'Arguments' for School Choice: A Case Study with Portuguese Parents [ENG]

Taking as an empirical basis some of the data from a questionnaire applied to a sample of approximately eight hundred parents from three public secondary schools, this paper discusses how various categories of parents organise "hierarchies of excellence" through the "arguments for choice" that they prioritise when choosing their children?s school for entrance into secondary education (year 10 of schooling, equivalent to the year 4 of compulsory secondary education in Spain - ESO). The analysis of the data highlights that, in all segments of parents, a group can be found that attaches great importance to academic indicators; in addition, an unequal concentration of these groups was verified in the three establishments studied, which reflects a predominance of different types of public in each school. Thus, even though the importance attributed to the "arguments for choice" varies according to the educational level of the parents, in the cases studied the "hierarchies of excellence" are distinguished, above all, by the school variable.