Examining Threat-Rigidity Responses to Accountability Policies in Urban Schools

• In Event: 64.071 - Social Justice Leaders Respond to Conflict and Resistance

Abstract

Often, discussions and decisions about urban schools are conducted by those outside urban spaces while voices from within are silenced. Results from nearly 6,000 new teacher reflections working in an urban district embroiled in a standardized test cheating scandal indicate that macro-level educational policies, largely influenced by accountability reforms, constructed threatening socializing spaces in urban schools and classrooms. Drawing on multiple bodies of research, implications for educators, school leaders, and policy-makers are proposed to (a) mitigate the threats inflicted on urban communities and perpetuated through unjust practices in schools; and (b) enact safe, enriching, local public schools.

Authors

• Kristina Brezicha, Georgia State University

• Kara M. Kavanagh, James Madison University

• Teresa R. Fisher-Ari, Georgia State University

• Anne E. Martin, Georgia State University