Date of Award

Summer 2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Committee Chair

Morgan Blanton

Abstract

The demand for school choice options is increasing, as is the number of families selecting to educate their children through alternative means, including homeschooling, faith-based schooling, and charter schooling. As both the number of school choice options and the number of families choosing such options increase, the relationship between the two is worth examining. The purpose of this explanatory sequential study was to determine the factors motivating parents to select alternatives to traditional public schools and to find those similarities and differences existing across the three subgroups (homeschooling, faith-based schooling, and charter schooling). The phenomenon was examined through the lenses of Lee’s (1966) Theory of Migration and Rational Choice Theory and built on the Push-Pull Model for Parent Choice. This study addressed two research questions: “Why do parents select homeschooling, faith-based schooling, and charter schooling as alternatives to traditional public schooling?” and “What are the similarities and differences among parental motivators for choosing between homeschooling, faith-based schooling, charter schooling?” Descriptive statistics were employed during data analysis to assist in reporting the results and to form conclusions. The Likert scale data contradicted the open-response data. Ultimately, the findings showed that parents in all three subgroups were motivated by an equal push and pull.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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