Content area
Abstract
The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine parents’ reasons for choosing Non-Public Non-Denominational Elementary Schools for low socioeconomic students in Alabama. Low socioeconomic students were defined as students who qualified for free/reduced lunches. The research was designed as a mixed methods study with data being collected via an online survey and interviews. This study fills a gap in the literature about parents’ reasons for choosing Non-Public Non-Denominational Elementary Schools for low socioeconomic students in Alabama.
Based on the literature there are many possible reasons for parents choosing to send their children to private schools. The literature indicated that parents send their children primarily to avoid the lack of strict discipline, lack of parent-approved values, sex education, and certain aspects of curriculum and instruction in the public schools (Crawford & Freeman, 1996).
Based on the results from the survey and interviews, parents chose these schools because they offered more discipline than public schools, they offered better teacher-student ratios, and they also offered Christian based curriculum.
Parents overall had very high expectations for their children. They also wanted a more Christian-based environment for their children. There was limited significance between the two schools studied even though School B only had ten representatives.
