What Parents Look at When Choosing a Public/Private School

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What Parents Look at When Choosing a Public/Private School

Education is an institution that parents want to control as a way to insure/provide their children with the best education possible. Parent control/choice has slowly regressed from the colonial era where they could choose not only the school their child attended but also the textbooks used and the curriculum taught (McDonald 2001). Parents still obtain the right to choose the school that best tailors their child’s special uniqueness and educational needs, but due to social diversities and expansions parents have many factors that they now must take into consideration before choosing the best kind of school for their child (Russell 2001). Complexity, diversity, and financial status are some of the main denunciating factors many parents look into when choosing a public or private school for their child.

Complexities such as size, distance, and classes are huge factors that parents look at when choosing their child’s school. The factor of size is seen worldwide. It has been seen that parents, thinking all their kids are special, want their children to be in an environment where they can have as close to a one-on-one interaction with the teacher as possible. Because of this fact, parents prefer their children in schools containing small class sizes (Parents 2001). Due to the fact that private schools have more complicating factors involving student admission then in public schools, it has been found in a 1984 survey, preformed by the National Education Association of Research, that most parents find this small student teacher ratio in more private schools then in public (NEA Research 1984; Broughdam 1996).

One factor that complicates private schools is locatio...

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...r school choice- Canadian education in a global context. Fraser Institute, Retrieved November 7, 2001 from Parent Network Homepage.

In this article the Canadian educational system is compared to the school systems found in America. This article discusses the pros/cons found in both countries areas of schooling.

(1984). Public vs. nonpublic schools: over three decades of public opinion polling. Washington, DC: National Education Association.

This is a book of public polling conveying United States citizens changing opinions over the last three decades.

Daria-Wiener, I.(2001, September). Ten signs of a great preschool. Parents, 191-192.

Daria-Wiener’s article glances over the top ten results parents have been proven to look at when choosing the best preschool for their children.

Daria-Wiener, I.(2001, September).Be an A+ parent. Parents, 201-203.

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