Good Schools, Bad Schools: Racialized Perceptions of School Quality

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Ties between student demographics and perceptions of “school quality” have been thoroughly documented by scholars of school segregation, school choice, and school accountability. While such studies are critical in drawing our attention to the most explicit ways in which racialized meaning systems stem from and produce perceptions of school quality, there is much left to understand about these relationships. This symposium brings together studies conducted on multiple aspects of school quality, from programming to marketing to facility design. Together, these papers capture the similarities and differences in how multiple publics perceive aspects of school quality across specific social and political contexts - and the implications for access to educational opportunity.

Sub Unit

• Division L - Educational Policies and Politics / Division L - Section 7: Social Context and Structural Inequalities

Chair

• Alexandra J. Freidus, University of Connecticut

Papers

• The Role of Gentrification, Demographics, and School Performance in the School Choice Marketplace: Evidence From New York City - Nicole Mader, Center for New York City Affairs at the New School

• Segregation, Diversity, and Pathology: Stakeholder Views of School Quality in Gentrifying New York - Alexandra J. Freidus, University of Connecticut

• Woke CMOs? Charter Management Organizations and the Imperative of Appearing Racially Conscious in Trump's America - Laura Elena Hernandez, Learning Policy Institute

• "They Built This Just for Us?" Envisioning a Place for Community in Los Angeles's School Construction Boom - Esa Syeed, California State University - Long Beach

Discussant

• Eve Louise Ewing, University of Chicago