scholarly journals Ideas and the Politics of School Choice Policy: Portfolio Management in Philadelphia

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rand Quinn ◽  
Laura Ogburn
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Portfolio Management ◽  
Management Reform ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
School Choice Policy ◽  
Political Contention ◽  
Market Transaction ◽  
Societal Level ◽  
Choice Policy

We examine the role of ideas in the politics of school choice policy and situate our study within scholarship that understands frames and logics as types of ideas operating in the foreground and background of policy debates. Our data are from a case study of political contention over portfolio management reform (in which a central office oversees a network of schools operating under varying forms of governance) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We find that frames and counterframes deployed by stakeholders are resonant with societal-level logics of community localism, market transaction, and state bureaucratic administration. For proponents of portfolio reform, diagnostic frames are drawn from logics of community and state, while prognostic frames are resonant with a market logic. For opponents, the association is flipped: diagnostic counterframes challenge a market logic, and logics of community and state inform prognostic counterframes. Our study demonstrates how ideational processes shape political contention in education reform.

The effects of a free school choice policy on parents’ school choice behaviour

2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 230-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Altrichter ◽  
Johann Bacher ◽  
Martina Beham ◽  
Gertrud Nagy ◽  
Daniela Wetzelhütter
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
Choice Behaviour ◽  
Free School ◽  
School Choice Policy ◽  
Choice Policy

Surviving at the Street Level: How Counselors’ Implementation of School Choice Policy Shapes Students’ High School Destinations

2017 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj ◽  
Jennifer L. Jennings ◽  
Sean P. Corcoran ◽  
Elizabeth Christine Baker-Smith ◽  
Chantal Hailey
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
New York ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Street Level ◽  
School Choice Policy ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Choice Policy

Given the dominance of residentially based school assignment, prior researchers have conceptualized K–12 enrollment decisions as beyond the purview of school actors. This paper questions the continued relevance of this assumption by studying the behavior of guidance counselors charged with implementing New York City’s universal high school choice policy. Drawing on structured interviews with 88 middle school counselors and administrative data on choice outcomes at these middle schools, we find that counselors generally believe lower-income students are on their own in making high school choices and need additional adult support. However, they largely refrain from giving action-guiding advice to students about which schools to attend. We elaborate street-level bureaucracy theory by showing how the majority of counselors reduce cognitive dissonance between their understanding of students’ needs and their inability to meet these needs adequately given existing resources. They do so by drawing selectively on competing policy logics of school choice, narrowly delineating their conception of their role, and relegating decisions to parents. Importantly, we also find departures from the predictions of this theory as approximately one in four counselors sought to meet the needs of individual students by enlarging their role despite the resource constraints they faced. Finally, we quantify the impact of variation in counselors’ approaches, finding that the absence of action-guiding advice is associated with students being admitted to lower-quality schools, on average.

scholarly journals Race, Geography, and School Choice Policy: A Critical Analysis of Detroit Students’ Suburban School Choices

AERA Open ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 233285842110672
Author(s):  
Jeremy Singer ◽  
Sarah Winchell Lenhoff
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Spatial Dynamics ◽  
Racial Groups ◽  
Race And Racism ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
School Choice Policy ◽  
Geospatial Analyses ◽  
Choice Policy ◽  
Do So

The purpose of this study is to advance our thinking about race and racism in geospatial analyses of school choice policy. To do so, we present a critical race spatial analysis of Detroit students’ suburban school choices. To frame our study, we describe the racial and spatial dynamics of school choice, drawing in particular on the concepts of opportunity hoarding and predatory landscapes. We find that Detroit students’ suburban school choices were circumscribed by racial geography and concentrated in just a handful of schools and districts. We also find notable differences between students in different racial groups. For all Detroit exiters, their schools were significantly more segregated and lower quality than those of their suburban peers. We propose future directions for research on families’ school choices as well as school and district behavior at the intersection of race, geography, and school choice policy.

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