Parental Choice of a Charter School: Parental Decision-Making in Kansas City, Missouri

Abstract The purpose of this research was to create a qualitative and descriptive study by investigating the perceptions and reasoning that led parents to send their children to a public charter school in Kansas City, Missouri. This study seeks to understand the parental decision making regarding school choice in their community. This research was designed to identify and investigate the influential factors, variables, and other program characteristics such as the instruction, curriculum, teacher quality that lead parents to make the decision to enroll their children. It also examined what parents value in schools and the way in which most parents obtain information about the school in order to make their decision. Data were collected from school staff and parents through open-ended interview