In 11 of the 16 Federal States parents decide about which type of school their children will visit after primary school. In the Federal Republic of Germany 17 percent of the parents do not agree with the primary school teacher's opinion regarding the appropriate type of school (Bos et al., 2003). From 1997 to August 2006 the parents in North Rhine-Westphalia could decide freely on the appropriate type of school. Due to the findings of Baumert & Schuemer (2003), showing that the judgement of the parents is more unfounded and social selective than that of the teacher, this freedom was restricted by law. In doing so, it got out of focus that the decision should be jointly made between parents and teachers. The intent of this consulting process should be to find the ideal course of education for each child. The exchange of information e.g. about the childs working habits and the social behaviour at home as well as in school should provide the global basis for this difficult decision. This common decision process was only rarely picked up in recent research and, thus, will be focus of the present paper. Special attention will be paid to the question when and why discrepancies concerning the appropriate type of school appear. For what reasons do parents not follow the teachers recommendation but send their children to a higher type of school?At the Institute for School Development Research (Institut für Schulentwicklungsforschung) 164 parents of pupils with recommendation for either secondary or secondary modern school (Haupt- and Realschule), who diverge from that recommendation, were investigated. The investigation used a questionnaire for the parents with open and closed questions. Analyses of the open questions concerning the motives for discrepancies result in a classification of four motive-groups. Those groups were analysed in regard to other data (socio-demographical features, judgement of the consulting process, attitude towards education and school, achievemant reception). This kind of data-analysis was chosen to broaden systematically the knowledge about those groups of parents (Flick, 2000).The results show interesting significant differences between the groups of parents. Due to the parents' different motives, different interventions and arguments of the teachers are necessary. For example, it could be useful to train the perception of parents who attribute their child's achievement more positive than the teacher by observation forms recording the working habits and learning behaviour. The results contribute to enhance the consulting process. Baumert, J. & Schümer, G. (2001). Familiäre Lebensverhältnisse, Bildungsbeteiligung und Kompetenzerwerb. In Deutsches PISA-Konsortium (Hrsg.), PISA 2000. Basiskompetenzen von Schülerinnen und Schülern im internationalen Vergleich (S. 323-407). Opladen: Leske & Budrich. Bos, W., Lankes, E.-M., Prenzel, M., Schwippert, K., Walther, G. & Valtin, R. (Hrsg.). (2003). Erste Ergebnisse aus IGLU. Schülerleistungen am Ende der vierten Jahrgangsstufe im internationalen Vergleich. Münster, New York, München, Berlin: Waxmann. Flick, U. (2000). Qualitative Forschung. Theorie, Methoden, Anwendung in Psychologie und Sozialwissenschaften (5. Aufl.). Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt.international publication, TES