Thesis (Ed. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-152). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Honors)--College of William and Mary, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-91). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The second chapter examines the impact of information about school quality on student enrollment. I use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effects of a school choice program in California that provides families with signals of low school quality. I find that signals of low quality decrease school enrollment by 14.3% relative to enrollment in the previous year and 23.6% over two years. Despite the large changes in enrollment, student demographics are not affected. Additionally, the effects of school-quality signals are largest when families have alternative school choices that are nearby. I also find some evidence that student achievement in elementary schools declines, although I cannot separately identify the degree to which this is caused by changes in student composition. The third chapter examines the effect of textbook funding on student performance. Evidence on the effects of school resources on student achievement is mixed, but quasi-experimental methods suggest that interventions like class size reductions improve student achievement. This is the first study to consider the effect of textbook funding on student achievement by using a quasi-experimental setting in the U.S. I focus on a large class action lawsuit in California that provided a one-time payment of $96.90 per student for textbooks if schools fell below a threshold of academic performance in the previous year. Exploiting this variation with a regression discontinuity design, I find that textbook funding has significant positive effects on student achievement. The low cost of textbooks relative to class size reduction implies that these effects have a very high benefit-per-dollar.

There have been substantial changes in the way that families interact with schooling at the point of school choice. These shifts have been brought about by market orientated educational policy changes, and by altered forms and experiences of ‘family’. This study explores this changed dynamic by researching how a group of mothers in one urban setting engaged in school choice over a period of fourteen months. The research set out to investigate the processes, behaviours and influences that mothers took to the task of choosing secondary schooling for their children. In particular it aimed to explore the personal, familial, cultural and social dimensions of this engagement. These objectives were pursued using feminist and phenomenological frames because these theoretical approaches allowed for a gendered and contextualised analysis of experience. Data was gathered longitudinally through return interviews with 20 women from one socially and culturally diverse local government area in Sydney, Australia. The analysis of data is informed by perspectives on markets and consumerism from the field of cultural studies. Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘capital’, ‘habitus’ and ‘field’ were also used along with the feminist concepts of ‘emotional labour’ and ‘emotional capital’ to analyse the way that neoliberal market orientated educational policies impacted on this group of middle Australians. This research shows that the Australian experience of school choice is an emotionally rich, highly context-specific, complex, gendered and cooperative process that contests the prevailing public rhetoric about the operations of markets and of choice. School choice, while not always welcomed by this group of middle Australians, is an overtly gendered activity mostly overseen and undertaken by mothers in gender-specific ways. For these women school choice was an activity that demanded considerable physical and emotional labouring adding significantly to mothers’ work in support of their children’s education. Further, the research showed how within this new marketised context, the family became the site for the contestation of taste via the negotiation of differing economic, social, cultural and emotional capitals vis a vis the structural imperatives imposed by the market. It showed that for these women and their families in this location, at this time, the promise of ‘choice’ was a hollow promise indeed.

Thesis (M. P. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

<p>This study examines how families judge and choose high schools. The review of literature relating to school choice provides a theoretical framework for the study. The review includes an international perspective including both developed countries such as United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, England and Wales, the Netherlands, Scotland and Sweden, and developing countries including India, Chile, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritania, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and South Africa. The context within which school choice occurs in South Africa is examined. This context includes continued influence of Apartheid policies and current legislation including the South African Schools Act, The Admission Policy for Ordinary Schools Act and the Norms and Standards for Schools Funding. The literature review includes a critical analysis of the research, both Local and International, which addresses questions as to which factors are considered when judging and choosing schools, who makes the choice school, when the choice of school is made and which sources of information inform the choice of school. The empirical study examines the process of high school choice in urban Cape Town. The group areas Act and other Apartheid policies have created a situation where the respondents have a large number of high schools from which to chose. The selected area reflects diversity in Socio-Economic status, including both privately owned homes and council rental flats and houses. The study is limited to English medium or dual medium schools in the area. It includes both co-ed and single gender schools.</p>

President Ma Ying-jeou proclaimed the 12-year compulsory education plan on January 1st, 2011 (the 100th Year of Republic of China). From 2014 onward, both senior high and vocational schools will require no tuition, and most of them can be attended without the requirement of students passing an entrance exam. This policy marks a milestone in Taiwan¡¦s high school admission system. In the future, students graduating from junior high schools may choose a school they favor, rather than having no choice but to attend the one according to their exam results, as was the practice in the past. Purposive sampling was adopted with the freshmen in eight public senior high schools in Kaohsiung as the subjects; two classes in each school were sampled with the questionnaire based on four dimensions: ¡§background of the senior high schools¡¨, ¡§influencing factors occurring during the process of choosing a school¡¨, ¡§main information channels to better understand the senior high schools¡¨, and ¡§related consultations on how to choose a senior high school.¡¨ The aim was to compare the behaviors in choosing a senior high school among the students who do not follow the conventional school ranking as determined by the entrance exam and those who do, in order to explore the factors that affect the process of choosing a senior high school by those who do not follow the practice. The study results show that: 1. Both the students who follow the practice and those who do not, value the dimensions: ¡§background of the senior high schools¡¨ the most, such as ¡§ratio of students entering a university¡¨, ¡§school image (reputation)¡¨, and ¡§school ranking in accordance with the entrance exam result¡¨, etc. 2. Those who do and do not follow the practice differ in choosing a school in terms of four aspects: ¡§whether there is a classmate attending the same senior high school¡¨, ¡§whether background information on the senior high school is available¡¨, ¡§whether the senior high schools hold recruitment activities on the students¡¦ campus¡¨, and ¡§whether related consultation data is issued by the junior high schools they are attending.¡¨ Through a logistic regression analysis, it was found that the three aspects ¡§classmate¡¨, ¡§background information¡¨, and ¡§consultation data¡¨ are significantly predictive regarding the behavior of choosing a senior high school by both groups of students. According to the study results, suggestions are proposed regarding senior high and vocational schools¡¦ planning of future marketing strategies and junior high schools¡¦ provision of consultations about choosing a senior high school. In addition, suggestions are advanced to education administrative organizations for the implementation of the 12-year compulsory education. Finally, suggestions for follow-up studies are also listed.

Contemporary public education is viewed by many to be in turmoil, in part due to a changing population: increases in the number of students of poverty, handicapped individuals, teen parents, and students for whom English is not a first language. These and other issues have changed the face of our expectations for American education, and a "one size fits all" mentality will no longer suffice. The resulting school reform often appears in the guise of school choice. School choice can take many forms, including the voucher system, tuition tax credits, magnet schools, and charter schools, among others. This study examines the perceived differences, as viewed by parents, between charter schools and traditional public schools, and the ambient or intangible reasons that parents are making the choice for charter schools. A charter school on the Texas-Mexico border, which had been in existence for at least two years was selected for the study. Participants in the study were parents, all mothers, who completed a pre-survey of basic demographic information. Two extensive interviews were completed for each. Three focus groups, also consisting of charter school parents, were convened and interviewed in an effort to triangulate the data. Chapter Four of the study provides thick descriptions of the participants, while Chapter Five organizes the findings into common, emerging themes. Chapter Six provides the conclusions of the study which indicate that there are some commonalities and some differences perceived by parents between charter and public schools. The ambient or intangible factors involved in choice decision were not found to be any different than those found in other literature on school choice. Implications for the practitioner and future researchers are included in the final chapter. / text

This study offers a hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry into the experiences of Malaysian parents who selected an international education for their children. Data collection was conducted at one international school in Kuala Lumpur, and consisted of both a survey and interviews. The study focused on parents’ own educational background and experiences, their expectations and motivations for selecting an international school, factors affecting school choice, and attitudes to cultural and self-identities within the context of international education. Findings suggest that Malaysian parents from different age groups as well as varying ethnic and linguistic backgrounds had similar motivations for sending their children to an international school. From the data analysis, three themes emerged: aspirational priorities, discouraging influences, and enabling factors. By scaffolding my examination within the theory of reproduction in education and notions of social and cultural capital, I examined how multiple forms of economic, cultural, and social capital are recognized and mobilized in the search for a quality education in an increasingly globalized market. I conclude that Malaysian parents in this study chose an international school for their children based on experiences forged in four spheres of influence: individual, social, national, and global. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-06-30 07:36:19.755

<p>This study examines how families judge and choose high schools. The review of literature relating to school choice provides a theoretical framework for the study. The review includes an international perspective including both developed countries such as United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, England and Wales, the Netherlands, Scotland and Sweden, and developing countries including India, Chile, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritania, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and South Africa. The context within which school choice occurs in South Africa is examined. This context includes continued influence of Apartheid policies and current legislation including the South African Schools Act, The Admission Policy for Ordinary Schools Act and the Norms and Standards for Schools Funding. The literature review includes a critical analysis of the research, both Local and International, which addresses questions as to which factors are considered when judging and choosing schools, who makes the choice school, when the choice of school is made and which sources of information inform the choice of school. The empirical study examines the process of high school choice in urban Cape Town. The group areas Act and other Apartheid policies have created a situation where the respondents have a large number of high schools from which to chose. The selected area reflects diversity in Socio-Economic status, including both privately owned homes and council rental flats and houses. The study is limited to English medium or dual medium schools in the area. It includes both co-ed and single gender schools.</p>