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Income guides parent-teacher preference

STANFORD, Calif., May 21 (UPI) --

Parents' desires of their children's teachers depend on their school income level, a study published in California said.

Parents in high-poverty schools value teachers' ability to raise student achievement, while parents in affluent schools value teachers who keep students happy, the study said.

"Our findings suggest that what parents want from school is likely to depend on the educational context in which they find themselves," Economists Brian A. Jacob of the University of Michigan and Lars Lefgren of Brigham Young University wrote in the summer issue of Education Next.

Academic resources are scarcer in low-income schools where parents are more likely to request teachers based on their perception of the teachers' ability to increase achievement, the economists said. In more-affluent schools where academic resources are more abundant, parents seek out teachers they think will keep their children happy.

The researchers said the socioeconomic groups are likely to respond differently to accountability policies, such as those in the No Child Left Behind Act.

"In more-affluent schools, parents are likely to oppose measures that increase the focus on standardized test scores at the cost of student satisfaction," they said.

Education Next is published by Stanford University.

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