The policy that encouraged private and public schools to compete against one another in the education markets globally has contributed greatly to the widening choice and increased levels of attainment by the students. Despite the fact that there have been different studies on the factors that influence the parental choice of sending children to private schools, it is actually evident that there is unequal competition on the choice of schools for children due to their different social status. Currently, the education credentials and skills that influence the profession of individuals have replaced the role that the family inheritance and properties played in the social class. Therefore, as the education increases in the modern world, it is actually might be evident that social class inequalities might be caused by education (Adzima 2014, p. 161).
This paper examines the factors that influence the parental choice of sending children to private schools. The study will be based at Cheadle Hulme Grammar school. It will look at the history of the Cheadle Hulme Grammar school and examine the statistics that are associated with the number of the public schools, free grammar schools and private schools in the area.
Research Question
The following is the main research question:
1. What are the factors influencing the parental choice of sending children to private schools?
2. What are the socioeconomic factors influencing parents to send their children to private schools?
3. What are the parents’ perceptions of private schools?
Methodology
The research will be carried out at Cheadle Hulme School. The participants of the research will mainly be 20 parents of the children in the 4-11 pre-primary school. It will involve sending questionnaires to the participants to enquire about the different factors that influence the choice of private schools for their children. The school database research will be conducted to examine the past years and establish the number of children who have left the CHS at various stages and how many have joined at various stages (Fleischman 2016, p. 141).
Data from the teachers who have taught at bough private and public schools will be collected using interviews method. The interviews will only involve 5 teachers, for instance, 3 male teachers and 2 female teachers.
In order to carry out additional extensive research, questionnaire method will be used. It is a relatively cheap and easy data collection technique that helps to reach the parents who will be participating in the study.
The data collected will be analysed using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative technique will constitute an evaluation of the various descriptive responses given by the various research participants. On the other hand, the quantitative techniques will involve assessment of the numerical replies and examine the same feedback that the various participants have. These two techniques are essential in improving the study reliability and validity (Fleischman 2016, p. 142).
Addressing the Ethical Issues
Prior to commencing the research, the researcher will seek the consents of the participants in order to allow them to participate. High level of confidentiality will also be maintained in the research since it constitutes the lives of parents and their children. All the parentages will be humbly requested to provide most precise details to enable the researcher to make a concrete conclusion. The rights of all the research participants regarding confidentiality and privacy will be essential to the researcher. As a result, there will be no response from the participants that directly attack certain participants that will be used in the research (Fleischman 2016, p. 141).
Importance of the Study to the Researcher
The study is very useful and relevant to the researcher. This is mainly due to the fact that the experience of working in both the public and private schools influenced the researcher to initiate a study that would help to establish the factors that influence parents’ decision to choose private schools than public schools for their children. The researcher intends to establish why some children leave other private schools such as the Altrincham Grammar or Manchester Grammar. In addition, it would help to identify why children drop out of the preschool at different stages such as in the second and sixth year. This study will, therefore, enhance my knowledge on why some parents prefer fee-paying schools such as CHS rather than attend the public schools that are subsidized by the government (Fleischman 2016, p. 143).
Literature Review
This research paper discusses different factors affecting the parents’ choice for private schools for their children. The researcher will carry the research at Cheadle Hulme Grammar School. It will examine the dates of the previous school years to see the number of children that left schools at different stages and joined at other stages. Alternatively, the based study of the literature has been undertaken to establish the various factors that influence the decision of parents to take their children to the private schools. Presently, several types of research examine the various opinions pertaining to the research question. For instance, the examination results and reputation of the schools play a major role in influencing the parents to choose a school for their children. Alternatively, the parental demographic characteristics, for instance, education level of the parents becomes the main reasons why they choose private schools for their children. The background factors of the family are usually linked to the parental selection of private schools for their children. In other instances, the parents who are not satisfied with the public schools normally send their children to the private schools (Fleischman 2016, p. 143). There are also other things that influence parents to select private schools. These things include teacher-student ration, educational environment, parents’ profession and education, and the small class sizes at the private schools. All these things are essential in influencing their decisions to choose private school for their children (Ochiai 2011, p. 43).
Private schools and parents’ school selection
Historians are in agreement that the qualities of the private schools are usually used as the basis of improvement at the qualities of the public schools. It might be attributed to the fact that the private schools were established to offer quality education services so as to attract more intelligent and prosperous students. Despite the fact that there are few students in private schools, they are generally same to the public schools in terms of academic structure. Private schools only enjoy the advantage of being self-sustained and independent. The strict choice of students by schools usually influences parents to choose such schools. They consider it as a challenge for them to register their children in such types of schools. The peer groups can also affect the prospect of hindering or boosting an individuals’ achievement. In addition, the composition of the school and the parents’ socio-economic status play a vital role in the decision of the parents to choose private schools for their children. According to Dronkers and Avram (2012, p. 208)), they observed that the students learning at the private schools are normally those from families that are wealthy and have high socioeconomic status. Such kinds of families usually have set higher academic targets for their children hence they usually search for quality schools to help their children prosper. Nevertheless, Mayer (2017, p. 161) established that there were some forms of discrimination in the admission of students with disabilities into the private schools (Mayer 2017, p. 162).
Involvement of Parents in Education of their Children
In general, all parents normally would like to get quality education. As a result, they are usually involved in every stage of their children education. Parents have the responsibility to protect and enhance the welfare, development, and health of their children so as to ensure that they prosper academically. It is the right for parents to show preferences for the specific types of schools that they would like their children to be enrolled at. Parents can help train their children and ensure enhanced competition between the schools and the student. Therefore, the essential type of parental engagement constitutes working together with the children at home on issues associated with education. The involvement of parents in the learning of their children usually has positive effects on the success of the children. Nevertheless, parents who are not ready or able to participate in the education of their children are usually compelled to restrict their selection of schools for their children to certain schools where parental engagement is not needed (Graddy and Stevens 2005, p. 440).
Factors Affecting decision of parents to select private schools
The research outlined different factors influencing the decision of parents to select private schools for their children. Some of these factors include:
i. Social Status
Social status is a major factor that influences the decision of parents to choose private schools. Some of the indicators of the social status of parents constitute the socioeconomic status composition of the ethnicity, a choice of family properties, income, profession, and education of parents. Besides, the social status demonstrates the value of the professional status of the parents. The high status of the professional stature of parents helps the parents to opt for a private school for their kids. The general performance of the school, employees’ qualifications, the income level of parents as well as their education level helps the parents to decide on the type of school to choose for their children (Forsey, Proctor, and Stacey 2017, p. 60). The income, racial, and ethnic disparities also result in the huge differences that exist in the rates of attendance in the private schools. Many parents have the ability to access private schools due to the increased existence of the vouchers of the private schools that mainly target the public schools, high minority and low-income groups in the society (Cheng, Trivitt, and Wolf 2015, p. 370).
ii. School Facilities and Environment
In general, a school constitutes the provision of a strategically located site and buildings to enable the students to study in a conducive environment. A school is a place that usually impacts the lives of individuals in terms of the quality of teachers, class distribution, school organization, school management as well as social perspectives. A school, therefore, does not just concentrate on the academic performance only, however, it also emphasizes the other different aspects of social and individual developments. It is therefore essential for a school to have attractiveness, safety, and suitability for the students to study and perform (Habeck 2017, p. 220). Quality of education in any school is mainly dependent on its environment. Despite the fact that there are numerous factors that influence the decision of parents to choose private schools for their children, the academic performance of the students might be impacted by the different facilities in the institution. It is evident that private schools normally have room for development. This constitutes the addition of the new buildings and construction of the various facilities that might suppose the teaching requirements. Therefore, parents will always consider the facilities and environment of the school while choosing a school for their children (Lubienski and Lubienski 2013, p. 101).
iii. Level of Income
The other essential factor that influences parents’ choice of schools for their children is the income level. This is mainly because of the monetary contributions that are directed towards the improvement of the quality of education in such schools. There are also other cases in which the middle-class parents work hard to make sure that their children study at the high performing private schools. Dronkers and Avram (2010, p. 207) also supported such instances in their research. They claimed that the academically and professionally rich individuals in the society normally represent the socioeconomic status of the students (Alarcón 2017, p. 110).
iv. School performance
Environment and performance of schools are very associated. The high performance of the school is mainly dependent on the existence of a healthy environment. There is the high prospect of parents sending their children to the private schools that have high academic performance and healthy study environment. According to a research conducted by the NCES, there were high performances of students in private schools than public schools. This was mainly attributed to the inclusion of the students to characteristics of the students to influence the school performance (Cade and Hutchinson 2015, p. 20).
v. Quality of Teachers
Over the previous 20 years, there have been numerous debates in several developing and industrialized countries about the benefits of private schools. For instance, private schools in the industrialized world are supposed to offer quality education to students than the government schools. Exley (2017, p. 34) observed that the effectiveness of the teachers might be decreased or increased through quality supervision in the schools. Therefore, the effectiveness of the teachers needs technical skills, interpersonal skills, and knowledge. Equally, the value of effectiveness of the teachers provides other essential implications on the level of competitiveness of the different types of schools that other parents might opt to choose for their children. In addition, it is a factor that helps to conclude that quality teachers are usually produced in the private schools (Armour 2009, p. 689).
vi. Location
Location is also another factor that influences the decision of some parents to send their children to private schools. The strategic location of the school usually contributes to its popularity or unpopularity for many students and parents. Therefore, planning of the location of schools is primarily an important measure that the school management should consider. This is despite the fact that the closure policies and building history also affect the location of the school (Griffin 2013, p. 160). Besides, it is essential for the school location to be very convenient in order to attract different prospective students and parents to it. Majority of the schools do not offer students transport hence the strategic location will help the students to move to and from the school without experiencing any form of inconvenience. Convenience is the main issue that links the distances to and from the school. Majority of parents also consider transportation as a vital factor in selecting a school. Therefore, when they find strategically located schools, they will definitely choose such kinds of schools (Pinter 2011, p. 205).
vii. Diversities in Private Schools
Parents are sometimes influenced to take their children to private schools due to their varieties. There are three main groups of private schools such as nonsectarian, other religious, and Catholic. In addition, there are other types of Catholic private schools such as private, diocesan, and parochial. The Catholic schools seem to be able to accommodate large student population due to their large size compared to the other types of private schools. About 96% of the students registered by the nonsectarian and Catholic schools are the minority groups. It appears that the private schools have some form of sympathy to the minority groups than the public schools. Whereas the best nonpublic schools constitute just a few privately owned institutions, they offer scholarships to help expand the population of the students studying at the institution (Mceldowney 2016, p. 45).
In general, it is compulsory for the private schools to abide by the government regulations concerning the curriculum and admission policies. There are many private schools in the UK that have led to the stiff competition in order to attract more students (Osman 2017, p. 60). Nevertheless, the amount of fee paid to the private schools is very high hence it limits the ability of some parents to take their children to such schools. Despite the high-performance level of the majority of the private schools, they are mainly intended to make a profit for their shareholders (Nikolai and Koinzer 2017, p. 90).
Brief History of Cheadle Hulme School (CHS)
Cheadle Hulme School (CHS) is an autonomous coeducational day school that was founded in 1855. It is located in Cheadle Hulme. It was mainly established for pupils who are between 4 years and 18 years old. The original intake of CHS after its foundation was mainly of orphan children. In 1861, the location of the school was moved to Park Place, Ardwick. Currently, the school has about 1400 pupils and continues to offer both curriculum and co-curriculum activities (Juárez 2010, p. 121). Despite the fact that CHS was initially founded as a school for the necessitous and orphan children, it still offers help to the less fortunate families in the society thus allowing them to study in a school that is mainly considered as a fee-paying institution. CHS was a Direct Grant Grammar School (DGGS) before 1976 in which there were local authority places that were provided to more than 11 pupils. It continues to value ethnic and social mix of the different societies. Whereas CHS currently depends mainly on fee-payers to operate, it still attracts a high number of bursary pupils thus leading to increased pupils diversity in the institution (Lewis 2014, p. 43).
Within the CHS locality, there are a number of private schools, free grammar schools, and public schools. According to the Manchester Local Educational Authority, there are more than 150 schools in the whole country. There are different types near CHS. One of the schools within the CHS locality is the Hulme Hall Grammar School (HHGS). Free Grammar Schools also exist near the CHS. Free Grammar Schools refers to the types of schools that normally functioned under the church jurisdiction in pre-modern England. Many religious institutions have been linked with education. The impact of the renaissance philosophy led to an enhanced drive for education and broadened the curriculum, however, the most substantial changes during the era was that several new grammar schools in Manchester were mainly private institutions. Because of the religious impact of the sponsors of the Free Grammar School (FGS), the issues related to discipline or disputes were mainly resolved in the church courts (Koppe 2014, p. 11).
Dame Schools
During the start of the 19th century, women started to dominate the teaching of students in the New England. This was mainly through two systems of education such as the summer and winter sessions, and dame schools. The British settlers established the Dame schools that were mainly used by women to teach children (Gross 2017, p. 90). This was a practice that commenced due to the fact that women were viewed as the caregivers in the society hence they could be used to teach the young children effectively. On the other hand, the summer and winter sessions was an educational system that involved the teaching of the older boys by men during winter seasons while the young children were taught by women during summer periods (Koppe 2014, p. 9).
Present Private Education Status
Throughout the 20th century, private schools have continued to maintain high stability in the market. Nevertheless, they began to face some stiff competition towards the end of the 20th century. Previously, the private schools admitted the high number of the secondary school students. Nevertheless, the number of students admitted to the private schools significantly reduced after a decade. Enrollment in the private schools also dropped significantly after World War I (Posey-Maddox 2014, p. 62). Therefore, based on the status of the private schools, parents usually provide various reasons to choose particular private schools over the public schools. The option for many parents is dependent on the school choice programs that are offered by the private schools (Tieken 2014, p. 180).
Conclusion
Many parents require the best quality of education for their children. Therefore, they usually consider various factors in private and public schools to establish the best schools for their children. Nevertheless, there are other parents who send their children to private schools due to other factors. The social status, level of income, quality teachers, and the school facilities are some of the factors considered by parents prior to sending their children to school. Parents believe that private schools offer the best opportunity for their children to succeed. There are a number of private, free grammar schools, and public schools hence parents have the options to choose any type of school for their children.
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