Urban Parents' Perspectives on Organized School Visits to Inform Advocacy and School Choice in an Underserved School District

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-26 - Parents and Community in Urban Settings

Abstract

This ethnographic case study examines the perspectives of parent participants in an organized parent group in a Midwest city seeking the best school options for their children entering Kindergarten. Their residency and school choices have emerged against the grain of decades of residential mobility trends. Examined are ways in which the parent group collaborated and organized daytime public, private, and charter school visits to inform their school choices. Interviews, field notes, and school evaluation checklist documentation examined parents’ perspectives for impressions of school visits across public, private and charter school entities.

Author

• Kirsten D. Hill, University of Michigan - Dearborn