The most convenient and prolonged standpoint that our nation has had on education imparted through the local districts is that our education implementation is focused on being identical to neighboring schools. However, each school has its own arguments to claim that it is better than the rest. Most of the schools are identical with just a few minor changes as per the community’s personal values that differ from place to place and school’s general preferences.
An Educational Buffet
While the schools of the suburbs and the rural arena are inclined towards the traditional pedagogy, the urban ones are generally a bit more progressive. The fact of the matter is that there is an entire buffet of schools available for
parents to choose from. They can choose not just between private and public education. They can opt for magnet schools that offer varied advanced and specialized faculties, charter schools,
STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) schools, virtual education platforms, portfolio academies, college-preparatory institutes, or career-ready options. They even have the option to opt for the neighborhood schools through intra or inter-district student exchange programs.
What is out there is one thing, though the bigger concern here is what do parents really expect from their child’s education?
Here are the highlights of the latest discovery from a well renowned market research firm. The attempt is to divide the US parents into clear segments based on their values, educational preferences, and priorities towards their children’s education.
Educational Must-Haves (for parents)
It was a pleasant surprise to find that though the parents were expected to have distinctly different preferences based on various sets of personal values, most
parents expected the same in terms of basic necessities. Here is what most parents
want from school:
- A through core curriculum for math and reading;
- Dedicated to education in STEM – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subjects;
- Cultivating and nurturing of the healthy study habits,
- Well developed critical-thinking expertise, and
- Proficiency in oral as well as written communication skills.
Irrespective of the ethnical backgrounds, income strata, and personal and political divergence, these choices topped the parents’ expectation charts for all the students who attend private, public, or traditional district schools.
Demographics
While the children of the White parents are expected to be more focused on securing good discipline and “must develop healthy study lifestyle”, the Hispanic parents desire their kids to secure the top most results in academics. When the acceptance of kids at the finest of the colleges was a less of a concern with the White parents, it was of utmost importance to the African Americans.
Preparation for SATs was a concern among the Hispanic as well as the African American parents. Acquiring good scores in these exams including the state test was more prominent concern among the low-income group parents than the high-income groups.
The aspiration to build up strong critical thinking ability has an almost direct affiliation to the increase in income; the higher is the parents’ income, the more they give prominence to critical thinking skills.
Though it is not possible to segment parents as per their values, segmentation of the parents’ expectations in accordance to attributes that the “schools have to offer” fell in the ambiguous category yet, can be broadly classified as follows:
- Heuristics: 36 percent of the parents were concerned about the career readiness and vocational guidance programs available at the schools.
- Absolute Rulers: 24 percent of the parents preferred to choose the schools that offers education of democracy, leadership and citizenship, etc.
- The Medalists: 23 percent parents preferred only the schools where students could participate in a number of competitions and could score great test results.
- Ethos Faternity: 22 percent of the parents choose the schools based on an amalgamation of diverse ethnicities. They wanted their children to learn people skills as well.
- The Art Lovers: 15 percent parents choose availability of arts educations such as music and painting as the decisive criterion to choose schools for their children.
- The Contenders: For 12 percent parents the selection of the school was based on the prior records of acceptance in the colleges.
Expectations of the most parents are a strong curriculum, healthy study habits and critical thinking ability that is being taken care of through implementation of the Common Core State Standards. However, it is not possible to group parents or to affirm their expectations as identical. While the education industry continues to learn there are yet, many arenas of the parents’ expectations that remain unexplored. As each individual is different, so is each parent. Thus, each parent’s expectations do vary on an individual turf.
As modern day technology presents us with so many unbelievable wonders everyday, we are sure that latest amalgamation of technology and learning – the adaptive learning platforms can create similar outcomes in education as well. e-learning is not just the future of education but also, has too much to offer that complies with most of the parent expectations.
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