From a “School System” to a “System of Schools”: Portfolio Districts and Third Way Governance

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Reforming Education Governance Systems (Table 34)

Abstract

District leaders are under pressure to better manage decades of under regulated charter school growth through the portfolio strategy, which aims to expand school choice options through a mix of school autonomy and central office oversight. However, the reorganization of education governance has created new fiscal, organizational, and political challenges that marketization was intended to fix. Drawing on interviews, participant observations, and policy documents, I examine the portfolio district in Oakland, CA as a case of network governance to connect the challenges in managing public-private governance with theories of the state. Findings indicate that the waves of school closures, shifts in governing power, and use of community-oriented rhetoric require a reframing of technocratic policies in relation to racialized democratic control.

Author

• René Espinoza Kissell, University of California - Santa Cruz