The Sociopolitical Development of Adolescents Attending Urban No-Excuses and Progressive Charter High Schools

• In Event: Beyond Test Scores: The Civic Implications of No-Excuses Charter Schools

Abstract

Sociopolitical development (SPD) refers to the processes that engender an individual’s commitment to social or political action. A growing body of research has found that adolescents’ sociopolitical development is predictive of their activism orientation (Watts, Diemer & Voight, 2011), political engagement (Yates & Youniss, 1998), participation in electoral politics (Diemer & Li, 2011) and interest in social justice organizing (Watts, Williams & Jager, 2003). The present study investigates the role of two different types of schooling models—“no excuses” and “progressive”— as opportunity structures for the sociopolitical development of adolescents marginalized by inequities in race, socioeconomic status and language.

“No excuses” refers to an increasingly prevalent approach to schooling that is marked by a strict disciplinary environment, extended time in school, college preparatory mission, intensive focus on traditional mathematics and literacy skills, and explicit instruction in the social skills of school (Carter, 2000). “Progressive schooling” refers to approaches to education that explicitly seek to foster a caring and collaborative community in which students and teachers work together as partners as well as a curricular focus upon social justice, inquiry-based learning and deep understanding (Kohn, 2008; Little & Ellison, 2015).

The present study considers the sociopolitical development of more than 500 adolescents attending six urban charter high schools—three no excuses and three progressive— that explicitly cite fostering students’ sociopolitical development as a goal in their mission or vision statements. Additionally, all six high schools are located in northeastern cities, admit students via randomized registration lotteries, and are comprised of student bodies that are nearly 100% students of color and approximately 80% low-income students.

Across all six schools, we have now collected two years of data from students in the class of 2017. We administered surveys to all 500 students at the beginning and conclusion of their ninth grade year (2013-14), and then again at the conclusion of their tenth grade year (2014-15) (see Tables 1 and 2 below). In developing this study’s survey tool, we sought out previously validated measures that could offer insight into participating adolescents’ ability to analyze social forces, possess a sense of agency around resisting these forces, and demonstrate a commitment to challenge these forces as necessary.

We are currently in the process of fitting a series of multi-level models for each of these measures in order to consider the development of these particular dimensions of sociopolitical development in adolescents attending both no excuses and progressive charter high schools. A preliminary finding from these data is that adolescents attending progressive schools demonstrate heightened shifts in their ability to analyze oppressive social forces while adolescents attending no excuses schools demonstrate greater shifts in their sense of agency around navigating such social forces. We believe that our findings—when triangulated with qualitative interviews with students and ethnographic field notes collected at each of the schools— will offer useful insights into the sociopolitical development of adolescents attending two sets of urban high schools that take very different approaches to fostering their students’ commitment to social action.

Authors

• Scott Clifford Seider, Boston University

• Daren Graves, Simmons College

• Aaliyah El-Amin, Harvard University

• Madora Soutter, Boston University

• Shelby Clark, Boston University

• Jalene Tamerat, Boston University

• Pauline Elizabeth Jennett, Boston University

• Kathryn J Gramigna, Boston University

• Saira Malhotra, Boston University

• Jamie Johannsen, Boston University