Racialized Accountability Threat: Demographic Changes and Participation in Accountability Test Boycotts in New York

• In Event: 3451 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 9. Participation

Abstract

The use of standardized testing for accountability purposes in public schools has always generated controversy. Recently, it has faced grassroots opposition from parents, who encourage the boycotting of annual accountability tests, which have grown over the past few years. The movement consists primarily of white families in non-urban areas. What factors have contributed to their participation in boycotts of tests? I propose that a process of racialized accountability threat prompted white parents to join boycotts. Racialized accountability threat occurs when schools with little previous experience with accountability pressure face an influx of Black and Latinx students—students that white parents often construct as of lower ability and frequently subject to government regulations. Using a panel of data accountability and demographic data from New York state and a difference-in-differences framework, I present evidence that schools with an increase in the share of black and Latinx students had seven to eight percentage points more white students participating in test boycotts that schools without such an increase. This effect is concentrated in schools in affluent, non-urban areas with little previous experience with accountability sanctions and is robust to alternative specifications and placebo tests. This finding has important implications for the use of policy to address inequities in access to educational resources and opportunities.

Author

• Richard Paquin Morel, Northwestern University