“We're Being Erased, and Nobody's Talking About That”: Policy Actors’ Racialized Interpretations of State Takeover of School Boards of Three Black Districts

• In Event: Racialized Perspectives on Educational Policy

Abstract

State-appointed school governance, sometimes referred to as ‘state control,’ is a controversial policy choice aimed at reforming ‘underperforming’ or financially distressed districts. It includes the reduction or complete removal of powers of an elected school board. However, this policy intervention is often criticized, as it is overwhelmingly implemented in school districts serving predominantly Black communities. This article uses heuristics of the antiblackness theoretical tradition to analyze interviews with board members and other policy actors in three Missouri districts and other contexts. Specifically, the article interrogates stakeholder perspectives for when and how two juxtaposing narratives—either multicultural narratives or antiblackness narratives—emerge in their understandings of the implementation of this policy.

Authors

• Olivia Marcucci, Johns Hopkins University

• Kelly Harris, Washington University in St. Louis

• Aaron Park, Saint Louis University

• Madelyn Yoo, Washington University in St. Louis