A geographic analysis of school performance and parental choice in South Carolina

School performance and parental choice are two central concerns regarding contemporary public school education reform in the United States. However, little geographic research has addressed the spatial dimension of public school performance and parental choice. This study investigated the spatial disparities of public school performance and parental choice between urban, suburban, and rural areas, and explored the impact of geographic locale and neighborhood characteristics on these education issues. This study utilized the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) locale codes to classify schools and school districts into urban, suburban, and rural categories. GIS techniques and spatial regression methods were used to analyze the spatially referenced school, school district, and census data of the Columbia MSA and the State of South Carolina.; Major findings of this study include: (1) rural schools consistently achieved lower than their counterparts in urban and suburban areas in South Carolina; (2) school performance was found to be related to socioeconomic status (SES), race/ethnicity, teachers' qualification and turnover rate, and geographic locale; (3) public-private school choice was sensitive to school quality, SES, family's racial preference, resources of private schools, and geographic locale; (4) evidence of "White flight" indicated white families tend to pursue a quality public school education for their children or maintain social distance from minority students; (5) lack of alternative options hindered the public school choice of students trapped in failing schools of rural areas under the No Child Left Behind legislation. The hypotheses with the spatial inequalities of education outcomes and parental choice, and the influences of geographic locale and neighborhood characteristics on these education issues were tested. This study made a contribution by extending the geographic approach to the analysis of school performance and parental choice, which are closely associated with national initiatives. Policy recommendations such as improving the early childhood education quality of rural areas, promoting public school open enrollment, improving economic growth and racial integration, and fostering a neighborhood culture of value education were discussed at the end.