In this thesis, I argue that a nationalized private school – publicly financed voucher system (PRS / PFV system) of education provides a solution to the current problems plaguing the American public education system. Although previous arguments focus on a privatized system being more efficient than the current public system, I will not focus on this issue in my discussion. Despite criticism of privatized education systems by multiple empirical analyses, I do not fully engage the empirical literature here. As there has never been a nationalized private school – publicly funded voucher system like the one supported here, there is no direct empirical evidence that provides reason not to support such a system. Rather, my discussion is purely theoretical and will only briefly address some of the prospective theoretical concerns that are raised by the empirical research.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (M.Ed.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 1997.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Duquesne University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-109) and index.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Alberta, 1997. / In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Department of Secondary Education. Spine title: Implications of wider parental choice. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Baylor University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-296).

This thesis consists of three independent essays on the design of matching markets, with a primary goal to understand how information interacts with matching mechanisms especially in the applications to school choice and college admissions. The first chapter compares theoretically the non-strategyproof Boston mechanism and the strategy-proof deferred acceptance mechanism when taking into account that students may face uncertainty about their own priorities when submitting preferences, one important variation from the complete information assumption. The second chapter evaluates the effectiveness of a strategy-proof mechanism when students have to submit preferences before knowing their priorities using both theory and data. The third chapter turns attention to a new mechanism that is sequentially implemented and can encourage truth-telling. Nevertheless, such implementation often faces time constraint. This chapter therefore offers an inquiry of the pros and cons of the time-constrained sequential mechanism. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Low-income parents value excellent schools, yet often enroll their children in low-performing schools. The literature is inconclusive when examining how low-income families go through school choice decisions. It is important to understand the school decision-making process among different racial groups because choosing a good school improves later academic outcomes. Choosing a good elementary school is especially important because this is a critical period in a child's development and can affect performance in subsequent educational institutions. I am interested in understanding how race/ethnicity shapes how low-income parents make decisions about schools. Using interview data from an extensive qualitative study, I examine differences and similarities among white, Latino, and Polynesian parents' values of school quality and how they use those values to make school decisions for their children. By keeping social class constant, I delve into racial differences not previously discussed in the literature. I find racial distinctions among values and priorities in school decision-making. Ignoring these differences will create obstacles for policymakers and school administrators attempting to make a quality education available to children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

This dissertation presents work on gerrymandering in American legislative districts and on school competition and school choice. The work on gerrymandering analyzes how to measure gerrymandering and investigates some of its causal effects. The analysis of how to measure gerrymandering is presented in Chapter 1 and in the first half of Chapter 2. The context is the following. Legislative maps are often evaluated along dimensions of proportionality (the alignment between parties' seat shares and their state- or nation-wide vote shares) and competitiveness (the fraction of contests with uncertain winners). Since a map is intended to be used for multiple elections, policy-makers want to accurately predict how it will perform on these dimensions in the future. Doing this is difficult because future elections will differ from past ones due to changes in the demographic composition of the electorate and as a result of electoral shocks to preferences and turnout costs. Citing this uncertainty, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the judicial system is incapable of adjudicating claims of partisan gerrymandering. The first contribution of the dissertation is to develop a method for predicting the uncertainty in a map's performance due to electoral shocks and changes in demographics. The method relies on a structural voting model, which describes the preference and turnout decisions of a potential voter. The model decomposes an election into (i) a set of candidate qualities and (ii) individual-level utility parameters. I assess map performance in two steps. First, I examine the effect of electoral shocks by simulating alternative values of the candidate qualities and utility parameters. Second, I investigate the influence of demographic changes by re-running the simulations using different electorates. I apply the method to rich data from the 2008 to 2018 general elections in North Carolina and show that it allows credible and precise evaluations of maps. I also show that the method is better than existing approaches at predicting gerrymandering outcomes in excluded elections. The remainder of Chapter 2 concerns the causal effects of gerrymandering. Specifically, I examine whether the probability that someone turns out to vote is influenced by the competitiveness of his or her legislative districts. I do this by comparing outcomes over time for individuals in North Carolina who were placed into more or less competitive districts in 2011 as part of the decadal ``redistricting" process. I compare individuals who shared the same districts in each legislative chamber (U.S. House, NC Senate, NC House) before redistricting and who differed in districts for only one chamber after redistricting. Within these comparison groups, I match individuals on demographics and history of turnout and party registration. I find that being placed into a less competitive district reduces turnout. Effects grow over time and exist in both midterm and presidential elections. By 2018, having been placed in a district in which one party is always predicted to win versus one in which the parties have an even chance of winning reduces turnout by 1.9 percentage points for U.S. House districts and 1.4 percentage points for NC House and NC Senate districts. These results highlight the importance of considering district competitiveness when drawing legislative maps. Chapter 3 is work that is joint with Rajeev Dehejia, Cristian Pop-Eleches, and Miguel Urquiola. It examines how schools' incentives are influenced by the way in which households make school choice decisions. A summary is as follows. Recent work examines whether households choose schools based on school value added (Abdulkadiroglu et al. 2020; Beuermann et al. 2019). Given that value added is difficult to observe, households' choices are likely to depend on both (i) how much they care about value added and (ii) how well informed they are about which schools have high or low value added. We examine this concern using administrative data, a survey, and an experiment in Romanian high school markets. Using the survey, we can explain households' preferences based on their beliefs about school traits, rather than on the values of these traits that are measured by researchers. In the administrative data, we find that households' choices are better explained by measured values of peer quality than by measured values of value added. By contrast, in the survey data, we find that households' beliefs about value added and peer quality have equal explanatory power for their choices. This motivates an experiment in which we provide households with information on school value added. We find that the information has a positive but heterogenous effect on the extent to which households prioritize value added in their school choices. Effects are largest for households who were initially less certain of their choices and for households with low-scoring students.

School Choice has been introduced into several national education programs during the past three decades in Azerbaijan. Parents are invited to select from various schools to locate the one that “suits them the best”. However, there is a need to understand the factors that go into parents' decision-making when choosing primary schools for their children, especially in various native languages and educational fields. The purpose of the study is to explore Azerbaijani-speaking and Russian-speaking parents’ school choices at the primary education level in Azerbaijani and Russian sectors. Furthermore, the study investigates the factors influencing parents’ selections when selecting a primary school for their children, such as socioeconomic status, educational values, and cultural preferences. The study also aims to compare the school choice patterns of Azerbaijani-speaking and Russian-speaking parents, particularly emphasizing how their varied native languages may influence their decision-making processes. Additionally, this study presents a framework of the national policies regarding parental school choice in Azerbaijan. The study's theoretical frameworks were framed by Human Capital Approach (HCA), Human Rights Based Approach (HRBA) and Capability Approach (CA). By utilizing these frameworks, parents can better understand the various factors that impact their decisions when choosing a school for their children and how these decisions can ultimately affect their children’s educational achievements. The HCA believes education is a valuable investment in human capital, and parents choose schools based on their perception of the returns on this investment. On the other hand, the HRBA sees education as a fundamental human right, and parents’ selection of schools should be based on fairness and non-discrimination principles. The CA emphasizes the importance of education in enhancing individual capabilities and freedoms. This research used qualitative research methodology will contribute to select the right school for children at the primary education level in Azerbaijan. The comparative perspective was based on the Azerbaijani-speaking and Russian-speaking parents. The semi-structured interviews with 12 participants were conducted to gather data, focusing on the factors influencing their decision-making processes and thematic analysis was applied to the data analysis. The author encountered codes and themes in the interview data through qualitative research methods and thematic analysis. This approach provided detailed insights into the complex and diverse nature of parents’ school choice decisions. Overall, the research on parents in Azerbaijan found that they, irrespective of their native language, possess a keen interest in and knowledge of factors that impact their decision in selecting primary schools for their children. This highlights the significance of considering aspects such as language options, school location, and reputation while devising policies to offer quality education to all children. Further exploration is necessary to comprehend the decision-making approach of parents and develop effective tactics to support them in making informed and appropriate school selections. Finally, the implications to the policy and practices for school choice are discussed.