Correlations Between Interdistrict Enrollment, Parental Educational Expectation, Parental Involvement, and School Choice in Rural Areas

[LANGUAGE=”English”] Research Motivation and PurposeRural education has been emphasized during the development of Taiwan’s education-related policies since 2017 recent years. However, the factors influencing parental choices of schools for children graduating from junior high or elementary schools in remote areas remain underexplored. Moreover, in-depth studies on parental educational expectations and involvement in school education are limited. Therefore, this study was conducted to estimate the cross-district enrollment rate of junior high and elementary school graduates. Furthermore, the correlations between parental educational expectations, parental involvement in school education, and factors influencing their school choice were investigated. We also assessed the disparities arising from factors such as school tier, remoteness level, and family socioeconomic status and the differences in factors influencing school choice between parents enrolling their children in schools within their original district and those enrolling their children in schools outside their district.Literature ReviewStudents from remote areas often encounter unfavorable conditions during school selection; this often results in their enrollment in schools outside their district (Lin, 2012). Parsons et al. (2000) conducted a case study on the situation of UK students attending schools outside their district and revealed that cross-district enrollment was most pronounced in rural areas, moderately remote suburbs, and nonremote urban areas, with the rural regions experiencing the most substantial impact. This underscores the fact that a considerable number of students from remote areas choose to attend schools outside their district, which potentially leads to the problem of student attrition.Understanding the cross-district transition of students from remote areas and the factors affecting parental school choices can guide future education policies for remote areas. Apart from school choice, parental educational expectations is strongly correlated with children’s learning (Fan & Chen, 2001; Pinquart & Ebeling, 2020). Studies have reported disparities in parental children’s perspectives regarding their children’s educational expectations, particularly among parents with varying socioeconomic backgrounds and remoteness levels (Yulianti et al., 2019). Parents in areas with higher remoteness levels tend to have lower expectations for their children’s education attainment and participati