Failing Urban Schools? Urban District Isolation and Charter School Policy Divergence

• In Event: 160 - Regular Session. Sociology and the Politics of Education

Abstract

Scholars have characterized the spread of charter schools as a diffusion process fueled by a dominant national narrative about failing urban schools and the need for market reforms to improve them. But not all states have embraced the charter school solution. In an effort to better understand the state-specific factors that shape state adoption of charter schools, I analyze the political debate and policy decisions concerning charter school legislation in two states that are similar politically, economically and socially and yet have strikingly-different charter school policies: Indiana and Kentucky. Indiana adopted charters in 2001 and has one of the strongest charter laws in the country, while Kentucky remains one of a handful of states that has not adopted charter-enabling legislation. I use comparative historical narrative analysis to demonstrate that these divergent policy outcomes can be traced to differences in perceptions of the quality of schools in the largest urban district in each state. These perceptions, in turn, are shaped by the social geography of school districts in and around the state urban centers. Perceptions about the quality of urban schools shaped the discursive possibilities available to actors in the charter school debates.

Author

• Joseph Johnston, Indiana University