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The study investigates the factors influencing Thai parents' decisions when selecting international schools in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. It examines how parents' preferences for educational outcomes shape their choice among UK, US, or IB programs. Key findings reveal that dissatisfaction with Thai public schools drives many families to enroll their children in international schools. These institutions are valued for their supportive community atmosphere, opportunities for foreign college placements, and superior infrastructure. Preferences for different programs reflect distinct priorities: UK programs are preferred for their extracurricular activities, punctuality, and academic reputation; US programs for their emphasis on critical thinking, multiculturalism, and flexible teaching methods; and IB programs for their global perspectives, trilingual approach, and rigorous academics. The study also includes a SWOT analysis designed to help school leaders leverage strengths, address weaknesses, seize opportunities, and manage risks associated with international schools. Additionally, it explores significant contradictions and tensions, such as those between academic rigor and holistic development, global versus Eurocentric curricula, multilingualism versus subtractive bilingualism, cultural competence versus assimilation, Western versus Eastern communication styles, and competitive versus non-competitive parenting approaches. Addressing these issues is crucial for promoting cultural sensitivity within international school environments. The conclusion offers recommendations for school leaders on how to use these findings to develop and enhance strategies for international schools. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As school choice expands across the U.S., more states are providing funds to private schools, giving parents options for their children's education. This growth in private schools has heightened the need for accountability in ensuring educational quality and student performance. Transformational Leadership Theory and Systems Theory was utilized in this mixed-methods study, aimed to explore the perceptions of teachers and administrators at accredited and non-accredited schools regarding the value of accreditation in setting high educational standards. The research employed a mixed-methods design, combining qualitative data collection and analysis to understand the perceived value of accreditation and its impact on teacher and administrator evaluations, alongside quantitative analysis to compare student assessment growth between accredited and non-accredited schools. The study's findings suggest a connection in the perceptions of stakeholders in educational services and student achievement through school level gain-scores. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation examines the perceptions of parents who open enroll their children in an alternative public school by diving into the lived experiences of these individuals. The research is grounded in three theoretical frameworks: Parent Involvement Theory (McCurdy and Daro, 2001), Rational Choice Theory (Adler et al., 2014), and Market Theory (DiMartino & Jessen, 2016). In Ohio, 80% of school districts have some sort of policy allowing open enrollment which impacts nearly 85,000 students (Straver and Deng, 2021). Previous studies suggest that involved parents (McCurdy and Daro, 2001) will choose the best options for their children if they think that an alternative educational setting is right for them (Adler et al., 2014). Using a mixed-methods approach, a profile was created on the sample district and data from a questionnaire on the enrollment form was analyzed using open coding. Qualitative interviews were scheduled with seven participants where the data was later analyzed using open coding. At the conclusion of the study, three main themes emerged: Positive perceptions of the district, Proximity to the district, and Academic and Extracurricular Activities. Parents also noted the importance of word-of-mouth communication regarding the school district and its reputation when choosing the sample district for their child. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Research shows that third-grade reading proficiency is the most significant predictor of future success, including graduation rates, earning potential, crime, and health. Mastery of foundational literacy skills during preschool bolsters students' ability to learn to read before fourth grade when the transition from learning to read to reading to learn occurs. Preschool is beneficial, but not all preschool programs are the same. An extensive range of preschool programs exists with varying degrees of impact on reading preparation. This sequential design, mixed methods study compared data from a third-grade reading test to the type of preschool students attended when they were four years old. In the study's first phase, the researcher used inferential statistics to compare the mean composite Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination (IREAD 3) scores to the type of preschool the students attended. In the second phase, the researcher used survey responses from preschool directors to learn more about the program's curriculum, scheduling, and staff training and credentialing. The researcher synthesized the qualitative and quantitative data from both phases to conclude that no specific type of preschool program will promote reading proficiency; however, if a preschool program has specific characteristics, the students are more likely to become proficient readers by the end of the third grade. The last chapter of this study provides readers with a list of recommendations to help stakeholders plan high-quality preschool programs that will set our youngest students up for long-term reading and educational success. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The problem addressed by this study was the academic achievement gap of low-income students. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of educators of low-income students participating in the Florida School Choice program and the perceived challenges they face in bridging the academic achievement gap of low-income students. Bandura's social cognitive and self-efficacy theories framed this qualitative study using a phenomenology design to attempt to understand human experiences through a phenomenon. Data were collected through interviews with 15 teachers based on one central research question and two sub-questions. The first research question was the lived experiences of educators of low-income students participating in the Florida School Choice program in bridging the academic achievement gap of low-income students. The second research question was the perceived challenges educators of low-income students participating in the Florida School Choice program encounter in bridging the academic achievement gap of low-income students. The final research question was the best teaching practices suggested to address the academic achievement gaps. The population affected by the study was low-income students with high academic gaps. Fifteen teachers, comprising ten females and five males aged between 30 and 69, participated in the study and shared their perspectives on bridging the academic achievement gap among low-income students. Their responses revealed themes emphasizing the importance of increased instructional efforts, understanding the teacher's role, parental involvement, attendance, personal factors affecting academics, online learning, small group interventions, and differentiated instruction. Teachers must be well-equipped with the resources and skills to support low-income students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Classical and Christian education has proliferated across education sectors over the last decade. As a result, school leaders must implement these timeless philosophies of education and navigate such high demand. This dissertation seeks to equip relevant parties with research about what drives their skyrocketing enrollment and how to support school leaders and their governing boards. My first chapter uses in-person focus groups to understand the school choices of 25 parents whose children are enrolled in Texas-based classical charter schools. I explore the ways in which parents found their children's school; what made them enroll their children; and whether they are satisfied with their choice. Summarily, most parents report high levels of satisfaction and chose their children's school because of the classical philosophy of education and commensurate academic program. They claim that their children's classical charter school provides the education that it claims to offer. In the second chapter, I use conjoint analysis to examine whether academic achievement, education, and experience impact the likelihood of head of school hire by 141 Christian school board members. Conjoint analysis allows researchers to identify whether and to what degree each characteristic has a causal impact on the likelihood that hypothetical candidates will be hired by hiring personnel. I find evidence that board members place a premium on strong academic achievement and qualifications, extensive teaching or leadership experience, and graduation from a postsecondary institution sharing their school's religious tradition. In my third chapter, I use survey data from the Society for Classical Learning to understand the relationship between 147 heads of school and their governing boards. I use Ordinary Least Squares regression to isolate the board-head relationship and quantify the degree to which mutual trust and perceived care affect head of school health, happiness, stress, and professional well-being. The research shows that mutual trust between classical Christian heads of school and their boards decreases the head's likelihood of wanting to quit and positively impacts head of school faith, feelings of loneliness, and satisfaction with their governing board. Similarly, heads of school are more likely to flourish when they feel like their board cares for their personal well-being, soul, and family. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Advocates of charter schools hold that the marketization of education compels all schools to be innovative in raising student achievement outcomes. Opponents of charter schools dispute whether the impact of charter schools on student achievement is statistically sufficient to justify taking resources from traditional public schools. Another practical concern is the lack of oversight over charter schools as evidenced by the loss of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds through mismanagement and fraud. The literature regarding student achievement and charter schools in Florida is prolific; however, literature regarding the business practices of management organizations operating in the state, the amount of tax dollars that are being paid to EMOs, the profits these organizations are reporting, and the extent to which some charter schools have experienced deteriorating financial conditions is scarce. Using a multimethod descriptive research design, the way CMOs and EMOs are structured and operating in a school district in Florida, their reported fee structures, and which and why some charter schools may be experiencing some form of financial crisis was analyzed and described. The findings revealed the degree to which CMOs and EMOs operating within the sample have similar business structures that consolidate funds for services under a parent company, the payment structures and amount per pupil charged for management fees, information regarding the net position of the sampled charter schools, as well as the ethical use of taxpayer funds, accessibility to public information as required by state law and issues regarding transparency among shared documents within a larger corporate network. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In this dissertation, I study some of the factors that determine schooling decisions in middle-income economies in Latin America. In the first chapter, I examine the impacts of a large-scale program in Colombia that installs water treatment facilities in rural schools. To identify causal effects on student and community outcomes, I leverage variation in the timing of facility deliveries to schools. I find that after a school receives a facility, upper secondary enrollment increases by an average of 14% but enrollment at the primary level decreases on average by 5%. This mixed pattern of the enrollment effects is consistent with heterogeneous treatment effects by school institutional capacity, as the negative enrollment effects are concentrated among schools with low institutional capacity to assume new responsibilities. I do not find effects on achievement or on health outcomes. The second chapter explores the effects of shocks to local economic conditions on school choice at the upper secondary level in the context of Mexico City during the Great Recession. Using administrative records from the city's centralized school assignment mechanism and exploiting geographic and temporal variation in the severity of household income shocks across neighborhoods, I find that school choices are not very responsive to local income shocks. Students are more likely to adjust their school choices along the margin of cost of attendance and the type of adjustment they make varies by socioeconomic status, with wealthier students making countercyclical investments in education while poorer students becoming more likely to choose schools with lower monetary costs. The third chapter investigates the within-household spillover effects of a nationwide policy in Colombia that provided financial aid to high-achieving, low-income students. I use variation in the eligibility for financial aid in a regression discontinuity design. I find that having a sibling eligible for financial aid did not affect achievement at the high school level and preliminary evidence suggests that it did not impact college attendance or achievement, even though the policy had large effects along those margins for its direct beneficiaries. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This research examines the reasons why parent(s)/guardian(s) have chosen to enroll their child in a Catholic high school in the New Orleans area. Currently enrollment in Catholic high schools in the area is down post-Hurricane Katrina. This research is a qualitative study utilizing Grounded Theory methodology. An anonymous survey was sent to eighth grade parents of selected Catholic high schools, which they completed and submitted online. The results from the coding of the survey responses indicate that the primary reasons parent(s) selected a Catholic high school education for their child was academics, the importance of faith and/or Catholic education, the community of the high school, and the importance of discipline and safety for their child. With this information, the Archdiocese of New Orleans Office of Catholic Education and Faith Formation and the individual order-run schools in the area can affect their recruiting and marketing strategies to increase enrollment. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this action research study was to investigate and improve the school choice experience for students in a large urban school district on the East Coast. Participants in Cycle 1 were comprised of middle and high school staff, and data was collected via surveys, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis. Action steps included the implementation of a website, the School Choice Companion, to improve awareness and engagement with the program. These steps were designed, implemented, and evaluated in Cycle 2 to expand awareness of the school choice program and procedures; as well as to engage students and parents in the process at an earlier stage to extend opportunity to more students. Findings from this study indicated that there is widespread lack of awareness around school choice; that the current program maintains equity of process, not equity of access; and finally, that the program is associated with disparities in opportunity among students. Implications for the organization included the need to implement comprehensive strategies to address the structural inequities experienced by students living in poverty and to spread awareness of the program to disadvantaged students and families. It is also recommended that school district officials reexamine how scores for high school eligibility are calculated. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

With the recent increase in the number of available options for families to consider when selecting a school, diverse publicly funded public schools are now competing for both students and funding. This study intended to contribute to the available research on the changes at inner-city schools during increased school choice options. The purpose of this single case study was to gain additional insights into changes in student demographics, academic achievement, and perceptions of stakeholders of an inner-city high school during an era of increased school choice from 2010-2023. This single case study included both qualitative and quantitative data sources. The researcher's data for this study involved semi-structured, one-on-one interviews with five participants and publicly available data from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions survey. The researcher also reviewed school yearbooks for the 2010-2023 school years to further develop an understanding of the school changes during the study period. Findings indicate that there has been a decline in enrollment over the period the study investigated, with an increase in the percentage of students of color attending the school. Findings also indicate a decline in the school's academic profile, with only a small improvement over the last two years. Implications included the need for the local school district to review the number of district-supported school choice options, the potential impact of choice programs on non-choice schools, the need to recruit and retain capable leadership, and evaluating the out-of-district application process. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Pregnant and parenting teenagers in the United States face academic, social, and emotional hardships (Baney et al., 2022; Kinser & Masho, 2015; Masterson et al., 2021). Schools, programs, and policies can aid pregnant and parenting students by alleviating burdens or improving schooling outcomes (Brouwer et al., 2019; Modesto, 2018; Zief et al., 2020). Pregnant and parenting students may choose to attend a virtual school, creating a need for these schools to support pregnant and parenting students. This study revealed the programs, policies, and other supports that a cyber charter school offers to aid pregnant and parenting female students in Pennsylvania by analyzing one cyber charter school in the Keystone state. By understanding the supports a cyber school provides, implications can be produced for stakeholders, and parenting students can make better informed decisions when determining what type of school will best fit their needs. The study is framed through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory to understand the school's influences on pregnant or parenting female students. Utilizing a case study design, interviews and documents were analyzed to answer the following research question: What is a Pennsylvania cyber charter school doing to support pregnant and parenting female students? The study revealed that the cyber charter school supports pregnant and parenting students by providing pregnant/parenting-centered supports; providing for students' academic and emotional needs; creating a supportive, welcoming community and school; generating connections and utilizing communication; and harnessing technology. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study sought to explore the lived experience of parents concerning school voucher programs and determine whether parental knowledge of funding discrepancies between income-eligible voucher programs and traditional public schools drives parents' advocacy for vouchers. This research is rooted in the interest convergence theory to explore and examine whether parents in lower socioeconomic groups participating in school choice felt valued by policymakers. Using the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) as a basis for this study, the researcher interviewed current MPCP leaders about their activities to raise parental awareness concerning funding discrepancies. The study surveyed participating MPCP parents regarding their experiences and awareness of discrepancies and determined whether knowledge of discrepancies influenced parents' perceptions of value-added by policymakers. Finally, the study identified whether knowledge of discrepancies leads to parents' interest in advocating for income-eligible school choice programs. Interview results were analyzed using qualitative methods and supported by steps to ensure trustworthiness. Survey results showed that parents are unaware of discrepancies in funding and compliance and that leaders are doing little to inform parents. Parents felt that legislation valued their choice while reporting not feeling directly valued by policymakers. Despite discrepancies, parents reported they would continue in the MPCP. Implications of the study lie in revealing the interests of parents to have higher quality information even though leaders have not embraced the practice of informing. This separation could result in slower pathways to legislative change, further marginalizing families. The study concluded that parents desire to feel valued and informed and provided opportunities to advocate for their choices. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

High school graduation represents a pivotal milestone with far-reaching implications for an individual's future in social, economic, professional, and personal spheres. Despite its significance, only approximately 85.5% of students in the United States successfully earn their diploma each year, with groups such as black, Hispanic, American Indian/Alaskan Native, English-language learners, students with disabilities, and homeless students experiencing disproportionately lower graduation rates. Efforts to understand and address these disparities have led to interventions such as school choice. This approach allows students to select their educational institution rather than being limited by residential zoning. Research indicates potential benefits, including enhanced academic performance, reduced absenteeism, and decreased disciplinary issues. This study investigates the impact of school choice within a public charter school system in North Georgia on high school graduation rates while considering demographic variables. The system comprises six elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school, each offering distinct educational approaches. Findings from this study reveal that attendance at the International Academy, irrespective of demographic background, correlates with a lower likelihood of graduating within four years compared to other schools. Additionally, factors such as being black, being an English-language learner, having a disability, being male, or attending multiple elementary schools are associated with decreased graduation rates. These findings emphasize the multifaceted nature of graduation disparities, suggesting that while school choice plays a role, other factors like language proficiency and demographic characteristics significantly influence outcomes. Further research is needed to comprehensively understand and address these disparities in educational attainment. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

School choice draws upon market principles for restructuring education as schools compete for student enrollment by appealing to parents. When parents hold the power to choose where--among several options--to enroll their child for learning, they will select the school that best meets their child's academic and social-emotional needs (Cooper, 2005). Early school choice efforts were intended to strengthen school quality of learning through market forces of competition, and educational policy makers during the Civil Rights era further employed school choice to promote voluntary desegregation and integration goals (Valentine, 2016). Magnet schools remain the most common approach to school choice in the United States in terms of the number of districts involved, even though the overall number of students enrolled is fewer than in charter schools (Archbald, 2004). By offering programmatic specializations and curricular themes, magnet schools are designed to be in high demand from diverse groups of students across a district as parents then choose the magnet school as an alternative to their child's regularly assigned school. As of 2022, about 5.5% of all public school students, totaling 2.7 million children in the United States, attended magnet school programs in 30 of 50 states (National Center for Education Statistics, 2022). This phenomenological, qualitative case study examined school leaders' perceptions and attitudes about magnet school programs as a school improvement strategy to promote school integration and student learning in two urban, mid-Atlantic school districts in the United States. The researcher sought to understand how 12 school leaders--including principals at the school level and Central administrators at the district level--make sense of parents' school choice decisions and the factors that they consider in designing, developing, and implementing a magnet elementary school program. Additionally, the researcher wanted to surface the values school leaders hold about student diversity and school integration in order to explore the extent to which magnet schools are perceived as a strategic school improvement lever for promoting a district's desegregation efforts. This study was grounded in theories of leading effective school change by Kotter (2012) and the "Magnet School Development Framework" (2018). The researcher discovered six key findings. Major findings revealed that school leaders' own personal values about student diversity and school integration influenced their leadership practices, and school leaders expressed that the stability and continuity of district leadership impacted the success of magnet school programming. Additional findings showed that nearly every school leader encountered challenges and difficulties with magnet school implementation, and they cited needs for continuing Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) support and explicit progress metrics to monitor the magnet schools over time. Conclusions were derived from six findings ascertained in the data analysis process of coding interview transcripts. The researcher concluded that most school and district-based leaders hold strong personal beliefs and convictions about all students benefiting from diverse classrooms and integrated schools. The researcher also concluded that external actions, such as judicial decisions about schools and federal MSAP funding grants, influence the implementation and evolution of local magnet schools. Finally, the researcher concluded that the success and effectiveness of magnet schools depend on many factors, including commitment by school leaders to integrated schools, stability of leadership to ensure progress monitoring over time, and high quality curricula and instructional practices that attract families to the schools. Based on the findings and conclusions, this study offers recommendations for policy, practice, and further research on magnet schools as a school improvement strategy. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study applies demand theory to investigate how college discounting practices impact student enrollment across income categories for members and affiliates of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. The dependent variable for this study, student enrollment by income category, comes from the Student Financial Aid and Net Price Survey in IPEDS. The independent variables fall into several key categories that form the foundation for demand theory including institutional cost, taste and preferences, competitors prices, institution level covariates, and year effects covariates. The study presents three models that all used log-log fixed effects regression to understand how control variables, and competitors' prices provide greater explanatory power. The results indicate that the third model, which had both control variables and competitors' prices, provided the highest R[superscript 2] value and the most statistically significant results. The results from the regression demonstrated that students form different income categories had varying elasticities in response to price paid and the decision to enroll. Students who are inelastic have a result number that is less than 0 and are more likely to enroll as price increases. Students who are elastic have a result number that is greater than 0 and are less likely to enroll at the colleges in this sample. The results from this study show that students from families with incomes less than $110,000 were inelastic, whereas the highest income category of students with incomes greater than $110,000 were elastic. This showed that families with less than $110,00 of total family income would continue to enroll at increase rates as price increased opposed to higher income peers who would choose to enroll at another college if the average net price increased for the. These elasticity values show a difference from 0 either positive or negative that never exceeded 0.37. These values are moderate, and indicate a less pronounced sensitivity to price fluctuations. The findings from this study provide insight that can equip researchers with future research on topics like Strategic enrollment management, tuition discounting, demand theory, College enrollment by income categories, CCCU student enrollment behavior. Before the initiation of this research project, no studies had been conducted on IPEDS data categorized by income, using net price as a metric to gauge price responsiveness at CCCUs. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The problem is school leaders facing pressure to be responsive to the demands of the school community due to the existence of other educational options competing for the same pupils. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand the beliefs of school leaders utilizing social media as the medium of communication with the school community and its influence on decision-making relative to school-choice options. The literature gap reinforces the need for more research into educational leaders' use of social media. Transformational leadership (TL) guides the study. Research questions are designed to understand school leaders' experiences and perceptions of using social media and the perception of how the school community is influenced by decision-making regarding school choice opportunities. This basic qualitative study included 15 school leaders selected from various school districts from four counties in Northern New Jersey who utilize social media. A purposive sample was used of educational leaders who currently use social media to communicate with their school community where multiple student choice options are present. Thematic analysis was conducted to develop themes and patterns collected from transcripts of responses collected during virtual or in-person focus groups and interviews. Themes included culture, school narrative, recruiting, content, connection, and community. Key findings of the study were favorable impacts highlighting the success staff and students had on improving school culture. School leaders are encouraged to utilize social media to engage stakeholders to influence the narrative and assist in developing a positive school culture. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the decision-making process of school choice for Christian parents with preschool through elementary aged children. Hall's et al. (2002) values-based decision-making theory (VBDM) guided this qualitative descriptive study that incorporated two research questions. The two sources of data included fifteen parents with preschool through elementary aged children enrolled in a private Christian school in a suburban area in Dallas, Texas who participated in individual interviews and seven who participated in an open-ended questionnaire. Braun and Clarke's six step thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Data were hand coded and categorized into nine themes. The first four themes related to the process the parents went through when deciding on a school for their children and had a related recurring theme which was faith. The last five themes had a recurring theme, which was the influence of Christian values and beliefs that guided and set the standard when making the school selection choice. Parents described Christian values and beliefs influenced parental responsibilities, parental practices, decisions regarding how their children will be educated, priorities in education, and financial considerations. Overall, the results of the study found Christian parents derived guidance and meaning from their faith when making decisions regarding their children, including the choice of education. Recommendations for future research and practice on the decision-making process and the influence of Christian values and beliefs are presented. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Public K-12 education is a one-size-fits-all system that cannot meet the diverse needs of students. When parents choose a school, they look at several criteria unique to their situation and make trade-offs between their preferences based on their needs. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors influencing parents to enroll their sixth-grade children at charter schools rather than traditional public schools. A qualitative methodology with a case study design identified commonalities among parents to answer why they chose a school that deviates from the conventional educational path. This study's theoretical framework is the rational choice theory. Rational choice theory explains how humans make decisions by assessing the costs, risks, and rewards in education. This study occurred at charter school campuses within a public charter school district in Texas. Purposeful sampling was used to seek out 12 participants who shared the characteristic of having at least one sixth-grade child enrolled in a charter school for the first time in the 2022-2023 school year. An Interviewing Protocol Instrument for interviews collected thick descriptions to discover the responses. The charter school district's Parent Satisfaction Survey gathered the final data. Four main themes emerged: charter school campus qualities, child-related qualities, charter school district qualities, and outside influences. The findings showed that participants agreed that their child's specific characteristics were the most important factor and that family finances were the least important factor. To be a leader in the educational marketplace, it will be necessary for all stakeholders to determine the preferences of parents and students in their community and create school programs that best meet those needs. Providing effective information to parents regarding curriculum, school safety, school culture, and representation of various ethnic groups and academic representation on campus is essential to retaining their engagement in the educational process. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to examine the decision-making process of K-12 parents living in the Appalachian Highlands who chose to remove their children from traditional public schools to join learning pods (sometimes referred to as pandemic pods) during the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to answer this overarching question, the researcher focused her study on two areas: first, what were the possible push factors that influenced parents to remove their children from public schools, and secondly, what were the pull factors that lead parents to choose learning pods over other school choice options. Through the data collected from 10 one-on-one interviews, the researcher hoped to either confirm or refute whether or not parents residing in the Appalachian Highlands were influenced by these push and pull factors, and if so, to what extent they impacted their decision to remove their children from their pre-pandemic public schools, and enroll them in learning pods. All interviews were coded twice, deductively and inductively, and from the data analysis, 16 themes emerged across five categories: emotions experienced by parents, decision-making, push factors, pull factors, and experiences. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

School choice has influenced several educational reforms in the US and across the world in the last decades. These reforms have often promoted school autonomy, parental choice, and competition between schools to improve quality and equity. Whether those reforms work in practice is well examined, but the roles of policy design such as the extent to which school choice is regulated and the level of school autonomy are not well understood. Also, the socioeconomic context is often neglected. Using institutional theory in three empirical studies, this dissertation addresses that research gap. Study I examines the causal effect of controlled school autonomy--an increasingly common school choice design in the US--on student achievement and its heterogeneity by contextual factors. I use difference in differences and event study estimation to analyze ten years of student-level data in Indianapolis. Study II focuses on whether uncontrolled school choice in the form of private schools improves student achievement in the US. The study unpacks the underlying instructional conditions by incorporating structural equation modeling and propensity score matching. Study III examines school choice design and socioeconomic segregation internationally to exploit global variation in policy design and context. I use a multilevel model to examine the roles of common policy instruments that aim to regulate school choice such as tuition add-ons, academic selectivity, for-profit status, and availability of information within and between countries. Findings indicate that whether in a controlled school autonomy or unregulated private school setting, the relationship between school choice and student achievement is insignificant. This is because school choice does not influence instructional quality. However, school choice worsens student achievement in highly disadvantaged settings. It is associated with socioeconomic segregation. Such association is stronger in high-income inequality environments. Removing tuition add-ons, and academic selectivity can mitigate the relationship between choice and socioeconomic segregation, but they may not eliminate socioeconomic segregation linked to school choice. These results suggest even carefully designed school choice designs may not make substantial changes in parental and organizational behavior once parents and schools are incentivized to maximize their utility through school choice, especially in disadvantaged and high-income inequality contexts. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Student assignment algorithms have far reaching implications for families, the education system, and for society as a whole. Motivated by operational challenges faced by the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), we use a mechanism design framework to develop, operationalize, and streamline algorithmic student matching policies in San Francisco. From 2018-2020, we worked with the SFUSD to design a new policy for student assignment system that meets the district's goals of diversity, predictability, and proximity. We used optimization techniques to investigate the district's proposal of restricting choice to zones and suggested additional classical school choice policies from the literature. We find that appropriately-designed zones with minority reserves can achieve all the district's goals, at the expense of choice. Using predictive choice models, we show that a zone-based policy can decrease the percentage of racial minorities in high-poverty schools from 29% to 11%, decrease the average travel distance from 1.39 miles to 1.29 miles, and improve predictability, but reduce the percentage of students assigned to one of their top 3 programs from 80% to 59%. Traditional district-wide choice approaches can improve diversity and choice at the expense of proximity. Our work informed the design and approval of a zone-based policy for use starting the 2026-27 school year. Building off the potential of zone-based policies, we also investigate more rigorous methods of zone optimization. To address challenges in zone design, we propose a framework for computationally difficult and highly constrained multi-objective optimization. We generate an ensemble of potential zone maps using a multi-lens integer programming approach, narrow in on a smaller set of viable solutions, then simulate the student assignment process to understand the interactions between zones and choice patterns. Using tools inspired by the literature on human-computer interaction, we learn the optimization model specifications from district stakeholders and elicit value trade-offs to help select the final map for implementation. Another challenge faced by San Francisco is that nearly 20% of applicants take an outside option during the student assignment process, opting out of SFUSD. Overbooking schools in the first round of assignment can mitigate costly student shuffling in the presence of cancellations. In a more general setting, we consider the problem of overbooking when assigning agents to items, and agents have priorities for each item. The goal is to determine how much to overbook or "inflate" capacities for each item to minimize reassignment costs. Reassignment based on a priority ordering arises in several applications beyond school choice, including allocating airplane seats and medical appointments, and college placement. We provide a Greedy heuristic that approximates the optimal capacities when reassignment must respect these priorities. Using the heuristic, we show that the presence of priorities generates a bullwhip effect, where less popular items face higher yield uncertainty and incur higher costs due to externalities created by more popular items. Simulations using data from a school district validate our theoretical results on the structure of the greedy solution, and the resulting capacities informed overbooking in the district for the 2023-24 school year. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Cyber charter schools continue to emerge and bring new opportunities for individualized learning to students and families, and at the same time, have a financial impact on the home school they left. However, some students return to their home school after trying cyber charter options. This study explored what motivated students to leave their home school and sought to understand the strategies adopted by districts to regain those students who disenrolled for a cyber charter school. Using qualitative methods in a descriptive multi-case study, this study examined why high school students disenrolled for cyber charter school and ultimately decided to return to their school district-of-residence by speaking with administrators, specifically principals, of the home school. Data were gathered through a survey, followed up with a qualitative method approach consisting of semi-structured interviews to examine participant perceptions of motivating factors as well as strategic interventions. Students returned to their home school for connectedness, academic and extracurricular opportunities, and general dissatisfaction with the cyber charter school. The study revealed that school districts did not have a process in place to specifically target students who are considering attending a cyber charter, nor was there an effective process used to convince students currently attending a cyber charter school to return to the school district-of residence. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

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. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

South Carolina's Charter School Act of 1996 was passed for the primary reason of improving education for the state. A part of this improvement would come by way of charter schools providing innovative ways of teaching and learning. In 2017 WCSD was established, in hopes of answering the call of the 1996 Charter School Act by providing innovative ways of educating students, thus improving public education in the state. Today, South Carolina's school system ranks 44th in the nation, out-performing only six other states, and there is no data proving or disproving the impact of WCSD on education. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of WCSD on the reading achievement of its third-grade students enrolled in three of its innovations: Vision School of Excellence PBL, Mauldin School of Excellence College Readiness and Virtual Academy of the State. The data for this study was collected from school year 2020-2021 SC READY ELA assessment results. Analyzing the overall reading achievement of these innovations will not only inform policy makers on the achievement of charter schools, but it will also provide data for parents to make informed decisions about what types of charter schools may best educate their children. This data is equally important to both charter schools and TPS leaders so they too can make informed decisions about their own instructional practices. The results of the study create an increased focus on the reading achievement of charter school students and further efforts to prepare all students for reading success. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this narrative inquiry is to examine factors that influence military parents when they choose between on-base public schools and off-base public schools during a relocation for their child with special needs. According to the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA, 2015) there are approximately 650,000 military dependent children facing various challenges that may impact their schooling in the United States. The Office of the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force (2018) state that many military families mention education issues for their children as a major drawback to military service. Military-connected students with special needs require special attention as they may be at risk of losing continuity of academic support, including changes in special education services as they transition from one school to another. The men and women in our armed forces -- as well as their families and loved ones -- disproportionately make sacrifices for their country. For those of us engaged in K-12 education, it is imperative to ask timely and relevant questions that are not only of practical importance to military parents of children with special needs but also informative to federal and state policymakers whose decisions affect policies and practices that impact these families. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As sound changes advance across large geographic areas, they progress unevenly across populations. The speakers who lead these changes often share macro-social identities, like place or social class affiliations (e.g. Nesbitt 2018; Wagner et al. 2016). But the features undergoing these macro-level sound changes also hold social meanings related to more micro-level, interactional contexts (Bucholtz & Hall 2005; Eckert 1989). Recently, the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCS) has been observed to be reversing in the Inland North (D'Onofrio & Benheim 2020; McCarthy 2011). In this dissertation, I explore the relationship between these macro- and microscale social meanings by examining how an ongoing sound change, the reversal of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCS), is unfolding among Chicago-area adolescents. Using sociolinguistic interviews, social evaluation tasks, and meta-commentary drawn from interviews and perceptual dialectology, I ask how the local-level social contexts created by various high school types may influence the social meanings that are attached to regional features associated with white speakers in perceptual evaluations, and how this might in turn influence adolescents' uptake of these features in production, contributing to this macro-scale sound change. Adolescents appear to navigate a series of dichotomies, balancing ideologies depicting the Midwest as standardized or normative in linguistic terms with opposing ideologies considering urban areas like Chicago to be racially, socioeconomically, and linguistically marked. I find that schools and other institutions play a critical role in students' understandings of their own positionalities within the broader social and linguistic landscape. Through circulating discourses surrounding high school choice, students are socialized into ideologies about institutionally-based social hierarchies "and" what it means to sound "elite" with respect to the NCS, via their exposure to similarly positioned peers in school. That is, high school choice guides adolescents' understandings of their social positions along a hierarchy of school eliteness, which itself is mapped onto the degree to which students engage with particular socially meaningful elements of the NCS. In social evaluations, participants associated Northern Cities-shifted vowels with lower socioeconomic status. In production, they recruit these same vowels -- Northern Cities-shifted TRAP and LOT -- to index a different, though related, hierarchy: school elite-ness. This demonstrates how the social meaning associations formed in local-level contexts like schools might scale up towards macro-social demographic factors, leading to broader patterns of sociolinguistic variation in the context of a sound change reversal. More generally, I argue that institutions like schools serve as organizing forces in structuring who interacts with whom and, consequently, serve as points of connection between micro- and macro-level social meaning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

School choice is a tool used to fight inequality and is important to consider how students are assigned to schools. The essays in this dissertation study mechanisms designed to improve and understand students' attendance at schools. Chapter 1 examines the inequality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to schools switching to a hybrid option. During the pandemic, school districts adopt hybrid schedules to continue the education of the students while maintaining social distance. In a hybrid schedule, students in the same classroom are usually divided into two groups, and students only in the same group can physically attend class together two days a week. School districts do not take the preferences of the students/parents over the days they would like to come to school into account during this procedure. In this paper, we propose a solution that divides students into groups based on their preferences. Our solution respects the number of classrooms initially reserved for each grade and enables possible efficiency gains by swapping classrooms across grades. Moreover, when there are two alternative schedules provided for students, our solution is immune to preference manipulations. In Chapter 2 we analyze the application of a reserve system to the Boston Mechanism. School choice enables disadvantaged students to have access to better schools and is an important tool in the fight against inequality. A reserve system sets aside a predetermined number of seats for under-represented groups. In this paper, we analyze the application of a reserve system under the Boston Mechanism. The Boston Mechanism is widely used by school districts in the US because it maximizes the number of students who receive their reported first choice. We show how the current inclusion of reserve systems to the Boston Mechanism by school districts, such as Charlotte-Mecklenburg, can negatively impact students. We propose a modified mechanism that respects reservations while eliminating waste. Moreover, it Pareto improves upon the current applications of reserve systems under the Boston Mechanism and is not outperformed in terms of incentives. In chapter 3 we develop a new methodology to estimate a student's true preference order. The estimation of student preferences from revealed choices typically uses a student's reported rank-order list. However, a student who chooses to not report a rank-order list of schools has revealed information about her beliefs of acceptance over her preferences but is often not included in current estimation strategies. In this paper, we adopt the bounds approach, introduced by Lu (2022), to estimate student preferences and compare it to the commonly used exploded logit model. We present simulation evidence that suggests the bounds approach has a smaller bias in the estimators while increasing the number of students in the data. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Schools in the U.S. are faced with a complex set of barriers that limit their ability to provide equitable and meaningful education to students, such as reduced funding levels, increased concentrations of high-needs students, and institutionalized forms of oppression. However, research suggests that school leaders can spearhead efforts to overcome these challenges toward more equitable and socially-just ends for historically marginalized students. Marketized districts, in which families choose schools rather than being zoned to geographically-proximal schools, are a context research suggests can negatively impact the provision of equitable educational resources to historically-marginalized students. Additionally, research suggests school leaders face a different set of circumstances than leaders working in non-marketized districts, such as pressure to compete for student enrollment, which can encourage unjust leadership actions. Leadership is a localized process, and to understand equity-oriented leadership we must analyze it with a contextual lens. Unfortunately, research has rarely investigated equity-oriented leadership within markets. This study aims to fill this gap by incorporating a mixed-methods design to examine equity-oriented school leaders' practices and perceptions within seven marketized urban districts in the United States. The findings show that equity-oriented leaders included in this study tended to perceive market policy as conflicting with ideals of equity and justice. However, leaders drew on their justice orientations to engage in more emancipatory work, both broadly and to respond to market imperatives to compete for student enrollment. This study makes three contributions to equity-oriented school leadership literature. First, and most substantially, it presents a framework of 17 complementary and mutually-reinforcing emancipatory leadership practice areas with 31 sub-practices across four domains of work. Second, it connects emancipatory school leadership practice to educational market policy, showing alternative and more socially-just ways of leading than previous research has shown. Finally, it elevates the perceptions of emancipatory school leaders who are embedded within marketized school districts, providing unique insights into the justice-oriented impacts of market policy in schools and districts. The study has implications for educational stakeholders, including researchers, practitioners, and preparation programs seeking to develop leaders who can engage in the actions listed on the framework, particularly within marketized settings. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

There are numerous widely recognized advantages to pursuing post-secondary education. Yet colleges offer students different resources and educational experiences, which may introduce inequality in the returns to college enrollment. This dissertation uses nationally representative data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002) and the 1997 cohort of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) to examine the effects of initial post-secondary enrollment decisions on three early adult outcomes: bachelor's degree completion, economic disadvantage, and marriage. In Chapter 2, I use the ELS to ask how enrolling in broad-access four-year colleges, which have minimally or non-selective admissions policies, affects students' likelihood of degree completion relative to community college or more selective options. I find that attending a broad-access four-year college instead of a community college or a more selective college alters a student's chances of completing their degree in the expected direction and that mid-SES, Black, and Hispanic students face particularly large degree completion losses from attending a broad-access four-year college rather than a more selective four-year college. Chapter 3 uses NLSY97 data to investigate whether enrollment in a broad-access college offers more protection against economic disadvantage relative to community college or non-college options, or less protection relative to more-selective college enrollment. I find that, conditional on college enrollment, institutional variation has modest effects on poverty and low-wage work via differential bachelor's degree completion. In contrast, I find more substantial effects relative to no college, demonstrating the importance of any college entry in preventing economic hardship and the pivotal role of bachelor's degree completion. In Chapter 4, I examine the relationship between an individual's initial college enrollment, their overall likelihood of marriage, and the education of their spouse. I find that the bachelor's degree advantages that accrue to college-goers who first enroll in more selective institutions lead to higher rates of marriage for men and a higher likelihood of marrying college-educated spouses for men and women. Thus, institutional stratification introduces heterogeneity in marriage outcomes in early adulthood. Overall, my findings emphasize the importance of supporting degree completion at all colleges in addition to equalizing access to more selective institutions. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

School district leaders are responsible for creating strategic plans for their districts which include three-year, five-year, and ten-year plans. Prior to 1989, school district leaders anticipated student growth or decline by assessing the housing market and mobility trends in the district. In 1989, the Nebraska legislature passed a law allowing parents to send their child to a school outside of their resident school's district boundaries via option enrollment. While there was a large body of literature pertaining to parents' school choice options, the same could not be said for option enrollment as it applies to Nebraska. The purpose of this study was to provide relevant data about option enrollment for leaders of small rural schools in Nebraska. A single case study design was utilized to learn about the experiences of option enrollment parents. One school served as the sole source from which data was derived. To achieve this, 10 interviews were conducted with option-in parents and three with option-out parents. The results of the corresponding analysis of the interview transcripts offered remarkable insight into personal parent perceptions and the experiences parents valued when they considered option enrollment. The three themes which emerged were parent perception of schools, experiences parents value for their children, and parent satisfaction with option enrollment. Research found there was a connection between option enrollment and parent satisfaction. These findings provided school district leaders with guidance on how they might influence parent satisfaction and effectively market their school district to potential option enrollment families. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Career-technical education, introduced to American high school systems in 1917, has experienced a significant increase in participation over the last several years, especially among African American students. However, racial inequity across career-technical programs are evident in those career-technical education programs related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The purpose of this study was to document the lived experiences of African American graduates of high school career-technical education programs and how these experiences influenced their decision-making process for their career-technical education program of choice. Gottfredson's theory of circumscription and compromise is the conceptual framework that supports this study. A qualitative methodology and phenomenology design were used to research the lived experiences of four male and four female Black high school career-technical education graduates in a southern state of the United States. Participants who met the study criteria were interviewed via Zoom, and their responses were transcribed via Otter AI and analyzed in Microsoft Excel using thematic analysis. Results indicated that although the participants had positive experiences with STEM-related career-technical education programs and a negative connotation of non-STEM career-technical education programs, Black high school graduates avoided STEM-related career-technical education programs because they were not knowledgeable about the value it provided them and believed that they are not able to excel in STEM career-technical education courses and programs. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As the pandemic drove a focus on education, many families had to choose alternative education models for their child. Families suddenly had a pressing need to evaluate the best schooling situation for their child (Gouedard & Pont, 2020, Eggleston & Fields, 2021, Hynes, 2020, Hill et al., 2020, Hall-Mills, 2020). In education there are pendulum swings of focus and often an evaluation about how children are educated and why the particular methods are being used (Weisberg, 2014 and Hess, 2022). This study focused on how families made their decisions in regard to the education of their children, and well-being as an aspect of that decision as well as how they experienced their school choice and what impact do they see on their child's well-being. Through looking at the experiences of families who made the choice for alternative education models, this study examined the family's desires in education, what pieces of school philosophy they feel impact their child's well-being needs, and what aspects of well- being they feel should belong in the school's climate. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify decision-making factors from parents of Southeast Rural School District (SRSD) who chose to transfer their children to one of 14 cyber charter schools within Pennsylvania amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This research study utilized a phenomenological design, consisting of qualitative electronic surveys and one-on-one follow-up interviews with participants. Twelve participants completed the initial survey, with nine participants engaging in follow-up interviews through Zoom video conferencing. Thematic analysis of collected data identified four primary themes: decision-making factors, information gathering, impact of COVID-19 pandemic, and future schooling intentions. Themes were analyzed through the theoretical lens of an adaptive decision-making framework. Findings in this study indicated that the precipitating factors surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic directly impacted parent decisions to transfer their children from SRSD schools to cyber charter schools. Parent-to-parent communication was identified as having a significant impact in the decision-making process. Cyber charter school experiences contributed to new participant expectations in the areas of flexibility, curricular offerings, and support from their schools. Recommendations for practice included expanded elementary course offerings, flexibility in learning environments, and redesign of the SRSD virtual school offering. SRSD stakeholders will have the opportunity to analyze current operations through the lens of data collected within this research study to inform future district decisions and improve student opportunities. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

College choice is one of the most significant decisions a family will make. Families with high socioeconomic status often hire independent educational consultants (IEC) to assist their family in college search activities. A review of the literature indicated a gap in the literature regarding IECs' understanding of the factors which influence their client families in making the decision of whether to include a school in the family's consideration set. The purpose of this mixed methods sequential explanatory study was to investigate and explore the factors that IECs believe would likely influence families as they build their consideration set for their traditionally-aged, first-time undergraduate students. The study was guided by two research questions: {1) How do IECs rank the factors that influence parents to include a school in their traditionally-aged undergraduate student's consideration set? (2) How do IECs describe the factors that influence parents of prospective undergraduate students? In Phase 1, a Q-sort activity was completed by IECs (n = 33) recruited from throughout New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. In Phase 2, IECs (n = 5) participated in a dyad and triad to ascertain rich insights regarding the factors that they believe would most likely influence parents on the inclusion of a school in their family's consideration set. Data from Phase 1 were analyzed using SPSS software and qmethodsoftware.com including factor analysis of the Q-sort configurations (Watts & Stenner, 2005). Phase 2 data were analyzed using a systematic analysis of the transcripts for each dyad and triad using similar coding across transcripts to uncover common themes (Kruger & Casey, 2009). Findings from both phases were analyzed for convergence and divergence. The results of the study indicate that IECs believe that cost, the availability of scholarships, the distance from home, parents of other college students, and the US News and World Report rankings all influence whether a family includes a school in their consideration set. Results may be used to inform decision-making by higher education marketers and enrollment managers as they create outreach strategies that will influence full or fuller pay families to include their schools in the family's consideration set. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

With the rise in popularity of social media and e-commerce platforms, "discrete math" is at the heart of our online experiences, playing a front-end role in the recommendation of what to click, watch, or buy, or who to follow or friend, as well as a back-end role in data storage, access, and transfer. This thesis focuses on two such discrete math problems -- the modeling of discrete choices, and the efficient storage of massive graphs. On the latter, we study the problem of balanced graph partitioning, a problem of paramount importance in domains such as graph clustering, community detection, distributed graph computation, and also efficient data storage. Chapter 2 introduces a taxonomy of existing algorithms for finding a balanced partitioning of an input graph, and pioneers a novel class of "prioritized" restreaming algorithms, showcasing their superior performance in minimizing the edge-cut objective over industry state-of-the-art methods. We investigate the former, the "statistical modeling of choices and rankings," in the context of social choice, e.g. school choice and ranked-choice-voting. Such models are used for explanation of user behaviors, forecasting demand, or counterfactual analysis. Chapter 3 unveils the significance of within-agent taste-heterogeneity in the assembly of ranked preference lists, giving rise to the concept of "rank-heterogeneous" preference models. Applied to real-world school-choice data, these models demonstrate enhanced predictive accuracy and a better fit to observed ranking patterns than commonly-used "rank-homogeneous" strategies. Chapter 4 further extends the frontier by drawing attention to an under-studied task in the ranking modeling literature -- the modeling of partial orders. Specifically, this task is concerned with the development of models whose sample space is the space of orderings "of any length" of "n" items, a space that subsumes "S[subscript n]." The work develops two classes of models, composite and augmented, and demonstrates their potential for simultaneously capturing preferences and length distributions within real-world partial ranking data from school choice and ranked-choice voting contexts. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Many African international students see two-year colleges as a pathway to higher education in the United States. It is critical to better understand who these students are, what draws them to two-year colleges, what support services are available, and how their needs are met. As African international students contribute to more robust, diverse, and financially stable campuses in the United States and the number of African international students studying in American institutions continues to rise, it is vital to understand students' adjustments to life and study in a new country, specifically investigating their psychological, sociocultural, and academic needs that postsecondary institutions must be prepared to meet. Apart from that, there is a scarcity of empirical literature that explores the experiences of African international college students in the United States, particularly as it relates to their transition in foreign academic and social environments. Information of this nature can have significant consequences for the retention of many African international students in college and universities in the United States. The provision of culturally relevant and appropriate support services to these student populations is of great importance. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As student debt continues to climb, outstripping all other forms of personal debt and topping off at $1.7 trillion nationally, previous research has shown that the amount of anticipated debt has an impact on graduate student career choices. However, there is a dearth of information that shows if student debt is impacting student's choices before they enroll in graduate programs. This research applies Perna's (2006) College Access and Choice and Kallio's (1995) framework examining factors that influence graduate student choice to explore graduate student institutional control choice using data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) between 2008-2016, and whether student debt, both at the undergraduate and graduate level, alters the probability of institutional control enrollment. Results show that the probability of enrolling at a public or private for-profit institution increases when undergraduate and graduate student debt is factored into the model, particularly for Black or African American students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The Opt-Out of testing social movement gathered a significant following in New York state after the change to assessments based on the newly adopted Common Core State Standards in 2013. Parents and educators in other states joined, but most states moved to hamper these protests. However, Colorado state instead allowed parents to choose whether to let their children participate following the chaotic rollout of the PARCC assessments in spring 2015. Colorado state officials also decided to hold students, teachers, schools, and school districts harmless if the participation rate fell below 95% due to parental refusals. Perhaps as a result, Colorado's opt out rate was one of the highest in the nation from 2014-19. However, the response of parents across the state was highly variable. Some schools enjoyed 100% participation, while others failed to muster 50% participation on the ELA assessments. This research builds on previous research and asks whether there are school (or grade) level factors that influence the opt out of the English Language Arts (ELA) assessments in Colorado between 2014-19. Pooled OLS regressions were used to test several hypotheses. The data collected suggest that schools located in the most affluent neighborhoods are predicted to have a higher than baseline ELA opt out rate. Although there is a strong correlation between student affluence and school performance, each additional percent earned by a school in the state's performance rating is predicted to decrease the ELA opt out rate in the presence of controls for percent of students eligible for free or reduced lunch. The influence of school performance on the predicted rate of opt out of ELA assessments increases as the grade level of students increases. The influence of political partisanship as interacted with school level poverty on ELA opt out rate is also investigated. Results of each regression analysis are discussed using the theoretical frameworks of social and cultural capital theory, the theoretic construct of concerted cultivation of middle and higher SES children, and the political science framework of the voting behavior of mass publics. Whether opt out of testing in Colorado may better be framed as a statement by parents to advocate for policy changes to protect public schooling or as another neoliberal "choice" parents can make to improve their child's schooling opportunities is considered. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

School choice is often utilized in school districts for access and opportunity. Researchers have found that school choice does not inherently provide access to students. The goal of this mixed methods study was to determine if implementing a new platform for families to use in applying to magnet programs in an urban district would mitigate barriers. Along with the implementation of a new application platform, a survey was conducted with families to determine perceptions of school choice, along with barriers for families. Findings indicated the application platform that was implemented did not significantly change the magnet school enrollment by race. They also indicated that African American families wanted access to magnet programs, but their White counterparts gained access at an inequitable rate. The implications of my findings could be beneficial to school districts, community members, and school boards in understanding the importance of access to magnet schools and the potential inequities that can arise. The design of this study allowed families to have a platform to share their views on a district initiative and share their beliefs on improving the current practice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation utilizes a qualitative approach to research, guided by policy analysis and evaluative case studies. The purpose of the study is to examine what information is made available to parents regarding their rights, and the rights of their child, when utilizing a voucher or education savings account to attend a private school. The question of focus is: what explanations do states provide to parents/guardians of children with disabilities regarding their rights, including the equitable service provision, under the IDEA in a voucher or ESA program? Ultimately, this study seeks to provide information that assists parents, schools, state agencies, federal agencies, and publicly elected officials in making informed decisions regarding the rights of children with disabilities. The dissertation begins with an introduction and statement of the problem. Next, a review of pertinent literature is included, followed by the study's theoretical framework, research design and methodology. Findings show that few programs provide clear information to parents of children with disabilities about their rights when participating in a voucher or ESA program. Finally, discussion, conclusions, and implications for practice and future research are shared. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

A qualitative study was conducted to understand better how school principals respond in an environment of school choice and how this reform movement impacts their role as leaders. The principal is considered one of the most influential people in the development of the quality and character of a school. Reform policies have added to the traditional role that principals previously held. Principals in schools of choice are now charged with marketing their schools to appeal to students and be more receptive to the desires of families and maintain student enrollment. This study had five elementary school principals from three school districts working in a traditional public school in one of North Carolina's Piedmont and Intercoastal Plain school districts. The participants ranged in years of principal experience from two to eleven years, and all have had at least one year of leading in the era of school choice. The four common themes that emerged from the findings were (a) school image management, (b) marketing efforts, (c) partnerships with families and the community, and (d) scared leadership. Findings from the study indicate that as school choice becomes more competitive, school leaders are shifting their focus to managerial aspects of the school and engaging the community through marketing and branding practices. The amount of pressure placed on school leaders and choice options has changed the leader's role within the building. Marketing and recruiting for students are no longer optional tasks for survival reasons. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

As large urban school districts increasingly turn to market-based reforms, arguing that they will improve school quality, better meet diverse student and family needs, and level the playing field for disadvantaged families, the distributional effects of those policies are still poorly understood. A growing literature on the bounded and embedded nature of families' school choices has raised equity concerns about who has access to schools of choice, how they make their choices, and how resulting enrollment patterns may be further segregating students by race and socioeconomic status, above and beyond the impact of housing segregation. This dissertation uses a mixed methods approach to fulfill two goals. First, an institutional analysis will provide a robust characterization of the complex policy, market, and sociological factors that structure families', school leaders', and district administrators' school choice decisions. Second, a quasi-experimental design exploits the gradual expansion of public elementary schools of choice in New York City from 2010-11 to 2014-15 to estimate the distributional effects on nearby zoned elementary schools. Geospatial analysis is used to identify treated schools, propensity score matching is used to identify a comparison sample of zoned schools, and a comparative interrupted time series models the difference in trends for multiple school-level outcomes between the treatment and comparison sets. Findings reveal that zoned schools treated by a nearby school of choice see a decrease in the proportion of English Language Learners, an increase in racial/ethnic diversity, and an increase in the share of chronically absent students. These results, however, are small and moderated by the baseline level of segregation and whether the school was treated by a charter or non-zoned traditional public school. This adds new evidence about the systemic effects of choice, with important policy implications for ways to support affected zoned schools, strategically locate new schools of choice, and further reduce barriers to choice to ensure equitable access. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The 1960s launched the school movement of choice. Today, school choice is nationally threaded through many states serving a diversity of students. Indiana developed and implemented the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (ICSP) policy in 2011 to align with these national initiatives to benefit students. The goal for Indiana was to ease the burden of private education costs for families regardless of a family's income, but not all challenges within implementation have been remedied. The historical evolution of school choice currently focuses on the effectiveness of these state policies with regard to transitioning from the public to the private school for learners. Undergirded by Self-Determination Theory, this study focuses on high school students who matriculated from public to private ICSP Catholic schools. Participants were interviewed about their experience in both school settings after using the ICSP for at least one full schoolyear. Participants reflected on their ability to make autonomous decisions, the importance of feeling connected to others, and their understanding of actions needed for career readiness. By implementing qualitative inquiry (Saldana, 2016), interviews explored perceptions about the ICSP, focusing on SDT. This approach aided in analyzing individual students' perceptions behind the reasons why they chose to leave the public schools and enroll in Indiana's Choice Scholarship Program. Qualitative inquiry allowed for a discussion about what had worked well, what had been a challenge, and what had helped ICSP students imagine college and career readiness after transferring schools. This design gave participants an opportunity to discuss choices regarding behaviors developing autonomy, relatedness to peers and mentors, and competence within academic programs and extracurriculars. Qualitative inquiry also discussed relevant topics that naturally evolved from conversations (Crotty, 2015) such as the COVID pandemic. The rationale for this selection was to explore how the ICSP had shaped a student's opportunities for overall student success and college and career readiness using the SDT as a platform. The focus of this study was to have a discussion to understand if students see any benefit to a voucher scholarship program to attend an ICSP school. Cross-referencing responses added depth and understanding to the findings. Families still find school choice in Indiana difficult to sustain. Students in the study noted the challenge of transitioning from the public to the private school climates, commitment expectations, and financial costs associated with transferring to an ICSP school. While families still continue to struggle, Indiana continues to evolve the program to serve as many students K-12 as possible. Regardless of personal tests, participants in this study were satisfied with their decisions to leave the public school to attend the ICSP school. They felt for their college and career success, the transition was necessary. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Black people in America have proven to be able to survive against the racial tensions and attacks endured throughout history (Love, 2019). In our present context, continued racism and violence against Black bodies has shifted the narrative from merely surviving to a journey towards advancement. In this dissertation study, I use endarkened feminist epistemology (Dillard, 2000) as a lens owned by and familiar to Black experiences to explore how the recent violence against Black bodies such as Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and others has sparked a paradigm shift among Black student athletes. A few highly ranked Black student athlete recruits have made intentional choices after recent racial injustices by electing to attend historically Black institutions over their primarily White Power 5 counterparts. I utilize narrative inquiry with an endarkened feminist epistemological framework to explore the perspective of HBCU athletics' professionals as they watch this paradigm shift unfold. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

There is currently no designated policy, procedure or staff in place to facilitate the objective of increasing student yield. As a result, magnet applications and acceptance of invitations to attend Owl Middle School is approached without a strategy which makes planning difficult and negates the ability to determine effective methods. Filling these public-school magnet seats is a priority as student enrollment equates to staff funding from the state and school doors being open (NCES, 2020). Identifying policy to increase 6th grade magnet students is determined by setting achievable goals. Setting achievable goals for increasing magnet students begins by identifying specific, measurable, achievable, time bound and realistic objectives. Elementary schools with similar demographic populations will be targeted with recruitment efforts through speaking engagements at the schools, parent information nights, and printed material in English and Spanish distributed to prospective families and students. The purpose of this study is to understand the effectiveness of this targeted marketing and to develop a process of continuous improvement thus potentially increasing 6th grade magnet student yield. Two semi-structured virtual interviews consisting of five questions were conducted for 10 families regarding their decision of school choice and the impact marketing had. Findings included a need to incorporate digital marketing along with honoring the power of student decision making in this school choice process.

This study explores self-regulation in the learning experiences of school choice students who have attended a traditional public school and a charter public school. Research shows self-regulation is a form of non-cognitive executive functioning characterized by many observable traits children employ in their learning environments. Self-regulation development in the learning investments students make relates to school mobility, social identity, and connectedness while navigating their learning amid school changes (Golden, 2017; Langenkamp, 2016). School mobility may impact students by lowering self-regulation and increasing school dropout through compromised social identity and connectedness (Jdaitawi, 2015; Rumberger & Larson, 1998). Understanding the distinction between "schooling" and "being educated" may lead to more thoughtful considerations in adopting school leadership practices and policies committed to educating the whole child in mobile student populations (Lubienski & Lee, 2016; McGregor et al., 2017). Evidence of how the study participants consider they fit into the distinct worlds of both "schooling" and "being educated" is found in their described learning experiences. The phenomenological study uses semi-structured interviews of 10 students in grades 6-11 to examine the self-regulatory traits in their learning experiences, perceptions of school change, and ideas about school success. Two rounds of interviews are conducted about one and a half years apart. Data used from the first round is obtained through a pilot study conducted for the same purpose as the second round using similar research questions. The study's conceptual framework is influenced by the social identity and the rational choice theories, which inform three underlying pillars of self-regulation, academic investment, and charter school choice. Descriptive phenomenology is used to describe each participant's learning investment that lends truth to specific themes, which form a universal structure (Vagle, 2018). Twelve essential themes are central to the student' learning experiences and the essence of the phenomenon. One conclusion is the themes that emerged from the students' learning experiences represent the study's conceptual framework and confirm the essence of the phenomenon. One significant thematic result is that school change leads to positive opportunities. Focus as a self-regulation indicator was observed to be higher while students shared a school success compared to when describing their overall learning. Strong concerns about peer behavior, fitting in with peers, and the learning pace overshadowed any notable references to teacher expectations. Evidence was stronger that students value and seek ways to become educated as a whole-person and strengthen their core learning processes, including self-regulation, rather than caring as much about gaining content knowledge. The results and conclusions provide important implications for further study and how educational leaders and policy makers may best serve mobile student populations. The most prominent implications for leaders relate to student social-emotional and teaching style themes where meaningful relationship building recognizes students as individuals, yet affirms their sense of belonging. Another implication from the results is clearly defining what teachers and students do during explicit instruction. A pace that accommodates students' needs, provides cohesion and choice, and clearly presents content and learning objectives is crucial. A vital implication proposed is listening to student voices and reflections on learning. Above all, in making educational decisions, leaders must consider that school choice deviates from traditional remedy due to its increased complexities. In line with Kruis et al. (2020), twenty-first century social and family dynamics influencing school choice mobility make teaching and learning complex rather than simply complicated. What it is like to experience this phenomenon is best, and perhaps only, captured by the most profound insights of student participant voices themselves. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this qualitative case (preregistered) study is to interview rural young Americans, deeply explore how they think about higher education as they prepare for life beyond high school, and analyze how those views and perceptions translate into barriers or motivators to its pursuit. Rural Americans feel less optimistic about their financial futures, find it more difficult to find a job in their communities, and believe their children will have a lower standard of living than their parents when they reach their parents' age (Morin, 2016). Rural students are more likely to graduate from high school than their urban counterparts but are less likely to attend and graduate from college (USDA, 2017). Prior studies postulate the reasons behind these trends, but few seek to more deeply understand why this occurs from student perspectives. This study's methodology offers participants the opportunity to share whether they see further education as helpful to their job prospects or career aspirations; their perceived barriers to obtaining that additional education, if so; whether they would choose between remaining in their communities over leaving for school, if that choice had to be made; and how they feel about their job prospects if they remain in their rural communities. Without understanding the perceptions of the emerging rural workforce around further education, it will be challenging to bring to bear any policy or practical change to specifically address their needs. The COVID pandemic has potentially enabled more distance learning and remote career opportunities. Now is the time for community, academic, and corporate joint efforts to tap into motivations of the emerging rural workforce to pursue new skills and knowledge beyond high school and remove perceived barriers to that pursuit; else it will remain difficult to halt or reverse outmigration and brain drain impacts to rural economies. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Many individuals prefer the ability to choose options as opposed to being directed toward a certain path. School choice programs in the United States allow parents to exercise their democratic right to choose what is best for their children with respect to choosing a school for them to receive their education. The problem is that many African American parents have lost faith and trust in public education due to low school safety, lack of quality education, and social/emotional issues with public schools. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of African American parents concerning students' safety, adequate education, and social/emotional factors in private and public elementary schools. The theoretical framework in this study was the decision theory. The decision theory examines the phenomenon of making choices. The findings were represented by six themes that emerged from the semistructured interviews. The findings indicated that many African American parents felt that there were too many flaws in the public schools and the public charter schools' systems due to such elements as inadequate curriculum, fairness, bullying, and the lack of academic services for many students with disabilities. A private school can provide a better atmosphere for African American children with disabilities to receive a quality education with more emphasis on their social and emotional development. The implication for positive social change was that it has the potential to equip public school administrators, private school administrators, and African American parents with information on how to make an informed decision regarding enrolling their special needs child into a private elementary school. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Students with disabilities are entitled to attend a school of their choice. In order for the rights of students with disabilities to be honored during the high school choice process, principals must create school structures and systems that are alignment to federal policies to lead in the best interest of students. This mixed methods, qualitative dominant study used a survey and semi-structured interviews with current K-8 school principals to better understand the experiences of principals as they support students with disabilities through high school selection. This research study was designed to answers the questions of (1) how do K-8 principals understand and implement their role in the School Selection Process for students with disabilities? (2) how do K-8 principals create conditions and school culture so that students with disabilities have choices in the school selection process?, (3) in what ways are the rights of students with disabilities honored in this large urban district's School Selection Process? There were several themes that emerged from this research (1) the principal as an advocate for students with disabilities, (2) the principal as an ethical leader in their decision-making, (3) the principal creates organizational structures in their schools based on the knowledge that they have, (4) the principal creates a school culture built on a shared collective efficacy and (5) the principal creates a school culture where families are authentic collaborators. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]