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ABSTRACT
School quality and school choice are increasingly important. Most research has focused on selection of schools by parents, emphasizing consumption patterns. This study explores parental choices of schools by an understudied population: highly skilled, highly educated Asians residing in a district that earned a number-one ranking from the State of California. This research also stresses the production side of education in this district, which created four alternate schools that were not based on traditional neighborhood elementary school boundaries. These four elementary schools have distinctly different philosophies of education. Opportunity for admission is based on parent applications and on a lottery system. This educational policy permits wide access and offers true parental preference and choice based on a philosophy of education. This study examines a place characterized as a “tech city” with a minority-majority Asian population, not unusual in Silicon Valley's suburbs. It offers a window on parental preferences and choices among a targeted population unrestricted by traditional geographic space. The study uses Asian key informants and ethnic enrollment trends that have been published by the State of California. Also, the direct observation of classrooms supports the dominant trend of a single Asian ethnic group in an elementary school.
Acknowledgments
Several colleagues were very helpful in the preparation of this article. Wan Yu provided data and insights for the study and offered critical advice. Norah F. Henry commented critically on the draft and provided important recommendations that also improved the article. Kevin Heard provided census data and Brendan McGovern assisted with the graphics. I am grateful for their assistance. Finally, comments by blind reviewers improved this article. Thank you.