Modernization in School choice Mechanisms: An investigation into school choice criteria of high school students.

Policy makers, economists, educational researchers, teachers and even parents around the world argued about various forms of school choice and its effects on quality of schools, student achievement and family school-satisfaction over the last years. The main strategy that was frequently used in Iran and many other countries was neighborhood schools mechanism. Based on this strategy school costs for students, government and families was lower but student achievement improve throughout the education system, student innovation, school population, methods of instruction and school governance still are problematic and challenging. So governors and parents thought about provide an alternative plan to neighborhood schools strategy. In Islamic Republic of Iran although many policies are available to school choice including open enrollment, magnet schools, online schools and charter (Non-profit) schools- that aimed to cover %25 of Iranian students- but the most prominent school choice policy in public even private sector is neighborhood schools.
Although there are still considerable number of students choose their education places based on their place of residence, the number of students who are consciously looking for better school quality are increasing. These students are looking for higher levels of learning quality, attractive and diverse programs for education, vivacity and side programs. This is undeniable that public education systems are inherently problematic to meet these emerging needs of stakeholders. In fact, to provide high quality schools with diverse training programs, the establish educational campus that students decide about content of curriculums, teachers or even parents had practical trainings to improve the quality of learning and so on, are not in governments’ preferred program list because of dramatic increase in costs and other financial challenges in public sector. Therefore in most public education systems, students select their schools on the basis of neighborhood and proximity to school or similar standards that decline costs of student education. This will make schools ineffective and inefficient because of two reasons. On the one hand, schools with stable students do not try to more student enrolment and have to succeed because they have access to monopoly applicants and they have to choose the schools they want. On the other hand, students who seek diverse educational programs will not be able to answer in these systems because government systems operate in a largely the same way and the single program does not respond to the various educational needs that students will require (Levine 1995 quoted Nafisi, 1380: 440).
Based on above discussions main purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing the school choice by secondary school students in Ahvaz. The statistical population of this study included 41819 students studying in the academic year 1395-1396 (21860 boys and 20031 girls), of whom 381 were selected by Cluster sampling method. To identify the factors affecting on school choice, a made-questionnaire including 41 items that was scored based on Likert scale was used. In this research, Cronbach's alpha test was used to measure the reliability of the questionnaire, and to ensure the validity of the tools, content validity and construct validity were used. Descriptive research method and exploratory factor analysis were used to analyze the data. The results of principal components (PC) exploratory factor analysis showed that three main factors affecting the school choice are as follows: The first factor was school empowerment (Eigen value: 14.388 and the explained variance: 36.3%), the second factor was the school Physical structure (Eigen Value: 3.033 and The explained variance: 7.397) and the third factor was the school external reputation (Eigen value: 2.328 and the explained variance: 5.677). Overall 49.4374% of variance of school choice is explained by the above three factors. Also, the results show that there is a significant difference between the criteria for choosing school for non-profit school students and other public schools.
In school empowerment authors argued that students tend to study in empowered schools because they are own characteristics that create competitive advantages for them. Empowered schools component included variables such as high quality and various training programs, qualified teachers, approved curricula, provide new technologies for better learning in school, shared decision making about content of educational programs and prepare students for the job market. Such school characteristics are more compatible with the market approach in economic systems and will be welcomed and demanded to study. The physical structure of the school is important for students. The results of this study show that the school's physical structure explain %7 of students' school choice variance. The roots of this thought can be traced to this believe that better education is possible in a limited and controllable learning environment. Some students prefer to study in schools with a specific enrollment rate. In other words, schools with limited students’ number are able to provide more learning opportunity for students. This is another emerging criterion for choosing a school. This component includes games and sports space, conference halls, libraries, and so. School external reputation is more important for non-profit schools. Advertisements, branding, accreditation and quality assurance can effect on external reputation of schools.
In general, based on the results of this study, there is a significant difference between the choice pattern of non-profit high school and other high school students. Nonprofit high school students are more likely to use market mechanisms. This is consistent with the logic of building non-profit schools, since the foundation of nongovernmental schools is based on the creation of quality education with the participation of individuals and non-governmental organizations (private sector). Lastly, many of the emerging criteria of a new age in the past were not taken into account for various reasons, such as financial or conceptual reasons. Today, education is considered to be the goal of long-term education, meaning the massive investment of society and individuals on their abilities, the human capital theory, and therefore the choice of school is not justifiable in terms of access to quality education in the form of proximity to the place of residence, and new criteria There is for it. The results of this study can be used to introduce some of these criteria conceptually and operationally in policy-making in educational systems as well as in families for the optimal choice of school.