Survey Identifies Why Parents Choose Private Schools - Council for ...
December 2013 ? Number 390
outlook Council for American Private Education
Voice of America's private schools
Survey Identifies Why Parents Choose Private Schools
Consider it a reason to press the pause button in the push to judge schools
reasons why families send their children to a private school rather than to a public
their top five reasons. "These results should dissuade law-
solely by test scores. A new survey of par- school. Please select each of the following
makers from forcing standardized tests
ents shows that assessment results are not
reasons you had for sending your child
on private schools, including those with
even among the top ten reasons why fami- to a private school (you may mark as
school choice students," Benjamin Scafidi,
lies choose private schools.
many or as few reasons as applied to your co-author of the Friedman report and pro-
Released last
situation)." Re-
fessor at Georgia College & State Univer-
month by the Friedman Foundation for Educa-
Reason for Choosing a Private School for Their Child
spondents were given 21 possible reasons.
sity, said. "Parents want to evaluate schools based on their children's needs, not the government's."
tional Choice, the survey of parents
Better learning environment
According to the report, more
Asked what information they would seek to help them decide which private
participating in the Georgia
Better education
than 85 percent of parents said
school to choose, 84.2 percent of parents identified the "ratio of students per teacher
GOAL Scholar-
Smaller class sizes
they chose a
and the average class size" as important.
ship Program found, "Student
More individual attention
private school for a "better
Other factors identified as important included "school accreditation (70.2
performance on standardized test
Religious education
learning environment" for their
percent), curriculum and course descriptions (69.9 percent), college acceptance
scores is one of the least impor-
Better preparation for college child, whereas Photo: Roobcio/ 81.3 percent
rate (61.3 percent), and the availability of religious instruction (56 percent)." In ad-
tant pieces of
said the choice
dition, 52.8 percent of respondents identi-
information upon which parents base their was made for a "better education." The
fied "average performance on standardized
decision regarding the private school to
next two most common responses were
tests" as important.
which they send their children."
"smaller class sizes" (80.5 percent) and
The Friedman report called the sixth-
Since 2013, parents in Georgia have
"more individual
place ranking of
been able to take advantage of scholarships offered by student scholarship organizations (SSOs), contributions to which are
attention for my child" (76.4 percent). Other
Information Parents Want About Private Schools
standardized tests on this question "a somewhat low
eligible for state tax credits. The GOAL program is the largest of the state's SSOs,
reasons cited by a majority of
Student-teacher ratio
ranking relative to the disproportion-
accounting for roughly 32 percent of all taxpayer contributions to scholarship
parents were "religious education"
Accreditation
ate emphasis that many educators,
organizations. In 2013, surveys were dis-
(64.1 percent),
Curriculum and courses
politicians, policy-
tributed to 2,685 families receiving GOAL scholarships, and 754 of those families
"better preparation for college"
College acceptance rate
makers, business leaders, and the
completed all the questions in the survey. One question asked parents about their
(62.9 percent), "better student
Religious instruction
media are placing on national stan-
level of satisfaction with the private school they had chosen. As the report puts it,
discipline" (61.7 percent), "more
Standardized test results
dards and stan-
Photo: Roobcio/ dardized testing."
"Surveyed parents were overwhelmingly
responsive teach-
More Than
satisfied with their private school choice,
ers and administrators" (60.3 percent), and Scores: An Analysis of Why and How Par-
with 98.6 percent of parents being `very
"improved student safety" (52.9 percent)." ents Choose Private Schools is available for
satisfied' or `satisfied' with their decision to
"Higher standardized test scores" was
download from the Friedman Web site at:
send their children to a private school."
the 15th highest-rated reason, with only
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related download
- choosing a college federal trade commission
- college month lesson 4 how to choose a college school on wheels
- choosing a school doe pdf us department of education
- why choose an independent school grandview preparatory school
- survey identifies why parents choose private schools council for
- why choose catholic schools notre dame high school
- choosing a school veterans benefits administration
Related searches
- why you choose this school
- why i choose this school
- why you choose our school
- private schools for special needs children
- private schools looking for teachers
- private schools for learning disabilities
- private schools for special education
- why private schools are bad
- best private schools for adhd
- why private schools are better
- private schools for adhd kids
- why choose private high school