"You So Disrespectful": Disconnections in Policy Discourse Between District Leaders and Community Members

• In Event: 66.033 - Partnerships for Justice: Centering Family and Community Perspectives

Abstract

For large urban school districts, conversations about school reform are characterized by impasse, leaving improvement stymied, stakeholders disenfranchised, and administrators hamstrung. Policies drafted by leaders at a distance from communities and without grassroots input are then sold to those communities as improvements. Community stakeholders question the motives driving policies, decry their lack of input, and bemoan the implementation and impact of the policies. Within a Critical Race Theory framework, we analyze the discourse of school reform in Newark, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Chicago, identifying points of contention and the unacknowledged narratives and assumptions that roil beneath their surface. Our cross section of this discourse suggests points of intervention for activists and scholars interested in breaking impasse and facilitating community dialogue.

Authors

• Camika Royal, Loyola University Maryland

• Laura Jones, Montclair State University