"They Built This Just for Us?" Envisioning a Place for Community in Los Angeles's School Construction Boom

• In Event: Good Schools, Bad Schools: Racialized Perceptions of School Quality

Abstract

Objectives:
In this paper, I examine how communities of color develop and advocate visions of educational spaces that challenge dominant models of school design and definitions of school quality. The study focuses on the recently completed school construction boom in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The most expensive school construction project in U.S. history, it included the construction of 131 new schools concentrated in predominantly lower-income Latinx communities (Brownlow, 2014). Using reports from the planning process, documentary analysis, and interviews, the paper will trace how the spatial imaginary of Latinx communities came to inform the district’s proposed designs, resulting in more community-centered schools.

Theoretical perspectives:
Critical education theory has attempted to keep pace with the broader “spatial turn” in the social sciences (Gulson & Symes, 2007). Often utilized in studies of school segregation, spatial theories help explain the perpetuation of educational inequality (Lipman, 2018). However, recognizing that power relations are embedded spatially, we come to see the construction of educational spaces as a contested terrain (Ford, 2016). Central to the study is Lipsitz’s (2011) notion of the spatial imaginary, or paradigms that enact spatial arrangements that can either cement or subvert racial hierarchies. Contesting a white spatial imaginary that maintains a geography of unequal opportunity, a minoritized spatial imaginary may envision educational spaces that can be empowering or collectivist in orientation (Dumas, 2015). In this paper, I focus on the spatial imaginary of predominantly Latinx communities and how it informed the design of new schools.

Methods and data sources:
I locate the Latinx spatial imaginary in communities’ advocacy and engagement around the official LAUSD school construction planning process. District reports of community meetings, interviews with community leaders and district personnel, and media reports contribute to a re-construction of the discussions and decisions informing new school designs. In my analysis of these various sources, I am particularly attuned to how a Latinx spatial imaginary may conflict or cohere with that of the school district and what this may reveal about competing notions of school quality.

Findings:
While the school district espoused a commitment to equity by focusing new construction where it was most needed, plans initially focused narrowly on creating more seats. As the result of grassroots mobilization that gave voice to an alternative spatial imaginary, the district eventually designed new buildings to incorporate various community resources and partnerships, including clinics, youth centers, and performance spaces. Despite these important shifts in school design, Latinx communities also noted critical setbacks, like gentrification patterns threatening their access to the new schools.

Significance:
Research has long established the link between facility quality and educational equity (Filardo, 2016; Maxwell & Schechtman, 2012). The study pushes our spatial understanding of schools beyond technical questions of educational architecture. Instead, I seek to engage with questions regarding how diverse communities define school quality spatially and what role they can play in informing school designs that serve their students.

Author

• Esa Syeed, California State University - Long Beach