In short
- In a survey across 11 school systems, parents rated safety, atmosphere and reputation above academic results, though most rated all of them highly.
- Studies of actual choices in England and New York find that results, distance and the mix of pupils drive decisions.
- When parents were given clear, simple information about results, more of them chose higher-performing schools.
- Most of this research is on state schools in the US, England and Canada; a private language school should treat it as a checklist, not a rule.
A parent choosing a school is making a decision with little information and high stakes. Researchers have studied that decision in two ways. Some ask parents what matters to them. Others look at the schools parents actually pick. The two do not always agree. This article reports what each kind of study found, with its country and kind of school, because findings from one system do not transfer neatly to another. It ends with what a parent can check before enrolling, and what you should make easy to find.
How do parents choose a school?
Parents choose a school on a small set of things. Will their child be safe and happy there? Does the school have a good name among people they trust? How far is it from home? What do its results look like? In surveys, safety and atmosphere come first. In studies of actual choices, results and distance carry the most weight. When parents are given clear information about results, more of them act on it.
That is the summary. The rest of the article shows where each part comes from, and where the evidence is thin. Most of it comes from state school systems, where places are free and 'choosing' means ranking schools on a form.
What parents say they want
The OECD (2015) asked parents directly. In PISA 2012, students in 11 countries and economies took home a questionnaire for their parents. Parents rated 11 criteria for choosing a school, from 'not important' to 'very important'.
Three findings stand out. Parents valued academic achievement highly, but they gave it less importance than a safe environment, a pleasant school climate and the school's reputation. A safe environment was the most important factor in every system except Flemish Belgium. Distance from home came next, then finances and the school's philosophy. The OECD (2015) also found that parents who cared about one criterion tended to care about all of them.
Income changed the picture. Disadvantaged parents gave more weight to financial considerations, often at the expense of quality criteria. Across the 11 systems, the share of disadvantaged parents who called reputation very important was 16 percentage points lower than among advantaged parents. Note that these are parents of 15-year-olds rating criteria, not parents making a choice.
Bosetti (2004) surveyed about 1,500 parents at 29 elementary schools in Alberta, Canada: 11 private, 8 public and 10 alternative. She argued against the idea that parents are pure utility maximisers with clear preferences. Parents drew on a mixture of rationalities, and their social networks played a part. Other families are part of how a parent decides.
One study looks at international schools. MacKenzie, Hayden and Thompson (2003) studied parental priorities at three international schools in Switzerland. The perceived importance of an English-medium education was a major factor. It is one study at three schools, and the closest the research comes to a private school teaching in English.
What parents' choices show
Watching what parents choose gives different answers from asking them.
Burgess, Greaves, Vignoles and Wilson (2015) combined survey data on the school choices of parents in England with administrative data on schools and with spatial data. Their sample was parents of children starting primary school, drawn from the Millennium Cohort Study. Three things drove the choices: the school's academic attainment, its socio-economic composition and the distance from home.
Families valued academic performance. They also preferred schools with lower shares of children from poor families. The authors computed trade-offs between these and distance: a school further away had to score clearly higher to be chosen. Once the constraints on each family were accounted for, preferences did not vary greatly between socio-economic groups.
Abdulkadiroğlu, Pathak, Schellenberg and Walters (2020) studied applicants to New York City's centralised high school admissions system. They used the ranked lists parents submitted as a measure of preference. They also estimated each school's causal effect on test scores, graduation and college attendance. Parents preferred schools that enrolled high-achieving peers. Those schools did produce larger gains. But once peer quality was accounted for, preferences were unrelated to a school's effectiveness. In plain terms, parents chose the schools with the strongest pupils, not the schools that added the most.
Schneider and Buckley (2002) took a third route. They studied what parents looked up on a school-information website in the United States, and compared the search patterns with what parents say in telephone surveys. The searches told a different story. On that evidence, the authors suggested that unfettered choice may lead to undesirable outcomes in the distribution of students, and may reduce pressure on schools to improve academic performance.
| Study | Where, and which schools | Method | Main finding |
|---|---|---|---|
| OECD (2015) | 11 countries and economies; parents of 15-year-olds | Parent questionnaire in PISA 2012 | Safety, climate and reputation rated above academic results, which were still rated highly |
| Bosetti (2004) | Alberta, Canada; private, public and alternative elementary schools | Survey of about 1,500 parents | Parents mix several kinds of reasoning, and social networks play a part |
| MacKenzie, Hayden and Thompson (2003) | Switzerland; three international schools | Study of parental priorities | An English-medium education was a major factor |
| Burgess et al. (2015) | England; children starting primary school | Choices matched to school data and maps | Results, pupil mix and distance drive choices |
| Abdulkadiroğlu et al. (2020) | New York City; public high schools | Ranked application lists | Parents prefer schools with high-achieving peers, not the schools that add most |
| Schneider and Buckley (2002) | United States; a school-information website | Search patterns | What parents looked up differed from what surveys report |
| Hastings and Weinstein (2008) | United States; a public school choice program | Two experiments with results information | Clear information moved more parents to higher-scoring schools |
What happens when parents get clear information
Hastings and Weinstein (2008) ran two experiments in a public school choice program in the United States. Low-income families were given simple information on the test scores of the schools they could choose from. Receiving the information significantly increased the share of parents who chose higher-performing schools. The effect was stronger when a higher-scoring school was within reach. Using the experimental variation, the authors also found that attending a higher-scoring school raised the child's own test scores.
Their conclusion was that school choice helps disadvantaged children most when parents have straightforward access to performance information and a real alternative nearby. For a school, the lesson is narrower and still useful. Parents do read a clear number, and they act on it.
Does this research apply to a private language school?
Mostly by analogy. Almost all of it comes from state systems in the United States, England and Canada, where places are free and often allocated by rule. A private school charges fees, competes with other private schools and with the state sector at once, and may select its pupils. The mechanics are different.
Some findings should transfer, because they are about parents rather than systems:
- Parents want their child safe and happy, and rate that above results.
- They read a clear result and act on it.
- They ask other families, and weigh what they hear.
- They weigh distance against everything else.
The OECD (2015) found that the ranking of criteria was fairly stable across 11 different systems, which suggests the pattern is not local.
Other findings may not transfer. The preference for a well-off peer group found by Burgess et al. (2015) and Abdulkadiroğlu et al. (2020) may look different where every family pays fees. And the one study of international schools, by MacKenzie, Hayden and Thompson (2003), points to a factor the state-school studies never measure: the language the school teaches in. No study cited here tested how parents choose between private English-teaching schools in one city. Treat the research as a list of things to check, not a rule.
What a parent can check before enrolling
A parent cannot check a school's atmosphere from a brochure. They can check a few things, if the school lets them.
- What pupils read. Titles and levels, for one class, this term. A parent can compare them with what their own child reads now.
- How much pupils read. Stories or books finished by a typical pupil in a term, with the number of pupils counted.
- Where pupils are in level. The share of a cohort at each CEFR level at the start and end of a year. CEFR Levels A1–C2 Explained (With Reading Examples) shows what the letters mean.
- How the school reports to families. Ask to see a blank progress report. Reporting Reading Progress to Parents describes what a good one contains.
- What the school does with pupils' data. Who sees it, and where it is kept. Student Data Privacy: Questions to Ask an EdTech Vendor has the questions.
- Other families. Bosetti (2004) found social networks at work in parents' decisions. A parent will ask around whether you help them or not.
Example: a parent's visit (invented)
A parent visits a private school with a Grade 5 child who reads English at A2.
She asks what Grade 5 read last term. The coordinator shows a list of eight stories with their levels.
She asks how many pupils finished them. 'The middle pupil finished six of the eight. Of 52 pupils, four finished none.'
She asks where Grade 5 ends the year. 'Last June, 31 of the 49 pupils we checked twice were at A2 or above. In September it had been 19.'
She leaves with three numbers she can put to the school down the road.
What a school should make easy to find
Take each thing parents look for and ask what evidence you can show. The table gives a starting set. Every number needs its period and its count, and none should name a child.
| What parents look for | What they usually get | What a school can show |
|---|---|---|
| Safety and atmosphere | Photographs of smiling pupils | The behaviour policy, the pupil-to-staff ratio, and what a normal day looks like, described plainly |
| Reputation | Testimonials chosen by the school | Families willing to be contacted, and results published where anyone can see them |
| Academic results in English | 'Excellent results' | Levels reached by each cohort at the start and end of the year, with the number of pupils |
| How much reading happens | A photograph of the library | Stories finished by the typical pupil in a term, and the titles |
| Language of instruction | 'English-medium' | Hours of English per week, and what pupils read and write in it |
How to Show Your School's English Results to Prospective Parents covers the right-hand column in detail. What to Publish About Your English Program covers the rest of the page.
Hastings and Weinstein (2008) showed that clear information changes choices. That cuts both ways. A school with weak numbers that publishes them will lose some families to a school with better ones. A school with good numbers that publishes nothing is competing on photographs.
How iRead handles this
In iRead, each school can have a public page: a message, logo and colours of its own, the packs it runs, featured stories with their values, and achievements. It shows aggregate numbers only, never individual students. Individual student data is visible only to the school's own staff. A school can add a 'Reading School' badge to its own website, linked to its live public page.
The core principle: Parents choose on what they can see and check. Publish what is true, in a form a parent can compare with the school down the road.
See it in iRead: Each school can have a public page with the packs it runs, featured stories and achievements. It shows aggregate numbers only, never individual students.
See public school pagesKey takeaway
Parents say safety and atmosphere. Their choices show results, distance and other families. Clear information moves them. Give them something to check.
Frequently asked questions
What do parents look for in a school?
In the OECD (2015) parent survey across 11 systems, a safe environment came first, then a pleasant climate and the school's reputation, then academic achievement, then distance. Studies of actual choices in England and New York find that results, distance and the mix of pupils weigh most. Most parents rate all of these highly.
Why do parents choose private schools?
The research cited here does not isolate that question. Bosetti (2004) surveyed parents at private, public and alternative schools in Alberta and found a mixture of reasons, shaped by social networks. MacKenzie, Hayden and Thompson (2003) found that an English-medium education was a major factor at three international schools in Switzerland.
Do parents choose the schools that teach best?
Not reliably. Abdulkadiroğlu et al. (2020) found that New York parents preferred high schools with high-achieving peers. Those schools did add more, but once peer quality was accounted for, preferences were unrelated to how much a school added. Parents choose on what they can see, and effectiveness is hard to see.
Does giving parents information change their choice?
Yes, in the experiments cited here. Hastings and Weinstein (2008) gave low-income families simple test score information in a US public school choice program. More of them chose higher-performing schools, especially when one was within reach. The children who attended higher-scoring schools then scored higher themselves.
Sources
- Burgess, S., Greaves, E., Vignoles, A., & Wilson, D. (2015). What parents want: School preferences and school choice. The Economic Journal, 125(587), 1262-1289. doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12153
- Hastings, J. S., & Weinstein, J. M. (2008). Information, school choice, and academic achievement: Evidence from two experiments. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(4), 1373-1414. doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2008.123.4.1373
- Abdulkadiroğlu, A., Pathak, P. A., Schellenberg, J., & Walters, C. R. (2020). Do parents value school effectiveness?. American Economic Review, 110(5), 1502-1539. doi.org/10.1257/aer.20172040
- Schneider, M., & Buckley, J. (2002). What do parents want from schools? Evidence from the Internet. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(2), 133-144. doi.org/10.3102/01623737024002133
- OECD (2015). What do parents look for in their child's school?. PISA in Focus, No. 51. OECD Publishing, Paris. doi.org/10.1787/5js1qfw4n6wj-en
- MacKenzie, P., Hayden, M., & Thompson, J. (2003). Parental priorities in the selection of international schools. Oxford Review of Education, 29(3), 299-314. doi.org/10.1080/03054980307444
- Bosetti, L. (2004). Determinants of school choice: Understanding how parents choose elementary schools in Alberta. Journal of Education Policy, 19(4), 387-405. doi.org/10.1080/0268093042000227465