72.030 - Examining School District-Community Relations: Perspectives on Local Governance as a Lever for Educational Opportunity

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Federal and state policies increasingly promote, and even require, community engagement in school districts. Policymakers expect that such involvement will improve educational opportunity and academic outcomes by reimagining equity and building support for youth. This symposium contributes to research on local governance and the challenges of sustained and equitable educational change through a focus on school district-community relations. Taking different vantage points, the papers: (1) propose new ways of understanding districts’ administration/school boards in relation to marginalized communities, (2) offer careful, empirical studies situated within specific social, political, and economic contexts, (3) include multiple stakeholder perspectives (e.g., communities, parents, and district leaders), and (4) attend to issues of power, as well as race, class, and language.

Sub Unit

• Division L - Educational Policies and Politics / Division L - Section 1: Governance, Finance, and Intergovernmental Relations

Chair

• Erica Owyang Turner, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Papers

• Positioning Students and Communities on School Websites: Competing Discourses of Diversity and Equity - Sujin Kim, University of Missouri; Lisa M. Dorner, University of Missouri - Columbia

• The Contradictory Logics of School District Leaders' Efforts at Engaging Community - Erica Owyang Turner, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Los Angeles Unified School District Structures and Processes: The View From Boyle Heights - Allison Mattheis, California State University - Los Angeles

• Pushing Districts Toward Equitable Policies: Community Engagement in the U.S. Mountain West - Carrie Sampson, Arizona State University - West

Discussant

• Sonya Douglass Horsford, Teachers College, Columbia University