What Do Parents Want in Their Child’s School?
by Bill Carozza • • 0 Comments
What do parents want in their schools? A new national study of K-12 parents reveals some interesting clusters of opinion.
The Fordham Institute completed the research via an online survey of over 2000 parents in August of 2012. The results were disaggregated by the authors into six categories of school parents:
Pragmatists (36%)
These parents see the purpose of school as a passage to a career. College is not as important in their child’s future; they see school as a venue for their child (mostly boys) to gain the skills necessary to be successful.
Jeffersonians (24%)
Parents in this category want schools that “emphasize instruction in citizenship, democracy, and leadership”, the vision that Thomas Jefferson certainly had for public schools. What is interesting about this group is that these parents match the overall demographic of the survey.
Test-Score Hawks (23%)
The “Hawks” search for schools with the best test scores. They are not as concerned with school culture; they want their