Subtle Webs: How Nonprofits Transformed Data, Dropping Out, and U.S. School Districts

• In Event: Voice and Power in K-12 Education Policy Decisions

Abstract

How does change happen in a decentralized system like US education? This paper argues that this happens neither through top-down policy mandates nor through bottom-up teacher social movements, but through the often invisible infrastructure of “outside” research, philanthropic, and nonprofit organizations. Using the case of dropout prediction systems in Chicago, Philadelphia, and NYC, I illustrate how local organizations are able to spread and scale changes through macro-level shifts in paradigms, meso-level alliances of organizations, and micro-level changes in school routines. It offers a rare view of what happens before policies and practices get into schools, and how local organizations can have national consequences.

Author

• Jose Eos Trinidad, University of California - Berkeley