They Closed Our School Today: Firsthand Recollections of the Accountability Movement in New York City

• In Event: 68.061 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 68.061-12 - Recentering Children, Multiracial Preservice Teachers, Race, and Small Schools in Educational Research

Abstract

As a former teacher in New York City, I explore the factors neoliberal small school movement and accountability regime in New York City because my school was slated for closure in 2012. Specific factors influencing the decisions to close my school are analyzed in addition to deconstructing the metanarrative of school choice and accountability in New York City. This is accomplished over the course of several steps. The Zeitgeist of federal school reform initiatives is contextualized in New York City. The effects of school accountability are explored as they affect curriculum discourse within individual schools and system-wise, which is explicated through the eyes of a teacher who experienced these effects firsthand. After all, "they closed our school today."

Author

• Keri L. Rodgers, Ball State University