Systematically Shortchanged, yet Carrying On: Black Adolescent Girls in the Detroit-Metro School Reform Environment

• In Event: 3169 - Race and Segregation

Abstract

School reform policies, such as the closure of low-performing schools and the competitive introduction of school choice, were sold to communities of color as the fix to educational inequities and a chance at social mobility. Much has been written about the effects of these policies in Black communities, particularly the ways in which reforms have under-delivered on this promise, and in some cases exacerbated negative academic outcomes and increased school disconnections, particularly for Black boys. Yet, research on the experience of Black adolescent girls is sparse. This study takes up the latter issue by analyzing the ways in which school reform policies have affected daily-life for Black adolescent girls. We examine this issue in the context of the Detroit-metropolitan area with Black adolescent girls reflecting on their experiences over the 2012-2016 school years, a time-period of rapid transitions in the schooling environment prompted by a series of school reforms in Michigan specifically targeted at Detroit. Through in-depth interviews and time-use diary data, we found that girls sought to invest in their high school education as a path to college; yet the very reforms advanced as ways to clear this path, instead hindered their ability to spend time on the human and social capital activities believed to be important to their academic success and social mobility. Implications are discussed not only in terms of academics, but also health consequences that may be attached to the adaptive responses girls are compelled to employ to carry on under adverse educational circumstances.

Authors

• Linnea Evans, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Arline T. Geronimus, University of Michigan

• Cleoparra Caldwell, University of Michigan