Using QuantCrit to Reconceptualize Black Student Dropout

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Race Theory in Black Education

Abstract

Within conversations surrounding the issue of Black student high school dropout rates, there has been a tendency for educational researchers and professionals to place deficit-framed explanations at the forefront of solution creation. On occasion, these conversations are guided and informed by quantitative methodologies. In this paper, we argue that through a QuantCrit lens all stakeholders can have a clearer, asset-based understanding of why Black students withdraw from high school. QuantCrit engenders a structural analysis that acknowledges the centrality of race and racism in the U.S. education system. This structural analysis provides the framework for the reconceptualization of “dropout.” Black students do not simply make the choice to dropout of school, they are pushed out by dominant norms in education.

Authors

• Turhan Carroll, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Nathaniel D Stewart, The Ohio State University

• Jacob K Jurbank, The Ohio State University - Columbus