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Abstract

Charter schools in Ohio were created to provide an alternative educational opportunity to many urban students seeking a better education. In recent years, students from suburban schools have also been leaving their districts to attend charter schools. If we were to better understand the experiences of families who have made this choice, then we might be better able to support students and families in both contexts. Therefore the purpose of this Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study was to understand the motivating factors of suburban parents that have made the choice to send their children to urban charter schools. The theoretical framework for this study is parent engagement. Using an IPA approach, this study sought to delve into the lived experiences of parents who opted out of a traditional, successful suburban public school district for a specific inner city charter school, Sunrise Academy, a pseudonym. The overarching research question was "Why do some suburban parents opt out of their neighborhood public schools for charter schools?" The findings from this study indicate that parents are looking at more than the convenience of a neighborhood public school. Parents seek to be part of the learning team that includes the student and teacher. They are looking for a sense of school safety in the learning environment. Parents' perceptions of suburban public schools reflect a concern that the public school teachers are not able to provide the same kind of unique one-to-one attention as teachers in a charter school. This study has implications for inner-ring suburban districts that are losing students to charter schools.