Arguments’ for School Choice: A Case Study with Portuguese Parents

Abstract

Taking as an empirical basis some of the data from a questionnaire applied to
a sample of approximately eight hundred parents from three public secondary
schools, this paper discusses how various categories of parents organise
«hierarchies of excellence» through the «arguments for choice» that they
prioritise when choosing their children’s school for entrance into secondary
education (year 10 of schooling, equivalent to the year 4 of compulsory
secondary education in Spain - ESO). The analysis of the data highlights that,
in all segments of parents, a group can be found that attaches great
importance to academic indicators; in addition, an unequal concentration of
these groups was verified in the three establishments studied, which reflects a
predominance of different types of public in each school. Thus, even though
the importance attributed to the «arguments for choice» varies according to
the educational level of the parents, in the cases studied the «hierarchies of
excellence» are distinguished, above all, by the school variable.