A Study on Changes in the Reasons for Students’ High-school Choice

This study aimed to explore the factors affecting the tendency toward change in students' high school choices after the implementation of curriculum diversification policies. To achieve this, one-way analysis of variance and dual ANOVA were performed to discover the differences between each variable according to the reasons for choosing a high school. Logistic regression was also performed to measure the effects of the reasons for choosing a high school in analyzing the data of a total of 11,005 students and parents from the Gyeonggi Education Panel Study conducted by the Gyeonggi Institute of Education. The analytical results are as follows. First, there were statistically significant differences in gender, parental participation in school choice, and school types. Second, the 2018 high school group was significantly more likely to consider convenience in commuting to school over admission to a more prestigious school as a reason for choosing a high school than the 2012 high school group. Third, the students in the 2018 group were significantly more likely to decide on school characteristics and culture as a reason for high school selection over admission to a more prestigious school than the students in the 2012 group. The findings imply that there is a trend toward considering various factors other than grades in making students' high school choice and that curriculum diversification policies may be one of the reasons for this change.