Division L Vice-Presidential Session. School Choice, Race, and Community Engagement in Evaluating Education Reform: The Case of New Orleans

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

Growing empirical research has challenged the dominant narrative about the education “miracle” in post-Katrina New Orleans. This symposium offers an analysis of the historical and contemporary struggles for black public education in New Orleans. In light of the conference theme of scholars and community organizations coming together, this symposium asks: How might researchers engage and work with community organizations to better understand the experiences and effects of the mass conversion of public schools into charter schools in this predominantly Black, urban school system.

Sub Unit

• Division L - Educational Policies and Politics

Chair

• Rachel Williams, University of California - Berkeley

Papers

• Collaboration and Race Research in Neoliberal Times - Adrienne D. Dixson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• "Bantu Education": Erasure of Traditions, History, and Culture Through the Closure of Historically Black High Schools - Elizabeth K. Jeffers, University of New Orleans

• Erase the Board Coalition! Holding Policy Makers Accountable and Addressing Educational Reform in New Orleans - Armtrice Cowart, Erase the Board Coalition

• Constructing Educational Markets: Racial Cartels in the Charter School Authorization Process in Post-Katrina New Orleans - Kevin Lawrence Henry, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Discussant

• Kara S. Finnigan, University of Rochester