Is Charter School Rhetoric Colorblind? The Racialization of Charter School Discourse in Cleveland, Ohio

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 3. Charter and Private Schools

Abstract

Although popular rhetoric positions charter schools as solutions for educational problems, the racial logic of these policy interventions may actually exacerbate inequality, especially in poor communities of color. Chartering education is a complex racial project with dynamic racial messaging that influences the reorganization, though not necessarily reform, of urban public education. While scholarship indicates that charter schools shift education reform discourse in considerable ways, it neglects whether this discourse is distinct in how it addresses longstanding racial problems in schooling. Using Cleveland, Ohio as a case study, this article examines the racial ideology of charter school discourse to understand whether and how the promise to change K-12 public education extends to longstanding racial inequities in schooling. Drawing data from a unique sample of newspaper 139 articles, it employs content analysis to observe the frequency and quality of explicit racial references and whether these patterns change over time. Consistent with prior studies, race became more marginal to coverage of charter schools over the 20-year period under study. The findings also indicate that although charter school racial messaging is becoming colorblind in the post-No Child Left Behind era, earlier discourse evoked race to evaluate public schooling and policy in order to advance charters in Cleveland. Conclusions address how the logic surrounding charters contributes to the racially-specific reorganization of public schooling in ways that have implications for educational equity more broadly.

Author

• Ebony M Duncan-Shippy, Washington University In St. Louis