Parental Empowerment, Involvement, and Satisfaction: A Comparison of Choosers of Charter, Catholic, Christian, and District-Run Public Schools

Purpose: This study investigates parental empowerment, involvement, and satisfaction in charter, Catholic, Christian, and district-run public schools. The analyses of these indicators across school types also differentiate parents who chose district-run public schools through residential selection from those who did not. Research Design: A survey of 1,699 parents residing in Indiana was linked to school-level administrative data for the analyses. Parents in schools of choice were first compared with parents in district-run public schools using controls for demographic, school, and geographic characteristics. Parents in schools of choice were then compared with parents who chose district-run public schools through residential selection. Findings: Patterns were largely consistent with charter, Christian, and Catholic schools exhibiting greater parental empowerment, involvement, and satisfaction relative to district-run public schools. However, when parents in these schools of choice were compared with parents who chose district-run public schools through residential selection, these differences decreased. Strong negative relationships with parental empowerment, involvement, and satisfaction were observed for parents who did not choose district-run public schools through residential selection. Conclusions: This study highlights the importance of parental selection into district-run public schools through choice of residence—a typically unobserved form of school selection in the literature. In district-run public schools, results suggest that deliberate strategies may be needed to support nonchoosers. Findings also indicate a need for future research on possible approaches that leaders use in different school types that contribute to greater parental empowerment, involvement, and satisfaction.