Abstract
This paper focuses on school choice in the context of the implementation of a new type of lower secondary school in Austria. Within the selective Austrian school system, students have to decide after four years of comprehensive primary education whether to attend an academic secondary school or a lower secondary school with emphasis on vocational training. This choice was recently supposed to be eradicated by the implementation of a new lower secondary school, which is also known as a new middle school. Grounded in the rational choice theory, this paper inquires into the reasons for attending either the academic secondary school or the new middle school. Based on a quantitative analysis of questionnaires, which examined three groups of students and their parents who entered the lower secondary stage of education in 2010, 2011, and 2012, it concludes that the implementation of a new type of school does not directly influence a change in choice between an academic or vocational secondary school.