Abstract
Purposes. The purposes of the study were to (1) determine the relative importance to parents of thirteen criteria they may use to select a high school for their children to attend; (2) determine the importance high school principals believe their parents attribute to each of the thirteen criteria; (3) determine if significant differences exist among parents in low, middle, and high socioeconomic status attendance areas regarding the importance of each of the thirteen criteria; and (4) determine the extent to which parents' responses of the importance of each criterion agrees with the principals' perceptions of what the parents responses would be. Methodology. The research methodology was an ex-post facto and descriptive design. Data were collected using researcher-designed surveys administered to a random stratified sample of principals and parents. A one-way analysis of variance and scheffe procedures were the statistical procedures used. Findings. Of thirteen factors for choosing a high school, parents rated Academic Quality, Student Safety, and Emphasizing Fundamentals as the top three. The principals agreed most strongly with the first two, but in reverse order. Significant differences in parents' responses occurred for three criteria; parents from low SES attendance areas significantly attributed more importance to providing transportation, to multiethnic-ethnic programs, and to a school's reputation. Principals, regardless of socioeconomic level of their schools, have a high degree of agreement with their parents on the importance of academic quality and student safety. For the other criteria principals exhibited neither a high degree of agreement nor strong disagreement with their parents. Conclusions. The study concluded the following: (1) when considering all criteria to use when selecting a high school to attend, there is not a high degree of agreement between what parents say and what principals believed parents would say; however, there is not strong disagreement either; (2) parents' highest priorities are academics and student safety; and (3) the importance of criteria across schools will differ to some degree by the school's socioeconomic status.