Parental Control in Public Education: The Preferences and Behaviors of Parents Related to Their Children's Schooling. Revised.

Responding to the need for empirical data regarding the exercise of parental control under current finance practices in public education, this study examined the extent to which parents select their children's schooling by locating the family residence with schools in mind and the extent to which parents maintain frequent and self-initiated contact with their children's teachers. Data were gathered from parent interviews and student reading achievement tests in 153 families with fifth-grade children. The families were stratified according to the expenditure per pupil and median family income of the districts in which they resided. Forty-three percent of the households chose residence without consideration of school, while 37 percent located because of their school's reputation and 20 percent because of specific school characteristics. Forty-seven percent of the households reported few contacts with teachers which were initiated and structured by the teacher; 53 percent reported larger numbers of contacts, most of which the parents had arranged around specific inquiries. The strongest predictor of both school selection and school contact variables was parents' educational attainment. (Author/JEH)