Why Do Parents Choose to Send Their Children To Private Schools?

Private schools were the original educational entities in the United States and have continued playing a prominent role in educating America's youth. The number of private schools has increased over the last decade while the number of private school students has remained stable at approximately nine percent of school-aged children. The reasons for choosing a private school are just as varied as the types of private schools available. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the reasons parents give for choosing a private school education for their children. A basic interpretive qualitative study was used to discover and understand the perspectives of the participants. There were three participant groups: parents, students, and administrators representing religious and nonreligious private schools. The interviews were recorded and transcribed by the researcher. Further, the researcher conducted three levels of analysis of the data: first to determine patterns, second to derive broad themes from those patterns, and finally to form conclusions in response to the research questions. Several themes emerged from interviews with the participants: 1) perceived school characteristics; 2) quality of education; 3) physical environment; and 4) extracurricular activities.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education in Education Administration (Ed.D.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation (open access)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Leadership, Technology, and Human Development

Year dc:date.available

2011

Author dc:creator

• Davis, Ava M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Linda M. Arthur
• Anne E. Marshall

• ETD
• Parents
• Private school
• Religious schools
• Nonreligious school

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/382

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu:etd-1382