Against an Anti-Black Racist Schooling Landscape: Racialized Risk Assessments in Black Families’ School Choice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:45 pm - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Navigating Choice and Inequity: Family Agency and Structural Constraints in Education

Abstract

This research investigates the racialized logics shaping Black families’ school choices in Saint Louis. Grounded in BlackCrit and refusal, it examines how families navigate an anti-Black educational landscape by assessing traditional academic indicators and an added dimension, racialized risks. That is, through multi-phase interviews, artifact collection, and reflexive journals with 12 families over 10 months, the study finds that Black families evaluate the potential for racial harm and the presence of affirming care alongside conventional quality measures (e.g., test scores). Findings highlight a logic of refusal that challenges race-neutral choice frameworks. This research advances a conceptual and empirical foundation for understanding Black school choice, offering implications for policy that centers Black families’ lived experiences, aspirations, and structural barriers they navigate.

Author

• De'Ja Wood, Vanderbilt University