Explaining School Enrollment Decisions Through Cultural Frames: A Comparative Analysis of Cleveland and Dallas

• In Event: Millennium Hotel Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: How Parents and Families Navigate Educational Contexts

Abstract

Through an analysis of qualitative interviews with a diverse sample of families in Cleveland, Ohio and Dallas, Texas, we compare how frames—ways of understanding the world that shape our actions—influence parents’ educational decisions across these metropolitan areas. Cleveland parents articulated a powerful collective frame, shared across race and class, which painted Cleveland’s neighborhood public schools as an unacceptable choice. As a result, nearly all parents sought alternative school options. In Dallas, however, there was not a single monolithic frame, and parents expressed greater satisfaction with the city public schools. We suggest that strong collective frames may influence parent perceptions of educational options in a manner that exacerbates segregation and inequality across metropolitan areas.

Authors

• Siri Warkentien, RTI International

• Anna Rhodes, Rice University