An In-Depth Interview Study of Parents’ Decision-Making Process When Choosing a Traditional Theme School Over Other School Choice Options

Abstract

For many years, traditional public schools were the dominant publicly funded institutions for educating children. However, in recent years, parents selected from various school-choice educational options. The problem in one local school district in southeastern United States is that stakeholders of the traditional theme schools were unable to articulate the characteristics that made the theme school a good fit for children to attract and retain children’s families. The primary purpose of this basic qualitative research study was to explore the 15 characteristics of the traditional theme school; the preferences, perceptions, and beliefs parents held about traditional theme schools; and the process parents employed to make their school choice decisions (see Cantu et al., 2021). The findings were that parents identified the most and least important characteristics. Finally, parents reported that the traditional theme school was a good fit for their children based on their family values that aligned with school choice, and overall, they expressed satisfaction with a traditional theme school. The social change is that parents are more knowledgeable, vocal, and insistent about increasing their voice in the development and implementation of school choice options.