Satisfaction Levels of Parents Related to both Public and Private Schooling Currently Literature Review

Literature Review: Satisfaction Levels of Parents Related to both Public and Private Schooling Currently

Introduction

This research paper is about the satisfaction levels of parents related to public and private schooling today, narrowing down to the criteria used by parents to determine the schools to enroll their children. The research problem is related to a contemporary educational issue. Several research studies have shown that most parents are not satisfied with public schools mainly due to the differences or variations in the academic achievement between public and private schools. Generally, private schools are associated with better academic achievement than public school systems (Bragg & Chingos, 2017). The rationale for this research is related to the subpar education received by students from kindergarten all through to the 12th grade. In most cases, the poor and the minorities are disproportionately affected. Hence, this research will further determine some ways of enhancing academic achievement for the mentioned groups.

Moreover, this research aims to explore parents’ perspectives on using the education opportunities available to their children. Therefore, this research will provide the metrics that matter to parents when choosing the school to enroll their children in and determine how to utilize available educational resources to help them academically. The literature review section shall have three sections addressing a theme related to the research problem. The themes to be handled in this section are; factors or criteria used to determine the kind of school a child is enrolled in, what prevent parents from accessing the private education and who is most affected, and lastly, how parents utilize the educational opportunities and resources for their children’s education. Hence, three research questions emerge as follows;

1. What factors or criteria determine the academic institution that a child is enrolled in?

2. What factors prevent parents from accessing private education, and who are most affected?

3. When given the option, how do parents utilize educational resources for their children’s education?

Research and Review of the Literature

There are several types of education that young children or students receive in the current society. The choice for the formal education received by students is narrowed down to major categories; private and public schools. Regardless, what most parents want for their children is to receive the best form of education in the best facilities that will benefit them even in the future. Currently, millions of students are enrolled in public school from kindergarten to the 12th grade (K-12), and some are enrolled in the private school sector. For this reason, with at least some empirical basis, many reform proposals for the public schools have indicated the private schools to be models worth emulating. In their book, Bragg & Chingos (2017) writes that private education mainly benefits students compared to public education and goes further ahead to bring out possible reasons for this achievement, including small schools hence easy management and decentralized decision making as some of the factors that contribute to the good performance of private schools. The following are the themes discussed in this section.

The Factors or Criteria that Determine the Academic Institution in which a child is enrolled

According to Holmes Erickson (2017), various research studies have been conducted to examine the fundamental differences between public and private schools, hence determining the criteria or the factors that make private schools the preferred choice by most parents. Among the reasons are brought out by Black, Ferdig & Thompson (2021) in their book include the population size, which narrows down to the classroom sizes. Unlike public schools, private schools have smaller class sizes with only a limited number of students because the schools are not obligated to admit every student. Admission to such schools can be very competitive. The advantage of having smaller class sizes is that the student-teacher interaction is greatly improved. The teacher can pay more attention to the students, resulting in higher academic achievement. This might not necessarily be the scenario with public schools where the population is so big that the instructor cannot pay attention to individual student performance.

Existing literature on the research topic also reveals that finances play a key role in determining the kind of school a student is enrolled in. this is discussed in terms of the support both sectors receive. Public schools are mostly considered affordable because they receive funding primarily from the local, state, and federal governments. This makes them affordable since most of the tuition fee is taken care of by the mentioned governments. Private schools tend to be expensive, leaving only individuals with the adequate financial stability to send their children (Cahalan et al., 2021). More research has also brought out another factor that greatly determines student enrollment into schools: academic achievement. Generally, academic achievement in private schools is much better compared to public schools. It results from many factors, including better management, decentralized decision making, smaller class sizes, more academic opportunities, and better availability and access to educational resources (Reeves et al., 2017). The low academic attainment associated with public schools encourages parents to opt for private education because it narrows down to most parents’ academic attainment (Schneider, 2018).

Factors That Prevent Parents from Accessing Private Education

According to Lergetporer et al. (2018), it is impossible to compare public and private schools in terms of finances, narrowing down to the tuition funds. This is considered the main factor that prevents most parents from accessing quality education for their children. Many private schools require parents to cater to their children’s tuition fees and other expenses, which can be very costly and requires financial stability to afford. Looking at the student population in the majority of the private schools, most of them come from well-to-do families with enough resources to afford that kind of education Papadakis et al., (2020). They are from luxurious families to whom the fiscal resources are not a problem. The same cannot be said about the low-income families mostly comprising the minority groups. To such families, survival alone is difficult because they lack adequate financial well-being. Therefore, as much as parents from such families desire their children to access private education, it becomes very difficult to attain it because they cannot afford it unless they receive grants or scholarships from various groups such as charitable organizations.

DeAngelis (2021) also agrees with Joshi (2020) that the competitiveness in private schools is another factor that prevents parents from accessing private education. This is mainly because of the limited slots usually available in private schools. Again, in many cases, the poor and the minority are disproportionately impacted. Kahan & McKenzie (2020) identify the need to enhance academic achievement for such groups like the poor and the minority groups to ensure that children from such families receive an equally quality education as the other children. One of the ways through which this may be achieved is ensuring various programs through which they can receive support in terms of funding are established by the government and other non-government agencies to give such children an equally competitive advantage in accessing quality education. Such programs should include scholarship and sponsorship programs, student loans, and grants. The government has done fairly well in ensuring such programs are in place. Still, it would also help increase their availability, access, and accountability to ensure that only deserving students receive them.

How Parents Utilize Educational Resources for their Children’s Education

Educational resources in this context include education funds. As stated in the research problem statement, most parents are not satisfied with public schools mainly due to the differences or variations in the academic achievement between the public and the private schools. As such, every parent desires that their children get access to quality education in the best educational institution with adequate resources, an idea that is generally associated with private schools. Therefore, most parents often invest in sending their children to private schools as long as they can afford to keep them there. Tuition fees in several private schools also vary; some are more expensive than others. Private schools are associated with better and adequate resources and better educational opportunities that increase academic attainment in such schools. Therefore, according to Pianta & Ansari (2018), most parents would rather send their children to private schools than public schools. For most of these parents, their main aim is to provide these children with a good education that will open doors to limitless opportunities in their lives.

Conclusion

This research paper was about the satisfaction levels of parents related to public and private schooling today, narrowing down to the criteria used by parents to determine the schools in which to enroll their children. Hence, the research problem was related to a contemporary educational issue in which most parents are not satisfied with public schools mainly due to the differences or variations in the academic achievement between the public and the private schools. The research paper has addressed the three research questions: the factors determining the kind of school in which a student is enrolled, factors preventing parents from accessing private education, and how parents utilize education funds for their children. After a comprehensive analysis, various factors were found to determine student enrollment in schools. Such factors are the academic attainment levels, decentralization of decision making, student population narrowing to class sizes, and the management of the schools (Lergetporer et al., 2018). Factors preventing parents from accessing private education include the issue of funding for education and the competitive nature of such schools. The research also established ways to make education more accessible to the poor and the minority groups to give them an equal opportunity to access education, even in private schools.