Abstract
The sheer amount of literature on school choice in educational and political research points to the fact that its liberalisation over the past (two) decades is a controversial topic – one that is being intensively discussed. The idea of school choice is often viewed as an aspect of liberal market reform of education, whose central idea is the assumption that the quality and efficiency of school education is enhanced by introducing competition among schools. However, competition can only arise if both main actors, i.e. the schools as well as the parents, are given a certain scope for action.
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Notes
- 1.
In order to develop a typology of school choice arrangements, it is necessary to know the number of students being enrolled at another school than the local one, and the relationship between these numbers and the official choice regulations. As official data on these indicators is either incomplete or unavailable, the attempt at a typology can only be rough. Even within countries there may be differences with regard to school choice options (Musset 2012).
- 2.
All primary schools in Berlin are all-day schools. They differ in their conceptual and temporal offerings. Full binding all-day schools offer a school-based overall concept of teaching, education, supplementary support and care which all pupils have to attend compulsorily from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. for at least four days a week. In the open all-day elementary school, the offer of the reliable half-day elementary school (7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) is extended by additional offers and support times on a voluntary basis four days a week to 4 pm. In total, 80% of the 374 public primary schools in Berlin are open all-day schools, 64 schools work as full binding all-day primary schools (SenBJF 2017).
- 3.
In addition to the 95 private primary schools, 95 public primary schools (N total = 190) are included in the sample. The selection of the public primary schools is based on the distribution of private and public schools in the respective districts as well as on the school profiles in order to match them to the different types of private schools.
- 4.
To ensure a genuine collection of parents’ expectations of their child’s future school concerning school quality aspects, the survey was conducted a few months before school enrolment. But due to a low number of respondents on the online questionnaire the survey was extended with a paper-and-pencil version. That is why the survey period was expanded to the first three weeks of the beginning school year.
- 5.
Comparative figures show that 25.9% of the Berlin population has an academic degree; Germany-wide the share is 15.9%. Also with regard to other indicators, it is obvious that the sample is statistically distorted: for example 45% of Berliners have the highest school leaving certificate (Abitur) in comparison with 33% of the whole German population; 26.5% of people living in Berlin have a migration background, in contrast with 19.8% of Germany (StBA 2015). Figures on income show that about 11.9% of the German population earns a low income, whereas in Berlin it is 30.9% (StBA 2016).
- 6.
The answers of the scale on school choice criteria were identical for choosers and non-choosers, but differ with regard to the wording of the question. Parents who are defined as choosers were asked: “How important are the following aspects for your school choice?” The wording of the question for the non-choosers was: “How important are the following aspects for you when thinking about your child's future school?”.
- 7.
The number of missing values (N = 102) referring to our research question is due to the fact that (a) at the time of the survey the parents did not yet know which school their child would visit, or (b) the answer was denied.
- 8.
The only small significant difference with regard to choosers and non-choosers refers to the variable professional degree χ 2 = 0.024 (Fisher’s Exact test).
- 9.
The website of the Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft provides for most public primary schools data on students (size of grade, nationality, language of origin, residence, truancy), human and material resources, school program, test results and evaluations of the school inspection.
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Schwarz, J., Habeck, C., Gruehn, S., Koinzer, T. (2017). School Choice in German Primary Schools. In: Koinzer, T., Nikolai, R., Waldow, F. (eds) Private Schools and School Choice in Compulsory Education. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-17104-9_11
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