Push and Pull Factors for School Choosers and the Choice Curious - Research Brief - April 2026

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle

Research brief outlining how school choice is shaped by “push” factors driving families away from less desirable schools and “pull” factors attracting them to more desirable options. Using partnerships with Morning Consult, the brief reports a survey of 2,110 American parents and analyzes motivations, barriers to switching, and respondent demographics. It also explains the two research streams used, including Christensen Institute Jobs to Be Done methods and EdChoice prior survey work.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Push and Pull Factors for School Choosers and the Choice Curious

Previous Looks at These Questions

What We Did

Respondent Demographics

ED CHO ICE .ORG RESEARCH BRIEF April 2026 Push and Pull Factors for School Choosers and the Choice Curious Mike McShane, Director of National Research, EdChoice Thomas Arnett, Senior Fellow, Education Research, Christensen Institute The classic crime drama series Law and Order always began with the same tagline, words that most millennials and gen-X’ers can recite from heart: “In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police who investigate crime, and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories.” In studying school choice, researchers need to look at two separate yet equally important groups as well: the families making choices and the educational environments they are choosing. We think of the families as the “demand” side of the choice equation and the educational environment as the“supply side.” To get a more complex and nuanced picture of the demand side of educational choice we, in partnership with Morning Consult, polled more than 2,100 American parents and asked them a battery of questions about choosing their child’s school. The sample had a mix of parents who had switched their child’s school at some time in his or her school career, parents who were considering switching, and those that were not interested in switching their child’s school. We administered a battery of questions to both understand the “push”factors pushing families away from less desirable schools, the “pull” factors drawing families to more desirable schools, and the reasons that families might not want to switch at all. We also asked those interested in choosing what barriers were preventing them from taking the plunge. What we uncovered is a fascinating mix of push and pull factors both repelling families from and attracting families to educational environments. Better understanding what parents want (and don’t want) and the barriers that get in their way can help those designing choice programs and those helping families navigate them. Previous Looks at These Questions This project draws from two streams of previous work, one from the Christensen Institute and one from EdChoice. ED CHO ICE .ORG The first is grounded in Clayton Christensen’s Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework, applied to schooling. In 2021, the Christensen Institute conducted a survey in partnership with the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) that explored why families choose independent schools, using in-depth interview methods to surface the language parents use when describing school decisions.1 As the report states,“The JTBD methodology is based on the belief that parents do not buy school products and brands, but rather they hire and fire schools to perform a ‘job’for them.” In 2024, The Christensen Institute, along with VELA and the Rewired Group, published Families on the New Frontier: Mapping and Meeting the Growing Demand for Unconventional Schooling.2 It used parent interviews to understand what pushed parents away from traditional schools and what drew them toward new options. The push and pull factors that appear in this survey reflect the language that emerged from those interviews, grounded in how parents actually talk about school choices, not researcher-generated hypotheses. Additionally, a survey instrument developed using the research for Job Moves: 9 Steps for Making Progress in Your Career (co-authored by Michael Horn, Ethan Bernstein, and Bob Moesta) provided a methodological precedent, demonstrating how JTBD interview language could be translated into a scalable survey instrument. We adapted that approach here, applying it to the school-switching context with items drawn from interviews with parents ofK–12 students who recently switched their children's schools. The second stream this paper draws from is the workEdChoice has conducted for years to understand parental motivation, needs, and desires. We have ask

FAQs

What are the “push” and “pull” factors in the brief?

“Push” factors drive families away from less desirable schools, while “pull” factors draw families toward more desirable educational environments.

How was the survey conducted?

In partnership with Morning Consult, the brief surveyed 2,110 parents in October 2025 using questions adapted from Job Moves and items on barriers to choice and demographics.

What previous research streams does the brief rely on?

One stream uses Clayton Christensen’s Jobs to Be Done framework applied to schooling, and the other builds on EdChoice work measuring parental motivation, needs, and desires through prior surveys.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Kyle