"Mr. Michaels Cares More About the Look of Teaching, Than Actual Content": Exploring Interpretations of "Success in School" at One "No-Excuses" Charter School

• In Event: 75.041 - MTCC Roundtable Session 33
  In Roundtable Session: 75.041-9 - Charter Schools: Defining and Measuring Success

Abstract

This paper explores structural characteristics, assumptions, cultural norms and pedagogies that may contribute to the success or systematic failure of particular groups of Black and Latino/a/x students’ at a “no-excuses” charter school in a large urban district. Specifically, this project highlights the ways in which ‘success in school’ is constructed by teachers and interpreted by students during day-to-day classroom practices, schoolwide policies and disciplinary systems. Stakeholders were assessed by interviews and observations during a year-long situated ethnography with an analysis of teachers’ and students’ dispositions and actions. As “no-excuses” public charters are replicated across the country due to purported students’ success, it is important to understand how success in school is enacted, measured and interpreted, particularly by students.

Author

• L. Trenton S. Marsh, University of Central Florida