‘How do American parents view their children’s education? What are their attitudes, priorities, and why?

‘How do American parents view their children’s education? What are their attitudes, priorities, and why?

Introduction

At the heart of America’s education system is a promise to empower and raise the life prospects of all the American children. In his famous quote, President George W. Bush said, “When it comes to educating the American child, failure is never an option (Spellings & Pubs 4).” According to Spellings, Margaret, and Pubs (7), children’s initial and most significant teacher is parents. As such, all parents must develop and maintain excellent ties to their children’s education. When parents and associated families take part in children’s schooling, learners often do better and have higher achievements (Spelling & Pubs 7). Prieto et al. argue that school selection and choice in the United States allow parents to access the education marketplace and decide which schools the best suite their children’s educational needs. They equally assert that in the United States, parents have to choose from a variety of schools, including private, public, virtual, home, and charter schools, among other options. Thus, this paper seeks to answer the questions, ‘How do American parents view their children’s education? What are their attitudes, priorities, and why? In efforts to answer these questions, the author proposes the premise that parents in America will choose different schools for their children based on the type of school and location of the school, reputation of the school, and school rank.

Body Discussion

In developed nations such as America, education is an essential factor and a necessary human right. Here, social capital mainly plays a top part in achieving increased labor productivity and the economic prospects of the United States. In education, learners, parents, and teachers have vital roles to play. Today, parents in America are highly involved in choosing their children’s schools. For nearly all parents, choosing a school is pertinent (Yaacob, Osman, & Bachok). According to Yaacob, Osman, and Bachok, parents rationally desire to give their children the finest when it comes to education. They also affirm that parents have the freedom to express their preferences and choices for schools that they wish their children to enroll. Hence, while schools provide an appropriate setting for children’s education, the significance of parents cannot be ignored.

Equally, parents’ attitudes towards their children in the family also contribute to their preferences of the schools their kids attend. The central role of parents’ attitudes continues to shape how their children develop and which institutions they join. Without parents’ support and involvement in education, Yaacob, Osman, and Bachok argue that it would be hard for teachers to help students in meaningful ways. In most home settings, Yaacob, Osman, and Bachok claim that learning takes place explicitly and in an informal manner. Often, parents educate and coach their children earlier in life, the fundamental values and skills for everyday living (Gonzalez-Pienda et al.). Theoretical frameworks that support parents’ school preference also exist in the education literature. One of these models relates to the rational choice theory, which posits that reasonable parents settle for the best institutions according to their utilities and the restraints they encounter. According to this theory, parents usually utilize decision rules in attempts to process information before them (Koppelman & Bhat). Besides, parents also aim to optimize their utility levels by making various trades-offs among different options, including education. As for Koppelman and Bhat, the utility-optimization concept is theoretically robust and provides the ground for parents’ choice behaviors in deciding the schools for their children.

Yaacob, Osman, and Bachok say that discrete choice frameworks also study people’s decision-making processes. In a traditional sense, they argue that people need to choose only one thing, the most preferred alternative from a set of available options. Given this scenario, they claim, experts have the discretion to estimate the demand for institutions using something known as the ‘standard choice models.’  In essence, Yaacob, Osman, and Bachok argue that these models try to explain individuals’ decision-making processes using two fundamental approaches: stated preferences (SP) as well as revealed preferences (RP). In this regard, studying the diversity of these models is vital in understanding how people make choices. From this discussion, it is also clear that the process of selecting schools is a highly multifaceted and challenging exercise. Even with these models, it is also pertinent to realize that there is no accord on specific elements as well as approaches to evaluate people’s choices. However, literature, including the one provided above, suggests that four broach classifications of parents’ motives for choosing schools related to the type of school, location of the school, reputation of the school, and the rank of the school.

Parent Preferences for location and Transportation 

Yaacob, Osman, and Bachok report on the role of place and Transportation in the choice of schools. They theorize that parents often prefer schools that are close to their homes to those that are far. They also argue that parents often select schools because of convenience. As such, they present that the location of parents is a significant determinant of school choice. They state that the term location denotes a place of settlement of parents to the nearest school. In their study, Harris and Larsen also hypothesized that families favored schools that were close to their residences. They studied a post-Hurricane school in New Orleans and established that indirect costs such as traveling over long distances played a leading role in patients’ choice of schools for their children. Using data from a public school in Charlotte, North Carolina, Hastings, Kane, and Staiger found that parents liked schools that had proximity to their homes, as opposed to far-distanced schools.

In Washington, a study conducted in 2011 by Jacobs indicated that most parents chose schools based on the distance to their homes than merely on academic performance. In other words, Jacobs claimed that parents did not look at schools’ performance when selecting which schools their children needed to attend. Based on this study, he concluded that some schools in the United States, including Charter schools, have increased over the last decade. Integrating these studies, and other literature on location and transportation preference among parents, it is clear that families living in areas with poorly performing schools, quality is not a concern when having to distance and Transportation. With these situations, parents can seek schools that are near home, even when such schools are not performing well. In this way, parents tend to choose schools that meet their unique needs, including location and transport expenses. Hence, considering a school that is far from home can mean weighing the benefits and costs to families as well as learners. In most cases, traveling outside families’ neighborhoods could involve some inconveniences such as lost time on the way, wild drivers, missed transit connections, as well as earlier wake-ups. For many parents, needs are worthwhile if the payoffs can surpass the drawbacks. In a sense, the cost of Transportation must be low and cheap for students to consider a given school. Parents equally factor the issue of safety when considering transportation means from home to school. When security for their children is compromised, parents tend to choose schools that are as close to home as possible.

Indeed, research also supports the notion that longer commutes could pose difficulties for children and their families to sustain. For instance, as Jacobs found, he found that the longer children had to walk or travel from their home to school, the more they were likely to miss out on classes and transfer to other institutions. It can also be argued, mainly from Jacobs’ findings, that long and unsuitable school distances tend to drain families’ resources and disrupt the learning process of students. Apart from the economic costs, the above studies also support the fact that schools that far tend to cause social damages. By and large, going to schools located in distant areas and neighborhoods could entail social costs. For instance, the further children travel to schools, the less likely they to attend schools with other children from their areas. According to Gross, moving students securely from one place to the other involves immense logistics.

Parent Preferences for the Type of School   

Across America, parents have a broad range of educational alternatives for their children. Some of these options include traditional schools, charter schools, private schools, homeschooling, or private schools, among many other options. Even though the majority of students in the United States attend public schools, the number of learners in charter schools and other types continue increasing significantly every year (Wang, Rathburn, & Musu). The enrolment rate of students in charter schools has also almost tripled over the years, as reported by Wang, Rathburn, and Musu. As already noted, every American parent wants his or her child to excel in education, and therefore, finding the right school remains central to attaining such a goal. For most parents in the United States, choosing between these schools marks the difference in their children’s academic outcomes and life success. Often, parents’ personal biases play a significant function in making their preferred schools. For instance, some parents usually equate private institutions’ fees as well as tuitions with superior schooling. Other parents are also devoted to public schools because they believe that such schools offer more diverse and culturally rich experiences to their children. As Wang, Rathburn, and Musu point, schools in America today are many, and making choices among parents can present a taunting experience.

According to the United States, parents have a wide array of schools options to choose from in the country. While parents can exercise their choice freely and in diverse ways, they can do so by choosing where to stay based on their schools of choice. In most areas, parents have the discretion of choosing public or private schools in their neighboring hoods (United States). As for the United States, while parents often value the welfare of their children, they also have an overwhelming responsibility of deciding which school their children are trained or educated. As such, choosing the type of school for children allows parents to become more confident that their kids would attain the best education. Thus, parents decide to send their children to public schools because these schools make it easy for their children to go to school, work with their colleagues, and visit friends (United States). Moreover, parents also choose these public schools for their children because these institutions are anchored in communities, focus on particular subjects, and have unique philosophies of education (United States). For instance, some public schools might focus on a specific study of language and another on arts or science. Also, other public schools may provide education on the code of conduct or dress codes (United States).

With charter schools, the United States defines them as public schools that operate with freedom from other local institutions that are heavily regulated. These schools allow parents more flexibility compared to the other types (United States). In particular, most parents go for these schools because they permit their children to innovate, and thus, giving kids more learning options (United States). Parents also choose charter schools because they give their students more autonomy, in addition to accountability. Another quality why most parents chose these schools is that they usually get sponsored by local, stage, and other agencies that monitor the level of education quality offered to students while holding management accountable for academic results and unethical practices (United States).  With magnet schools, parents prefer them because these institutions attract students from diverse social, ethnic, and racial places by focusing on particular subjects such as engineering, art, or science. Some magnet institutions also demand learners to pass exams to demonstrate their knowledge in subjects. Also, other magnet schools are open to different students who have interest in certain areas, providing avenues for children to explore and innovate (United States).

Parent Preferences for School Rank

According to Tompson, Benz, and Agiesta (4), parents also choose schools for their children based on their ranks in the country. According to these authors, the vast majority of the parents in American argue that teacher quality and the level of parental engagement play significant parts in deciding which schools to take children. They argue that 82 percent of the surveyed parents suggest that the availability of support resources at schools was an important factor in choosing among different schools for their children. Besides, they also found that 70 percent of the parents considered the availability of extra activities, programs, and sports when deciding. They equally found that about 64 percent of parents regarded the quality of school buildings as a vital element in determining which school to enroll their children. The following image, from Tompson, Benz, and Agiesta (5), demonstrates how parents rated schools.

Source: Tompson, Benz, and Agiesta

Parent Preferences for School Reputation

When parents choose a school for their children, they often value the academic value as well as achievement of the school. They are also often concerned about the security and setting of the school, in addition to the institution’s reputation (Skallerud). The majority of the children of parents’ who regard educational attainment as a vital aspect score over 40 points higher in mathematics than those who disregard school achievement. For most parents, mainly those that prefer school’s reputations, the right institutions that develop children’s success, education, emotional, and social skills were the best choices. Moreover, parents’ satisfaction with schools has been found to be a useful antecedent to institution’s reputation (Skallerud).

According to Skallerud, the concept of school reputation is paramount among parents. In particular, their results show that there is a positive and consistent pattern among reputation and school performance. For instance, the more patients are satisfied with a particular school, the more they perceive the institution’s reputation. Skallerud’s research further demonstrated higher levels of patient contentment with schools that had excellent reputation. It means that the school reputation may be used as a valuable method of assessing parents’ satisfaction. One implication from Skallerud’s research is that a school’s good reputation has a significant effect on parents’ choices for their children. With a poor reputation, Skallerud argued that the possibility of parent considering alternative schools was high.

Conclusion

As seen from the above discussion, America’s education system is vital in empowering and increasing the life prospects of all the American children. According to George W. Bush said, when it comes to educating the American child, failure is never an option. As such children’s initial and most significant teacher is parents. As such, all parents must develop and maintain excellent ties to their children’s education. When parents and associated families take part in children’s schooling, learners often do better and have higher achievements.  School selection and choice in the United States allow parents to access the education marketplace and decide which schools the best suite their children’s educational needs. In the United States, parents have to choose from a variety of schools, including private, public, virtual, home, and charter schools, among other options. Thus, this paper sought to answer the questions, ‘How do American parents view their children’s education? What are their attitudes, priorities, and why? In efforts to answer these questions, the author proposed the premise that parents in America will choose different schools for their children based on the type of school and location of the school, reputation of the school, and school rank.

Works Cited

Gonzalez-Pienda, Julio Antonio, et al. “A structural equation model of parental involvement, motivational and aptitudinal characteristics, and academic achievement.” The Journal of Experimental Education 70.3 (2002): 257-287.

Gross, Betheny. “Going The Extra Mile For School Choice: How Five Cities Tackle The Challenges Of Student Transportation – Education Next”. Education Next, 2019, https://www.educationnext.org/going-extra-mile-school-choice-how-five-cities-tackle-challenges-student-transportation/.

Harris, Douglas N., and Matthew Larsen. “What schools do families want (and why).” Policy Brief (New Orleans, LA: Education Research Alliance for New Orleans (2015).

Hastings, Justine S., Thomas J. Kane, and Douglas O. Staiger. Parental preferences and school competition: Evidence from a public school choice program. No. w11805. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2005.

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Prieto, Lydia M., et al. “Parental preferences in the choice for a specialty school.” Journal of School Choice 13.2 (2019): 198-227.

Spellings, Margaret, and E. D. Pubs. “US Department of education.” Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act, Washington, DC (2007).

Skallerud, Kåre. “School reputation and its relation to parents’ satisfaction and loyalty.” International Journal of Educational Management (2011).

Tompson, Trevor N., Jennifer K. Benz, and Jennifer Agiesta. Parents’ attitudes on the quality of education in the United States. Chicago, IL: Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 2013.

Yaacob, Noor Alyani, Mariana Mohamed Osman, and Syahirah Bachok. “Factors influencing parents’ decision in choosing private schools.” Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 153 (2014): 242-253.

United States. Department of Education. Office of Innovation and Improvement. Giving Parents Options: Strategies for Informing Parents and Implementing Public School Choice and Supplemental Educational Services Under No Child Left Behind. US Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement, 2007.

Wang, Ke, Amy Rathburn, and Lauren Musu. “School Choice in the United States: 2019. NCES 2019-106.” National Center for Education Statistics (2019).