The High School Hustle: How Race, Class, and White Return Shape Public School Choice

• In Event: Qualitative Studies of Gentrification, Race, Inequality, and School Choice

Abstract

Scholars have shown that White parents and those with more economic resources have advantages in school choice over low-income parents of color (Andre-Bechely, 2005; Ball, Reay, David; 2003). There is less work that looks at how this dynamic is further complicated by increasing competition for desirable public schools as middle-class and affluent families return to urban cities and (re)claim public schools.

More recent research has explored the phenomenon of gentrification and White Return and its impact on reducing school access to low-income communities in California (Posey-Maddox, 2016; 2014), New Jersey (Makris, 2018; 2015), and Philadelphia (Cucchiara, 2013).These works confirm a timely national concern to understand what happens when abundant private resources influence a public process.

This paper explores how school choice unfolds for families as they engage in New York City’s high school admissions process during a period of White Return. A significant focus is the city’s policy on mandating eighth grade students to participate in choice, pitting families who were seasoned institutional navigators against novice choosers.

Data sources include field notes from a two-year ethnography at two public middle schools whose families were undergoing the admissions process. These included the Upper-middle class white parents at the Gracie School Side and low-income parents of color at El Barrio Academy. School staff and families were interviewed at each of the schools (N=80). Quantitative data from the NYC education department were analyzed to identify citywide trends by ethnicity, by grade, and by ethnicity+grade from 2005-06 to 2015-16.

Data were analyzed through a theoretical framework based on the work of Pierre Bourdieu; specifically his concepts of social and cultural capital. A related concept that was theoretically useful was “time poverty” (Chin & Newman, 2002), referring to “the lack of adequate time to meet the needs of work and the demands of family life, including educational involvement” (n.p.).

Data show that both sets of families were working hard to create schooling options for their children; although in different capacities and varying types of support. Gracie School families performed a High Ground Hustle, activating their capital, in a position of superiority. The school system wooed these families, and families stood firm in their safety nets of exiting the system via private school or moving out of the city. El Barrio Academy parents engaged in a Side Line Shuffle; also activating their capital but having experiences and skill levels which are a mismatch for the institutions they engage. They needed to engage in multiple hustles, such as navigating housing, employment, child welfare, and the criminal justice system. As a result of their “time poverty,” school choice was experienced with the remaining time and energy that remained; on the sidelines.

Recent press coverage on the dismally low enrollment of students of color at elite NYC public high schools has resurfaced a national conversation about how to intentionally integrate public education. Other urban cities are grappling with the same dilemma. It is essential to examine the impact of these policy shifts as White Return is reclaiming public resources.

Author

• Madeline Perez De Jesus, University of Saint Joseph