Publication Cover
Journal of School Choice
International Research and Reform
Volume 13, 2019 - Issue 3
852
Views
5
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Article

Parental Reasons for School Choice in Elementary School: A Systematic Review

, , , , &
Pages 287-304 | Published online: 21 Jul 2019
 

ABSTRACT

The quantitative literature on parental reasons of school choice for their elementary school children was systematically reviewed using all major databases. The quality of the studies was assessed through a modified version of the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Among 3982 references reviewed, 26 studies were included from 14 countries. Although large heterogeneity in the data precluded a formal meta-analysis, our findings document that school academic quality was the only reason reported in more than 50% of the studies. In studies from low-income countries or composed predominantly of families from low SES, logistic reasons assume relevance aside teacher quality. The methodological quality of the literature in this area is poor. Although the literature is not of enough quality to confidently define what the most important factors are, our findings provide an overview of the reasons parents gave for selecting elementary schools for their children worldwide. In addition, we present the needed data for constructing an instrument to assess parent reasons for elementary school choice, something not yet available in the literature.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the following authors that answered our request for additional data on their studies: Dr. Drew Catt, Dr. Paul Di Perna, Prof. Rinelle Evans, Prof. David Fleming, Prof. Ellen Goldring, Prof. Cornelia Kristen, Prof. Maria Alice Nogueira, Prof. Benjamin Scafidi, and Prof. Paul Teske.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 310.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.