Abstract
This research explores how the structure of a school impacts parental dissatisfaction with their child’s received education. The structure of the school, based on its level of decentralization, is empirically measured using an Index created from variables in the PISA 2015 datasets and captures who (at the school) holds the responsibilities for various job categories, such as making decisions about budget allocations, textbook choice, and disciplinary policies. The index ranges between 1 and 5, with lower scores earned when responsibilities are fulfilled with more centralized individuals (such as a national education authority) and higher scores earned if that same responsibility is fulfilled by a more decentralized individual (such as a teacher). Polity Scores, which are used to measure the degree of national decentralization, are used to control for national pressures on school behavior. Preliminary results suggest that parental dissatisfaction is greater when decision-making is decentralized at the school level but is lower if the parent is located in a more democratized country. |Through this research I hope to offer insight into the structural aspects of school decision-making behavior and how they impact parental attitudes about the school their child attends.