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What Factors Influence Catholic Parents’ Choice Of School(S) For Their Child(Ren)?, Andrea R. Aiello

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

In 1965, the American Catholic school system had 5.66 million students, 13,296 schools and educated nearly 13% of all school-aged children. Fifty years later, Catholic school enrollments had fallen to approximately 1.93 million and a total of 6,250 schools, while more than 17% of the students enrolled in Catholic schools identified as non-Catholic. Although there appear to be several positive points of difference for selecting Catholic schools, nevertheless families are making other choices. In this exploratory study, I endeavored to understand the demographic characteristics, attitudes toward education as well as more general motivations of American Catholic parents, with a special …