Abstract
As school choice opportunities have become more prevalent and information about schools more readily available, there is still a lack of understanding of how parents use information to evaluate schools. The discussion around school judgment-making predominately focuses on whether parents know about school choice and the constraints parents face which limit choice, but I investigate, using 91 interviews of parents living in a low socio-economic community, how parents make judgments and evaluate schools past the discussion of what schools are available to parents and the constraints those parents face. The results of this study are that parents use heuristics—specifically familiarity, endorsement, and representativeness—to help them make judgments about schools. Knowing that parents use heuristics, policy-makers and educators can better address these parents needs and provide information that is more beneficial to them for making judgments about schools.
Degree
MS
College and Department
Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Sociology
Rights
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Lucier, Michelle Heather, "More Than Constraints: How Low Socio-Economic Parents Make Judgments Concerning Their Children's Schooling" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 5796.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/5796
Date Submitted
2016-03-01
Document Type
Thesis
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd8331
Keywords
judgment-making, heuristics, education, socio-economic status
Language
english