Principal Race as a Racial Compass: Examining How Racial Features Signal and Sort

• In Event: Sociology of Education Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 11. School Choice Processes

Abstract

Policymakers invoke climate concerns to anchor both advocacy and dissent for diversity, equity, and inclusion educational policies (i.e., diversity initiatives for hiring school leadership); yet, we have little causal evidence on what these features signal to families. To examine whether school leadership racial background influence parents’ school climate perceptions and school preferences, I conduct an original survey experiments with White parents. Respondents evaluate school profiles with randomly varied quality ratings, socioeconomic and racial compositions, and principal race and education background. Using an experimental design, my study demonstrates that principal race has an isolated effect on White parents’ perceptions and preferences for schools. Among schools with otherwise similar student demographics and school quality ratings, White parents preferred to avoid schools with Black and Latina principals compared to schools with White principals and rated schools with Latina principals lower on academic and principal quality. Results further show that advanced educational credentials may activate rather than mitigate White parents’ negative evaluations of Black school leadership.

Authors

• Chantal Annise Hailey, University of Texas-Austin

• Ismael Alejandro Lopez, University of Texas at Austin

• Alyssa Chessari, The University of Texas at Austin