HOUSTON – (Nov. 12, 2020) – Houston-area parents decide where to send their children for prekindergarten based largely on quality and location, according to a new research brief from Rice University's Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC).
"Pre-K Preferences: How and Why HISD Parents Choose Pre-K Programs" is a part of a series examining pre-K enrollment and access in the Houston Independent School District (HISD). Researchers Erin Baumgartner and Courtney Thrash aimed to understand where parents get information about their options and what’s most important to them. The findings are largely based on a fall 2018 survey conducted by HERC.
While more than 70% of the nearly 300 HISD parents surveyed enroll children in their top choice for a pre-K program, the research revealed that distance from home plays a major role. The characteristics and quality of the particular programs are also very important to parents; specifically, they are most interested in whether teachers and teacher aides have a high level of training. Finally, the paper revealed that parents are most likely to get their information about pre-K programs from friends and family.
Given the importance of these informal networks, the researchers suggest HISD consider new ways to share information about the programs they offer.
"As only a small proportion of parents learned about pre-K from a communication received directly from the school or district or through a community organization, this may provide an opportunity to increase parental understanding about pre-K options available for their children," they wrote. "Given that a number of families qualify for pre-K because their children are English learners, it is especially important that this information be made available in languages other than English."
Baumgartner noted HISD has been giving the community more information about pre-K offerings since last spring. "Given low pre-K enrollment this school year, likely connected to COVID-19, it is particularly important that these efforts continue," she said.
The researchers also recommend HISD consider expanding pre-K offerings to more places where families with young children reside.
"As distance from home is a particularly important for families in deciding where to enroll their children in pre-K, HISD may consider whether there are spaces in the district where programs may need to be added to provide additional opportunities for student enrollment," they wrote.
Finally, the researchers said it is important for the school district to maintain consistently high standards across district pre-K programs, because a number of parents said the type and quality of programs offered are important drivers of enrollment decisions.
"To ensure all families have access to high-quality pre-K, HISD should consider ways to evaluate the quality of current pre-K and work to improve quality when challenges are identified," they wrote. "As the district is currently evaluating programs using guidelines from state policies, they should consider making the program evaluations available to the community. It is important that families do not have to choose between distance, quality and program offerings when selecting pre-K for their children."
The paper is available online at https://herc.rice.edu/research/pre-k-preferences-how-and-why-hisd-parents-choose-pre-k-programs.
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