Black Families, School Choice, and Gentrification in Washington, D.C.: "Sometimes You Have to Be a Superparent to Get Basic Services for Your Kids"

• In Event: Critical Approaches to Place-Based Inquiries in Black Education

Abstract

Public education reform is a key strategy to attract and retain affluent newcomers in urban neighborhoods (Cucchiara, 2013). These efforts are part of the more extensive process of gentrification, which transforms neighborhoods through public and private investments in underinvested communities. Gentrification manifests in schools when affluent and/or White families choose urban schools and contribute to the remaking of these spaces for their children (Posey-Maddox, Kimelberg, & Cucchiara, 2014). Much of the school gentrification literature has centered on White families schooling decisions and experiences (citation suppressed), which has obscured how racially minoritized parents experience gentrification and how middle-class residents of color may use their social capital to ameliorate or exacerbate economically disadvantaged families’ exclusion (Dávila, 2004; Patillo, 2007).

This qualitative meta-analysis centers on the experiences of Black residents in Washington, DC, to answer the following questions: 1) How do Black parents navigate school selection amid gentrification, 2) How does gentrification shape Black parents’ schooling experiences, and 3) How, if at all, do Black parents’ experiences differ by their tenure in the city? We integrate Bell’s (2009) conceptualization of choice sets and Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefanic, 1995) to examine parents’ schooling decisions and how racism shapes their racialized experiences in gentrifying schools. Our analysis pools data from three studies conducted between 2019 and 2021. We draw on data collected through semi-structured interviews with 30 parents whose children were enrolled in public schools, grades PreK-12, including 12 parent gentrifiers, whom we define as parents who self-identified as middle-class and moved to the city after the year 2000, and 18 longtime residents who identified either as middle-class or economically disadvantaged.

Black families’ choice sets were informed by a range of criteria, such as geography and racialized perceptions of place. For example, some respondents actively searched for schools with larger populations of white and affluent students, which signaled that their children might avoid oppressive behavioral management practices used in hyper-segregated schools. For others, the presence of white and affluent children meant access to additional resources. Yvette, a longtime resident parent, shared, “I don’t think that having white children makes the school better. But I knew the parents would fight really hard for their children because they had the time to do it.”

Black families across socioeconomic groups faced exclusion within gentrifying schools. Respondents recounted instances where they felt that White parents and school personnel ignored their presence and concerns. Parent-teacher organizations exacerbated parents’ exclusion. Some respondents reported that they avoided these spaces, which were often dominated by affluent, White mothers. Some respondents encountered additional barriers, such as meeting schedules, to participation. Jeff, for example, said, “A lot of times, I can’t even get over there if I wanted to.” This paper extends the school gentrification literature by revealing Black parents’ schooling decisions and experiences in gentrifying schools. By holding race constant, we reveal how race and class dually shape how Black parents n

Authors

• Alisha Butler, Wesleyan University
  Presenting Author

• Bradley Quarles, WestEd
  Presenting Author