Journal of Education & Social Policy

Parental Involvement and Private High School Attendance
Sueuk Park, David Bills

Abstract
Parental involvement as shared resources between children and parents is an important factor for students to establish educational plans for the future, because parents always intervene in determining the type of high school in which their child will enroll. The differences in parental influences between students, who attend private and public, at least in part, may explain the excellence of the private sector in achievement or attainment. Using the NELS:88 which contains a sample of eighth-grade students who begin the transition from middle to high school and thus provides trend data about the critical transition to high school, this paper found that students who are enrolled in private high school already have well-organized parental involvement. Such a difference between them may cause the accumulated disadvantages for public high school students in achievement and attainment. Moreover, the effect of parental involvement is moderated bydifferent ethnic groups and especially Asians and Blacks with parents who often discuss schooling or future plans is more likely to select a private high school than Whites.

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