to have

flexibility to become innovative (Ladd, 2002; Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Moe, 1990;

19

Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Buckley and Schneider, 2002).

The argument is that traditional public schools systems have become overly
bureaucratic and resistant to change. However, if innovation were the goal, if school
improvement through experimentation and entrepreneurship were actually believed to be
a method to develop better educational processes, then why increase the rules, the
requirements, and the bureaucracy? But, if new schools were provided without the

bureaucracy, they may become innovative, and perhaps all schools could improve (Arsen,

Plank, Sykes, 1999).

Innovative and Efficient Education

For the past twenty years, the theme of “do more with less” seems to have
dominated public education at all levels (Frost, 2005, Personal communication). The
debate continues over whether school choice will result in an innovative and more
efficient education product (Moe, 1990; Buckley and Schneider, 2002; Ladd 2002). By
removing the local district boundaries that provide public schools with a monopoly of
students or by promoting private school opportunities for all students, parental choice
will change the pressures facing public schools and, by theory, the role of competition
will induce them to provide hi gher-quality education with better efficiency (Arsen, Plank,
Sykes, 1999; Ladd, 2002; Vassallo, 2000; Wells, 2004). However, rather than
encouraging schools to improve, school choice may simply drive less affluent schools out
of existence (Ladd, 2002; Buckley and Schneider, 2002; Wells, 2004). In many
countries, parents determine the quality of a school by the socioeconomic and racial mix

of its population. Higher-income families are more likely to choose schools based on test

20

scores and the average education level of other parents. Similarly, families with the
financial resources try to move their children out of schools with large proportions of
disadvantaged and minority students into schools with more privileged students. Parents
choosing to relocate to areas associated with higher income may provide their child with
opportunities of better schooling, more positive peer influence, and vastly improved
resources (Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Ladd, 2002; Vassallo, 2000; Buckley and
Schneider, 2002; Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999).

One goal of school of choice is to improve educational opportunity by better
matching children with the specific school that will best meet their academic, emotional,
physical, and social needs. The perception here is that public schools will have specific
differences that would enable them to meet each student’s complex needs. This
perception is reflected in the schools of choice debate. Increased opportunity for inter-
district choice may also encourage important educational goals. The greater the student
base, the greater the diversity of the program opportunities to help kids. The
conventional concept that all students learn the same is vastly outdated. Research shows
that students learn in a variety of ways, and most recently, the educational community is
beginning to recognize and embrace that alternatives are needed for students who do not
perform well in the traditional classroom (Ladd, 2002). In this light, increased inter-
district choice would provide opportunity for parents to select a school that would better
meet the needs of their child.

Chubb and Moe (1990) believe that breaking down the bureaucracy, eliminating
the unions, and streamlining education by implementing choice for parents will result in

efficiency and effectiveness. The most persuasive rationalization for providing parents

21

more choice of the schools their children attend is to force schools to compete. In the
spirit of competition for students, and thus dollars, schools will improve the quality of
education they offer or risk losing their students (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Bell, 2004;
Pleasants, 2000; Koenigknecht, 1998; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Buckley and
Schneider, 2002). As mentioned before, the current public school system has maintained
a monopoly for the past five decades and has become a bureaucratic system that is
wasteful and mediocre at best (Hill, 1997; Vassallo, 2000). In contrast to the notion of
creating a more innovative and efficient educational product, thus far, the school of
choice experiment seems to have yielded little benefit. If innovation is defined by a
change in curriculum, policy practices, or teaching methods, which are the foundation of
instruction, currently there is very little innovation occurring (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999;
Ladd, 2002; Buckley and Schneider, 2002; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001).

While academic success is purported to be the overarching goal of school choice,
academics have been found to be one of the least important reasons behind parental
choice. Parental choice for both elementary and secondary levels is quite different from
the choice advocates would predict. Elliot, et al, (1981) found that parents preferred the
process provided by schools rather than worry about the end product. In essence, the
majority of parents who are choosing a school for their child, choose based on more
humanistic criteria, such as, “I like that teacher,” or “the administrators there are really
nice,” rather than curricular rationale or instructional best practices. The educational
product is not the focus of their decisions (Adler, Petch, Tweedie, 1989).

Another unintended consequence of a school of choice policy may be the

elimination of public schools altogether. Ladd (2002) acknowledges the emotion that is

22

brought about in regard to eliminating or destroying public education as we have become
accustomed to in America, simply due to the new policy of schools of choice. In essence
schools will either improve or close their doors. This author states that, “Much of the
US. debate takes place at an ideological level. Proponents of choice and competition
often rely on simplistic arguments about the putative power of markets to generate higher
quality education at lower costs. Opponents of expanding choice and competition often
object to any move in that direction on the grounds that it will destroy the public

education system” (p 3).

Improved Access vs. Segregation

One criticism of the existing school system was that economically disadvantaged
and urban families do not have the same access to quality education as those of more
affluent, better educated, suburban families. In this context, freedom of choice is closely
connected to the idea of equal access. To be free, in reality, indicates a right to make
decisions for yourself or your family (Friedman, 1962). Ladd (2002) acknowledges this
argument by indicating that freedom to choose may be enough to support a school of
choice policy; in America, we have “the cherished value of freedom of choice” (p. 12).
Americans can choose to live in the city or in the country. Americans can choose where
to work, who to marry, where and what to worship if they have the resources. However,
in the poorest communities, such as inner city or rural districts, the minority families and
the socioeconomic disadvantaged families do not have the opportunity to relocate for
educational purposes, nor may they have the means to transport students to their schools

of choice, thus these students end up in the lowest-performing districts. In contrast,

23

wealthier families can choose to send their children to higher performing schools or
private schools where the children are more like their own (Ladd, 2002, Arsen, Plank,
Sykes, 1999; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Wells, 2004; Buckley and Schneider
2002)

Similarly, Fuller (2000) argues that poor parents should have the power to choose
good schools for their children. This author explains that, “This is a debate about power. .
. . This is about whether parents of low-income Afiican American children should obtain
a power that many critics of the choice movement exercise every day on behalf of their
own children” (p. 10). While much of the research surrounding schools of choice will
mention low income, Afiican American, or city children, they fail to mention low
income, rural students who are similarly powerless to change schools, due to the distance
between schools or lack knowledge to leave.

However, socio-economic status does not mean that parents cannot choose
wisely. Being poor does not cause parental incapacity to choose well (Ladd, 2002;
Wells, 1996; Bell, 2004). The waiting lists at such many high performing and private
schools demonstrate that those who are in the process of choosing a good school for their
child may know what they are doing (Sonnenfeld 1973).

In contrast to the idea that schools of choice will make educational opportunity
more equitable for economically disadvantaged students, thus far, it appears that they are
less likely to take advantage of their opportunity (Ladd, 2002; Buckley and Schneider,
2002; Wells, 2004; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001). F arnilies at or below the poverty
level are much less likely than families in higher income brackets to seek out and take

advantage of the inter-district or intra-district choice options that are available to them.

24

Further, they have less access to information about educational options, or they lack the
initiative to seek information regarding options. Also, they often cannot afford to
transport their children to distant schools, and they may be hesitant to send their child to
schools they see as being more prestigious or of a higher class (Ladd 2002).

School choice is seen as advantageous to the middle or upper class because
schools may be selective in whom they accept. School of choice policy in Michigan
provides some exclusionary powers for districts. Districts in Michigan can decline
students who have been disciplined by the schools in the student’s past. If a student
requesting to enroll through the schools of choice option had been suspended for any
amount of time in the past two years, or if that same student had been expelled at any
time during the student’s history, then a district can deny enrollment to that student. In
many instances, this favors middle and upper-income families. The power is given to
schools to select their students, a power defended as a reasonable process of self-
govemance for school districts. Additionally, parents tend to make decisions about the
quality of a district based on the ratio of its minority and low socioeconomic students
(Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Buckley and Schneider, 2002; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer,
2001; Ladd, 2002); thus the selection of students gives districts an opportunity to protect
their reputations by choosing the more advantaged students. Finally, districts now have a
financial reason to select students who are the least expensive to educate. If schools are
to be driven by a market based conception, then we have to assume that financial
decisions will be made regardless of the educational needs of individual students favoring
those of the middle and upper classes (Ladd 2002; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001;

Wells, 2004). For parents with a lower socioeconomic status, this is not the case.

25

In addition, social segregation by school choice may be a detrimental and
unexpected side effect of school choice. While there are trends that have been identified
in inner cities, primarily “white flight,” school choice may exacerbate this problem. Most
people are aware of the issues of white flight, where white families move in droves from
inner city areas or areas where there is a concentration of minorities. What is not known
is whether schools of choice will actually increase this phenomenon. Will choice
promote social sorting based on race, religion, educational background, or socioeconomic
standing (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Wells, 2004;
Buckley and Schneider, 2002)? In the current practice, it appears that this concern may
be a reality.

Magnet schools were initially pre-occupied with providing opportunities that
would encourage desegregation. However, over time, there has been a shift in ideology
moving away from a goal of desegregation into a goal of simply improving instruction
and thus student achievement. These shifts have paralleled the discovery that magnets
are less effective in desegregating schools than what was first hoped but rather had some
indication that they may be improving the overall educational quality (Raywid, 1984).

Similarly, Archbald (1988) describes a process of self selection or self-sorting that
takes place within magnet schools whereby students and even school personnel will be
drawn to schools because of their superior quality. This author believes that schools of
choice, specifically magnet schools, will improve the quality of education because their
“. . . distinctive specialization and autonomy give staff a clearer sense of purpose, there is
greater incentive to prevent “disorder”, since adversity affects a school’s reputation and

ability to compete for students, and there is, a probable self-selection of people

26

(principals, teachers, and parents) who are above average in their commitment and ability
to encourage student discipline and agreement regarding educational goals. (pp. 470-

471).

Key Issues

Decision Making Process of Parents

Parents could have a wide range of rationales for their school choices. In the few
studies (Heni g, 1990, 1994; Bell, 2004; Buckley and Schneider, 2002) that have been
conducted there is no definitive answer as to why or how parents make these choices.
Those who have conducted qualitative research, such as Bell, 2004; Koenigknecht, 1998;
Pleasants, 2000 all sought to determine parental preferences in urban or suburban
environments. As of this writing, research in parental decisions regarding rural inter-
district transfer is non-existent. However, Schneider and Buckley (2002) indicate a need
for research due to the lack of qualitative research in this area. All studies conducted in
this area are based on survey data or intemet data that often contradict each other. The
stated preferences regarding a reason for choice are much different from the preferences
that are revealed (Buckley and Schneider, 2002).

The most prevalent ideas may indicate that parents choose as whole complicated
individuals from a multiplicity of factors, such as, the social appropriateness of the
school, social ties to other choosing families, the reputation of the community,
transportation opportunities, emotional interactions to school teachers and administrators,

and the experiences of the children of relatives and neighbors with all aspects of the

27

school (Metz, 1987; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Ladd, 2002). Similarly,
Williams (1993) identified four school factors that parents reported as influencing their
school choice decisions. In order of importance, these factors were discipline (86%), staff
(86%), academic standards (84%), civic/moral values (70%), and academic courses
(65%). In another study, Sonnenfeld (1973) suggested that parental choice was based on
the location of the school, its program, the school environment, and school cost.
Additionally, a Gallop poll reported what parents considered the most and least important
reasons for choosing a school. In rank order, the reasons were (a) quality of the teaching
staff; (b) maintenance of student discipline; (c) curriculum; ((1) size of classes; (e) grades
or test scores of the student body; (f) track records of graduates in high school, in college,
or on the job; (g) size of school; (h) proximity to home; (i) extracurricular activities, such
as band/orchestra, theater, and clubs; (i) social and economic background of the student
body; (It) racial or ethnic composition of the student body; and (1) the athletic program.
(Elam 1990).

In an attempt to decipher the parental process of selecting schools, Kamin and
Erickson (1981) classified parents as either thinking or unthinking depending on the
amount of thought they gave to the school choice decision. Parents who gave little
thought to their options of schools were classified as ‘fimthinking” and were typically:
Much more likely to send their children to public schools.

Much more likely to be members of the working class.

More likely to have blue-collar occupations.

More likely, if mothers, to be keeping house rather than working

outside the home.

5. Less likely to have experienced any post-secondary schooling or to
have finished secondary schools.

6. More likely to have been educated exclusively in public schools. Less

likely to have discussed the choice of a school with someone outside
the family.

99°39!"

28

7. Twice as likely to have let the child influence the choice of a school.

8. More likely to have considered only one school.

9. Far more likely to have sent the child to the school where most of the
child’s fiiends attended.

10. More likely to have left the choice of a school to a point near the
beginning of the school term.

11. Much more likely to explain their choice in terms of convenience or
the child’s own preference.

Thinking- parents, on the other hand, typically were found to attain a higher social class

and more likely to choose private or alternative schools (Kamin and Erickson, 1981).

Information Gathered

In theory, school of choice moves educational decision making from the state to
the parents. In practice, the power of assigning students to a local educational district is
removed from governmental decision makers and is given back to the parents. This
creates a competition between schools for students and the money that follows each
student. A school of choice policy takes ownership away from the professionals and
hands it to the consumers (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer,
2001; Ladd, 2002; Vassallo, 2000). The consumers now have the ability to choose a
school that they prefer with no requirement to make the choice based on instructional
technique, curriculum, or any educationally implicit reason. Further, the reasons for
parents’ choice may be based on erroneous or misunderstood information (Ladd, 2002;
Buckley and Schneider, 2002).

This uncovers another criticism in the school of choice debate, which is whether
parents possess adequate information on which to base a decision. Finding quality
information may be difficult for parents who want to choose wisely. Adler, Petch,

Tweedie (1989) posit that parents base their decisions on irrelevant or poor information at

29

best. Further, while there have been studies that sought to discover how information is
gained by parents (Bastiani, 1978; Woods, 1984; Wyn-Thomas, 1985), parent assessment
of school characteristics remains subjective. Often times, the information parents use is
learned from their children, neighbors, or family members (Bell, 2004; Buckley and
Schneider, 2002; Ladd, 2002) and may often be found to be misperceptions or totally
misguided understandings of school policy or curriculum learned by second hand
information (Adler, Petch, Tweedie, 1989). Making decisions with misinformation
jeopardizes the very foundation of the policy of choice.

Information may be the greatest tool for parents who are attempting to make the
best decision possible for their child. With good honest information, parents have the
opportunity to make the choose a school for their children that provides the greatest
opportunities. For a marketplace to be competitive and healthy, information is required
so that the consumer may make informed decisions. It is imperative that parents receive
accurate information about the schools that are available to their children. Additionally,
if this market is to create innovation and efficiency, then teachers and administrators need
information about what are best practices in other districts, so they, too, can improve
(Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001). Ironically, this is
actually in conflict with many practices that we find in real life markets. For example:
What makes the Colonels secret recipe so good? What ingredients go into a can of Coke?
What is in Bush’s baked bean that makes them so good? We have all heard of industrial
espionage. Why would a market place in the educational field be any different? If one
district finds the magic bullet for students learning and student achievement, would not a

market philosophy suggest that a district should profit for their innovation, their

30

discovery?

There are several factors that appear to inhibit parents from sending their children
to the best schools. Primarily, information may not be made available to all parents.
Secondly, parents may not have the desire to have their child compete in the best schools
due to fear of their child feeling inferior among better students or for other emotional
issues. Parents living in or near poverty may not have the necessary information
concerning school quality because such information is difficult to obtain and understand
(Camoy, McEwan, 2000; Levin, 1991; Wells, 2004; Ladd, 2002). Additionally,
information that does exist may not be fully disseminated or available to all parents
(Gauri, 1998; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Buckley and Schneider, 2002). Even
with full information on school quality, however, members of lower social class groups
could be intimidated by, skeptical of, or opposed to members of the prevailing group, and
therefore, remove themselves from competition for seats in the “best” schools. This
means that parents, living in poverty, might not be as likely to choose higher performing
schools with a higher socioeconomic student make—up even when their children might
qualify for these districts (Wells, Crain, 1992; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Wells,
2004; Buckley and Schneider, 2002).

While information is important, it may not be the predictor of a parent’s choice.
In a quantitative study, Adler, Petch, Tweedie (1989) found that in Chile, the parent’s
reasons for choosing schools were not necessarily based on the quality of a particular
school, but on other factors (Bell, 2004; Adler, Petch, Tweedie, 1989). Three surveys
revealed differing reasons for rejection by parents of a local school district. The size of

the school was the most frequently given reason. Location of the school was the second

31

most cited factor in rejecting the local school. In other words, a school located closer to
the parents’ work place seemed of some value to the parent regardless of whether the
accepting school was deemed a failing school or not. The final factor was that of sibling
attendance. If a sibling of one child attended a school, then the parents preferred that
their other children also attend at the same building (Adler, Petch, Tweedie 1989).
Finally, the danger related to the rejection by the parents of their local assigned district is
that of appearance. There is a tendency to believe that a school that loses children is a
bad school (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999). Therefore, when numbers decline, parents may
see it as a quality issue and not realize that other parents are making decisions based on
their personal convenience.

In spite of all of the school choice factors that parents report in surveys, there
would seem to be an underlying factor that drives the school choice decision. Either the
local school has a characteristic that pushes parents away, or another non-local school has
some attribute that attracts the parent (Adler, Petch, Tweedie, 1989). What is not known
is to what extent parents conduct research to determine the best opportunity for their
child. The idea of accepting a school known to be less than exceptional is called
“satisficing.” This brings several questions to the forefront. Are parents setting pre-
defined goals prior to choosing a school? To what extent are parents seeking to achieve
the various pre-defined goals in their choice of a district? To what extent are parents
looking for an appropriate alternative? Closely related questions are to what extent do
the parents go to search for a school, and what resources are spent in the investigation of
options. Moreover, to what extent is the prime motivation an avoidance factor, for

example, a desire to leave from one school district, and to what extent is it an attraction

32

factor, for example, a positive appeal towards another district? Avoidance factors are

more likely to be linked with the satisficing activity (Adler, Petch, Tweedie, 1989).

Increasing Parental Involvement

Research (Defour, 2003; Ladd, 2002; Buckley and Schneider, 2002; Vassallo,
2000) teaches us that parental involvement is significant to the success of children.
Research also tells us that the two strongest indicators of a child’s success are the
educational accomplishments of the birth mothers and the socioeconomic status (SES) of
the family (Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001); that is, students from high SES families
tend to do better than students from low SES families. However, research further
indicates that when parents fiom either group become highly involved, they can
contribute to continued success of the students during high school and beyond
(Henderson and Berla, 1995).

While disadvantaged parents may feel a need to exercise a choice of schools
because their local school is failing them, there appears to be more than one solution.
The parents can make a difference by providing any type of support to the child.

Students from single parent families and/or students with working mothers benefit from
any positive educational support those parents can provide. Support can be time,
materials, experiential, or financial. Important is the ability of the parents to get involved
(Henderson and Berla, 1995). Along this same line, the gap in student achievement
between the working-class and middle-class children may be more appropriately
explained by inconsistent patterns of school district interactions with parents and with

similarly inconsistent patterns of parent interactions with their children. Teachers and

33

administrators can get involved with parents in order to demonstrate how to help their
children be successful. Parents who feel powerless and excluded can be reintroduced to
the school district and to their child in order to establish effective lines of
communication, regardless of race, religion, or financial status of the family (Ziegler,
1987). Similarly, the cultural origins of a family should not determine how well a child
performs at school. Parents from a multiplicity of cultural origins and with differing
financial situations or differing levels of education can promote inspiring home
environments that encourages student achievement. (Kellaghan et. al., 1988).

Current evidence indicates many parents are failing to provide their children with
the foundational skills needed to profit from education, which contrasts with the idea that
all parents want and are qualified to be directors of their children’s educational process.
While there is great emphasis put on schools and their failures, researchers are less likely
to look toward the home for issues relating to poor performance of students. Every
educator that has spent a year in the profession has heard, and probably stated, “The
apple doesn’t fall far fiom the tree”. This is a statement generally made in frustration
when a child is not performing well, and the parents are not able or willing to help
motivate the student. Occasionally, researchers will echo this sentiment and pit school
against family. One such study in America concluded that poor student achievement of
children from low income homes was due to the impoverished language found in those
homes. Mothers from the lower class were less effective in praising children, asked
fewer questions of their children, provided less direction to their children, and
communicated non-verbally more often compared with mothers within the middle or

higher classes (Scott-Jones, 1993).

34

One factor that might be considered a disadvantage of parental decision making in
the schools of choice debate is the parents own educational background and experiences
(Bell, 2004; Buckley and Schneider, 2002; Ladd, 2002; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer,
2001). While school choice advocates often propose that poor families should have the
opportunity to attend the best schools, research indicates that in reality, the opposite
occurs. Less educated parents are less likely to respond to the offer of higher social class
schools, or schools that have been identified as higher performing, than do parents who
are more educated. This is not to identify the less educated parents as irrational choosers
but serves to point out the need to discover, specifically, how and why these parents
would not exercise their right. For example, Wells and Crane (1992) argue that school
choice is governed not only by available resources but also by access to pertinent
information.

Some research indicates that in poor families, the parents might actually be
alienated from the educational process. Bridges and Blackman (1978) described
alienation as “powerlessness.” They argued that individuals with higher levels of
education probably tended to have fewer feelings of helplessness and, therefore, they will
search for information. This perception of alienation and the limited social contacts of
economically disadvantaged parents hinder access to the school (N ault and Uchitelle,

1977; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001).

Student Enjoyment

The overall enjoyment of the participation in school, of a marginal student, would

or could lead to that student improving their overall successfulness (Raywid, 1984).

35

Successful students in any school are often those with positive attitudes and dispositions
toward their school. Schools of choice may or may not benefit students in this vein.
While less successful students may indicate happiness when they first choose to attend
another district, there are many questions to be answered regarding how long that
happiness will continue (Buckley and Schneider, 2002; Ladd, 2002). Student satisfaction
with the school engenders a positive beginning in two ways: (1) it opens the door for
future success, and (2) it helps to promote positive actions prior to success. Schools of
choice have the potential to generate student enjoyment and to create positive
opportunities for students (Raywid, 1984).

Student achievement and student happiness may go hand in hand. The concept of
student happiness has itself been the object of considerable study (Argyle, 1987). Some
findings indicate the student’s happiness with the school in some way drives the parent’s
decision making process (Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Ladd, 2002; Buckley and
Schneider, 2002), and is applicable only for the student who is already enrolled in school.
The different ways in which happiness may be evaluated and its connection with factors,
such as, education and social relationships, may be explored in great detail. Parents may,
in effect, be using the concept of happiness as a form of school evaluation, instead of a
more conservative list of quality factors associated with choice behavior. Indeed there is
some evidence to suggest that there may be an association between children’s perception
of their happiness at school and student achievement (Gray, McPherson and Raffe, 1983).
The parent may therefore, with varying degrees of awareness, be choosing the
appropriate environment knowing that it will be advantageous to their child (Adler,

Petch, Tweedie, 1989).

36

Sustainability

In the past 20 years, many states have been challenged in their ability to provide
appropriate education for all students. These challenges have driven policies that provide
parents with the opportunity to choose a school of their liking. Currently this has led to
very little innovation but rather has just provided more of the same with little hope for
increased student achievement (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Ladd, 2002; Buckley and
Schneider, 2002; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Wells, 2004).

The fact is that there is very little evidence that school choice policies work at all.
Even around the world where choice has been in place for decades, there is little evidence
that supports a significant increase in student achievement (Ladd, 2002; Buckley and
Schneider, 2002; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Wells, 2004). Some criticism
arises that schools of choice is just the “fad du jour” which will come and go like other .
‘ school improvement tactics. Raywid (1984) disagrees with this stating, “Among the
educational innovations introduced during the 1960’s, altematives---or schools of choice-
--have proven one of the most durable and are increasingly finding support fiom research
(p. 71). This support may be one reason why schools of choice continue to proliferate in
rural Michigan and in many rural areas throughout the United States (US). Similarly,
there is no serious effort to decrease the opportunities provided to parents to choose the
education for their children (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer,
2001; Vassallo, 2000). In the US, it remains a constant discussion of how to implement
vouchers and/or increase parental choice in both federal and state governments.

The school of choice debate must be taken seriously because those at most risk if

the system fails are the children. When the local public schools decline due to lower

37

enrollment and less funding, what will happen to the children who continue for one
reason or another to be enrolled there? Many schools in the rural areas of Michigan have
been and continue to be devastated (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Wells, 2004, Ladd, 2002)
by opening the door for parents to choose other districts. School choice is also an
important topic for parents and students who may be satisfied with their public school, or
are satisfied enough that they do not want to move. For these students, the district that is
serving them may have to cut programs and opportunities due to the small percentage of
students who feel the urge to change districts. While the satisfied majorities are not
leaving, a downward spiral in the quality of the schools may be created by the minority of
students who leave because of higher academic expectations, issues of discipline, or other
issues while taking their state monies with them and forcing districts or schools to cut
programs. Subsequently more students/parents are unhappy about those cuts, and they
also choose to go elsewhere. With the loss in revenue the district again cuts programs
and again loses more students. In this very real scenario, choice certainly has negative
impacts on the majority of students who are not dissatisfied or are not willing or able to
choose another option and in the end stay (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999). While this is not
a stated goal of schools of choice, it may be a hidden goal of schools of choice. In either
case it may have an impact on many students who are choosing to stay in their local
school. These children are being harmed by choice (Arsen, Plank, Sykes, 1999; Wells,

2004; Gill, Timpane, Ross, Brewer, 2001; Ladd, 2002).

38

Conclusions

Since school of choice is a relatively new fi'ontier in public education, there is
much research that still needs to be done. Two broad conclusions can be drawn fi'om a
review of the current research literature on school choice decisions of parents in rural
communities. First, there is not enough evidence to determine whether the concept of
school of choice is effective as the panacea that it was purported to be. Still to be
determined is whether school choice has proven to increase innovation and efficiency in
the discipline of education. Second, it appears that a school of choice policy actually has
a tendency to undermine opportunities of equal access and promotes further segregation
within schools, districts, and the state. These consequences direct us to further research
into the key issues of parental decision making.

The keys issues regarding schools of choice in rural areas center on decision making
by the parents, and while parental involvement and information regarding schools are
certainly key issues that affect schools of choice decisions, currently, there is very little
knowledge in precisely how these affect a parent’s decision. Next, student satisfaction or
happiness plays some roll in a parent’s decision making process, but how will a parent
use this information to make a good decision regarding a school choice? Finally, the
history of school choice and the knowledge that choice may be here to stay provides a
solid foundation to suggest that research must be conducted to better understand how
parental choice will continue to affect school districts and the discipline of education, and
how additionally, legislators should continue to seek equity in education for all.

In conclusion, an important realization is that past research has overlooked rural

education. Students in rural Michigan are often found to be at-risk, economically

39

disadvantaged, and poorly prepared for schooling. The students and parents in rural
communities are similar in many ways to their counterparts in the urban communities but
may select schools in a very different way. I believe that there are four very important
questions that need to be answered regarding schools of choice in rural Michigan

districts. They are:

1. What factors are influential in the decision of parents living in a rural community
to choose a school?

How do parents in rural communities judge the quality of a school?

What sources of information do parents in rural communities use in choosing a
school?

4. Who is involved in making the decision for schools of choice in rural Michigan?

we

40

Strategy for Inquiry
Chapter III

Research Questions
This study will be guided by the following four questions:

1. What factors are influential for parent’s in rural areas decision to choose a school?
a. Proximity or convenience for parent?
b. Poor experience with a former district?
c. Perception that the receiving district matches the parent’s values?
(1. Perception of peers, colleagues, or community - reputation of school?
2. How do parents judge the quality of a school in a rural community?
e. Are parents making decisions by evaluating curriculum?
f. Are parents making decisions by evaluating staff/service/responsiveness?
3. What sources of information do parents use in choosing a school in a rural
community?
4. Who is involved in making the decision for schools of choice?

Introduction

This study focuses on how and why parents choose one district over another in a
rural setting. Parents hold the key to understanding what is desirable in a rural school
district. As a former principal, and currently, as an assistant superintendent in a rural
district, I see many parents who have chosen a school for their child based on a multitude
of different reasons that were not necessarily driven by the overall quality of a school.
Qualitative evidence is lacking that suggests why a parent chooses (Buckley and
Schneider, 2002) the school for the child; however, while there is some quantitative data,
results are somewhat questionable because stated preferences differ from revealed
preferences. Surveys may ask the questions why or how; researchers may not be able to

sense hesitation or partial answers from a survey (Kvale, 1996; Miles and Hubbennan,

41

1984). While interviewing the respondents, I seek to ask the questions why and how and
to delve deeper, in search of opinions, perceptions, and attitudes toward school of choice
decisions (Glesne, 1999) and to understand the story behind the stated preferences. I seek
to reach out to parents to find what truly moved them to choose one district over another
for their child. Using this insightful information may help school administrators,
legislators, and other researchers to have a better understanding of this broad topic. This
idea is supported by Rubin and Rubin (1995) as they state that “qualitative interviewing
is a way of finding out what others feel and think about their worlds. Through qualitative
interviews you can understand experiences and reconstruct events in which you did not

participate.” (p. 10)

The Pilot Study

During the coursework for the PhD, I had the opportunity to conduct a “pilot
study” regarding parental choice, how and why they select a particular school district.
While conducting the pilot study, I found myself needing to focus not only on the
interview of the day but also on the arrangements of the interview tomorrow. In
preparation, I realized that each parent could be the potential “light bulb” of this study. If
I missed an interview because of my responsibilities at work, the opportunity to capture
that special piece of information that tells the story of how and why may be lost forever.
The realization that one missed appointment might cost the study the most important data
available. Glesne (1999) suggests: “As a good interviewer, you look ahead and ask,
What does the situation call for? Some of the specifics about what to anticipate already

have been mentioned. The lay summary is an example, in which to consider both what

42

must be said in order to present oneself and the project cogently, and how what you say
may vary from situation (the superintendent of schools) to situation (the parents of
students). What materials and equipment is needed to be assembled for the interview
session? Who should be seen next, in light of what has been learned and not learned, and
what arrangements need to be made to set up the next interviews? Anticipation feeds off
the results of taking stock, an activity that might well be included at the end of the day in
the daily task of log writing. Reflecting on each day is preparatory to anticipating what is
next, both broadly in terms of the inquiry, and narrowly in terms of the next day’s

activities.” (Glesne, 1999)

Participants

The subjects of this study resided in several rural districts in Southwest
Michigan. The parents were self selected based on their decisions to choose to exercise
their rights for school of choice. While all parents were invited to participate in the study
only parents who volunteered to participate were interviewed. Additionally, parents that
lived within the boundaries of the district that I work in were automatically eliminated
from the list of potential interviews. While virtually every parent in this school district
will be a chooser by default, those who do not choose to select or to give serious
consideration to selecting a district other than the one in which they live have also made a
choice. This study seeks to understand what pushes a parent past the tipping point
(Gladwell, 1995) to choose another school rather than the local school for their children.

I am interested in the meaning behind the choice: how parents make sense of the

experiences and that of the structures between the resident district and the chosen district

43

(Merriam as cited in Creswell, 1994). Parent selection in this study is not random; it is
done by design. The parents or actors who make a school of choice decision and the

process that they use hold the answers that this study seeks (Miles and Hubberrnan 1984).

Participant Selection Rationale

Purposeful sampling was used to identify and contact subjects in the rural
community to gain insight and understanding into their decisions regarding their
reasoning for school choice (Merriam, 1988; Patton, 1980). Further, these respondents
are being selected for interviews because of their experiences with school choice in rural
areas (Merriam, 1988). In essence, participants were selected because:

1. These parents chose to take advantage of the opportunity provided for by
schools of choice legislation

2. The selected school had a relatively large population of choosers from
which to draw an appropriate size sample (20 +)

3. In this rural area, all schools participate in offering enrollment
opportunities for schools of choice students

All parents that selected the district through schools of choice legislation were
invited to participate. In all, 28 parents or sets of parents were contacted and invited to
participate in the study. Of the 28 potential interviews, 2 sets of parents could not be
reached because the district did not have current phone numbers or addresses. Two more
sets of parents declined to be interviewed and two agreed to be interviewed and then
missed all scheduled appointments. The ability to gain access to a district is often one of
the most daunting tasks of a study. The Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act
(F ERPA) provide districts with an easy excuse to refuse to release parent information and

to consequently deny research to occur in their district. However, the researcher’s

44

professional relationship with the administration in the chosen district allowed not only
access to this research opportunity, but the district’s superintendent volunteered to assist
in contacting parents, and offered unlimited building access for the interviews. Rossman
describes this as seeking permission from the gatekeepers (as cited in Creswell, 1994).

Participation by the parents in the research regarding school of choice relies on
their willingness to communicate freely and truthfully. While they may answer
questionnaires or surveys, there is no guarantee that the choices provided with the
questions asked will bring out the real reasons parents select a school. However, it is
possible that in a direct interview, the interviewer may access information that parents
may not want to reveal - - — the answers that they are unwilling to respond to on paper or
even in a phone survey. Adler, Petch, Tweedie (1989) support this by writing: “It should
not be forgotten also that in offering and then selecting their reasons for choice, the mix
that parents opt for reflects the particular ‘account’ which they wish to present of their
behavior. The extent to which this is a deliberately selective construction of reality cannot
be known. Given, however, that parents were quite ready to select for example options
which spoke of “not the kind of children that we want our child to mix with,” or to speak
of ‘rough and rowdy children’, there is little evidence to suggest that parents felt
constrained to volunteer only what might be perceived as acceptable criteria. Greater
insight into the complexity and meaning of choice behavior would, however, have

required a less structured and more searching interviewing methodology.” (p.135)

Research Method

Direct, one-on-one, semi-structured interviewing (Esterberg, 2002: Patton, 1990)

45

with a list of predetermined questions was the method used for this research. In this
method, the researcher used personal cues, such as hesitations, contradictions in answers,
or other opportunities to look deeper into the respondents’ answers (Esterberg, 2002).
Interviews provide the opening to learn about that which is not known, while also
providing the chance to ask the question that was not developed before the interview.
Glesne (1999) states: ”The opportunity to learn about what you cannot see and to explore
alternative explanations of what you do see is the special strength of interviewing in
qualitative inquiry. To this opportunity, add the serendipitous leamings that emerge from
the unexpected turns in discourse that your questions evoke. In the process of listening to
your respondents, you learn what questions to ask.” (p.69)

Further, the interviews for this study were not only asked how and why but this
study also sought to find the background of the parent chooser. The history of the parent
is potentially important if it has connection to the subsequent choice for the child. There
may be a cultural norm that either encourages or discourages a choice decision. Rubin
and Rubin (1995) state: “Both oral history and life history interviews are examples of
focusing on concepts of culture. In interviewing, researchers learn the rules, norms,
values, and understandings that are passed from one generation of group members to the
next” (p.168). This type of cultural interviews may provide insight into why parent
respondents choose one district over another. Interviews get people talking about their
experiences, feelings, or observations. Observations put you on the trail of
understandings that then becomes one’s perspectives. This insight into the history, a
gaining of understanding, is what interviewing will provide to this research (Rubin and

Rubin, 1995). To understand the nature of constructed realities, researchers interact and

46

talk with subjects regarding their perceptions; the researcher seeks out perspectives; they
do not try to reduce the multiple interpretations to a norm (Glesne, 1999). To define and
understand qualitative research further, Peshkin (1992) indicates that it may be broken
down into four sub-categories: description, interpretation, verification, and evaluation. In
this study, I intended to interpret the responses of parents in order to describe the deeper
reasons these parents chose to select an alternate district. According to Patton (1980):
“We interview people to find out from them those firings we cannot directly observe. We
cannot observe feelings, thoughts, and intentions. We cannot observe behaviors that took
place at some previous place and time. We cannot observe situations that preclude the
presence of an observer. We cannot observe how people have organized the world and
the meanings they attach to what goes on in the world, we have to ask people questions
about those things. The purpose of interviewing, then, is to enter into the other person’s
perspective.” (p. 79)
Throughout the course of this study, I followed Kvales (1996) suggestions for
interviews. Kvale suggests that:
1. The extent of spontaneous, rich, specific, and relevant answers from the
interviewee may increase the understanding of the phenomenon
2. The shorter the interviewer’s questions and the longer the subject’s
answers, the better
3. The interviewer follows up and clarifies the meanings of the relevant
aspects of the answers
4. The interviewer attempts to verify his or her interpretations of the
subject’s answers in the course of the interview

5. The interview is self-communicating, it is a story contained in itself that
hardly requires much extra descriptions and explanations (p. 45)

Data Collection

In-depth, semi-structured interviews provided the data base for this study. This

47

qualitative data will consist of (l) detailed descriptions of the interviews; (2) situations in
which they take place; (3) the researcher’s perceptions about the people, the interactions,
and observed behaviors of the parents; and most importantly, (4) direct quotations from
the parents about their experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and thoughts. This data will
provided adequate depth, detailed descriptions, including quotations, and excerpts, which
have been treated as raw data fiom the empirical world (Patton, 1980; Denzin and
Lincoln, 2002). Other sources of information included informal interviews with school
officials, intermediate school district officials, university staff, and other parents.

The raw data that were collected reside both on audio tape and in detailed notes
made throughout the interview. Patton (1980) suggests: “Qualitative data consist of
detailed descriptions of situations, events, people, interactions and observed behaviors;
direct quotations from people about their experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and thoughts; and
excerpts or entire passages of documents, correspondence, records and case histories . . . .
These descriptions, quotations, and excerpts are raw data from the empirical world . . .
data which provide depth and detail. (p. 67)

The audio tape recorder used was a micro-recorder. It had the ability to record for
two hours without changing tapes and had a battery capable of sustaining recording for
approximately 10 hours. This meant no electricity was required and no disruptions
occurred during the interview that could have changed the flow of thoughts. Glesne
(1999) suggests the following regarding audio tapes: “Most persons M agree to the use
of a tape recorder and for most research purposes an audio record is fully sufficient. Give
due attention to the quality of your cassettes, tape recorder, and microphone” (p.79).

These audio tapes were then transcribed, verbatim, so as to ensure that the participant’s

48

responses were accurately portrayed in the findings of the study.

Finally, notes were taken throughout the interview as suggested by Bogdan and
Biklen, (1992) in order to protect against the mechanical failure of the tape recorder and
also as a way to begin to organize themes and important revelations; as such, data

analysis began simultaneously as data collection (Creswell, 1994).

Instrumentation

The process remained very rigid at the outset. The district was contacted through
the researcher’s professional contacts (Creswell, 1994), with a follow up letter explaining
the merits of the study (Appendix A). A meeting was then established between the
districts superintendent and the researcher. In essence this meeting for all intensive
purposes was an interview. At conclusion of the interview, not only was the study
approved, the superintendent volunteered to help contact parents and to arrange the
interviews. However, there was one simple caveat; I was to provide the superintendent
and the districts school board a summary report or conclusion of my findings (Appendix
E). The superintendent indicated that the board had recently questioned why parents
were choosing Durban, and why some parents were leaving Durban for another district.
Once this was agreed to, the research was ready to begin. In fact, the superintendent had
his secretary help in contacting and arranging times for the interviews. This provided the
district an opportunity to maintain confidentiality of all parents addresses and phone
numbers. Subsequently all potential participants were mailed the same introduction letter
(Appendix B). Before being interviewed, participants signed an identical waiver that

indicated their approval to be interviewed and tape recorded (Appendix C). Further, all

49

participants were asked the same 24 questions during the initial one to two hour interview
sessions (Appendix D). However, while the study began with 24 questions, other
questions outside of the scope of the study were used to clarify and to seek more
information, to find the meaning behind the respondent’s statement. Glesne (1999)
supports this approach by stating: “Semi-structured interviewing is a somewhat formal,
orderly process that you direct to a range of intentions. Researchers ask questions in the
context of purposes generally known fully only to themselves. Respondents, the
possessors of information, answer questions in the context of dispositions (motives,
values, concerns, needs) that researchers need to unravel in order to make sense out of the
words that their questions generate. The questions, typically created by the researchers,
may be fully established before interviewing begins and remain unchanged throughout
the interview. Questions may emerge in the course of interviewing and may be added to
or replace the pre-established ones; this process of question formation is the more likely
and the more ideal one in qualitative inquiry.” (p.68)

Questions changed throughout the study as they did with the pilot study. Further,
a follow-up phone conversation or a follow-up face to face interview were not needed to
seek additional information from some or all of the subjects. This type of evolution may
help further studies of this nature and may help to instruct quality questions of a

quantitative nature.

Site of Interviews

Interviews were conducted in the school districts library. This provided an

appropriate meeting site that was familiar to the parents and yet provided a very quiet and

50

confidential setting. Interviews were scheduled at the parent’s convenience, most
occurring between 5:00 pm and 10:00 pm week-days, and between 8:00 am. and 5:00pm
on Saturdays. Glesne (1999) supports this by stating: “Convenient, available,
appropriate locations need to be found. Select quiet, physically comfortable, and private
locations when you can; they are generally most appropriate. Defer to your respondents’
needs because their willingness is primary, limited only by your capacity to conduct an
interview in the place that they suggest. An office set aside for the researcher on a

regular basis is ideal for interviews with students conducted at school.” (p.78)

Procedures for Data Analysis

Data analysis began during the interview, both in written form and by audio-
recording. While listening to the participants’ responses I recorded notes regarding
information that appeared to be of relevance (Denzin and Lincoln, 2002).
Simultaneously, I was analyzing and interpreting the meaning behind the responses,
sorting information into categories, formatting the information into relevant stories, and
sometimes writing qualitative text. (Creswell, 1994; Miles and Hubberman, 1994;
Worthen and Sanders, 1987).

Data analysis continued after the interview and following the transcription of the
tapes. Data was divided into coding categories (Bogdan and Biklen, 1992; Tesch, 1990;
Marshall and Rossman 1989; Denzin and Lincoln, 2002) or themes in matrices to further
organize and manage the notes and transcriptions (Miles and Hubberman, 1984). This
provided a way to further organize the data, to delete unimportant information, and to

cluster important concepts relating to particular questions or themes. Data was then

51

analyzed using a process suggested by Bogdan and Biklen (1982):

1. Ascertain and develop impressions from notes and transcripts

2. Identify themes from the data set

3. Focus and concentrate on observing and documenting

4. Generate questions for future study
In essence, the data was reduced from more than 400 pages of transcripts, interpreted,
and sifted in order to sort out important concepts and then irrelevant information was
discarded (Marshall and Rossman, 1989; Miles and Hubberman, 1994; Denzin and
Lincoln, 2002). Further, the data was loaded into a software program called Atlas Ti.
This software allowed the researcher to be more accurate in identifying themes. In doing
so, the whole of the interviews were more manageable and provided a more
understandable picture of the research data (Tesch as cited in Creswell, 1994)

Finally, a narrative was developed combining important questions and the
respondents’ answers that provides clues that yield answers to the questions of how
parents choose a district for their child, and why they have made the choice (Esterberg,
2002; Riessman, 1993; Denzin and Lincoln, 2002). Their stories may be used by

administrators, legislators, and other researchers to make more informed decisions

regarding schools of choice.

Limitations of the Study
This study was limited by the following conditions:

1. By the sample as inclusive to only those parents who elected to participate in the
school of choice opportunity

2. By the cooperation of the parents who were interviewed

3. By the expertise and skill of the researcher in interviewing, soliciting, and
analyzing the data from the parents

52

4. By the size of the sample

5. By the examinations of the decisions regarding choice to only those parents who
agreed to be interviewed

53

Influential Factors of Parents

Chapter IV

Introduction

In the previous chapter, four questions were identified that would guide this study.
First, what were the factors that influenced parents’ selection of the Durban Public
Schools over other schools? Second, what aspects or characteristics of the school district
did parents use to judge the quality of this school? Third, what information if any, did
parents use to assess the quality of this district? Finally, who participated in making the
decision of which district to select? In Chapters 4 through 7, the thought processes of the
participating parents are discussed in an effort to provide insight into the process that they
used to select their children’s school district. Figure 4.1 provides an overview of the
parent’s responses that will be found in. this, and the next three chapters.

This chapter specifically identifies the most common responses from these parents
regarding topics that influenced their choices, such as parent experience or educational
background, and the relationship that convenience has with school of choice decisions.
Chapter V identifies the most common responses regarding parental judgments of the
quality of a school district, including the size of the district, district responsiveness,
discipline within the school system, and the idea of using the term “chaos” as a way of
describing a “bad school”. Chapter 6 identifies the parents’ most common sources of
information about schools and describes the processes that parents use in seeking the
information. Chapter 7 explains how parents view the significance of their children’s
enjoyment of their school, and also identifies which family members participate in the

school of choice decisions. Chapter 8 provides a summary of the important concepts

54

Participants Responses to Common Themes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

55

'0 ° F: '8
3 ‘=’= E: i 5 3 35 5.2 i=5.
iii :2. . s 2 5: t5 :2
c c o . c .2 o 5 ,9 c E e
8 5 a 2 ° 5 t! E5
o a 0
Interview 1 X X X X X No No X No
Interview 2 X X X X No No No X X
Interview 3 X No X X X No X X X
Interview 4 X X X X X X X X No
Interview 5 X X X X X No No X X
Interview 6 X X X X X X X X X
Interview 7 X X X X X No No X X
Interview 8 X X X X X X X X X
Interview 9 X X X X X No X X No
Interview 10 No No X X X No X X X
Interview 11 X No X X X No X X No
Interview 12 X X X X X No No X No
Inwrview 13 X No No X No X No X No
lnteMew 14 X X X X X X No X X
Interview 15 X X X X No X No X X
Interview 16 X No X X X No No X X
Interview 17 X No X X X No No X X
Interview 18 X No X X X No No X X
Interview 19 No X No X X No No X X
Interview 20 X X X X No No No X No
Interview 21 X X X X X X X X X
Interview 22 X No X X X X No X No
X = theme played a role in the decision Figure 4.1

 

fiom each of the chapters 4 — 8 and explains the ways that this data supports prior
research. Finally, Chapter 8 gives voice to concepts that were not reported in previous
research on schools of choice. In addition, Chapter 8 identifies areas, and makes
recommendations for future research.

All of the data which was collected through interviews focuses on one small rural
school district in Southwest Michigan. That school system, which for purposes of
confidentiality, I have renamed Durban, has less than 500 students enrolled for grades
kindergarten through 12‘h grade. In spite of its small size, this school district has
somehow managed to draw 57 students from 32 families through the school of choice
process. While other rural districts within a 30 mile radius are slightly larger in
enrollment size, the schools of choice enrollments are not as high as at Durban. Figure

4.2 identifies the students who both participate in the schools of choice process and are

 

 

shared by this group of schools.
Resident Cape Durban Eland Hot Jonesburg Krueger
District Town Springs
Ca- : Town Sendin- 47 0 25 19 1 2 0

 

 

Durban Sendino 26 1° 0 . 0: . 9 4
Eland Sendin 1s 11 5 0 , o 2 . o

Hots rIn-s Sendin- 32

Jonesbu r Sendin- 37 8 12 7 0 0 1°

   

Receivin 223 47 26 , 18

 

Numbers represent students shared between these schools only Figure 4.2

56

Through the next four chapters, whenever reasonable, parents’ statements have
been represented in full context, to give the reader a better opportunity to understand the
parents’ personalities and perspectives. While their statements may seem long, their
words tell interesting and important stories which might be lost in a simple summary.
While the length of their statements is sometimes long, the insight their statements
provide tells an interesting story, one that could be lost in a simple summary. In addition,
I have attempted to draw a portrait of these parents, by describing those parts of their
history and experience that seemed relevant to the school of choice questions under study
here. Hopefully, this data will support a fuller understanding of the decision processes

used by the participants.

Parents School

Two common threads were discovered throughout the interviews. The first was
that parents, who had attended Durban as children, felt very comfortable bringing their
child back to the same school. In spite of the fact that the school may have changed
greatly fi'om when the parent left or graduated, these alumni still felt a level of assurance
that their child would be served in a positive manner by the district.

The second thread, centers on the idea of convenience for the parents. In most
cases, the parents were more concerned about the ability to juggle a busy work schedule
with the difficulty of running kids to the doctor. Additionally, parents identified the
convenience of having family members close to the school so that the children could
walk to the family members’ homes for baby sitting services. The convenience of

daycare was also mentioned quite often as a reason to choose a district. The following

57

pages contain data that pertains to these themes.

Doug has a girl in the 3rd grade and a son in the 4th grade at Durban. Doug
attended Durban across his entire primary, middle and secondary educational experience.
He remembers his experiences and comments on the lack of problems that he
encountered there. He acknowledges the influence these played in his school of choice
decision. Doug states,

“I went all thirteen years here. That probably weighed quite a bit on our

decision as well. I’ve got a narrow mind. I didn’t really have any problems that I

couldn’t live with here, so this was fine. Now, I don’t know what it was like

going to another school at that time because I never went to another school. But

I’m also somewhat carry the same theories if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Uh, you

know if I went here, and I made it, and I’m happy, and I get along in life, why not

send my kids, you know.” (Interview 4)

Similarly, Irene’s husband attended Durban kindergarten through 12th grade.
Irene did not attend Durban. They have a daughter in lst grade, and Irene is currently not
happy with Durban. Irene has not left Durban because of the history that her husbands’
family has with Durban, but hinted that she would like her children to attend the schools
that she went to. Irene states,

“. . . . I mean my husband is from Durban. He went to school her - - -
graduated here. Now my kids are right over there at their grandma’s house right
now. I thought a lot about it because I’m from Krueger, and I just didn’t quite

think that Durban had things to offer that the other schools did as far as variety,

58

but I got to thinking, you know, a small school, you know, then she’ll get more
attention and continue to grow and continue to learn at a fast pace. And, well the
only reason why I’m staying here is uhm - - - my husbands family all graduated
here or she would have been gone at Christmas because I don’t think I should
have to fight this much for them to get the teachers to do what they are supposed
to be doing. I’m from Krueger, all my family is in Krueger, my friends are in

Krueger. My nieces and nephew are going to Krueger schools.” (Interview 9)

Laura and Luke both attended Durban Public Schools for their education from
kindergarten through 12th grade. They have a daughter in the lst grade and are happy
. with the schools. They both recalled the pleasant experiences they had as students in
Durban and are confident that the school can serve their daughter as well. Laura
indicates this by commenting:
“I went to school here. He went to school here. I remember the teachers
and the school; I mean, now to go in there with her, and they still know me, and I
think that was one thing that, that really sticks in my head is that it being such a
small school that you knew; they knew everybody in which it kind of sticks with
you. Honestly, from the time she was probably really a baby we wanted her to go
here, just because this where we went to school. I know the teachers, well most
of them, a lot of them at least in elementary are teachers I had for teachers.”

(Interview 12)

Nannette attended Durban from 5th grade through 12th grade and graduated from

59

Durban. She now has a 4th grade son who attends there. Her primary reason for

choosing Durban was her positive experiences and the way the school made her feel

when she was here. Her relationships within the Durban school system have contributed

to her perspective that Durban is a good school, one that will be beneficial to her child.

I questioned: “T ell me a little bit about your background, where you went to school. ”

Narmette responded, “We moved here and I graduated from Durban.

Uhm - - - and I think that was one of the biggest reasons why when we moved
back here I went with Durban rather than Cape Town because we were living in
Cape Town at the time. I know how it made me feel, and I was sure that was how
he would feel if he came here, and he has done wonderfiil since he’s been here. I
know how I was taken care of when I was here, so I didn’t have any doubts that
he was not going to be treated the same. You know this is home for me, and I

wanted it to be home for him. ” (Interview 14)

Opal attended Durban across her primary and secondary education. She then
attended college, completing both a bachelor’s degree and later a master’s degree. She
has recently moved back to the Krueger and works for another local school district. Her
sons are in 5th and 11th grade and after reportedly doing some considerable research; the
family decided to enroll the children in Opal’s alrna mater. Opal provides the following
as reasons:

“I went to high school and elementary school here in Durban and then went to

Western Michigan University and then went to College of William and Mary for

my graduate work, and my husband is military, so we have been traveling for 22

6O

years, so we are just returning back home. The other thing I should mention was
the familiarity and sense of community here in Durban. I guess I had good
feelings coming out of this, so I felt like that was an experience they should

have.” (Interview 15)

William is a school teacher in a local district. He has two sons, a 4th grader and
one that just started kindergarten. Although William works in one district, his family
chose to send their children to the school that he attended as a boy. Interesting is the
sense of dissatisfaction that he indicates regarding Durban, yet he still enrolled them in
Durban. He states,

“My wife and I went to Durban, and we liked the familiarity we had with a
lot of the teachers that were still there from when we both went to school there,

and when she (Williams wife) used to teach there. What I don’t like is what I’m

seeing now, especially at their intermediate, lack of communication, the lack of

challenging certain students who can explore on their own and excel on their own,
which the Krueger teachers did a very good job of doing. They are extremely
behind technology-wise, and that has lead to us even considering possibly pulling

out and going someplace else.” (Interview 20)

61

Convenience

School is close to Work

Betty has a 2nd grade son, and a 4th grade daughter; convenience of daycare was
one of the main reasons that she chose Durban. When asked; “why did you move your
children?” Betty states,

“Convenience was the main reason. The other thing is we are still
involved with Durban, and we know everybody. Like I said, it is a small
community. Our babysitter lives in the Durban school district, so it's convenience
with the daycare. I didn’t want to change daycares, and so in kindergarten the bus
could take them to daycare after school or before and pick them up there.”

(Interview 2)

Similarly, Ellen believes that it is especially convenient to have her daughter
attend Durban because she teaches at Durban. Ellen’s daughter Amanda attended another
district, but was spending a significant amount of time in her mother’s classroom. Ellen
teaches special education at the high school level. Ellen stated,

“Amanda was going out of elementary school, and we thought it would be
nice for her to come to the same school I was at. She was coming to a lot of the
extra things that the school was doing, and she was in my classroom, and she was

getting to know those people already. She chose to come here.” (Interview 5)

Interestingly, Freda not only attended K-12 in Durban, but she now teaches

elementary in Durban and identifies the convenience of having her children at the same

62

school. F reda’s experiences as a student and currently as a teacher make her very unique
in her perspective. Freda states,

“Well, one is obviously convenience. I think living in the area and
knowing the people in the community is great. I didn’t like driving to another
community where we don’t live, we’re in Hot Springs, but we’re near the border,
I mean we are right on the line so, to me, we are still in Durban. When my kids
are sick, I’m here. I can take them home. I think I just feel the attachment to the
school in Durban. I’ve been here so long I just can’t imagine anywhere else.”

(Interview 6)

Helen attended Durban for her entire primary and secondary education. She has
an 8th grade daughter that now attends Durban even though they live in another district.
She indicates that the convenience of her parents being close was at the heart of the
decision, as well as working in the community. Helen states,

“I could drive her to my parents’ house, drop her off, and she could walk
to school. So you know it was pretty easy still. I didn’t have to worry about her
getting back and forth to school. The main reason I, I waited is to make sure that
she had proper supervision (laughter). I work here, and my parents are here, so
there, you know it boiled down to convenience. If I took her to the doctor’s office
when she was in the other school, I would have to take an hour and a half off

work just to go pick her up and get her to the doctor’s office.” (Interview 8)

Kathy has an 8th grade daughter and identifies convenience as the main reason for

63

 

the choice. When asked why Kathy moved her daughter to Durban Schools, she states:
“It was a lot closer. If I had to pick her up for any reason it’s a lot closer than Krueger
and Hot Springs School District anyway, and we only live about five miles, so it was just

convenient for us.” (Interview 11)

Similarly, Laura and Luke mention the convenience of having a school near their
child care provider as Laura suggests:
“From the time she was a baby we thought she would attend Durban. And
we actually both work first shift, and there is nobody at our house to get kids on
and off the bus that would be coming, so she was going to my sisters for a
babysitter; and she’s in Durban School District. 80 that is why she is actually in
Durban School District. But now that I can, if I’m going to stay home, I will
probably still keep her here. I think the main reason we did it was simply the best
choice for us; she would be at my sisters to ride the bus here and get off the bus

while we were at work. (Interview 12)

Mark and Mary have a 7th grade and two 5th grade boys. Mary is from Taiwan
and is actually the boy’s step-mother, but speaks of the children as though they were her
own. Mark is obviously in charge as he answers all of the questions first and then looks
to Mary for her expected approval. Mark indicates that they did not want the kids to
attend Cape Town and then mentions convenience as the primary reason to send students
to Durban. He states: “Availability. It was critical, once we decided we did not want

Cape Town, so now the next question was availability. The only available district that

64

was convenient for needs for us was here. Otherwise, we would have had to transport to

another district. (Interview 13)

Bus Transportation

Opal provided another interesting point while she was talking about the reasons
that her family chose Durban. It seems that the Board of Education has decided to send
their busses into the territory of other districts in order to increase their student
populations and revenues. Opal states: “uhm - - - and the other thing that they did here
that was very helpful is the bus route was within a mile outside their district and they - - -
we had bus transportation if we wanted it. That was a big thing, when we’re both
working, and so that was a sell. I think that’s probably one, one of their biggest logistical
things if they want to do school of choice would be transportation. (Interview 15) Opal
wasn’t the only parent to share this little secret with me, but she was probably the most
forward in her thinking. Later, she would indicate the importance of marketing and
competing for students. Durban, in fact, is running several routes into neighboring
districts as far as 8-10 miles into the Cape Town district, according to Durban’s former

Transportation Director.

Similarly, Paul has noticed that transportation is relatively easy when the district
will make a special trip to pick up his 9th grade daughter. Paul indicates,
“I know you brought up the bussing about where we lived, both buses
went by there. She actually did ride the Durban bus. It wasn’t a 100% me driving

her to school. I do now but at that time I didn’t. And where were going to live, if

65

there is any luck, I’ll continue to have custody of her, and that was a big choice
when I decided to do it. You know we are only going to be about 4 miles from the
school, which is about what we are right now. It will be just north of the school
instead of south of the school. That was a big decision in buying a house, and I

hope the school will continue to pick her up special.” (Interview 16)

Finally, in probably the most intriguing interview of this research project, Ursula
describes her thought process regarding the importance of bussing. Ursula has a 12th
grade son at Durban, and two other boys who have moved to the school where she is
most recently employed. Ursula has an interesting background. She taught in a local
school district (which she attended as a child), and was fired during her second year
there. She was then “blackballed” by that same district when she interviewed at Cape
Town Public Schools. She recently was hired in Hot Springs and now teaches high
school science. While her sons all attended Durban last year, she had a disagreement
with the Superintendent last spring regarding a personnel issue and then decided to move
her younger children to her new district. While even I had difficulty understanding the
entirety of this family’s story, she brought more light onto the vastness of the bussing
across district lines. Ursula states,

“ . . . there are three buses that go down our road. So, it was easy just to
ride the bus. We lived here, so we knew everybody and resources again, we
didn’t have a lot of money while I was going to school and that was the factor.
He knew a lot of children here, and we knew the families. My husband grew up,

so, he did grow up here. And he knew everybody that was a big factor. The

66

people were very encouraging about having Cole come in and be in the
classrooms. And they said; “We can’t wait to have Cole.” This is wonderful, and
that’s working for him, and they made it a very open door. Let’s work on this,
and let’s help Cole and do the best we can. So this time we really didn’t, but
talking about and I talked with Cole a lot because I drove him to school.”

(Interview 21)

Summary

The examples above highlight three of the most common responses to the
question of why parents selected a particular school district. The factors that seemed to
be most important here were parent’s educational background, the convenience of the
schools location, and bus transportation. It is logical to consider bus transportation as a
part of the convenience of a school system. What makes it interesting in this case is that
student transportation by urban and suburban districts, across district boundaries, is a
topic that has not been mentioned in previous studies. Transportation in this rural area
has been identified as very competitive, with as many as four different districts rumring

buses on the same roads picking up students within other school districts’ boundaries.

67

Parents Judge Schools
Chapter V

Introduction

Parents described ways in which they judge schools in response to almost every
question throughout the interview process. While there were questions specifically
designed to elicit information that would reveal how parents judge schools (Appendix D),
it became evident very quickly that each question and each parental response produced
more data that describes how they judge a school district.

The size of a district and the size of the community was one of the themes that
parents talked about in great detail. District response, including push and pull factors
was another theme that was often mentioned. Push factors are basically defined as any
characteristic or correspondence that causes a student/parent to decide to leave a district.
Pull factors on the other hand are characteristics that encourage a family to choose a
district through school of choice legislation. Finally, discipline issues and the concept of
chaos was a prevalent topic that parents stated as a primary reason to select, or to avoid a
district in a school of choice decision. Discipline quite often was described in relation to
push factors. In other words, if a child was continually in trouble in his resident district,
then the parent/child indicated a desire to find a new school; to avoid the trouble.

The following pages describe some of the most prevalent and intriguing responses

from parents in this study.

68

Class Size

In trying to determine what parent’s value in a school district, the concept of the
size of a district, and sometimes the ratio of students to teacher, or class size became
quite apparent throughout the interviews. Additionally, the size of the community was
often used interchangeably with the size of the district. Similarly, the size of the district
was used interchangeably with the size of the class. In fact, 20 out of 22 parents or sets
of parents interviewed mentioned size as being an important characteristic of a class,
district, and/or a community. When talking about her vision of a bad school, one that she
would not want her 8th grade daughter to attend, Annette said:

“I think an overpopulated school is awful, to make the students to teacher
ratio smaller and not that it’s anybody's fault, it’s just too much for anybody to
keep track of. There is not time spent on the students. The big thing is sometimes
you know one of them in their family has like ADD and stuff, and he really hasn’t
got help in school either when we had problems. Nobody has time to work with

them on an individual basis you know.” (Interview 1)

Similarly, Casey also was adamant about the low class size; however, she seems
very confused about how big the classes are in Durban compared to the school they left,
Cape Town. The exchange was even confirsing to me, as we conversed about her 9th
grade son.

“What aspects of a school are the most important for children to learn?
Casey replies, “In my opinion, they have to have the teacher to student

ratio low, because that to me is the biggest problem that Cape Town has. Here,

69

the seventh grade class, I believe, consists of about 30-45 students. Cape Town
has 20—25 students per class, and they have four classrooms. So he was just
getting lost in the shuffle. He wasn’t getting the individual attention that he
needed, and that is what these kids with learning problems, they have to have.”

“So how many classrooms or how many in a class do they have at Cape Town?”
“Twenty to twenty five.”

“They had 20-25, and Durban has how many in a classroom?”
“I believe 30-45 for the whole seventh grade.”

“How many seventh grade teachers do they have? ”
“My goodness, I couldn’t tell ya, cause my son only has four. And the gym class
and choir in the sixth grade was his last year, there was four, six grade rooms with
20-25 students per room.”

“So the class sizes here are much smaller? ”
“A quarter of what they were over there. I like the small classrooms. He has to
have a small classroom in order for him not to get lost again. I like the teachers; I
have not had one problem with any of the teachers.”

“What’s the definition of small classrooms? What is too big? ”
“Small is ten to twelve, too big would be twenty five, thirty. I mean, I realize that
with the science class in Durban, it has all of them, but there are still only thirty-
two, and he still has the help that he needs. And the teachers are still there if you
need help. So that's small. The class size is what I wanted, that to me is

important” (Interview 3)

70

 

Doug and Dana provided more insight into the importance of having a small
school, with small class sizes. When talking about their decision to choose Durban they
went on and on about how important the size of a district is, and how important the size
of the class is. Doug began,

“It was a small class, and I like the small school. I’m not one to patronize -

- - I don’t patronize Wal-Mart. They’re too big. I don’t like big. I like the small

guy. I’m a small guy. I’m a small business man. I’m a small guy, I like small, I

like the small and on a personal level.”

Dana interrupts, “Coming from the big schools I’ve heard of how a small school works
through him (husband) and fiiends and stuff that have gone to this school. And
the experiences of me being basically the good kid that never got in trouble, I
wished that I had gone to a small school because there was a lot of things that I
seen and had to go through that I didn’t feel that was really was necessary.
Because you know it was the rules they had were set for the trouble makers, and it
was the good kids that got caught in the middle there, and they couldn’t get out. I
mean, you had to suffer with the bad ones."

Doug -"And you read about graduate classes out of the new schools there - - - Prarieview
and J onesburg, it’s nothing to have a 300 or 400 class for graduation. And I
remember when I was a senior in school getting ready to graduate, and they said:
"Well, how many are at your graduation?" And I said: Well our junior classes
are honor guard for seniors. And they said: "What do you mean honor guard?"
So I told them what it was that we did. "Well, how big is your class?" Well I

graduated with 37, 37 yeah I know everybody four years on either side of me

71

through school. I know the whole high school. And they graduate with like 150,
200 kids. They’re lucky if they know their entire class, and I know three classes

on either side of mine.” (Interview 4)

As an elementary teacher in the district, one would expect that Freda would be
supportive of small classrooms, and small schools. Interestingly though, Freda associates
the size with safety and security. She states,

“Well I think it has to feel comfortable and safe to them, which is why I
like the smaller school. I also think, you know, the people and you feel more
comfortable, more like family because if you don’t feel safe and comfortable
you’re not going to be able to learn anything. So, that is very important, and of
course, I think that people know that a great school would definitely be a small
school where most people knew each other. Small schools have more options for
kids. uhm - - - facilities could be maybe better (laugher). But small schools are

certainly comfortable.” (Interview 6)

From a different perspective, Helen again speaks about bad schools as schools
that are overcrowded. Interestingly, she mentions how her experience has influenced her
perspective regarding small schools. She remarks,

“I mean there was my niece. She went to one elementary school that the

classes were way overcrowded. I mean there were way too many students in a

class. I’d have to go with a small school because there’s a lot more interaction.

You can’t just become lost in a sea of faces. The teacher knows you. The teacher

72

is going to know you. There is no escaping attention. Everybody is going to
know who you are. Its individualized attention and I think that’s important
because I just, I think that you, that especially as a teenager, you need someone to

really to be able to focus on you.” (Interview 8)

When asked about important aspects of quality schools, Paul doesn’t hesitate to
mention the perception of size as being very important. He begins,

“The nice thing about Durban is that the classes are smaller, so there is a
little more benefit there as far as teachers maybe having a little more time per
student. I’m not going to give you a number, but I would say where the teacher’s
able to give time to students that need it. And there are some students; my older
daughter was that way; she never needed to study. I mean, she could set down to
take a test and do the whole nine yards. Brittany is the opposite; she needs to
study. Maybe she needs a little bit more one-on-one from a teacher, so that to me
is a benefit of a smaller school. The smaller school, you know, I could feel like

that’s a benefit as far as the smaller classrooms and that.” (Interview 16)

Similarly, Quinton who is a pipe-fitter by trade identifies small class size and
small schools as those of quality. When talking about the qualities of a good school,
Quinton not only mentions size as being important, but goes further to define what a
small class is. Quinton states,

“I guess classroom sizes, you know, try to keep the classroom sizes down

where they're not; if you got 20 kids in there it’s a lot easier than teaching 30-40

73

kids. I mean the more one-on-one contact the teacher can relate to 20 kids easier
than she can 40. And trying to keep 40 kids in a classroom and occupied and
doing their school work and stuff, it’s a lot of hassle. I mean, you know there are a
lot of disadvantages of being a small school, but then there are a lot of good
advantages. I think the good out weighs the bad. I mean they might not have all
the high tech stuff that the other schools got, whatever, but I think that having a

small school is more important that that.” (Interview 17)

District Size

Betty sees the advantage of having a small school for her elementary students, but
hedges somewhat on what will happen when they get to high school. The advantage of a
small elementary school is appealing; however, the lack of opportunities at a small high
school is troubling. While her children are in the 2nd and 4th grades, she is already
talking about the future. Betty begins,

“Like I said, it is a small district. And I do like the comfort factor of the small

district and that I know when my fiiends go to kid's houses, I lmow that family,

and I know what’s going on.” (Interview 2)

Jack and Jill, the grandparents of 10th and 5th grade girls, similarly attribute small
schools with teachers that care more. The girl’s mother died in an automobile accident
two years ago, and their father has never been around since their birth. Their decision
hinged on the fact that the girls attended a small school in the Upper Peninsula, and these

grandparents wanted them to continue in a small school. As they talk about their

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granddaughters, they relate small schools with caring and professional teachers, teachers

that will teach common sense. Jack begins by talking about teachers not teaching. He

begins,

“Teachers should teach the basics, the basic fimdamentals and a little bit
of common sense. Common sense nowadays is out the window. I think that the
smaller district, such as this one or whatever, has more, a little better opportunity
to present them basics. I think the teachers are a little bit more geared to a smaller
school environment where in some of the bigger ones it’s just a job. There is a
difference between that and the teacher being a job or an occupation that you are
ahnost called into. Also, the smaller the district, the fewer the kids, they may get
better attention from the teachers and so on. To me in a big school, when they are
teaching; it’s a job. In a smaller school, the teachers, it's an occupation. I think
there is a difference.”

Jill agrees by nodding her head and suggests: “I can’t imagine that they would enjoy
making new fiiends because that was one of the firings they were most concerned
about. I think with a bigger school it is like comparing it to a church. If you want
to get lost in a church, go to a big huge church. If you want to be a worker in the
church, you go to a smaller one. You know, I don’t think we are ready to get lost

in a big school.” (Interview 10)
Kathy’s daughter is in 8th grade and shares her idea of a bad school. This concept

continues to surface as a bad school being big and unfiiendly, while a small school is

warm and inviting. Parents have the perception that there is more opportunity to build

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relationships in smaller schools. However in larger schools, its all about crowd control.
She begins,
“Well, (long pause) I guess a bigger school is uncontrollable; you’ve got

more people, and you’re going to have a whole different world. It’s like getting a
big crowd together. You can’t control a big crowd; I like it because it’s a one-on-
one if you have a problem. A good example of bad schools would be the Florida
Schools. I have a lot of relatives in Florida, and we’re not talking about like 20
high school graduates. We're talking about 200-300 graduating at one time. Its
bam' bam'. There is nothing nice about the graduation. You are in and you're out
and that is it. But, I consider that a bad school, in order to get something through,
you have to go through about 3 or 4 people to talk to the person you want to.”

(Interview 1 l)

Nannette graduated from Durban and has a 4th grade son. The size of the district
and warm comfortable feeling one gets fi'om a small school is special. She describes a
small district:

“Because this was a very small town, very small school district, I think I

felt like I fit in more. That is, I got a cozy warm feeling being here. This is like a

second home; that’s how comfortable I was. uhm - - - I can’t say that there was

any teacher that I was never happy with. I got along great with all of the teachers.

I guess you can’t sum it up into one word, but being a smaller district I honestly

felt this was where he would fit in and be comfortable; that certainly came into

play. That was very important to me after knowing how things were before we

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moved, in the school he was in before.” (Interview 14)

Another common thread shared in many of the interviews was the belief that this
small district had a positive effect on their child. Rebecca shares the following about her
12th grade son:

“Michael is a little, (ha) he’s actually a good kid. He did exactly what I
said: "Get all your hard stuff done in your junior year, and then have fun in your
senior year," and he is pretty smart, but he doesn’t put it to the firllest potential.
But I think Durban has a lot to do with how he is. Where as if I were to have sent
him to a bigger school district, which I had to fight for him not to go to
Coldsprings, and he’s contained a little bit, but he’s pretty good. Because
everybody knows everybody, the teachers, the kids know that if they come here
they know my child. So if he’s not in school, they call me at home or work. You
know they keep an eye on them. They know the parents; they know the kids. I
just feel better about a small district. Because I went to a big school, I know what
it was like. I went from a little school to a big school, and that didn’t work out
very well. And my kids started in a little school, and Durban is a smaller district,
but I was trying to get it really close to the same size, and I had heard good things

_ - - so - - -.” (Interview 18)

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District Response

Push Factor

Adam and Annette certainly felt frustrated with the teacher in Cape Town.
Their response to remove their daughter from that school would be considered as
a pushed factor. In essence, the district response to their needs was bad enough in
the parents perspective to move their child to another school. However, if the
parents had indicated that they were lured away by a school, that would be
considered a pull (this will be described in greater detail in the following section).
As we move through this section, we will see parents who were pushed away
from one district or another. Here is what Annette had to say about Cape Town:

“It was a lot of struggle with her, a lot of effort on our part, and that was
the frustration that we had was that teacher; "I don’t do one on ones. I don’t do
this, I don’t do that;" and sometimes, you know, a teacher taking time to explain
things, can explain things different than a parent can, and sometimes a child will
listen to it. That teacher was terrible; no communication! So, it was just that she
was (the daughter), I guess more when she was getting up like in middle school is
when she really started getting behind in like Math; and English is where we
really started noticing that not a lot effort was put out by her; she wasn’t doing so
hot. And I like that the principal (Durban’s) when I first met him, we talked to
him about the situations going on, and he like, had examples of, he didn’t say any
names, but I like, I felt like he really paid attention to his students. I really liked
that he knew what was going and kind of who to keep an eye on. I just, I liked

that I really felt like he paid attention to what’s going on.” (Interview 1)

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Similarly, Casey had the same type of issues with her 9th grade son. She felt as
though she had to fight just to get a response from the school. The lack of response from
the resident school is what drove her to choose another school. Casey explains,

“I yelled and yelled, and then they said that he was just lazy. He was lazy and he

had an attitude problem. They said he was a violent child, and he is just not. In

fact, his teachers here tell me he’s so quiet that most of the time they don’t even
know he’s in class.”
“How long has he gone to Durban? ”

“He started in, I believe it was mid September of his sixth grade year. I had had

all the problems with Cape Town that I could deal with.”
“So you ’re just over a year here? ”

“Yes, I mean it is just a difference in his grades and his whole attitude. So we

made it worth it. He wasn’t getting the individual attention that he needed, and

that is what these kids with learning problems, they have to have. They don’t care.

One instance before we moved to Detroit. My son was doing Cape Town. We

were traveling back and forth on weekends, and I was dating a guy up there, and it

was a Thanksgiving weekend. So I’m coming home from work Wednesday
night; and we’re hurrying; we’re trying to beat traffic - - - Detroit’s a mess

(laughter). Uhm - - - he had scratches on his face. Then I looked and he had this

big goose egg on the back of his head. So I’m trying to figure what went on. The

teacher, the principal, nobody called fiom Cape Town. When we got back

Monday, I had the principal on the phone, and I asked: “What happened?” "Well

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he, he’s an attitude problem," they said. I said he is not an attitude problem. You
put him on the bus with an ice pack and a head wound and didn’t even bother to
call me. He said: "Well I forgot." I said you just don’t forget about head wounds.
I said. And it was, that was just, they did not care. They don’t care. There was a
student over there when my son was there, he had emotional problems. And he
was a violent.”

“T he other student? ”

“Yeah and they would call his mom when he would start to get out of control.
They called his mom when he starts to get out of control, but yet you can’t call me
when there is a problem like that. That’s a health issue. They said: "Well that’s
the way we deal with him.”

“You said there had been other fights before that, or other scraps, or other issues? ”
“Yeah, he had been the victim of a bully. There were three that I knew of. And
basically that principal said you are going to stand there and take it if a bully beats
you up. I said no he’s not. He’s not going to throw the first punch, but you are not
going to, he’s not going to stand there and let some bully beat him up. I said if
you are, if your teachers can’t keep an eye on what’s going on, then you need hire
more people to keep on eye on what’s going on. They care in Durban; they are
willing to work with me. Uhm - - - they are willing to work with the students.
They want him to succeed.”

“How do teachers demonstrate they care, what do you see as a parent, or how do you

know a teacher cares? ”

“They would call me. They will email me. They will help him more. She realizes

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what he needs, a little extra help, and she will allow him to take his test with Mrs.
Williams. When he doesn’t understand a question it can be explained to him. If
he doesn’t understand, they will quietly set down and try to help him, explain it to
him.”

Later in the conversation, Casey describes yet another incident at the former school. I

ask, “This was afier the trip to Detroit? This was another fight? ”
“Separate, a separate incident, the school I thought maybe it would calm down
through the summer. And he said mom: "I've had enough" and he said: "You
know they’re rude there, the teachers are rude." She (principal) said: "Oh it’s you
again;" when I took him the next morning and I. I had been in contact with the
superintendent over there before. I had also been in contact with the school board
over there.”

“Who was the principal at that time?”
“The principal is Mrs. Johnson. The principal that was in that day was Mike Ross
who I had had as a teacher. And I have a lot of respect for him as teacher, as a
coach, as a person, but Mrs. Johnson I have no respect for at all. I think she is a
useless piece of space.” (Mrs. Johnson was recently recognized as principal of the
year by a state association)

“If you were to list three, or the three most important reasons for enrolling your child

here what would those be? ”
“I like the teachers. I have not had one problem with any of the teachers. They
sat down and talked to me and listened to my concerns that I had and even when I

enrolled him I expressed concerns about uhm - - - his hand writing and his

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reading. In fact, Josh Hi ghtower (Durban’s Principal) was setting there when I
was filling out the papers to enroll him and he had him write. He said: "We just
need more practice." So that to me said volumes right there. When the principal,
I’m not sure if he was acting superintendent at the time or not, but he sat right
there and was talking with me and answered questions and was talking to my son
as a person not a as a child but an actual person. But that said a lot, and I’m so

happy with him being here.” (Interview 3)

Ginny’s 9th grade son is also a young boy who did not have much success at Cape
Town. Ginny felt like no one cared. Again, even though Ginny aclmowledges that her
son is mischievous, she describes a lack of response from the resident district that caused
the parents to choose another school. When asked to describe Andrew, this is what she
had to say:

“Andrew is a very mischievous child, classic ADHD syndrome. Whatever
you want to call it, and uhm - - - that is where part of the problem with the other
school arose. Cape Town was the school he was going to, and they didn’t even
want to recognize the fact, even though he had been diagnosed by the doctors. I
just couldn’t take the stress. We compared the disciplinary process of both
schools, and the one here is corrective, not punitive as such, I mean they can still
punish the kid because they messed up. I mean if a kid screws up in school why
punish him; I should say why reward him by giving him the day off and sending
him home so he can lay around and watch TV or whatever you know. And at the

time I was working, so, yeah he loved the day off (laugher) you know.”

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“What was the critical moment? When was the decision that something needed to
change, and you were taking him somewhere else? What was the critical moment? ”
“I had to decrease my stress level and that constant battle with the school was just
one more thing to add to the list. They weren’t doing anything for him, and it was
making me worse so. And, well, the principal once we did, there was the initial

principal-student interview.” (Interview 7)

Irene’s daughter is in lst grade at Durban, and this parent is one of several who
are not satisfied with the responses that they have had with Durban. Our conversation is
interesting because not only is she not transferring her daughter out of Durban right now,
she is not convinced to move her next year either. We enter this conversation somewhere
in the middle after Irene has hinted dissatisfaction with her daughters’ teacher. I asked:
“The first grade teacher is not very good? ”

Irene responds, “I don’t, I don’t know how to describe it. I’ve done nothing but

fight this year for my daughter at this school.”
“ What happened? ”

“Uhm - - - the teacher’s ethics are just not, they’re not working, and we’ve proven

it and told them that, and it’s still going on regardless of what I’ve done.”
“You say ethics, what’s she doing wrong? Give me an example. ”

“She’s treating my first grader like a third or fourth grader. Her sentence

structures were way off. It was awful, she hated school. Because you know she

thinks she goes for school all day; then I gotta come home and try to catch her up.

And she is very bright. That’s the sad thing. She’s bright, and she catches on to

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things fast, but this was awful.”

“Describe what a bad school would be like. ”
“Where they don’t keep on top of their teachers and make sure that they are up to
par and going in to them and sitting there and making sure that the teacher is
doing what they're supposed to. I’m talking once a month you go to each teacher
to make sure they are following, I don’t know, code or ethics or whatever you
want to call it. But that the kids are learning, following up with parents to see if
what the teacher is doing is working. Stay on top of teachers basically.”

(Interview 9)

Jack and Jill talk about the importance of teachers caring about kids. This is a
very common statement that will be continued throughout many of the interviews of this
study. When talking about quality schools, caring teachers was commonly mentioned by
many of the parents. Additionally, parents describe caring teachers as those that love
kids, and also communicate often. Jill suggests,

“I think a great school is where teacher are there because they love the
kids. Sure you gotta work for money, but it is because they love the kids, and
they want what is best for the kid which engulfs as far as teaching their best. And
this idea any more seems like of asking kids. You don’t hear of too many kids
being failed because they can’t make it. They just pass them along for whatever
reason so that they don’t, they aren’t embarrassed to stay behind or whatever. But
don’t miss out on the point you are there to teach them. If they don’t learn how

many years or whatever they have got to be there to learn because it is for the best

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in the future.” (Interview 10)

Along the same lines, when asked what a bad school is, Paul describes one where
teachers do not care. Where teachers do not invest enough effort with their students.
He states,
“A bad school is where the teachers don’t have, or don’t take the time, to
work with students, especially the ones that maybe need a little bit more. Uhm - -
- allows a lot of behavioral things to go on, not just with one student but when
there is a group problem One thing that, at least in this particular case, it seems
that Cape Town School District has a lot of relative teachers you know. Like you
had a brother that was two years older and went to the same school you did, and
maybe he wasn’t a model student, or whatever you want to call it, or just didn’t
get along with the teacher. And that, that to me kind of follows through a little bit
over there. I haven’t seen that here. Uhm - - - and I know a lot of the teachers
there. I know a lot of the teacher here at the tech business end. I mean I work on

quite a few vehicles from both places so.” (Interview 16)

Similarly, Stan talks about schools that just "won't help kids, that won't teach
kids." Stan begins by talking about teachers who do not care.
“They just, in my opinion, they don’t know how to teach and help
individual students that, I mean, it’s not like you gotta spend a lot of time with
them, but if a kid’s having problems and raises their hand, you know. If you want

them to learn you gotta go help them. And they didn’t do that. Personal relations,

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learn your kids, you know, how to interact with people but definitely a big part.
Because I mean you can have all the books in the world, but if you can’t interact
with somebody, you can’t get the information you need to formulate an opinion
about anything. If you don’t get along with somebody, you’re not going to learn
from them, you know.”
“Describe the critical moment when you finally selected a school? What was the last
straw at Cape Town? ”
“It began with major problems with my oldest daughter. Kids at school, and it
wasn’t so much the things that happened in school but was things that happened
out of school and in both kids being there, and, you know, lack of supervision.
And a major issues.”
“Did she get in trouble? ”
“No - - - she got raped, not in the school, but the school had no, I mean when we
started going to court, you had kids that liked that boy, and they started doing
stuff in school to harass her, and the school wouldn’t do nothing, and that was the

last straw that broke the camel's back.” (Interview 19)

Pull Factor
Laura and Luke tie the idea of a small school with better service. There response
indicates an attraction to the Durban School District. This attraction to a district is
considered a pull factor. Laura comments,
“I like the teachers and the school. I mean, now to go in there with her

and they still know me, and I think that was one thing that I, that really sticks in

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my head is that, that it being such a small school that, you know, they know
everybody in which it kind of sticks with you. The teachers, the teachers, you
know, are the most important. The teachers and how they really teach the kids is

the most important.” (Interview 12)

When Nannette was asked; “What is a great school?” She also began with caring
teachers; again indicating the idea of a pull factor. Nannette states,

“I know that if I went to a place like in a classroom I want to know that the
person who is going to be teaching them is someone that is there because they
care for the students. And I know that I can say with the few teachers that he has
had since he’s been here that he has gotten that. We keep in close contact as
needed, and I like that. I want to know, like if he’s having a problem I want to
know about it, so I help fix it too. I don’t want it to be that with, not necessarily
behind my back, but I want to know what I can do and what you are going to do
to make sure that it’s taken care of. Also, a teacher that has a smile on her face
because she’s happy to see her students. Durban has just had this type of

reputation.” (Interview 14)

Opal talks about important aspects of a school which are important for children to
learn. She begins with safety and moves into a warm caring environment. Here is how
she explains it:

“My feeling would be the most important characteristic is their ability to

feel safe and comfortable in their environment. I think it is really important,

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especially the high school level, because I think if you don’t feel like the
environment fits or is a place where you can ask questions and be accepted then
there’s other things going on that you are not able to learn. Uhm - - - probably I
guess I would have to say the quality of the teaching has got to be up there, too.
Teachers who don’t want to be there would be a bad school. uhm - - - I also I kind
of was looking for a feel of warmness coming in and that is hard to find when you
are going in the summer, and so I was looking for that. I was looking for
somebody with like an open door. Come on in, let me talk to you - - - that kind of
a feel. And so that really kind of was a turning point for us because I didn’t really
know about that program and then going to meet Mr. Lapeer in that program. It is
just phenomenal and talk about a warm welcome! Uhm - - - he did a great job at

reeling us in right away. (Interview 15)

Quinton talks about a school where students can learn, he begins by
talking about what a great school has:

“It, it has to have good quality teachers. Teachers that get along,
understand the kids, and can motivate them. I mean that’s a lot of it, I mean I
remember when I was in school the teachers just seemed like they were there; the
ones I thought were good, were motivated. They had a lot of good ideas and tried
new things and things like that to get you into what you were doing. And I think
that has a lot to do with it. That’s a good school. She, she says that she really
enjoys the teachers. That seems like what they do, and the ones that she doesn’t

enjoy as much, they don’t seem to do that as much. Cause that’s how I took it

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when I talked to her.” (Interview 17)

When asked what a good school is like, Zoe responds:

“Uhm - - - they are when, when I hear about the teachers, and they tell me
that they’re willing to work with students and not just to brush them off, and they
have really good programs as far as working with parents and trying to, uhm - — -
if you have a problem it’s easy to approach the teachers and the staff there. Also
the teacher’s level of knowledge is a big thing, and I do like the program where
they’re having to still be in classes and still go to school and keep up on their

schooling. I like that idea that they, that is an awesome idea.” (Interview 22)

Discipline
History of Problems

Another of the common threads in how parents judge schools is the level of
discipline. In this case discipline is not always the same as punishment. Rather parents
think of the term discipline as a school with structure or rules. Of course, some of these
parents indicate that they are leaving a school because the rules were too stringent or
unfair. The next several pages document their stories. When asked why Adam and
Annette moved their daughter out of Cape Town their reply indicated discipline issues in
her resident district: Annette explains,

“She uhm - - - seventh grade year she was aspired to a good average

student A, Bs, and Cs. Uhm - - - you know, basic, you know, eighth grade /

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seventh grade troubles nothing too bad. Uhm - - - well prior to that, and she just
started making some poor choices. Uhm - - - well, just her actions not completing
her school work, her grades were deplorable. We tried everything from having
the teachers send notes to sending it home everyday making sure she was doing
her homework to make sure she didn’t miss too many days and what we, we
ended up pulling her out of school mid-term. It was in January of last year, and
we home schooled her for the rest of the year just to even get her caught up. Uhm
- - - at this point she having no extra curricular activities whatsoever. She danced
since she was in kindergarten, there as just nothing left. We allowed her no phone
calls; she was just making crazy choices (laughter).”

Adam — “And we wanted a school that maybe would address, maybe talk to the parents
about if they are seeing problems with their kids because we, we were informed
that, that they were starting to see problems with her but it was kind of way too
late.” ’

Annette - “She had arranged for a couple fiiends to meet her there, and, fortunately, this
is a place she had been going like I said since she was in kindergarten, and she
decided that was going to say she had to go to the bathroom or whatever, and they
took off. They just took off running around town. So that, that was just it. She’s
just so influential that I didn’t, I felt that if didn’t get a handle on it she was just
going to go down a really bad path. The day we were informed was the day we
actually took her out of school.”

Adam - “I think she was, we, we both feel that she probably wasn’t going to pass

because of her grades had we not done that. And she’s already, she’s a late

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birthday so she’s already older than some of the other kids, so we didn’t want her,
you know, have that hanging over her so. We thought it would be the best for

her.” (Interview 1)

While Casey talks about the lack of caring from the teachers and administration,
what she alludes to, is the history of trouble that her son had while in Cape Town. With
only six months of history in Durban, at this time, it is not known whether these same
types of problems will begin again. When asked about her son's last district she states:

“They didn’t care at all, when I would say, you know, there is a problem.

"Oh, no there is no problem. We don’t have a problem." Yeah there is a

problem. It was unreal. I mean he came home one time in a brand new white t-

shirt and it was bloody. I soaked and scrubbed it for a week.”
“His blood?”

“Yeah, the principal said well he got into a fight he’s suspended. He was

defending himself from the bully; you know he’s a bully because he’s been in

your office several times not just for my kid but for other kids. So you can’t,
violence in schools is a big issue that needs to be addressed. And it can’t be from
parents or that’s just kids being kids. But if they are violent now it is only going

to get worse and you need to stop it now before it gets worse.” (Interview 3)

Ginny talks about the fact that her son was a discipline problem and that she was

actually shopping for a school where there would be fewer discipline issues. Ginny

shares her perspective:

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"Uhm - - - we sat down a certain set of rules, which were basically the
same things that we knew when he came here. You know, they have you sign a
contract, and we knew that that was what it was going to be, and that is pretty
much the same guidelines we gave him. And this is the way it is, and you know if
you can’t do that then you are going back. To begin with, I wanted a student
handbook. I had a copy of that from Cape Town, and I was comparing it to the
one he was going to. That was one of my concerns because like I said, all they
were doing they weren’t helping him. I mean Cape Town, they were not helping
Drew. They were, we’ll give you-in school suspension. That doesn’t do any
good, not if he’s not doing anything, you know. Out of school suspension’s like a
vacation day. He don’t care.”

“How often would you say he got in trouble? ”

“If I didn’t get a call at least once a week, I’d count my blessings. And the, that
was if he got a suspension, they’d call me; if it was anything else they didn’t.
They are too quick to just straight across the board everybody gets the same
discipline. But is the discipline correcting the problem? Are we addressing
what’s caused the problem? No. Somebody attacks my son in school, and if my
son defended himself, they both got kicked out. Does that make sense he has no
right to defend himself and, especially if it was a girl, the girl got no discipline
and the boy. The little girl I specifically remember once incident the little girl
goes up to kick my son, you know, and he, all he did was just push her away, and
there was, you know, witnesses to the fact. He gets suspended. She didn’t get

anything.” (Interview 7)

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Helen's daughter also had social problems. This appeared to be her politically
correct way of saying discipline problems. Especially interesting is the idea that she does
not care about her daughter's academic achievement at all. Helen shares her description
of the problem.

“My daughter is 13. She’s always had problems socially, and she had no
friends. So, I transferred her to Durban for a fresh start, and she just, she’s, she
bloomed socially here. I mean, she really doesn’t have that many fiiends, but at
least she has some, and she’s being more of a normal kid. And her grades have
suffered horribly, but she has a social life, and I think until she gets into high
school I’m not really as worried about the academic side. I want her to be, you
know, somewhat social before I worry about her grades. Because it was getting
kind of worrying there at the other, her time in Hot Springs. I mean (pause)
there’s all the academic stuff but, the social interaction is a big thing for me
anyway. Learning to get along with other people to make your way through

without, you know, getting into too much trouble (laughter).” (Interview 8)

Paul talks about his 9th grade daughter and the fact that she has been expelled due
to her past behavior. He begins by describing their resident district and also mentions
that her behavior did not change right away when she transferred to Durban. However,
she has improved recently. Paul states,

“Years past, I know in Cape Town when she went there she had a lot of

problems socially. Grades were marginal. She came here and in 7th and 8th grade,

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and the problems kind of followed her here. This year she has had a real good
turnaround socially. She’s doing well."

“Was she getting in trouble a lot or, suspended or expelled? ”
“Yeah, uhm - - - yeah I can’t tell you how many times. She may have been
expelled once or twice. I can’t say. I can’t remember. I think this occurs where
the teachers don’t have or don’t take the time to work with students, especially the
ones that maybe need a little bit more. Uhm - - - that allows a lot of behavioral
things to go on. Not just with one student but when there is a group problem.
Uhm - - - she had said before that she wanted to move out of Cape Town School

because of the problems socially.” (Interview 16)

Avoiding Discipline Problems

Doug and Dana talk about the stories that they have heard about the lack of
discipline at Cape Town. Doug begins,

“We had relatives, my sister’s boys, and we have some very close fiiends
that had kids, and we got stories that just we drew the conclusion that it was not
going to be where we we’re going to send our kids. Uhm - - - and the daycare
that we had was in Cape Town, and her (child care provider) kids, went down to
school there, and they came home with some of the same type of problems that
we had heard. I mean, just the same typical stuff that the kids were in trouble
with one thing or another and this and that, and, you know, it was just stuff that

we that fell right in with everything that we’d hear about.” (Interview 4)

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Nannette talks about her son Christian as a typical boy that needs structure. She
describes him this way:

“He is a character. uhm - - - Christian I would say is atypical boy. That
is what he has always been referred to as atypical boy. He’s a very good child;
uhm - - - he needs a challenge though. I’m not going to lie. He really needs to be
challenged, and he needs and likes to stay busy. He likes and wants to be
entertained or have something to do from the minute he gets up to the minute he
goes to bed that he’s happy. He, we found out that when he was six that he was
one of the milder cases of having ADHD. And that is based on what a computer
test said. I had begun to wonder, but like I said, I think that as long he has
something to do to keep himself occupied, he’s okay. But if he does not have
something to occupy him that’s when he starts to make the wrong choices, and he
doesn’t use his time very wisely, but he is a straight A student. He is above grade
level in math and reading definitely. He is at an 8"1 grade reading level and math I
believe he is between a fifth and sixth grade level, but he is an excellent student.

He just needs structure and to be kept busy” (Interview 14)

Chaos

The term "Chaos" caught me a little bit by surprise. This term was used most
often when I asked the parents to describe a bad school. However, the term also came up
multiple times in different parts of the interviews. The following provides some insight
into their ideas. Doug and Dana talk about the most important aspects of a school for

children to learn? Doug begins,

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“Getting along, obeying rules, respect uhm - - - respect for others.

Respect for themselves. Is there something I haven’t covered yet? Learning that
life is made up of everything that you can imagine including disappointments and
happiness and troubles and stuff you can wiggle out of and stuff you just got to
face up to. Just learning, just plain learning life is important in school. But it
isn’t up to a school to teach a hundred percent that a kids got a learn.”

“Describe what a bad school is like. ”

Doug — “Chaos, no rules, or different rules for different people.”

Dana - “I say the different rules for the different people.” (Interview 4)

Freda also mentions chaos when talking about a bad school. Since she is a
teacher that has taught in several districts, she might have some prior experience with her
description of chaos in a classroom. Freda begins,

“I don’t think a bad school would have a lot of order. It doesn’t have a
good chain of command, you know. So it’s not safe, because of that. Without
discipline that’s needed to keep kids in line and make sure they are doing what
they are supposed to be doing. And of course teachers if they don’t have their
uhm person at the head keeping track of things. They may start to do whatever
they want and, you know, and there’d be chaos so, order is important.” (Interview

6)

Jack and Jill describe the Hollywood version of chaos, and actually, several of the

other parents identified with a movie version of a school that is out of control, or chaotic.

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Jack offers this,

“Well, when you gotta put up metal detectors for them to go through
everyday, gotta have police watch the halls all day, you got people walking
around carrying guns and knives or whatever to school, total and absolute chaos.
It’s ahnost like a jail setting, and I have been in a few of them. That is a bad
school. And I don’t know why, where it started, who allowed them to do this,
allowed them to do that, didn’t crack down, didn’t do this. A lot of it is from the
system, and the so called correctional system, or whatever. You can’t do this.
You can’t do that, but you can let the kids run around. I don’t buy that, and those
kind of schools are painful. The laws and stuff like that. It used to be if your kid
in school was misbehaving - - - I know I had a few of them myself when I was in
school - - - that if the principal or something crack you on the backside, you go
home - - - big deal. I’d say; "Mom!" Shed say: "Hush up!" Or you’d get more,
you lmow. From then to now, now you can’t look at them cross eyed. I think they
are running scared, so they don’t crack down like they ought to. For their own

sake.” (Interview 10)

Laura and Luke, identify the same Hollywood perspective of big schools, as bad

schools. Laura states “I think of that you see on the movies where they have to have all

the metal detectors and drug dogs coming in (laughter).” (Interview 12)

Similarly, Mark and Mary also identify a bad school as chaotic and then define it.

Mark —“In my opinion a bad school has uncontrolled students and chaos.”

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“What does chaos look like? ”

chaos.

Mark — “Chaos, in my opinion, is the staff not exerting control, also students who

do not give the staff the respect that they should have.” (Interview 13)

Nannette describes a bad school, as similar to Hollywood movies, and refers to
She begins by talking about Hollywood movies:

“Uhm - - - the bad thing is I can only refer to movies that you see in
movies, but I am sure that there are school out there that may have those
problems. Students that reach a point where uhm - - - they might not make the
right choices. That they have a high rate of drop outs, or they have breaks in
security because there is chaos, you know, drug smuggling or students that bring
guns to school. Like Columbine. That was quite the problem they had there.
That to me would be a bad school. Where you’re having to go through a metal

detector before you even go to your classroom.”

“How would you define chaos? What is chaos? What does it look like? ”

“Chaos to me is an out of control classroom. That would be chaos to me, and I
have seen them where it’s just loud and very disruptive, not only to those people
there but to classrooms in the same hallway. That to me is chaos. No order, kids
running out of the classroom because the bell rang, and everybody is going here
and there and everywhere. I think it should be, there should be order to it. Uhm -
- - (long pause) okay. The bell rings. You get up and a single file line maybe,
you go, you get your coats, your boots, or whatever, and, if you need to come and

be seated before going to the bus then that is how it should be. Or if it’s time to

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go to the bus, you put your things on, and you stay single file, and you go to your
bus. And I know you are not going to have that 100% of the time, but I know I’ve
come in here before, and you, as a parent, you are dodging because they are not
following the rules, or they’re not doing what they are supposed to be doing, so

that I guess would be chaos to me.” (Interview 14)

Quinton describes a bad school as one that is chaotic. His reference to cliques is
also in reference to a school that is bad. He mentioned cliques several times during our
interview, and it was obvious that he believes that cliques are damaging to students. He
begins:

“A bad school is like. . .(long pause). . .I guess I, you’re talking about as in
the cliques, and you know, that you have a lot of that in school, and teachers
don’t, or the school system itself, doesn’t really stop them. I think that is really
hard on kids. I mean, even when I was in there, there was a little bit of a clique,
but to me it sounds like there is even more of that nowadays than there used to be.
I don’t know why, but, you know, I think that has a lot to do with it. Kids are
hanging out in the hallways and bathrooms. Kids swearing at teachers and
principals, bringing guns and knives, like in the bigger schools, it's just utter
chaos. You know, outside, of course, there’s not too much of that around here,
but I doubt there’s too much of that anywhere anymore because things have
changed so much since I’ve been in. When I went to school we could go, we
could take off for lunch and stuff like that where nowadays they aren’t allowed to

do that. So, I mean they have a tighter rein on it. Stuff like that.” (Interview 17)

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Summary

In this study, parents described the characteristics in which they judge the quality
of a school. In broad terms, parents in this rural area judged the quality of a school based
on 3 criteria. First, they most often mentioned the size of the school, the district and the
community as being a major factor in their decision. Second, parents indicated that the
response that the parents received from either the resident district or the receiving district
provided a basis on which to judge the school. The district response could either be a
push, or a pull factor. Again, push factors could be any type of commrmication (or lack
of), between the parent and the school that causes the parent/child to leave that district
and enroll in another district. Oppositely, a pull factor is any characteristic that draws a
family into a district through school of choice legislation. Finally, parents often
mentioned discipline as a factor to judge a school. Discipline could be related to their
child making poor choices in one district, subsequently moving to another, or it could be
the reputation that a school district has. For instance, some parents indicated that they
avoided one district due to the discipline problems that other parents were having with
their child. Most interesting in this section was that parents consistently used the term

“Chaos” when talking about bad schools, or schools with discipline problems.

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Information Gathered
Chapter VI

Introduction

Recently on a lengthy flight, I found myself engaged in a discussion with a
flight attendant about her school of choice decision for her little girl. She
mentioned that her daughter’s elementary school was great! Not wanting to miss
an opportunity to cast doubt on a public school, I quickly inquired as to how she
knew that her daughter was in a “great” school. The flight attendant seemed
puzzled by my question, so I continued. “How do you know that your daughter is
learning as quickly as the children in the charter school down the road?” Now I
had her thinking. She replied, “Oh, the teachers and secretaries are all so nice.” I
continued: “What curriculum are they using in her third grade class in regards to
writing, reading, math, or social studies? Is your daughter reading on grade level?
Are all of the teachers deemed “Highly Qualified” by national standards? Are the
building and district making “Adequate Yearly Progress” as defined by No Child
Left Behind? Have you studied education, researched best practices, or are you
familiar with Charlotte Danielson’s work on teacher evaluation?” A constant
shaking of her head indicated to me that she had actually very little knowledge
about what was happening within her daughter’s classroom. “Then how in the
world do you know that your child is receiving a “great” education?” I wondered.

The conversation which had lasted less than ten minutes was pleasant, but

I could tell that my questions were truly bothering her. I felt certain that my

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questions had her thinking, and I hoped they would later be shared and discussed
with her husband. I know that I left that conversation wondering on what basis
and with what rationale other parents were making judgments regarding the
quality and appropriateness of their schools for their children.

The previous was an impromptu discussion, of which I have unashamedly
bothered many friends and strangers alike in the recent months, however, the formal
interviews that occurred with the parents of Durban mimicked that discussion, and most
of the interviews revealed that very little information, if any, is being gathered by parents.
Typically, parents will rely on the perceptions of friends, family, or quite often, even
work associates. It seems that word of mouth in most cases serves as good enough.
Occasionally, parents will seek out information from the school as well. This chapter
looks at the types of information that parents, or as in the first section, looks at the lack of
information that parents gather in order to make a school of choice decision. In many
cases, the information gathered is closely tied with how the parents judge the quality of a

school. In short, the personal values of the parents weigh heavily in the decision.

No Information

When making important decisions, a person would logically gather information
before making a decision. When a person buys a house, normally there are inspections,
inquiries into the quality of the structure; the value of the home is balanced with the
location of the property. Similarly, if a person is buying a car, they can read “Consumer
Reports”, or go online to “Car fax” if it is a used car. In either case, information is

gathered to help determine the best course of action. However, when selecting a school

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district many parents gather little of no information to help them with their decision. In
many cases, parents are leaving one small rural school for another school that is very
similar. Additionally, parents seldom mentioned any baniers to information. The one
barrier that parents occasionally mentioned was inferior web-sites. In the following
exchange, Betty clearly sends the message of good enough in the following dialogue:
“Did you gather any information about the different school districts around? ”

“Uhm - - - no. If I did, I would probably go and talk to the individual

superintendents just to get a feel of what they see for their schools.”

 

“Are there any barriers that make it diflicult to get information from a school
district? ”
“Not that I have ever run up against. I mean out on Michigan Department of Ed

web site you can look up all that you need.” (Interview 2).

Jack and Jill wanted to know about the size of the school; they did not look for
student achievement data, and since the girls previous school was near in size to Durban,
assumed that the curriculum would also be the same. When asked about their
information search, Jill begins:

“Well, like we said, the main one we think about was size. It was what
we were looking for in terms of various reasons with them being moved down
here in a different culture all together, as well as different area, and it being full
time. So many different changes, so we tried to make the changes as easy as
possible and that is why we were thinking of a smaller school. And I think that,

talking to different ones in church, which has made it feel right. It’s right down

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the road, but I would also talk to customers when I was cashiering, and I noticed
that their shirts were from Durban. I would ask them how was Durban Schools.
Talking to other people about it. Talking to one another. Again telling them about
the girls. Wanting a small school rather than a big school.”

“Did you gather any information as far as curriculum or MEAP scores, anything in

regards to student achievement? ”

Jill — “No.”

Jack — “We really didn’t gather any information, other than the size of the school. It’s

 

pretty much the same as it was up there as far as the curriculum, the same. Kind
of slid right in, at least, that is what we thought at the time the best that would

work out. And so far it has.” (Interview 10)

The interview with Nannette was very typical; she did not seek any information,
but thought that the schools administration might have the best information. Having the
knowledge from Chapter V regarding district response, this is a very important detail.
When those rare few parents make appointments or just show up to ask questions, they
are really looking to see how school personnel will respond. Here is how the discussion
progressed:

“Did you gather any information about this district or another district? ”

Nannette related —“I knew, I guess I didn’t even, I didn’t give it a thought. I

didn’t really have any questions.”

“If you were looking for a new district today, who would you believe has the most

important information about the schools? ”

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“I would hope the principal or superintendent could give me the information that I
needed.”
“Looking back at that decision, and kind of in retrospect, did you have enough
information to make an informed decision? ”
“(long pause) As far as placing him here versus another city or another school?
You know what? I didn’t have any information at all. I went strictly based on

me.”(Interview 14)

 

Friends and Neighbors

Casey, however, did look for some information. She talked to other parents who
gave her their best knowledge. Several of the interviews in' this study revealed that
parents would listen to friends fi'om work, regarding the school district. She states,

“The class size is what I wanted. I had talked to other parents about the
school. Like I said, I used to work here in town. I, you listen; you see how many
parents have complaints; you kind of get to know and see what kind of parents
they are. If their complaints are valid, and there weren’t that many complaints
about the type of school district this is. So that to me is what's important.

“So looking back did you have enough information about Durban? If you had it do
over again would you seek out more, or do you think you had enough information? ”

Casey - “I wouldn’t change. I would still bring him here. I wish I had done it

quicker, but I would still bring him here. Because like I said the parents, you can

listen to the parents and know if they are happy with the school district and if

they’re not. And if they’re not, they’re going to be really vocal where’s if they’re

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happy about it, they are going to be just as vocal but not as vocal as if they’re not

happy. You see.” (Interview 3)

Helen also felt that other parents could help direct her to a decision. She knew
she wanted a change and thought that trial and error might prove best. She said,

“Uhm — - - I really didn’t. I just, I, I looked into how hard it would be to
transfer her. Uhm - - - what I’d have to fill out what I’d need I think I would have
to, to ask because I have friends that have kids all over in the area. Uhm - - - one
of my friends have a child in another district, a child in Cape Town and two in a
Charter school down towards Indiana. All according to need, she moved them
around until she found the school that fit them the best. So, I think you have to
ask other parents, you know. How do you like the school because that I think is a
lot of it. Uhm - - - it’s really important with where people send there kids.
Because you talk to other parents, how have your kids done in this school, you
know, and all that because you know some kids do better in some schools, some
kids do better in other schools, and it’s not always just because this one, they say
this one’s the best. You know, some people say this is the best doesn’t mean that

it’s going to fit your child.” (Interview 8)

While Irene relied on other parents and students' descriptions of Durban, she
readily admits to not having enough information.
“I just asked people, mostly kids that have went here. I also went on my

husband, you know. When he came here, it was an awesome school, and I was

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hoping that that was still here. What the school is like right now? I asked parents
to learn more about this school. Yeah, I don’t think the school board or the
superintendent really has a clue what’s there’s just too few of people trying to run
the school that they don’t know everything.”

“Looking back again at your decision, did you have enough information to make an

informed decision? ”
“Not really. I wished I would have went for more. I wished I would have came
here and, like in the first pre-school program, I was blinded because it was so
awesome because I was at home with my daughter, and I did go and I watched her
learn in that class and that teacher was awesome. So I just figured if Durban is
going to hire a pre-school teacher like that, you know, then they’ll keep up on the
rest of them. So I wished I would have sat through other prospects of teachers
that she would have had.”

“Were there any barriers that made it difficult to get information? ”
“Uhm - - - I don’t know people protecting people, yeah. The school, the school
stands behind their teachers, and they’re not going to give a negative word about
their school. Call here, walk here, talk here, talk to this teacher. That teacher

there’s not going tell you bad things.” (Interview 9)

When this discussion occurred with Mark and Mary they mentioned that the
students would have the best information about a school district. This idea was also
mentioned by other parents in passing. Each of the parents that mentioned the students

having the best information also immediately indicated that was an improbable source of

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information, because talking to those students would be unlikely. Mark begins:

“The students, but you couldn’t get it out of them, but I’m sure. But
successful information, I would say parents. We just talked to neighbors and
talked to people here. We looked at their web site, and they had a hideous web
site. There was no information available, just a bunch of nonsense. The State of
Michigan had more information that was of no interest when I got into it. This
school’s web site I was concerned about the lack of technological advancement

that this district had when I looked at their web site.” (Interview 13)

Zoe was new to this topic. Her son was just enrolled in Kindergarten yet she did
not even visit the school prior to enrollment. When asked about her search for
information she explains her thoughts.

“Basically right now is, a lot of it is, from people with experience with
them, um I have not yet to be, to have the opportunity to go up there and speak to
them. But that’s basically all the information that I have gotten through is people
that have, that had really good experiences with the elementary. I haven’t heard a
bad word about though, so, and I know a lot of people that have, that are actually
in the elementary, kids that are actually in the elementary that just love it.”
(Interview 22)

“What would your response be if I could show side by side comparisons of student
MEAP scores or district MEAP scores or discipline rates, or college attendance rates,
or basically, if I could show you a side by side comparison that proves that Krueger

students perform better than Butler what would your response be? ”

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“I know that, I know that that is totally possible being from the country. I know
that that is totally possible. One of the other aspects when I chose Durban was
simply because it is a farming community, and that’s, I came from the same
background, and I don’t want him to lose that being here. And, so I was, it was a

very tough decision. It was a very tough decision.” (Interview 22)

Family

Family contacts were often mentioned as a way to gather information in this rural
area. Additionally, many of the parents had attended Durban themselves and believed
that the information that they possessed was sufficient to make a decision. Doug and
Dana describe their search for information in the following exchange. We pick up the
conversation as I ask:

“What information did you gather about Cape Town?”

Doug — “We had relatives, my sister’s boys, and we have some very close
fiiends that had kids, and we got stories that just we drew the conclusion that it
was not going to be where we were going to send our kids. The daycare that we
had was in Cape Town, and her kids went down to school there, and they came
home with some of the same type of problems that we had heard. I mean, just the
same typical stuff that the kids were in trouble with one thing or another and this
and that, and, you know, it was just stuff that we that fell right in with everything
that we’d hear about.” (Interview 4)

Dana added: “We’ve got a neighbor who has actually pulled his kids out of Cape Town,

and they take them to Hot Springs. And his wife is a daughter of one of the

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school teachers. His wife’s first husband is a teacher at Hot Springs and that was

the connection down there.” (Interview 4)

Quinton was the least involved with the decision for his daughter to attend
Durban. He basically allowed his sister Michelle to make the decision. While his
daughter is a senior now, the decision was made several years ago. When asked about
whether he gathered information, Quinton states:

“No, not really because Michelle, like I said, Michelle’s kids had been
going here since they were little, so, basically, Michelle’s the one that said, you
know, she would really like Durban and going with her cousin. I mean, I just

. took it from my sister, I mean, because like I said I didn’t look into it any farther

because that was what she wanted to do, and Micky said she’d do it. I guess if I

would have thought about it, no, I didn’t. I mean, I never really give that a

thought.” (Interview 17)

Rebecca related her information search to the idea that her husband and the rest of
his family attended the district; so she believed that the family already had enough
information.

“Oh yeah. My family, my husband’s family went here and it is, just very
pleased with it. It’s a small school, and they don’t have a lot of things to offer.

You know, where I was used to you get the swimming, the big football. They

don’t start football here until 9th grade. So, I mean, it didn’t have a whole lot to

offer, but it was enough.” (Interview 18)

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School

Ginny, whose son had discipline issues in Cape Town, was most interested in the
student handbook and how the new principal would deal with discipline. I began:
“What information did you gather before selecting Durban? ”

Ginny responds: “Uhm - - - the student handbook. I got a copy of the student

handbook from the office here, and I was comparing it to the one he was coming

from, and like I said, the disciplinary procedures, processes, whatever, however
you want to label them was what I looked for. That was one of my concerns
because, like I said, all they were doing they weren’t helping him. I mean Cape

Town they were not helping Drew.” (Interview 7)

Opal is the exception to this rule. Opal actually traveled to at least 4 different
schools searching for information, although this is second nature for her and her family.
This family has moved quite often and had to change schools quite often. Opal explains
the search for information as a process of elimination.

“Honestly, it was more of a process of elimination. Uhm - - - and the fact
that we were trying to weigh teenagers perspectives, and I had a junior going into
high school, and a freshman, and Mackenzie, we weren’t as worried about that at
that time. So it was kind of like a logistical balance, uhm - - - a moment of a little
bit of apprehension. Our kids have changed schools a lot due to the military
moves, so we were really hoping to make the best of it. We are going to stay
here, and when you are making that kind of decision it is a little tougher than this

will due for a year or two.

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“Specifically what information did you gather in regards to the schools you were

looking at? Or did you look at multiple schools? Which schools did you consider? ”
“We looked at Krueger, Coldspring, Durban, that was pretty much it. And we did
look into Jonesburg, but we didn’t like, go visit there. I just did intemet kind of
thing for J onesburg, but Coldspring, Krueger, Durban and St. Johns, but I’m
sorry. What was the question? What kinds of things. . .”

“What information did you gather from those schools? ”
“We mainly were looking at their level of AP classes that they would be able to
get. Uhm - - - I also I kind of was looking for a feel of warrnness coming in, and
that is hard to find when you are going in the summer, and so I was looking for
that. I was looking for somebody with like an open door. Come on in, let me talk
to you, that kind of a feel. We looked at soccer because that is a huge thing in my
son’s life, so uhm - - - that was a drawback for here. So that was tough, and we,
we did look into that at Krueger and Coldspring both uhm - - - because that would
have been something that might have been another factor. Not very educationally
sound, but a factor. So those were the kinds of things we looked at. As far as for
the elementary level, I mainly was, I mean, I was fairly confident that the
Krueger, Coldsprings programs would be fine, so I didn’t really investigate
elementary a lot.”

“Who do you believe has the most important information about a school?”
“Probably the students; not that we really asked any of them.”

“Looking back on your decision did you have enough information to make an

inform ed decision ? ”

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“No, because, yes, we could we have gotten more, yes. Coming in the summer is
a little bit more difficult than coming in to view a class or see it with the kids in

there, and so yeah, that method didn’t work.” (Interview 15)

Stan was concerned about environment and sought out the principal to talk about

the possible change. When asked about gathering information Stan replies:

“Specifically the principal, several discussions with him. The

environment of the school. The area which, like I said, I grew up down in this
area, and the time I spent in this area, and checking out they hadn’t gotten too
wild with; you gotta have a book, I mean, that kid can’t take the computer home
to study. You know the computer age is here but they’ve gotten way too carried
away. There were too many problems with computers.”

“Who do you believe has the most important information about school? ”
Stan — “It would be, in my opinion, it would be a toss up between actual teachers
and the principal. The principal has gotta have his thumb on the artery and every
part of that school, but so do the teachers, you know, and good teachers would
know that so and so teaches this class, and they are good, you know. Oh, this one
is kind of mediocre, you know. But they need to be able to recommend which
teachers are, you know, good at working with the student that has a problem, like
my daughter with attention deficit. You know, it is good to have a teacher that
can, like I say, this one here that she’s going to in this grade next year there’s
these three teachers you know. This one is really excellent with those kids, you

know, could give her the extra help or whatever. You know, it’s going to be a

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toss up between teachers and the actual principal.” (Interview 19)

Summary

Information can certainly be one of the most important tools in deciding upon a
school district. The type of information and the amount of information that parents in
this study gathered is quite interesting. The information was not of a quantitative nature;
it was not based on MEAP scores, drop out rates, or percentage of students going on to
college. It was based on word of mouth and prior family experience. If the district did
not push the family away many years ago, then it must be good enough for my child.
However, this does not fit with a market philosophy.

If a market theory is to become reality in the public school sector, should it not
require an informed customer? In other words, if parents are making decisions without
gathering information; or parents are making decisions based on their experiences, and/or
their families experiences 20 years ago, Iwill the market be strong enough to force
change? Will the schools be forced to improve the educational opportunities for their
students, or will they actually be encouraged by these parents behaviors to continue to do

things as they have always been done?

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Participants Making Decisions
Chapter VII

Introduction

The final question that this study was designed to answer centered around student
participation, whether the students enjoyed their experiences in their resident district and
subsequently, in their school of choice district. These two concepts are very closely tied.
If a student is not happy in one district, and that same student is given the power to
choose to attend another district, it could have broad implications as to how a district
responds to students and how districts advertise for customers.

In this study, parents described not only who made the decisions, but also some of their
thoughts regarding why they were choosing a district. Parents seem very concerned
about their child’s social life. Student enjoyment could be the focus of this entire chapter
as it could be argued that each section is directly tied to the student’s enjoyment of
school.

In the first section, one parent even mentions that a social life if more important
than academic learning. As could be expected, students and parents were also concerned
with sports and extra-curricular opportunities of each district. Next, several parents
mentioned the importance of finding a special fit for their child; specifically matching
their child with the school district. Sometimes, according to one parent, this may mean
switching schools several times. Additionally, some parents discussed that their child
hated their resident districts school, and now they hate the new school. Finally, this

chapter will look at the discussions regarding to students participating in the decision at

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the elementary and secondary levels; it also will demonstrate what happens for those
parents that have both elementary and secondary students in their home.

The next three sections are designed to provide an insight both into the parents’
rationale of how a student’s happiness plays into the decision and who is involved in

making that decision.

Student Enjoyment

Social Beings

Adam and Annette thought their daughter was too social and decided that they
would move both of their children to Durban. Through our discussion, you will see two
aspects. While they do not want their daughter to be distracted by having too much fun,
they still have a desire for her to enjoy school. We enter this conversation as I ask:
“Does she enjoy school?

Annette begins: “Uh-hah, she does now, because to her school is more social than

learning and that is what I was at. She wasn’t happy at all at first, when we first

transferred her. It was just that she was. I guess more when she was getting up
like in middle school is when she really started to getting behind in like in Math
and English. That is where we really started noticing that not a lot of effort was
put in by her, she wasn’t doing so hot.”

Adam — “It was definitely a lot of her fault, too, because she, she likes the social aspect of
school, and she’s a conformist, and she really likes the, the friends that are
allowed to, you know, pierce their body and wear all kinds of makeup and, so

she’s - - - cause she wasn’t really allowed to, she kind of just clings on to those

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people. Some of them aren’t, they’re not, they’re not bad kids, but some of them
aren’t the best influence on her either. Cause a lot of them kids don’t do their
school work either, you know, so she wouldn’t do it either, you know. That’s part
of it, too. Good students, you know, say they like their school, too, a lot. You
know a lot of kids don’t like their school, but now I think she is happier, I think. I
think she’d rather be here. You know, I don’t think even if we could put her in
wherever, I think we would leave her right here. In fact, she had two days off for
in-service, and she told me today that she was so ready to go back to school. She

was bored at home.” (Interview 1)

Ursula talks about student enjoyment when asked what a great school is like. As
a teacher that has taught in several districts, she describes what it is like to see the
students enjoying themselves in the classroom. She volunteers:

“A great school is one where children enjoy being in the classrooms or, if
not, maybe a single classroom they enjoy the subject matter. And you will see
that by not only scores, scores are one way of taking a look at things, but when
kids are in there, and they are motivated, they are working, it is kind of nice.
Uhm - - — when you walk room-to-room-to-room, and there is lots of different
styles of teaching going on, and kids are having fun - - -they are not acting up in
this room that is quiet and peaceful, reading and working, they are sitting there
enjoying and they are immersed. They go into the science room and are up and
checking animals and getting their test scores and coming back and doing this

investigation repeating and teaching each other what they missed. In the lunch

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room kids are getting some time to have, uhm - - - social interaction. ”(Interview

21)

Sports and Extra-Curricular

In this study, many parents mentioned the importance of extra-curricular activities
such as sports, as driving school of choice decisions. These extra-curriculars also seemed
to be tied very closely to student enjoyment. When talking about her 9th grade son,
Casey indicates that he loves sports but really does not care for the school. She also
points out that there have evidently been problems in the past, specifically learning
disabilities. When asked does he enjoy school? Casey responds,

“He likes sports. If it has to do with sports, he’s in it. And hockey and
baseball and basketball, and he don’t really play football, but he likes it. Uh, he
really doesn’t care for school, at least not as much as what he could. He has
learning disabilities that was discovered after I transferred him out of Cape Town
and into here. It was discovered that he had severe, I guess you would call it,
because at seventh grade he has a second grade reading level and a third grade
math level. So, unfortunately, he spends most of his day with the special

education teacher, which I know he doesn’t like, but he goes. ”(Interview 3)

Doug talks about the difference in his children. One likes school, especially the
competitive nature of sports in school. The other student is the total opposite, he likes
going to school for the basis of learning. When asked about whether his children enjoy

school Doug responds:

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“Yeah, they are night and day difference. One is competitive and just
gobbles up anything for sports that he can. uhm - - - he’s through it. We give a
certain amount of encouragement for playing and doing whatever he wants, and
the other one he’s not competitive. He doesn’t like, he doesn’t particularly care
for competition. He sometimes likes to participate in some things if its fun, but he
really don’t, he don’t really have too much interest in anything that’s actually
going to be a win or lose situation. The other one he enjoys coming to school for
the purpose of recess, fiiends, sports, after school activities, and what not. He is
quite intelligent on that aspect. But the other one is a sport oriented competitor,

and the older one he don’t care if he can make a basket or not.” (Interview 4)

When thinking about the importance of education vs. sports, even the teacher’s
child is more likely to mention sports as a factor of enjoyment. Ellen, special education
teacher in Durban, mentions sports when asked about whether her daughter enjoys
school.

“She likes school; she's involved in a lot of extra activities. Volley ball,
cheerleading, cross country and track. She’s into lots of activities, but really not

concerned about grades.” (Interview 5)

When talking about student enjoyment William, who is a school teacher,
immediately responds with extra curricular activities. When asked,
“Does your child enjoy school? ”

William states: “Yes, little league, basketball, piano on the side. Although, he is

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now at that stage where we don’t know whether he likes school just for the sports,
or whether he enjoys the class work. I think he does, but that’s hard; he doesn’t
express much. I mean, the oldest one doesn’t express much. The youngest one
loves it. He’s our social butterfly, and he loves being around other kids."

"Did Cooper, express his love for school when he was in Jonesburg? "
"Yeah. He really loved it, but Dad was pretty much in his classroom or building
every other day just kind of peeking in, checking up on things, so I kind of knew
how he was doing, what he was doing, where as - - -I’m kind of out of the loop
over there, so I don’t know I can’t answer that one 100%. I’m going to assume

that he enjoys it. ” (Interview 20)

Special Fit

Ginny ties student enjoyment to teacher response and principal response. Ginny’s
9th grade son had discipline issues at his previous district, and he was also a special
education student. When I asked,
"Does Andrew enjoy school? "

Ginny responds, “More so now than what he did prior. And it was, he
couldn’t, in Cape Town, he couldn’t, I don’t know what to say, function freely,
you know. They didn’t try to work with him knowing, knowing that he had this
problem, or even keep in contact with me, you know. I was a phone call away.
When he was in elementary school, they did that, but when he got into middle
school with a new principal and stuff they didn’t. In elementary school we, we

were okay but when you got up to middle school, and then high school, nothin.

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Now here they are extremely good about contacting me, but of course, I do know
the principal. But I didn’t know that until after we had already switched schools,

which works out even better for us. Now he really enjoys coming” (Interview 7)

Mary who is the step mother indicates that they do enjoy school and that is
important. She states,

“I think they like school, yeah, they always come home and come with a
lot of stories from school what I did today at school, what the teacher did today
and what activity they did. They like school so much. They have everything like
computers everything needed working good, and the kids be happy the teacher
can make it easier for the teacher and, if kids are happy in school, teacher can
teach child in dealing with something like that, and I mean they have equipment.”

(Interview 13)

Nannette ties her son’s enjoyment to a feeling of comfort and the ability to fit in.
She also mentions the progress that he is achieving. Nannette states,

“He really enjoys school. He really likes it and there again when we
moved back to Durban, and he started here he was coming into Durban; he
finished first grade here. Uhm - - - Christian was finally somewhere where he
was comfortable, and where he feels he fits in, and where feels he is actually
making progress. He has wonderful fiiends and has made friends a lot easier here
than in his previous school. Uhm - - - and I think that was one of the biggest

reasons why when we moved back here I went with Durban rather than Cape

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Town because we were living in Cape Town at the time. I know how it made me
feel, and I was sure that was how he would feel if he came here, and he has done

wonderful since he’s been here. ” (Interview 14)

Similarly, Quinton talks about his daughter and the relationship that she has with
another family member. Interestingly, she attended the larger school of J onesburg and
hated it. Quinton suggests,

“When she went to J onesburg, she didn’t like school at all. Hated it, I
mean, complained every weekend I picked her up. Then, her and her mom moved
down here, and my sister said well, why don’t you go to Durban instead of Cape
Town, and I’ll pick you up, and I’ll make sure you get there. Like I said, she’s
been on the honor roll every year ever since, and you know, pretty much her
grades have been As, Bs, a few Cs now and then when she, you know she studies.
I don’t have to tell her to study. She enjoys it. She, I mean, she really enjoys
coming here. As a matter of fact they moved to Prarieview, she did her
sophomore year in Prarieview; and she struggled really bad there and didn’t have

very good grades, and she begged me to come live with me.” (Interview 17)

Hates School

A third choice might be on the horizon, or it may be that Helen and her 8th grade
daughter settles for “school sucks”. Helen describes her daughter’s dislike of both the

former district and now Durban. I asked,

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“Does she enjoy school? ”

Helen responds, “No. She absolutely detests it, but, yeah, I don’t know if
detests might be too strong a word, but she really, she hated Hot Springs. Really,
really, hated it. I mean she would cry, she hated it so much. And here it’s just,
"school sucks", which is pretty normal for a teenager but she, she likes it a little

bit better here, but she still doesn’t like school. ” (Interview 8)

Kathy has an 8th grade girl Rebecca. This is the first interview where a student
actually attended the interview session. What is most interesting about this session is that
as Kathy talks about anything being positive, Rebecca is obviously not in agreement as
she wanders around the room shaking her head and sighing in disgust. I began by asking
about Rebecca. Kathy describes her daughter:

“She’s very artistic. She’s an excellent drawer. She likes music real
good. She likes to be by herself a lot, but she also likes her fiiends. She has a bad
temperament. She’s different from the boys. She’s really possessive, very
possessive. She does like school, and I think she’s going to turn out to be a pretty
good adult. I say it’s important for them to learn about, like geometry, something
for buildings and stuff, but I also think they should have art in the school and
more stuff the kids are interested cause if kids are interested in something in
school, they are going to want stay in it. Rather than just you know the basics
math and reading. No matter where they are at you know they have to enjoy

where they are at.” (Interview 11)

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Decision Makers

Elementary Participants

Research in urban and suburban areas indicate that the older the student, the more
likely they were to participate in the school of choice decision. While this study certainly
supports that conclusion, in Durban, even elementary school-aged students seem to have
a say in the matter. Parents seemed very willing to allow their children to be the ’

“decision makers.” When asked to “Describe how you involved your children in the

 

decision. ” Betty replies, L
"Well, there was lot a work involved when they were little. I’ve been I
talking to them even now about a possibility of switching schools and telling them
why, you know. Uhm - - - my daughter was very willing to do that. My son
absolutely does not want to change. So for now, I guess their staying here. I went
to Cape Town and I feel they probably have more to offer at the high school level.
But then when I started thinking about it, I mean they are going to have virtual
high school, or they do here so that can bring classes in that they wouldn’t
otherwise have. And I do like the comfort factor, the small district, and that I
know when my friends go to kids' houses, I know that family, and I know, you

know, what’s going on. ” (Interview 2)

Doug and Dana were very matter of fact about making the decision to
send their children to Durban. When I asked,
“Did you involve your children in the decision to which school they would attend? ”

Dana said very quickly: “Nope (laughter). They have asked how come they can’t

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go to a school so they can ride the bus and not have to have us drive them, but
they are worried about the gas of us driving them back and forth. The bus would
come, and it wouldn’t charge us anything. They might have closer friends.
Where we are they wouldn’t have closer friends. ”

Doug jumps right in: “Neither one of them was real enthused about coming over here
because we had them in a day care in Cape Town, and we had them in a preschool
in Cape Town, so 90% of the kids that they made friends beginning at an infant
stage that they knew and grew up with were all going to go to Cape Town. They
kind of wanted to be with all their fiiends. So, when they got done with
preschool, two years of preschool, and we told them you’re going to go over to
Durban school now, and there wasn’t anybody that they knew was going to go to
this school, it was going to be all new. They weren’t too enthused about it, but we
said; “Well you’re going to come over here, and you’re just going to make new
friends, and you're going to come here if you like it or not, kid daughter)!" But,
no, we didn’t ask them. We just told them what they were going to do. ”

(Interview 4)

Ellen, on the other hand, spent time with her daughter, who was already coming
to school events with her mother. Ellen states,
“Yes, I involved Amanda. She was coming to a lot of the extra things that
the school was doing, and she was in my classroom, and she was getting to know
those people already. And, actually, it was before we moved. She had a choice;

she could have stayed. I was driving back and forth already, so she chose to come

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here.” (Interview 5)

Helen gave her daughter a choice between Durban and J onesburg.
Indicating that it was Erin’s (her daughter's) choice. When asked,
“Was your daughter involved in the decision at all? ”
Helen replies, “Uhm - - - I gave her the option of going or not. You can either

stay in Colon or you can go to Durban. Take your pick.” I

up.
1

“Did you nudge her either way?”

 

Helen — “No, I just told her because she kept telling me I don’t want to go to I;
J onesburg. I don’t want to go to Hot Springs, and then I said, Well, it’s Durban or
J onesburg(laughter). Those are your choices, so make up your mind. ”(Interview

18)

When discussing the children’s involvement, the shortest response award would
go to Laura and Luke. They absolutely positive that it is a parent’s decision. This is the
conversation:

“Did you involve the children in making the decision? ”

Both — “No!”

“Did you have a family meeting at all to discuss the decision? ”

Both — “No!”

“Did you have a family meeting at all to discuss the decision ?”

Both — “No!”

“Were there friends or other family members involved in your decision ? ”

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Both— “No!”

Mark and Mary did involve their boys in the selection of schools:

Mark — “They were a part of the talks between the parents and the counselor. We
drove them to the facilities. We involved them in any decisions between what

happens in this family, and they were all in agreement to go to school here. ”

(Interview 13)

Nannette indicates that there were several conversations with her son Christian
and that basically he wanted to go where his dad went to school. When asked,

“Did you involve Christian in the decision at all to attend Durban versus Cape Town? ”
Nannette states, “Yes I did. Well, he knew that we were going through the move
and uhm - - - I just explained to him the options and he said okay. He also had
known this is where his dad and I graduated from. Uhm - - - he knew that I know
a lot of the parents and children already in this community whereas in Cape
Town, we were kind of the newcomers and that I know he did say had a lot to do
with why he wanted to come here. Uhm - - - but he, he said: "Well I want to try
Durban," so this is a trial for him. Uhm - - - "but if things don’t work out can I go
somewhere else?" And I told him yes because that would not be a problem for
me. So, well this is where he chose to come, and he’s still here, so things are

going pretty good.” (Interview 14)

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High School Participants

Casey indicates that their son was involved from the beginning, and she too,
mentions the importance that sports or extra-curricular activities plays in the decision.
She states,

“We sat down and talked about the school here; he knows a couple of
students here. Perrysburg didn’t offer a lot and he does like the sports. He does }
like to participate in them. To me the sports bring out his confidence, and that is

what some of the kids are here for. So I’m so sorry for some of them that their

 

parents don’t even care to go to their games. Anyway, I discussed it with my son,
and I sat down with his dad, and we sat down with him together. You know this
is the problem that we’re having, and this is what talked about, and this is what
we would like to try to see if this would fix the situation that he’s in.” (Interview

3)

Ginny’s 9th grade son was experiencing some trouble in his previous school of
Cape Town. While Andrew had a say in where he went, Ginny was insistent that he
would go somewhere. The family did have a meeting and Ginny describes it like this:
“There was a family meeting because my husband did have some say, you
know. We set down a certain set of rules, which were basically the same thing
that we knew when he came here. You know, they have you sign a contract, and
we knew that that was what it was going to be, and that is pretty much the same
guidelines we gave him. And this is the way it is, and you know, if you can’t do

that then you are going back. Uhm - - - first of all, the process started with us

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sitting down with my son and asking him why. I mean, is it an attitude problem.

Is there, you know, a personality conflict here.” (Interview 7)

Although Quinton did not gather any information about the school other
than listening to his sister, he did involve Ashley, and, in fact, basically allowed her to
decide. He states,

“I told her it was up to her. I mean, because I said you can have your aunt

pick you up and take you to school everyday and all that, or you can go to Cape
Town, where you just get on the bus and be dropped off at home and, you know.
And she did have some fiiends at Cape Town, so I mean, she did know something
about the school cause it wasn’t like she wasn’t running from her friends. So,
basically it was totally her decision. Personally I wanted her to go to Cape Town
cause then there would be less travel and picking her up and doing this and doing
that cause she could ride the bus, but - - - you know, I guess, like I said, it worked

out.” (Interview 17)

Similarly, Rebecca allowed her high school sons to choose and they actually
choose more than once. She describes how her son jumped back and forth twice:
“. . . . oh yeah, and actually my oldest son, he decided to go back to Cape
Town for a year and then decided to come back to Durban. So, he had to drive, of
course, because at that time the buses wouldn’t pick up way out there. If they
wanted to I could arrange for the bus to stop by our house, because all the busses

come by us. But the boys had fiiends fiom Cape Town because they had went

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there where the youngest one didn’t get that many years, only kindergarten. I
asked them, and all of a sudden had switched for a year, and my middle son loved
it here, and graduated, so yeah, we talked about it. and I let them do whatever

school they wanted, and they chose here.” (Interview 18)

Ursula indicates that her son Cole was concerned about his friends. She allowed
Cole to make the decision. Ursula stated the following when asked to describe how Cole
was involved in the decision to come back to Durban.

“We, we talked to him a little bit about it. He missed his fiiends, and he

missed uhm - - - you know some of his teachers. Oh yeah, we asked him about it,

and how do you feel about school. Well, I liked the Durban school a lot better. I

just felt like I was more of a person there. But we, we gave him a choice. We

knew better, so even if he said no, I want to stay at Perrysburg, we were really

going to have to work hard to talk about it, but it really wasn’t even a contest

about it. He wanted to come back here.”

Both High School and Elementary

Jack and Jill adopted their granddaughters when their mother died in a car
accident. They tell this story of their decision making:
Jill -“When they came down in June of that year, we talked to them about
the schools, I think, right away. We took them around, showed them around here,
and the other schools.”

“Did they have a vote? Was there an equal vote between the four of you? ”

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Jack - “It would have been in principal, but there really wasn’t a vote. It was just
a matter of, if they really wanted to go to J onesburg, fine we would have let them
go over. There wasn’t a vote per say, and I don’t think there needed to be because
if we had said - - - maybe we did I don’t remember. In fact, they didn’t want to
go there. The size of school, less opportunity to get into sports activities because
so many more people, where here you got in all the teams you might have 50
people. There you got 50 people on each team. So, there’s less opportunity. i

Other than the end result, you know, the kids themselves. As long as they like the

 

choice and are ready, willing, and able, it might improve them. It’s the love for

the kids.” (Interview 10)

Opal, as you will remember, gathered a lot of information and actually visited
several districts. Here she describes how the high school boys were involved, but the
elementary daughter did not have a say. Opal offers this description,

“We dragged them along. They didn’t want to go in and visit; you know,
go in the building and meet the people that were there. It wasn’t thrilling for
them, and we talked to them, and we tried to prioritize what we felt, and then
what they felt, and actually they probably tipped the scale here. Uhm - - - I think
my husband and I, we may have gone on with Krueger but I think that they felt
more comfortable, they knew a couple people, and then when they met Mr.
Longstreet over there I think that was another bonus. Uhm - - - that is about as
much involvement. We didn’t really involve our elementary level child. I mean,

she went and saw the school, but that was about it. I guess we went out to eat one

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night and discussed it with everyone that way. Another time it was kind of like. I
talked to them each individually kind of a thing, and then, I think when we finally
made the decision it was just, yeah, a family sit down kind of a thing. ” (Interview

15)

Stan describes the process of deciding. He indicates that his 5th and 9th grade girls
were both involved in the decision. He states,

“Yes the girls were involved. It was a situation that we had the discussion
when we were going to move. The main reason was that she couldn’t get the help
she needed when she had the problem out there. And they had two different
choices like of where they wanted to go and stuff and like we sat them down,
explained to them this school has this style teaching, and yes, we looked at that
one, but you’re going to be in the same boat you were up there, and they could
have gone. They were about 70% of the choice was theirs - - - Durban.”

(Interview 19)

Summary

In this study, student enjoyment appeared to influence the decisions of parents
and students. Most parents, 17 out of 22 allowed their child to make the decision of
which school to attend, or at least to have some say in the matter. Some parents put the
social life of their students about the academic achievement. Sports and extra-curricular
opportunities were mentioned by many parents as being important to their child. Also,

the idea of finding that special fit for a child appeared to be a strategy that some parents

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identified. Finally, there were several parents who indicated that their child just hated
school. This concept of student enjoyment seemed to transition smoothly back and forth
between who was making the decision.

This study indicated that older children are more likely to contribute to the
discussion and the decision to change schools. Conversely the younger children, those in
elementary and middle school are less likely to make the decision, or even to be involved
in the decision. Those parents with children in both elementary and secondary programs
allowed the decision to be made or greatly influenced, again by the older children.
Finally, the decision, whether made by the parent or the student, appeared to be tied to
the overall enjoyment of the child. With this in mind, wouldn’t the students actually be
making the decision at any age? In other words, if parents are relying on the student’s
enjoyment, happiness, or satisfaction, then the decision is really made by the child,

irregardless of the age.

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Conclusions and Implications
Chapter VIII

Scope of the Research

This research was conducted in a very small town in Southwest Michigan. The
cooperating district, which has been referred to as Durban, has approximately 400
students in kindergarten through 12th grade. In fact, Durban is the smallest district in its
county. Subsequently, Durban was chosen for four reasons: 1) the rural locality; 2) the
size of the school; 3) the relatively large number of school of choice students; and 4) the
only school choices available to the parents were schools similar to Durban (figure 8.1).
In short, there were few options for parents in this rural community. Private schools,
Christian schools, and charter schools were not really a viable option for these parents,
unless they were willing and able to drive many miles each way. The closest charter
school is approximately 15 miles from Durban. This meant that the parents were

choosing a public school that closely resembled the school that they were leaving.

 

 

 

 

Fall 2005 Student Percentage of Free and Number of Certified
Enrollsent K- Reduced Lunch Students Teaching Staff
Cape Town 1 1 96 40 72
Durban 396 35 24
Eland 832 22 48
Hot Springs 1013 40 58
Jonesburg 1645 35 96
Kruger 2619 28 154
Figure 8.1

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While the Durban School District is small, it has 32 families who participated in
selecting Durban as their school of choice district rather than their resident district. Of
the 32 families participating, 4 families reside in the district in which I work. These
families were not contacted for interviews in order to avoid bias. Of the 28 parents that
were identified for interviews, 2 declined to be interviewed when initially contacted by
phone. Additionally, two parents were never contacted because the school district did not
have accurate phone numbers for these parents. Another set of parents declined to be
interviewed after initially agreeing to be part of the study and failing to appear for the
interview even after rescheduling 3 times. These parents reported that their busy family
schedule kept them from participating. Finally, one set of parents agreed to be
interviewed, arrived for the interview and then declined to sign the waiver. They were

informed that they could not be interviewed without their signature, and they left.

Data Supports Previous Research

Parents School

The results from this study were similar in many ways to previous research. The
history of where a parent went to school undoubtedly played a role in how those parents
selected a school for their children. Fourteen of the twenty-two parents or sets of parents
interviewed in this study indicated that attending Durban had provided them with a
satisfactory education and an acceptable level of comfort which they believed would
translate into a safe and acceptable quality education for their children. The idea of a

parent being comfortable with their school, the community school, was suggested by

135

 

 

Bell’s research in an urban setting. (Bell 2004)

Convenience

Similarly, convenience is a well documented, motivating factor for parents.
Whether a parent is concerned about before and/or after school child care, there is a
relative who lives near the school, or the parent wants to be able to pick up and drop off ’
the child on the way to work, it appears that convenience is a factor that is found in the !

rural setting as well as the urban and suburban. In this study, 20 out of 22 parents

 

mentioned the idea that convenience played a role in their decision. Many of the parents i

indicated that this was the most important reason for selecting a school.

District Response/ Teachers Response

Every parent, 22 out of 22 interviews, mentioned the importance of the
responsiveness of the school district. Most often the conversation centered on a district
that did not respond to the satisfaction of the parent. Complaints often centered on a
feeling that teachers and principals were not willing to help their child when they needed
it most. Occasionally, the parents felt as though there was no one in the school district
who cared about their child or their child’s needs. District responsiveness in this study
was centered on the idea of push or pull factors, and parents provided examples of both

push factors and pull factors which impacted their school decision.

Information Gathered

This research found that in making a school choice, parents did not gather

136

information on the school options as one might expect. Several parents indicated that
they knew the district well because they attended Durban; however, 8 out of 22 parents
indicated that they gathered no evidence. Of the remaining 14 parents interviewed, only

3 gathered what might be considered educational information, by actually visiting other
schools and examining more than one alternative. Rather, most of the parents relied on
their past experiences (as suggested above), or they sought opinions from friends or
family members. This, too, mimics the research mentioned in Chapter II, which suggests
that parents in making school choices do not gather data, such as dropout rates, or test
scores such as the MEAP (Bell 2004). Rather parents are searching for anecdotal
evidence of a school's success, relying on a relative or fiiend's perception of the quality of

a school.

Students Enjoyment

Previous school of choice research in urban and suburban schools indicated that
parents want their children to have fim and enjoy school. Parent selection of Durban as
their school of choice seemed to be no different. Again, 22 out of 22 parents, or sets of
parents, acknowledged that their child should enjoy school. Several of the parents
indicated that they were more concerned about their child’s social life and the desire to
have their child be liked than they were with the child’s academic achievement. In many
of the descriptions regarding a parent's dislike of the previous district, the parent
suggested that their child was not getting along with other students, even to the point of

getting into multiple fights, and coming home bloodied on a regular basis.

137

 

Parents and students making decisions

As reported in Chapter 2, older students are often provided with more choices or
more opportunity to participate in the school of choice decision. The students and
parents who were the focus of the present study supported this concept. Of the high
school aged students, 10 out of 11 students were included in the process of making the
school of choice decision. The elementary aged students, however, were only included 7
out of 11 times in the school of choice decision. In these decision processes, the school

selected was linked with student enjoyment.

 

New Concepts Revealed by the Data

District Size

Parents in this study mentioned the size of the district or the classroom as being
one of the most important issues in their decision to choose a school district. In this
study, 20 out of 22 parents, or sets of parents identified the size of the district as a major
factor in selecting Durban as their child’s school. Additionally, parents mentioned the
idea of a small school or the size of a school being important to them 118 times during
the 22 interviews. This was a revealing topic that became apparent to me early on in the
interviewing process. What was possibly even more revealing was that the parents had
not collected any information that would provide them with exact numbers of students in

the school as a whole or in the individual classrooms.

138

 

Discipline

An important finding in this study which has had little attention in past research is
the notion of a smaller school district being an advantage because of the opportunity it
offers for high structure and strict discipline. Discipline became a very consistent topic
with the parents of Durban as 18 out of 22 parents or sets of parents, described situations
involving discipline, that were of concern to them in deciding upon a school of choice for
their child. Four of the parents described in extensive detail their disciplinary problems i
with their child, and indicated that the move to a new school district was directly related E
to a suspension or expulsion incident at the resident district. Other parents identified
events in the resident school district that signified that the discipline was not strict enough
there, and they felt their children were not as safe as they should be. Some parents felt
that the small district of Durban could provide a very structured and disciplined

environment for their child.

Chaos

The idea of a school in "chaos" is one that weighed heavily on the minds of
several of these parents. While, "chaos" was often mentioned in response to a question
regarding good or bad schools, the term was also used when discussing school discipline.
In fact, 8 out of 22 parents identified classes or schools that seemed out of control and
each of these parents actually used the term “chaos”. As the conversation continued the
parents defined the term chaos as a lack of control of the classroom, teacher, or principal.
More often that not, this idea of chaos in schools went hand in hand with the parents

desire to have consistent and constant control of the children and the environment of a

139

 

classroom or the school as a whole.

Limitations of this study

Although I did not voluntarily disclose my position as an Assistant
Superintendent of a local district, I also did not lie about my identity if asked about my
vocation or locality. In fact, prior to the interviews some of the parents knew of my
administrative position and mentioned it during or after the interviews. Specifically, two
parents knew my name professionally because they were teachers in the county, and
another parent had read articles in the local papers and/or magazines that I had written.
While these parents indicated that they were not concerned that I was an administrator,
they may have avoided some comments or may have attempted to shape their comments
so as to avoid disparaging ideas about the districts that they have left, the districts that
they have chosen; and possible even the district in which I work. Additionally, they may
have simply wished to avoid verbally criticizing administrators and or teachers whom

they perceived to be my colleagues.

Coding

I conducted all coding of the data, and this is certainly a potential limitation of the
study, however, this is a common limitation within dissertations. All coding was
conducted using a software package called Atlas Ti. To alleviate potential mistakes, the
data was coded three times in order to attempt to ensure consistency and reliability.
Additionally, two independent readers were recruited to read the transcripts, and

subsequently to affirrn my assumptions. Further, a report was written (Appendix E) and

140

 

 

 

presented to the superintendent and the high school principal of the Durban school
district. While these colleagues indicated that they would not have been able to develop
this type of report on their own, they provided support for the accuracy of the
conclusions. Both reported that they found no conclusions in the study with which they

would disagree. While great effort was taken to reduce error, it still remains possible.

Future Research

This study sought to identify parental rationales for school choices within a small
rural school district. Using a semi-structured interview in a qualitative study to begin to
understand the rationales that parents use as they select a school of choice provides a
foundation for future research. Parents’ stated reasons for their school choices provide a
beginning in the process of understanding parental preferences and desires relative to
their children’s educational setting. However, these findings merely open the door for
future quantitative research. Revealed preferences as discovered in prior quantitative
studies in urban and suburban school districts can now, and should now, begin in the
rural school districts. This is not intended to suggest that parents in this study were not
truthful, nor were they necessarily intentionally dishonest. However these parents may
very well have diluted the events that they described to protect their children or reduce
the scrutiny of others involved in the situations. Likewise, they may have omitted some
damning information that they believed placed them, or their children in a "bad light.” It
would seem reasonable that these parents would avoid revelations that they thought
would make them look like poor parents.

Additionally, future research has an obligation to examine the impact of parents’

141

school of choice decisions on school districts, especially in relationship to public schools,
and specifically as to their effect on rural school districts where school choices may
already be limited due to the lower population levels and less affluence. Researchers
should look at the districts themselves to determine if school of choice legislation has
driven them to make any changes. For instance, in Durban, it became apparent that at
least three other rural districts in the area had begun to transport students from a
neighboring district back to their own school. Further, it was evident from the
conversation that I had with the superintendent, that Durban’s Board of Education was
inquiring into why parents were choosing schools, and also what they needed to do in
order to attract more students and thus, additional funding. A significant question raised
by this study is whether school of choice decisions might in the future effect the survival

of some rural schools resulting in even more limited school choices for rural families.

Implications of the Study

School of choice proponents subscribe to a market driven concept of school
improvement. Their rationale is that if a school is good, it will attract more students and
a greater share of the market. It follows that if a school is bad, then it will lose students
signaling a need for improvement. If the needed improvement does not occur, then the
school will eventually close its doors due to the lack of customers. Thus the concept of
school of choice as a quality assurance program assumes that parents will do their due
diligence and research school based on criteria that measure in some way the quality of
the academic, social, and environmental factors of each school that is available to their

children. Following that, the parents will weigh their findings on multiple schools to

142

come to a rational decision about which school will best meet their children’s academic,
social and environmental needs. However, if instead, parents choose schools based on
characteristics other than the quality of the academic offerings and the potential of
improved educational opportunity presented for their children, then it seems unlikely that
parental choice will effect improvement in the quality of schools?

In addition, the situation found in this study where parents are making school
choice decisions based on criteria not typically associated with the policymakers’ official
rationale for implementing a school of choice policy, raises the question of who will truly
benefit from the school of choice legislation? A market approach to “flee” education
may be a challenge to rural schools and to parents and students in rural areas where the
economy of numbers does not encourage private enterprise schools to flourish. The
result may be that in the future, rural families may have less choices, or lesser choices

when it comes to education.

Recommendations

School districts, administrators and legislators need to understand how and why
parents are choosing schools. In essence, we need to understand the customer, and to
perhaps educate the customer. In our society, parents who are choosing to participate in
schools of choice legislation are more concerned with convenience and student
enjoyment than they are with gathering information regarding the quality of a school
district. Parents who are choosing to participate seem to be more interested in their
children’s social life, than they are their child’s academic achievement. The findings in

this study suggest that school districts need to take action promptly.

143

Rural school districts can and should take steps to identify and include convenience
factors as a primary service for their customers. These services might include daycare
programs, all day kindergarten, or even after school tutoring that will support parents
struggling with their busy schedules. Additionally, schools may want to focus on
counseling and student assistance programming that will provide opportunities for
students to better enjoy the school district where they attended classes. Richard De Four’s
work on “Professional Learning Communities” speaks to the need for students to connect
to other students and teachers. De Fours work could guide school districts in improving
students’ sense of belonging and therefore the student’s enjoyment of that school. This
might also address parental safety concerns as increasing student enjoyment of a school
across the student population reduces the risk of school violence. Whatever the strategy,
the message is clear from these parents, “If our children are not happy, we will go
somewhere else.”

Finally, as an Assistant Superintendent, and as a former high school principal and
teacher, the concept of providing an opportunity for a student to run from discipline or
social problems at one district has never seemed to be an effective intervention to me.
One of the themes that appeared in many of the interviews of this study dealt with
discipline issues that these schools of choice children experienced in their past district.
Before beginning this research, I had a firm opinion that the teachers, administrators, and
the parents should teach students how to deal with their problems as they will have to
deal with problems in life. However, during the past year, I have found a more centered
position that suggests that some students may need a fresh start. Some students may need

to leave a troubled past at one school behind and be transplanted in an environment that

144

will be healthier for them. Recently, I heard the following story that seemed very
appropriate to this perspective. The story is centered on two Rotarians walking along a
beach. In case you are not aware, Rotary is an international organization dedicated to
service in the local communities as well as world wide service, such as Polio and Small
Pox eradication.
There are two Rotarians walking along a beach. The beach is littered
with starfish, and while the starfish are still alive, they are laying on the sand,
gasping for oxygen and the life that only the sea water can provide. As they
walk along, one of the Rotarians bends over, picks up a starfish and tosses it
back into the sea. After about the 10th time that this occurs, the second Rotarian
asks the first why he is bothering to bend over to throw them back into the
water; after all he asks; "What difference does it make when so many others are
dying?" They walk a little firrther, and the first Rotarian bends over picks up
another starfish, throws it back into the sea and says; "It makes a difference to
that one!"
While there are many questions as to how this market approach will improve all schools,

quite possibly the best argument for maintaining this type of opportunity for the students

and parents, is that one student who will truly benefit by having the opportunity.

145

Appendix A — District Letter

December 5, 2005

Dear Sir,

My name is Brian Metcalf and I am a doctoral candidate in educational administration at
Michigan State University. I am conducting research for a dissertation regarding how
and why parents in rural areas choose a district under school of choice guidelines. I
would like your cooperation in allowing me to interview some of the parents of students
enrolled in your school district.

To conduct the research, I respectfully request that you allow me to mail an introduction
of myself and the research format to all of the parents in your district that have selected
Helmer under the guidelines of the school of choice policy. I will use this list to take a
random sampling of twenty (20) parents’ names (households) to contact.

I will subsequently mail these parents a letter followed by a personal phone call from me;
requesting the opportunity to interview them. Strict confidentiality will be maintained.
The names of your district, all administrators and teachers within your district, the names
of the students and the parents will all be strictly confidential and will not be named at
any time in my study.

Sincerely,

Brian L. Metcalf
Doctoral Candidate
Michigan State University

146

Appendix B - Parent Letter

December 5, 2005

Dear:

I am a doctoral student at Michigan State University. I’m conducting research for my
dissertation concerning parent’s decision to participate in school of choice for their child.
As you well know, Michigan now allows local school districts to establish a school
choice plan that enables non-residential students to attend their schools.

I would like to meet with you personally, instead of having you answer “yes” or “no”
answers to written questions. I believe this will allow you to answer the questions in
your own words; in essence to tell your own story, in regards to your school of choice
decisions. All personal information that I collect through the interview process will
remain strictly confidential. Your name and personal information will not be used at any
time. The interview will last about 45-60 minutes in a place of your choosing — a
restaurant, your home, your business, or possibly the school.

I will be calling you in the near future about a possible interview and hope that you will

be able to participate in this study. If you have any questions, please feel flee to write or
call me collect. I can be reached as indicated on the enclosed business card.

Sincerely,

Brian L. Metcalf
Doctoral Candidate
Michigan State University

147

Appendix C - Parent Waiver

How and Why Parents in Rural Areas Select
Schools for their Children to attend

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of how and why parents
choose a specific school over another school. I will be asking you some questions about
your family background, your experiences with school, and your decision to choose a
non-resident public school for your child. In addition, I will be asking your opinion
about Parents’ right to choose a non-resident public school for their child.

Our interview should take approximately an hour. If we have not finished in that amount
of time, I would like the opportunity to meet again to finish the conversation. We most
certainly will not exceed 1 '/2 hours.

Absolute confidentiality will be kept in regards to your name and the names of your
children; as well as the names of the school and town where you live.

Participation is completely voluntary. You may choose not to participate at all, or you
may refuse to participate in certain procedures or answer certain questions or discontinue
your participation at any time without penalty or loss of benefits.

If you have any questions about this study, please contact the investigator: Chris Dunbar;
Department of Educational Administration, 418 Erickson Hall, and East Lansing-48824.
Phone: 517-353-9017; email: dunbarc@msu.edu

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your rights as a study participant, or are
dissatisfied at any time with any aspect of this study, you may contact - anonymously, if
you wish - Peter Vasilenko, Ph.D., Chair of the University Committee on Research
Involving Human Subjects (UCRIHS) by phone: (517) 355-2180, fax: (517) 432-4503,
email address: ucrihs@msu.edu, or regular mail: 202 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824.

By signing this form you acknowledge that:

the purposes of this study have been explained to you

you voluntarily agree to participate in this study

you give permission to have the interview *audio tape-recorded

you acknowledge that you may stop the interview at any time without penalty
you have been provided a copy of this form with MSU contact numbers should
you need them

Lh-hWN-d

Respondents Name:

 

Respondents Signature assuring consent for interview to be audio taped:

Date of Interview:

 

 

148

Appendix D - Interview Questions

Influential Factors of Parents
1. *Tell me about your background, did you go to a school in a rural area?
2. What do you think was most important about your elementary school

experiences?

Describe your middle school experiences?

What was high school like for you?

What did you do after high school?

*What do you do now?

*Tell me about your son/daughter.

*Does your child enjoy school?

53°39‘95“.“

Judging the Quality of a School

9. Why did you move your child?

10. *What aspects of a school are the most important for children to learn?

11. *Describe what a bad school is like?

12. *Describe your vision of a great school.

13. If there was not public school choice, where would your child attend school?

14. *When did you first think about enrolling your child in a different school? What
were your thoughts?

15,. *Describe the critical moment when you finally selected a school for your child?

16. If you were to list the three (3) most important reasons for enrolling your child in .
this selected district, what would those be?

Sources of Information
17. *Specifically, what information did you gather?
18. *Who do you believe has the most important information about a school?
19. *Did you have enough information to make an informed decision?
20. Were there any barriers that made it difficult to get information? If so, what?
21. Looking back, how would you describe your decision-making processes?

Decision Participants
22. *Describe how you involved your child in the decision?

23. *Did you have a family meeting to discuss the options?
24. Were there fiiends or other family members that influenced your decision?

*indicates question was of great importance and asked of all participants

149

 

Appendix E — Summary Report for Durban Superintendent

The following information is being provided to the Durban Superintendent and
high school principal so that the Administrators and the Board of Education may better
understand how and why parents are choosing Durban, through schools of choice
legislation. In this study, 22 parents or sets of parents were interviewed. Figure 4.1
below will provide an overview of the parents’ responses to 9 general themes that were

developed throughout the interview process.

Parents School

The results from this study were similar in many ways to previous research. The
history of where a parent went to school undoubtedly played a role in how those parents
selected a school for their children. Fourteen of the twenty-two parents or sets of parents
interviewed in this study indicated that attending Durban had provided them with a
satisfactory education and an acceptable level of comfort which they believed would
translate into a safe and acceptable quality education for their children. The idea of a
parent being comfortable with their school, the community school, was suggested by

Bell’s research in an urban setting. (Bell 2004)

Convenience

Similarly, convenience is a well documented, motivating factor for parents.
Whether a parent is concerned about before and/or after school child care, there is a
relative who lives near the school, or the parent wants to be able to pick up and drop off

the child on the way to work, it appears that convenience is a factor that is found in the

150

rural setting as well as the urban and suburban. In this study, 20 out of 22 parents
mentioned the idea that convenience played a role in their decision. Many of the parents

indicated that this was the most important reason for selecting a school.

District Response/ Teachers Response

Every parent, 22 out of 22 interviews, mentioned the importance of the
responsiveness of the school district. Most often the conversation centered on a district
that did not respond to the satisfaction of the parent. Complaints often centered on a
feeling that teachers and principals were not willing to help their child when they needed
it most. Occasionally, the parents felt as though there was no one in the school district
who cared about their child or their child’s needs. District responsiveness in this study
was centered on the idea of push or pull factors, and parents provided examples of both

push factors and pull factors which impacted their school decision.

Information Gathered

This research found that in making a school choice, parents did not gather
information on the school options as one might expect. Several parents indicated that
they knew the district well because they attended Durban; however, 8 out of 22 parents
indicated that they gathered no evidence. Of the remaining 14 parents interviewed, only
3 gathered what might be considered educational information, by actually visiting other
schools and examining more than one alternative. Rather, most of the parents relied on
their past experiences (as suggested above), or they sought opinions from fiiends or

family members. This, too, mimics the research mentioned in Chapter II, which suggests

151

that parents in making school choices do not gather data, such as dropout rates, or test
scores such as the MEAP (Bell 2004). Rather parents are searching for anecdotal
evidence of a school's success, relying on a relative or fiiend's perception of the quality of

a school.

Students Enjoyment

Previous school of choice research in urban and suburban schools indicated that
parents want their children to have fun and enjoy school. Parent selection of Durban as
their school of choice seemed to be no different. Again, 22 out of 22 parents, or sets of
parents, acknowledged that their child should enjoy school. .Several of the parents
indicated that they were more concerned about their child’s social life and the desire to
have their child be liked than they were with the child’s academic achievement. In many
of the descriptions regarding a parent's dislike of the previous district, the parent
suggested that their child was not getting along with other students, even to the point of

getting into multiple fights, and coming home bloodied on a regular basis.

Parents and students making decisions

As reported in Chapter 2, older students are often provided with more choices or
more opportunity to participate in the school of choice decision. The students and
parents who were the focus of the present study supported this concept. Of the high
school aged students, 10 out of 11 students were included in the process of making the
school of choice decision. The elementary aged students, however, were only included 7

out of 11 times in the school of choice decision. In these decision processes, the school

152

selected was linked with student enjoyment.

New Concepts Revealed by the Data

District Size

Parents in this study mentioned the size of the district or the classroom as being
one of the most important issues in their decision to choose a school district. In this
study, 20 out of 22 parents, or sets of parents identified the size of the district as a major
factor in selecting Durban as their child’s school. Additionally, parents mentioned the
idea of a small school or the size of a school being important to them 118 times during
the 22 interviews. This was a revealing topic that became apparent to me early on in the
interviewing process. What was possibly even more revealing was that the parents had
not collected any information that would provide them with exact numbers of students in

the school as a whole or in the individual classrooms.

Discipline

An important finding in this study which has had little attention in past research is
the notion of a smaller school district being an advantage because of the opportunity it
offers for high structure and strict discipline. Discipline became a very consistent topic
with the parents of Durban as 18 out of 22 parents or sets of parents, described situations
involving discipline, that were of concern to them in deciding upon a school of choice for
their child. Four of the parents described in extensive detail their disciplinary problems
with their child, and indicated that the move to a new school district was directly related

to a suspension or expulsion incident at the resident district. Other parents identified

153

events in the resident school district that signified that the discipline was not strict enough
there, and they felt their children were not as safe as they should be. Some parents felt
that the small district of Durban could provide a very structured and disciplined

environment for their child.

Chaos

The idea of a school in "chaos" is one that weighed heavily on the minds of
several of these parents. While, "chaos" was often mentioned in response to a question
regarding good or bad schools, the term was also used when discussing school discipline.
In fact, 8 out of 22 parents identified classes or schools that seemed out of control and
each of these parents actually used the term “chaos”. As the conversation continued the
parents defined the term chaos as a lack of control of the classroom, teacher, or principal.
More often that not, this idea of chaos in schools went hand in hand with the parents
desire to have consistent and constant control of the children and the environment of a

classroom or the school as a whole.

154

Participants Responses to Common Themes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

155

a 3.5. 2
s '3 § 9 52 3 5 E :5 8 23
g g a .. Iii
0 a m .2 - '3 " E
D a 0
Interview 1 X X X X X No No X No
Interview 2 X X X X No No No X X
Interview 3 X No X X X No X X X
Interview 4 X X X X X X X X No
Interview 5 X X X X X No No X X
Interview 6 X X X X X X X X X
Interview 7 X X X X X No No X X
Interview 8 X X X X X X X X X
Interview 9 X X X X X No X X No
Interview 10 No No X X X No X X X
Interview 11 X No X X X No X X No
Interview 12 X X X X X No No X No
Interview 13 X No No X No X No X No
Intenriew 14 X X X X X X No X X
Interview 15 X X X X No X No X X
Intenriew 16 X No X X X No No X X
Interview 17 X No X X X No No X X
Interview 18 X No X X X No No X X
Interview 19 No X No X X No No X X
Interview 20 X X X X No No No X No
Interview 21 X X X X X X X X X
Interview 22 X No X X X X No X No
X = theme played a role in the decision Figure 4.1

 

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