School Choice Research Articles

General High School or Vocational High School: School Choice for Students Near the High School Entrance Examination Score Line

The study focuses on exploring the Chinese students’ school choice decisions. In particular, it explores why some students prefer vocational schools over general high schools, even when eligible for the latter. The research also examines how pupils make sense of these dual purposes at the time of choosing. According to this study’s results which were based on in-depth interviews with eight vocational school students, most of them chose these schools because they considered the courses offered there as more important than attending prestigious general high schools. Students choose their schools according to personal feelings and understandings about educational equality and achievement in society. Students' choices reflect their subjective experiences and individual interpretations of social signals regarding educational equity and success. The findings emphasized psychological and structural determinants in selecting schools so as to foster equal learning opportunities among all children regardless of their backgrounds. This study contributes to the understanding of how students navigate the complex landscape of educational options, and how their choices are influenced by broader societal forces.

Middle‐Class Versus Working‐Class White Mothers’ Approaches to Diversity in the Netherlands

There is a large body of literature on how white middle‐class parents select schools for their children in gentrifying urban contexts. In this study, we aimed to explore the experiences of such parents after enrolling their children in ethnically mixed schools but also how these experiences varied in gentrifying urban contexts and smaller cities. We interviewed mothers without a migration background living in a large city (Amsterdam) or a medium‐sized city (Tilburg) who had chosen to send their children to an ethnically mixed school in a majority–minority neighbourhood, asking them to reflect on their neighbourhood choice, school choice, and subsequent experiences. Based on our analysis, we developed a typology of parents’ positions towards diversity, whereby they could be described as idealists, pragmatists, and realists. Aligned with previous studies, this article shows that the idealist position on diversity was more common among the white middle classes in Amsterdam, who expressed a positive attitude towards diversity but engaged with it to a controlled and limited extent. However, we also identified a group of mothers, mostly working class but also middle class, who did not take an idealized approach to diversity but embraced it as a lived reality. The study underlines the importance of mothers’ engagement with diversity during their own childhood and youth as an important factor in shaping parenting behaviour around diversity.

Travel mode choice tolerance (TMC tolerance): Exploring elementary school students' perceived ability to switch commuting modes

BackgroundAs an essential outdoor activity for children, the school commute has received repeated attention in the existing literature. Nevertheless, prior studies on the travel mode choice for school commutes have predominantly focused on the preferred commuting mode, overlooking the exploration of students' travel mode alternative behaviors. In this context, research is crucial to capture students' propensity and perceived ability to shift their travel mode from car to public and active transport. MethodsTo address this gap, our study introduces a definition of ‘Travel Mode Choice tolerance’ (TMC tolerance) to explore alternative mode behaviors during school commutes for elementary school students. The latest data from the Beijing Student Commuting Survey are adopted to analyze student populations with varying TMC tolerance levels. The chi-squared test is also employed to examine the impact of different influencing factors on TMC tolerance. ResultsBased on the empirical results derived from this definition, it is observed that students with a strong tolerance for modal shifts constitute more than half of the student population. Factors such as grade level, mode of escort, and distance were identified as significant influencers on children's TMC tolerances. Particularly noteworthy is that the percentage of students with a strong TMC tolerance significantly increases when the travel distance exceeds 2.25 km. Among students traveling alone, a higher proportion exhibits low tolerance than those with high tolerance. Additionally, the proportion of students with strong TMC tolerance increases with grade level (age). ConclusionsOperationalizing TMC tolerance as preference and ability variation can capture the collective impact of complex factors shaping commuting decisions, both observed and unobserved. According to the findings, four policy suggestions are proposed, including optimizing school site selection, establishing school buses or children-concerned transit systems, enhancing healthy travel education, and planning active travel routes.

Assessing the Alignment Between Online Word-Of-Mouth and Schools’ Actual Academic Performance: A Deep Neural Network Analysis

ABSTRACT Many parents use social media to gather word-of-mouth regarding schools’ performance, subsequently influencing their school choice decisions. Yet, it’s unclear how well online opinions reflect schools’ actual academic performance. To address this gap, this study uses machine learning to examine whether the online evaluations of students’ learning can match schools’ test scores and their improvements. Findings indicate that while online evaluations don’t perfectly align with test scores, the association between online word-of-mouth and test scores remains stronger than that of test score gains. Consequently, online word-of-mouth tends to recommend schools with higher test scores over higher value-added scores.

Incorporating Parents' Lived Experiences Into the Pediatric Audiology Course: A Qualitative Analysis of Student Reflections.

This study explores the underutilized pedagogical approach of incorporating lived experiences of parents with children possessing diverse hearing profiles and their family characteristics into the audiology curriculum for students. The aim was to investigate the impact of integrating such experiences into the classroom as an andragogical learning experience through the qualitative analysis of written student reflections. Twelve (N = 12) third-year female audiology students enrolled in a pediatric auditory (re)habilitation course attended a parent panel presentation during their regularly scheduled face-to-face class. Five parents of children with diverse hearing differences and diverse technology, communication, and educational choices participated on the panel as guest speakers via the Zoom platform. Students completed written reflections based on Rolfe's reflective framework. Written reflections were downloaded from Canvas and de-identified prior to uploading to NVivo software for coding, utilizing an inductive grounded theory coding strategy coupled with content analysis. This study underscores the effectiveness of written reflections as an effective andragogical learning model. Through reflective practice, students gained a deeper understanding of their experiences, values, and learning journeys, enhancing their competency in pediatric audiology and auditory (re)habilitation. Students articulated previous knowledge and learning experiences, utilized newfound insights from exposure to the parent panel of shared lived experiences, and connected this knowledge with future clinical applications. Key findings underscore the effectiveness of reflective practice as an andragogical learning model, facilitating the integration of prior experiences with new knowledge. Moreover, it aids the transition of the professional journey from the familiar to the unfamiliar, demonstrating the impact of combining real-world lived experiences to reinforce and highlight classroom topics. Additionally, reflective practice enhances professional efficacy by valuing patient/parent perspectives regarding clinical care and aligning with evidence-based principles.

Analysis of Question Items Using the Differentiating Power Method

The use of multiple choice questions in exams remains a common choice in education for various reasons, such as ease of assessment, perceived objectivity, and the ability to provide rapid feedback especially in large classes. Research shows that the use of multiple choice questions can strengthen retention of information, especially involving alternative wrong answers, as well as measure students' basic understanding in various subjects. However, to create quality multiple choice questions, an in-depth evaluation of the question elements is required, including item analysis to ensure the validity, reliability and fairness of the assessment. The results of this research using quantitative descriptive methods show that most of the questions can be improved, while a small number need to be rejected. The research conclusions suggest that rejected items should not be reused, while items that need to be corrected should be improved to improve the overall quality of the exam. Thus, analyzing the quality of multiple choice questions is crucial for increasing the effectiveness of assessment, especially in higher education contexts such as nursing and medical education.

UNRAVELLING THE MOTIVATIONAL FORCES BEHIND PURSUING A POSTGRADUATE DEGREE IN ENGLISH EDUCATION

This study investigated the motivations of fresh graduate student pursue their postgraduate study in the English Education Master Program at Sanata Dharma University. The objectives of the study are the to examine the psychological needs, intrinsic factors, and extrinsic factors to develop their study. The main research instruments in this study are semi-structured interviews, which are conducted using a qualitative methodology. The findings revealed that the psychological needs related to the reason for pursuing postgraduate study, participants expressed a desire for control over their educational choices and the importance of feeling competent in their field. The study also finds out intrinsic and extrinsic factors, such as skill development, enhanced career prospects, and meeting personal needs, students are encouraged to pursue a graduate degree. The results show that intrinsic motivation, environmental factors, and professional orientation play an important role in students' decisions to pursue a postgraduate education. Although this study provides valuable insights, there are limitations in generalizing the findings to just the population studied. Suggestion for further research involving broader samples and more in-depth analysis is needed to understand the impact of motivation on graduate students' academic and career performance.

THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL GUIDANCE IN THE FORMATION OF THE PERSONALITY OF GIFTED CHILDREN

Today, practical psychologists who carry out psychological assistance activities in accordance with the needs of gifted children, and at the same time establish effective cooperation with parents and teachers, are more needed. Providing the psychological assistance needs of gifted children for personal, pedagogical and career choice issues will affect the formation of self-esteem and self-confidence in them, their self-awareness, the establishment of successful social relations, and their orientation in the right direction in education and career choice. In this regard, the role and importance of practical psychologists in the formation of gifted children as a personality is discussed in the article.

Unequal City and Inequitable Choice: The Neoliberal State’s Development of School Choice and Marketization in the Publicly Funded Catholic School Board in Toronto, Canada

ABSTRACT This study examines the extent to which school choice in the Toronto Catholic District School Board impacts equity and segregation. This examination is important because full public funding for the Board should adhere to the goals of public education, namely, equity and inclusion of all students. A critical policy geography perspective is applied to illuminate the dynamics of school choice as a neoliberal reform in the context of a global city where residential polarization and occupational bifurcation along racialized social class lines have intensified. Guided by critical space analysis, this research uses student enrollment data (Grades 9–12), Canadian Census data, school website information, and secondary literature. The findings suggest that school choice increases spatial inequity by giving those who are already socially and racially advantaged easier access to prestigious academic programs of choice. School segregation according to students’ economic backgrounds thereby increases. This study calls for implementing sociospatially conscious education policies that can undo rather than reinforce global city inequality.

Should Religious Schools Be Publicly Funded? Issues of Religion, Discrimination, and Equity

ABSTRACT This issue offers a critical opportunity to reflect on an enduring question in education: Should religious schools be state-funded? To facilitate this reflection, this issue offers six studies from Canada, Spain, and the United States. Each delves into the unique relationships between state-funded schooling and religion in their respective contexts. In particular, these studies examine how the relationships have shifted due to numerous factors, including changing legal rulings, political ideology, demographic shifts, global migration, and education privatization. The authors carefully integrate (and interrogate) the histories and places where they conducted their analyses. Taken together, these studies offer invaluable and timely insights into the intended and unintended consequences of state funding that expands school choice, marketization, and privatization, particularly with respect to religion. This issue thus aims to inform the ongoing debate about the (potential) impact that publicly funding religious schools has on equity, segregation, and discrimination. Ultimately, we hope this issue highlights the importance of a nonsectarian approach to public education so as to create an inclusive education space wherein all human identities are welcomed and affirmed.

Charting the Path to the Outsourcing of Discrimination Through School Choice

ABSTRACT The growth of state laws creating private school vouchers and charter schools has mounting and alarming ramifications for students’ rights, and those ramifications are shaped by a complex and shifting set of legal rules. This article explains the interplay between the increase of these school-choice programs, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent free-exercise decisions, long-standing antidiscrimination laws, and the now-tenuous applicability of those legal protections for choice students. It concludes by considering the political ramifications of these changes, which will likely be very different in “blue” and “red” states.

Crowding in School Choice

We consider the market design problem of matching students to schools in the presence of crowding effects. These effects are salient in parents’ decision-making and the empirical literature; however, they cause difficulties in the design of satisfactory mechanisms and, as such, are not currently considered. We propose a new framework and an equilibrium notion that accommodates crowding, no-envy, and respect for priorities. The equilibrium has a student-optimal element that induces an incentive-compatible mechanism and is implementable via a novel algorithm. Moreover, analogs of fundamental structural results of the matching literature (the rural hospitals theorem, welfare lattice, etc.) survive. (JEL D47, H75, I21, I28)

Education choice and human capital accumulation with an endogenous fertility model

This paper, after presenting development of an endogenous fertility model with endogenous education investment, examines determination of the shares of households which select public education, income growth, income inequality, and fertility. Results demonstrate that a child allowance raises the share of households selecting public education. Furthermore, an increase in a subsidy for private education investment is not always sufficient to raise aggregate human capital accumulation, even if the share of households selecting private education is large. Furthermore, this paper presents an examination of how government spending on subsidy policies is determined as a result of a voting system. Numerical examples verify the result obtained using the theoretical model.

Роль родителей в профессиональном самоопределении детей

The article analyzes the role of parents in children’s professional self-determination. The authors conducted a sociological survey among graduates of pedagogical, medical, and technical universities in Yaroslavl. The results showed that key factors in professional self-identification are family values and a reference person, rather than the opinions of friends or advertising in the media. Children from families with a service-oriented mission (e.g., teachers, military personnel, firefighters, police officers, healthcare workers) typically follow their parents’ life path. The majority of students surveyed acknowledged that their parents’ opinion plays an important role in their choice of future education and profession. However, only a small number of parents preferred to stay out of the way when it comes to choosing their children's educational and professional path. The study revealed that the professional goals of most children from doctor’s families coincided with those of their parents. On the other hand, students who entered university under parental coercion were found to have lower academic performance. These students are more likely to suffer from stress, apathy and alcohol dependence compared to those who independently and consciously chose their place of study. Students who, thanks to their parents’ support, actively developed through after-school activities (for example, dance or sports), quickly identified their strengths and weaknesses, and consciously chose their university and future profession. The author notes that medical education is an elite and inherited profession, as many students in medical universities have family members related to medicine. Obviously, in the context of social change, it's difficult to find a stable, well-respected, well-paying job that allows for social connections.

Literature Review: Pemanfaatan Instrumentasi Tes Minat terhadap Layanan Bimbingan dan Konseling

Interest and aptitude tests help in recognizing children's potential early on, so that parents and educators can plan education that is more suitable and supports the optimal development of children's potential. The purpose of this study is to help individuals know that interest and aptitude test instrumentation has a major impact in directing individuals in developing themselves, both in academics and careers. Children who study and work according to their interests tend to be more motivated, happy and accomplished. With a clear understanding of interests and aptitudes, children can make better decisions regarding future education, major and career choices. In this study we used the Literature Review method by collecting several sources. The results and discussion of the literature review discussion regarding interest tests, interest inventories, and Android-based psychological test applications in guidance and counseling in schools show that these tools are very important to help students determine educational and career paths according to their interests and talents. Interest tests help reduce uncertainty in career decision-making, improve the fit between individuals and jobs or study programs, and expand understanding of the psychological tendencies underlying their choices.

How Do Socioeconomic Differences Among Low-Income and Racially Minoritized Students Shape Their Engagement and Access in School Choice Systems?

Socioeconomic differences among low-income and racially minoritized students may be consequential for understanding the dynamics of school choice—especially in high-poverty and racially segregated urban contexts that are often targeted by school choice policies. Yet school choice research largely focuses on differences between groups and relies on measures that broadly categorize students as low-income or not. Drawing on parent interviews in Detroit, this study describes socioeconomic differences among low-income and racially minoritized families and examines how those differences relate to their engagement in the school choice process. While families faced a similar landscape of choice, relied on similar types of resources, and did not have drastically different preferences, relative socioeconomic disadvantages translated to more constrained access and engagement in school choice.

Compromises in occupational choice and premature termination of vocational education and training: gender type, prestige, and occupational interests in focus

This study examines whether premature termination of vocational education and training (VET) is more likely when trainees have to make compromises between their realistic occupational aspirations and the occupation for which they are trained in terms of the occupational dimensions of gender type, prestige, and occupational interests. Specifically, it examines the relative importance of the three compromise dimensions on premature VET termination. The study is based on a sample of 3,241 VET entrants from a cohort of ninth graders in 2010 in the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS-SC4) in combination with aggregated data on occupational characteristics. Results from discrete hazard rate models indicate a higher risk of premature VET termination for trainees whose VET occupation differs from their realistic occupational aspiration from their school days. While compromises in prestige have no overall effect, both compromises in interests and gender type threaten the stability of VET. The results also indicate that compromises in interests have the strongest effect on the risk of premature VET termination and that the effects of compromises in gender type are partly mediated by the effects of compromises in interests. Furthermore, sensitivity analysis revealed that the main effects of compromises in gender type and prestige are gender specific.

School Choice and Students With Disabilities: Evidence From Administrative Data

School choice has emerged as an alternative to traditional public education, allowing families to select schools outside their neighborhood. While extensive research has examined its impact on students overall, there is a need to focus on its specific effects on students with disabilities. This article addresses this gap by reviewing 39 quantitative studies analyzing this issue using administrative data. Twenty-eight focus on charter schools, and 18 compare differences in enrollment—usually referred to as the “SPED gap”—between sectors. However, few publications explore factors contributing to these disparities or variations in services provided and their impact on student outcomes. We propose future research should (a) explore outcomes beyond enrollment disparities, including both academic and non-academic aspects, as well as short and long-term consequences; (b) employ rigorous statistical methods; (c) broaden the scope of the investigation to encompass diverse states and contexts, as well as other choice policies.

School choice in rural Odisha, India: Understanding from a multi-stakeholder perspective

School choice in rural Odisha, India: Understanding from a multi-stakeholder perspective

Mathematics Specialization at High School and Undergraduate Degree Choice: Evidence From England

Mathematics Specialization at High School and Undergraduate Degree Choice: Evidence From England