Against the Grain: Values and Tensions in Parent Gentrifiers' School Selection Process

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

Abstract

Urban neighborhoods across the United States have experienced rapid physical, demographic, and cultural transformation that are part of a larger trend of gentrification. As a growing number of White and middle-class residents move into and raise families in gentrifying communities, researchers have turned their attention to what neighborhood change means for urban public schools. Recent studies of “school gentrification”—a process characterized by increased numbers of middle-class families in schools, upgrades to school infrastructure, changes in school culture and climate, and the exclusion of longtime parents and students (Posey-Maddox, Kimelberg, & Cucchiara, 2014)—have found that parent gentrifiers are willing to enroll their children in urban public schools, especially when their children are in elementary school (Cucchiara, 2013; Kimelberg, 2014). The field, however, knows much less about how parent gentrifiers approach school selection as their children approach middle and high school. Parent gentrifiers with older children may perceive the decision to send their middle and high school-aged children to their neighborhood schools as involving greater “risk,” as these parents seek schools that they believe will help prepare their children for long-term academic and career success (Sattin-Bajaj & Roda, 2018).

This paper will present findings from a qualitative study of parent gentrifiers’ school selection processes in Washington, DC. Drawing on interviews with a sample of parent gentrifiers, the study asks the following questions: 1) What motivates parent gentrifiers to select urban public schools for their middle and high school-aged children? and 2) How do parent gentrifiers construct their choice set and select schools for their children?

The study draws on interrelated theoretical and conceptual frameworks to analyze parents’ motivations and school selection processes. Cucchiara and Horvat’s (2014) “school choice as consumption” provides a framework to examine parents’ choices beyond rational choice models and account for the influence of parents’ values, identities, and the meanings attached to choices in the school selection process. Bell’s (2009) conceptualization of choice sets, which are defined as the set of schools parents are willing to consider, provides a framework to understand the steps parents take to select a school and, if necessary, correct course if the chosen school does not work for their children.
Data analysis suggests that parent gentrifiers’ perception of secondary schools’ academic rigor is an important factor in the school selection process. Further, preliminary analysis suggests that parents who have selected charter schools grapple with their general commitments to neighborhood schools and their desire to ensure their children’s long-term academic outcomes. The study will extend the field’s understanding of gentrification’s impact on public education and generate insights about how parents with older children navigate the school selection process in gentrifying contexts. Further, by centering parents with middle and high school-aged children, the study’s findings will inform conversations about parent gentrifiers’ long-term willingness to enroll and invest in urban public schools. In concert with existing literature, the findings from this study will provide critical insights into the full range of possibilities and challenges of gentrification across the K-12 trajectory.

Author

• Alisha Butler, Wesleyan University