Family and Student Characteristics and Exercise of Public School Choice Options in the U. S.

By comparing the results of the Parent and Family Involvement in Education Survey of the National Household Education Surveys from 1996 and 2007, this study addressed a) how parental socioeconomic and demographic factors affect parental choice in public schools in the U. S. and b) whether there were any changes in choice patterns during the last decade. Even though there has been much emphasis on competition and choice in public schools since the 1980s, choice students in public schools increased only by 2.5% points from 13.4% in 1996 to 15.9% in 2007. Our findings suggested that many of the relationships between parental characteristics and their exercise of school choice options did not change over the last decade. For instance, Black and Hispanic families exercised choice options at a higher rate than white families; families with elementary and high school students exercised choice options at higher rates than families with middle school students; parents with higher education level tended to exercise school choice options; parents in urban areas exercised choice options at higher rates than parents in suburbs, small towns, or rural areas. One noticeable change was observed in the relationship between household income and the use of school choice options. While a negative relationship between household income and the use of school choice options was found in 1996, no significant relationship was found between those two variables in 2007. These findings appeared to be related to residential segregation and/or information asymmetry among parents in the U. S