Date of Graduation

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Economics

Advisor/Mentor

Gema Zamarro

Committee Member

Raja Kali

Second Committee Member

Md Amzad Hossain

Abstract

The K-12 system in the United States experienced substantial challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to give an overview of public, private, and homeschooling enrollment decisions during the pandemic, the changes families made between types of schooling and identify familial characteristics associated with the probability of switching in and out of public education. Knowing more about the groups exiting and returning to the public school system can help public school districts better tailor policies to attract and retain their students. Socioeconomic factors influencing a change could be signs of increasing segregation. Using a discrete choice duration model, a multinomial logistic model and random forest machine learning algorithms, we find that education, income, and trust in Fox News were among the most important characteristics related to school type decisions throughout the pandemic. We attempt to capture the changes in the importance of these factors through the pandemic.

Keywords

COVID-19; School Choice; School Marketization; Education Policy; Parental Choice

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