center for education research and teacher training 1/ claudia schuchart: motives for primary school...

Center for Education Research and Teacher Training

1/Claudia Schuchart: Motives for Primary School Choice. Bristol, 10th Juny 2009

Motives for Primary School Choice: Do they differ between ethnic groups?

Claudia Schuchart, University of Wuppertal



Overview

1. Theoretical assumptions and research questions

2. School choice in North-Rhine Westphalia

3. Data and analytical strategy

4. Research findings

5. Summary and outlook



Results from other studies

Different degrees of choice (Söderström & Uusitalo 2005, Burgess et al. 2004)

Parental motives for school choice:

–Proximity and average school achievement (Hastings et al.

2005)

–Student composition (Bifulco et al (2007, 2008)

Riedel et al (2009): Beeing Turkish (and therefore, a Muslim) has a negtive effect on choice



Research questions

Does the change in the degree of choice have an effect on the individual choice behavior?

What are the reasons lying behind the choices made by Muslim and non-Muslim parents?



Overview








School Choice in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW)

other schoolAssigned public school

Assigned denom. school

Before 2008




other school Assigned public school other school

Assigned public school


Before 2008


2008



Overview








Data description

Two sources:

–Official and school statistics

–Survey of parents conducted in May 2008

Effect of change in the degree of choice: statistics Individual choice behavior: survey data and statistics



T1: Sample description (%)

All Non-Muslim Muslim

2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008

Not assigned school 32 36 34 38 24 30

Distance assigned school (m) 616 620 642 647 508 517

Student is Muslim 20 21

% Turks school district 4 4 3 3 5 6

% academic track: choosen – assigned school

2 1 3 2 1 .03

Observation 8420 2619 6780 2061 1640 558



Academic track school

Intermediate track school

Basic track school

Academic qualification

Intermediate certificate

Lower secondary certificate

Primary School (Grundschule)

Comprehensive school

School structure in NRW



T1: Sample description (%)

All Non-Muslim Muslim

2007 2008 2007 2008 2007 2008

Not assigned school 32 36 34 38 24 30

Distance assigned school (m) 616 620 642 647 508 517

Student is Muslim 20 21

% Turks school district 4 4 3 3 5 6

% academic track: choosen – assigned school

2 1 3 2 1 .03

Observation 8420 2619 6780 2061 1640 558



Survey data

May 2008 Telephone survey of parents with preschool children

Questions about choice behavior, family socioeconmic characteristics, neighborhood and parish life

Use of sampling weights



Survey interviewsFull sample 08\09




other school Assigned public school other school


2008

Choice



T 2: Sample description (Survey data)

Range AllNon-

MuslimMuslim

Choice % 39 41 33

Read to child 1-5 4.4 4.6 3.9

Full employment % 76 78 68

Location of school 1-10 7.7 7.7 7.9

Reputation of school 1-10 8.0 8.0 8.1

Composition of school 1-10 6.6 6.4 7.3

Achievement of school 1-10 7.1 6.8 8.0

% student is Muslim % 21 18 32

% student ist Catholic %

Transfer to academic track % 34 36 27

Distance assigned school % 646 688 490

observation 935 817 118



The analytical strategy

Two lines:

–Studying choice behavior over the time (official and school

statistics)

–Explaining different choice behavior of Muslim and non-Muslim

parents (survey data)

Method: Linear Regression models.

–dependent variable: wether or not parents opt out of the

assigned public school



Overview








1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1) location

2) reputation -

3) composition - .33

4) achievement .37 .47

5) employment - - - -

6) read to child -.11 .05 - - .09

7) % Muslim -.07 - - - -.15 -.14

8) % academic track - .16 .06 - .16 .15 -.41

9) distance -.07 - - .09 .06 -.16 .05

T 3: Results: Correlation analysis



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1) location

2) reputation -

3) composition - .33

4) achivement .37 .47

5) employment - - - -

6) Read to child -.11 .05 - - .09

7) % Muslim -.07 - - - -.15 -.14

8) % academic track - .16 .06 - .16 .15 -.41

9) distance -.07 - - .09 .06 -.16 .05




1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

1) location

2) reputation -

3) Composition - .33

4) achivement - .37 .47

5) Employment - - - -

6) Read to child -.11 .05 - - .09

7) % Muslim -.07 - - - -.15 -.14

8) % academic track - .16 .06 - .16 .15 -.41

9) distance -.07 - - - .09 .06 -.16 .05




T4: Decision not to attend assigned public school 2007/2008

1 2 3

All 2007 2008

Distance .000215 .000206 .000239

% Turks school district

2.36 1.63 4.19

Student is muslim -.10 -.09 -.013

% academic track (diff)

1.52 1.66 1.0

Year = 2008 .06

Observations 11039 8420 2619

R2 0.17 0.19 0.14


Center for Education Research and Teacher TrainingT 5: Motives for school choice, by ethnic groups

1 2 3 4 5 6

Non-Muslim

Muslim Non-Muslim

Muslim Non-Muslim

Muslim

Employment father .05 .09

Read with child .04 .04

Location of school -.11 -.06

Reputation of school .04 .11

Student composition of school

.09 -.02

Achievement level of school

-.02 .10

% student is muslim .005 .007

% student is catholic -.01 .007

Transfer to academic track .46 1.7

Distance assigned school .14 .15

R2 .09 .02 .17 .12 .21 .23


Center for Education Research and Teacher TrainingT 6: Motives for school choice, by ethnic groups

7 8

Non-Muslim

Muslim

Employment father .06 .02

Read with child -.008 .04

Location of school -.08 -.04

Reputation of school .03 .05

Student composition of school .08 -.02

Achievement level of school -.02 .08

% student is muslim .005 .007

% student is catholic -.01 .01

Transfer to academic track .32 1.56

Distance assigned school .11 .11

R2 .26 .30



Overview








Summary and outlook

After the new legislation, Muslim as well as non-Muslim parents choose more often not the assigned public school

However: Muslim parents choose clearly less often a not assigned school than non-Muslim parents

Different values of composition and achievement level of a school:

–non Muslim parents: composition and achievement

–Muslim parents: achievement, not composition



Summary and outlook

Differences do not explain why Muslim parents do not choose more often a not assigned school

Keys to understand this finding:

–Information seeking strategies

–neighborhood

Further research: comparing the neighboring cities Solingen and Wuppertal



Thank you for your attention!

[email protected]

Presentation based on the paper „Motives by primary school choice“ byKerstin Schneider – Claudia Schuchart – Horst Weishaupt – Andrea Riedel



T5: Decision not to attend assigned public school 2007/2008by denomination

4 5

Muslim Non-Muslim

Distance .000202 .000311

% Turks school district 2.95 0.198

% academic track (diff) 1.54 1.34

Year = 2008 .05 .07

Observations 8841 2198

R2 .19 .13



Sample description (%)

Non-Muslim Muslim

2007 2008 2007 2008

Not assigned school 34 38 24 30

Distance assigned school 642 647 508 517

Student is Muslim

% Turks school district 3 3 5 6

academic track: choosen – assigned school

3 2 1 03

Transfer academic track 36 35 26 26

Oberservations 6780 2061 1640 558

center for education research and teacher training 1/ claudia schuchart: motives for primary school...

Documents

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teacher training school

choice slide

education research

public school assigned

claudia schuchart

teacher training slide

turks school district443356