"Ask Not for Whom the Line is Drawn”: How Do African American Parents Construct School Boundaries?

• In Event: 35.081 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 35.081-21 - School Choice: Parental Information and Judgments

Abstract

While the school choice provision of No Child Left Behind purported to increase school choice options for parents of students attending failing schools, it did so leaving school district boundaries intact. School boundaries (district boundaries and school attendance zones) play a critical role in maintaining educational inequality. Although the education literature has examined the role school boundaries play in maintaining educational inequality, few studies have examined how boundaries—as active institutional structures—contribute to this problem. Using a critical geography approach, this ethnographic study examines how the meanings inscribed in school boundaries impact how African-American parents negotiate these structures. The study findings, which increase our understanding of how school district boundaries impact school choice, have implications for policy and practice.

Author

• Tolu A. Bamishigbin, University of California - Los Angeles