scholarly journals From policy networks to policy preferences: Organizational networks in the opt-out movement

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 124
Author(s):  
Nancy Green Saraisky ◽  
Oren Pizmony-Levy
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Organizational Networks ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Movement Organizations

Organizational networks shape education policy by influencing power holders and elites, but do they have similar effects on grassroots activists? We use data from the National Survey on Opting Out (2016 and 2018; n = 2,909) to examine the role of organizational networks in mobilizing activists in the opt-out movement (a movement in which parents and caregivers refuse to have their children sit for standardized tests). Despite characterizations of the opt-out movement as a bunch of “soccer moms” disappointed with their children’s test scores, our findings show that opt-out is in fact a structured movement reliant on social movement organizations (SMOs) with agendas that go beyond standardized tests. Further, we demonstrate a small but significant correlation between contact with SMOs and individual policy preferences. These patterns suggest that organizational networks may inform education policy by creating a social space for activists to learn about different policy ideas in education. We discuss implications for research and practice.

Portraits of Protest in Florida: How Opt-Out Makes the Personal Political

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Currin ◽  
Stephanie Schroeder ◽  
Todd Mccardle
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Data Collection And Analysis ◽  
Background Context

Background/Context Opting out of high-stakes standardized tests, a phenomenon so widespread in the United States as to be regarded as a movement, is nevertheless a misunderstood and often maligned force in educational politics. Purpose This article offers a counternarrative of opt-out activism—a more thorough and vivid account of what we view as an unfairly maligned movement with tremendous potential for improving and preserving our nation's schools. Participants In-depth portraits introduce three members of the Opt Out Florida Network: Cindy Hamilton, an unabashed leader whose children have graduated; Sandy Stenoff, her partner in protest whose children remain in the system; and Susan Bowles, who grapples with conflicting roles of pedagogue and protester. Research Design As a critical ethnography, this study uses a qualitative approach to expose and challenge the unjust treatment of the opt-out movement, guided by the following research questions: 1) How do opt-out activists understand and explain their journeys to activism? 2) What experiences, concerns, and commitments guide them in their daily fight against high-stakes standardized testing? Data Collection and Analysis Using transcript data from focus group and 1-on-1 follow-up phone interviews, the research team composed and analyzed narrative portraits, which offer models of resistance to neoliberal education reform. Conclusions Contrary to their portrayal as passive, anti-test, anti-accountability parents solely focused on their own children, the opt-out movement is an active community of highly informed individuals dedicated to effecting positive change in education. The nuance of narrative captures the messy realities of activism, illustrating how parents and teachers must work together, guided by a view of citizenship as shared fate, to fight for more equitable and educative schools.

scholarly journals Opting out: Parents creating contested spaces to challenge standardized tests

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Mitra ◽  
Bryan Mann ◽  
Mark Hlavacik
Keyword(s):  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Federal Policy ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Contested Spaces ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Policy Environments ◽  
State Education ◽  
Opt Out

We explore how the opt-out movement has responded to the combination of a stringent federal policy with weak and often variable implementation among the states. Gaps between federal expectations and states’ understandings of just how to make NCLB’s demands a reality have created policy ambiguity. Parents who oppose standardized testing have recognized the resulting tensions and oversights in state education systems as a policy vacuum rife with opportunities for resistance. We examine how parents have exploited policy ambiguity through creating contested spaces—places of agency in stringent policy environments in which grassroots can question policy authority and take action. We conclude by considering whether these contested spaces are sustainable and whether the policy outcomes generated in contested spaces are reasonably equitable. 

A Theory of Practice for Social Movements: Environmentalism and Ecological Habitus*

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randolph Haluza-DeLay
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
Sociological Approach ◽  
Theory Of Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Movement Organizations

This article draws on Bourdieu's sociological approach to expand social movement theory, while offering sociologically robust direction for movements themselves. In Bourdieu's theory, practical action is produced by the habitus. Generated in its social field, habitus conveys cultural encoding yet in a nondeterministic manner. In a Bourdieusian approach, environmental social movement organizations become the social space in which a logic of practice consistent with movement goals can be "caught" through the informal or incidental learning that occurs as a result of participation with social movement organizations. I compare Bourdieu's theory of practice with Eyerman and Jamison's view of social movements as cognitive praxis. I argue that the environmental movement would be better served by conceptualizing itself as working to create an ecological habitus which would underpin ecological lifestyles and environmental social change

scholarly journals Examining the Actor Coalitions and Discourse Coalitions of the Opt-Out Movement in New York: A Discourse Network Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 123 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Yinying Wang
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
The State ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Advocacy Coalition ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Discourse Coalitions ◽  
Network Metrics ◽  
Discourse Coalition

Background/Context Since 2013, opting out of state standardized tests has become a movement—the grassroots, organized efforts to refuse to take high-stakes state standardized tests. In particular, opt-out rates in the state of New York have been consistently fluctuating around 20%. Purpose/Objective This study aims to examine the actor coalitions and discourse coalitions that have propelled the opt-out movement in the state of New York—the movement's epicenter with the highest opt-out rate in the United States. Conceptual Framework This study is conceptually grounded in the advocacy coalition framework (ACF), a prominent conceptual lens to investigate the formation of coalitions and their impact on policymaking. The ACF posits that advocacy coalitions are forged by policy actors who have similar policy preferences. By contrast, differences in policy preferences are manifested in the discourse that serves to defend or propose coherent arguments as justifications for policy preferences held by the opposition coalitions. Research Design This study compiled the Opt-out Discourse Data Set by using data from 323 press articles and 52 archival documents from 2015 to 2018. Each news article or archival document was coded with three variables: movement actors, statements articulated by the actors, and the actors’ sentiment toward the statements. An actor-statement bipartite network, an actor coalition network, and a discourse coalition network were created, respectively. Next, Freeman degree centrality was calculated to identify major actors and their statements. The network metrics of density and connectedness of the two competing coalitions were calculated to compare the coalitions’ network structure. Findings In the actor coalition network, the movement advocacy coalition is clearly more densely connected than the movement opposition coalition in terms of the number of actors, coalition density, and coalition connectedness. The discourse coalition network shows similar patterns: the movement advocacy coalition is densely connected, as evidenced by the numbers of nodes in each coalition and the network metrics of coalition density and connectedness. Conclusions/Recommendations This study concludes with a discussion on how the future of the opt-out movement depends on (1) how the movement advocacy coalition continues to amass power and influence in education policymaking, and (2) how the New York State Education Department exercises its power over implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Moreover, this article demonstrates the application of discourse network analysis to examine qualitative data in education research. The discourse network approach is particularly instrumental in explaining a policy output by identifying coalitions and their interactions within and across the coalitions.

Unstandardizing Testing: Low-Scoring American Minority Students in the Crosshairs of Conservative Policymakers

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Chedhli Nighaoui
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Minority Students ◽  
Standardized Tests ◽  
Feedback Mechanism ◽  
Cultural Bias ◽  
Testing System ◽  
Quantitative Methodology ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Opt Out

That standardized tests do not accurately assess the true competencies of minority test takers is a widely shared claim among conservative educationists. The opt-out-of-testing community has lately grown unprecedentedly vocal in several states, questioning even more seriously the accountability of the testing system altogether. This paper adopts a Critical Race Theory perspective to investigate the conceptual underpinnings of conservative criticism as well as the interpretations made popular using quantitative methodology. The key premise of this paper is that a colorblind approach to testing understates the importance of a range of unquantifiable variables, mainly the linguitic and cultural backgrounds of the test takers, in determining assessment outcome. It attempts to demonstrate where specifically standardized tests may not be used as a reliable feedback mechanism and suggests that a more flexible assessment paradigm be considered, one that engages learning quality followup to keep cultural bias to a strict minimum.          

scholarly journals 964. Opt-Out HIV- Hepatitis C (HCV) Testing at a Primary Care Resident Clinic in Columbia, SC: Who Gets Tested and Who Opts Out of Testing?

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S512-S512
Author(s):  
Jodian Pinkney ◽  
Divya Ahuja ◽  
Caroline Derrick ◽  
Martin Durkin
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Hiv Testing ◽  
Demographic Variables ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Categorical Variables ◽  
Newly Diagnosed ◽  
Opting Out ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Primary Care Resident ◽  
Hcv Testing

Abstract Background South Carolina (SC) remains one of the most heavily affected states for both HIV and HCV infections. Males account for the majority of cases. Implementation of universal opt-out testing has improved screening rates but not much has been published describing the characteristics of those who opt out of testing. This becomes important as 10-50% of patients have opted out in previous studies. Methods Between February and August 2019, we conducted a quality improvement (QI) project which implemented opt- out HIV-HCV testing at a single primary care resident clinic in SC with the primary aim of increasing screening rates for HIV-HCV by 50%. Secondary aims included describing the demographic characteristics of the opt-out population. Persons were considered eligible for testing if they were between the ages of 18-65 years for HIV and 18-74 years for HCV. This was prior to the USPSTF 2020 guidelines which recommend HCV screening for adults aged 18-79 years. A retrospective chart review was used to obtain screening rates, opt status and demographic data. Logistic regression and the firth model were used to determine linkages between categorical variables. We present 3-month data. Results 1253 patients were seen between May 1, 2019- July 31, 2019 (See Table 1). 985 (78%) were eligible for HIV testing. 482 (49%) were tested for HIV as a result of our QI project and all tests were negative. 212 (22%) of eligible patients opted out of HIV testing. Males were 1.59 times more likely to opt out (p=0.008). (see Table 2,3) Regarding HCV, 1136 (90.7%) were deemed eligible for testing. 503 (44%) were tested for HCV as a result of our QI project. 12 (2.4%) were HCV antibody positive with viremia. 11 (90%) of antibody positive with viremia cases were in the 1945-1965 birth cohort (see Table 4). 244 (21%) opted out of HCV testing. Males and persons without a genitourinary chief complaint were more likely to opt out (p=0.02). Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the population seen at the internal medicine resident clinic between May- July 2019 Table 2: Relationship between demographic variables and the odds of being tested for HIV or HCV within the last 12 months. Logistic Model. Table 3: Relationship between demographic variables and the odds of opting out of testing for HIV or HCV. Firth Model. Conclusion Although implementation of routine HIV-HCV opt-out testing led to increased screening rates for both HIV and HCV, roughly 1 in 5 eligible patients chose to opt out of testing. Males were more likely to opt out despite accounting for the majority of newly diagnosed HCV cases. Future studies investigating drivers for opting-out in the male population could improve testing and assist with early diagnosis. Table 4: Characteristics of patients newly diagnosed with HCV positive with viremia. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

scholarly journals Influence of the pandemic lockdown on Fridays for Future’s hashtag activism

2021 ◽  
pp. 146144482110265
Author(s):  
Jörg Haßler ◽  
Anna-Katharina Wurst ◽  
Marc Jungblut ◽  
Katharina Schlosser
Keyword(s):  
Social Movement ◽  
German Language ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
The Public ◽  
Twitter Activity ◽  
Movement Organizations

Social movement organizations (SMOs) increasingly rely on Twitter to create new and viral communication spaces alongside newsworthy protest events and communicate their grievance directly to the public. When the COVID-19 pandemic impeded street protests in spring 2020, SMOs had to adapt their strategies to online-only formats. We analyze the German-language Twitter communication of the climate movement Fridays for Future (FFF) before and during the lockdown to explain how SMOs adapted their strategy under online-only conditions. We collected (re-)tweets containing the hashtag #fridaysforfuture ( N = 46,881 tweets, N = 225,562 retweets) and analyzed Twitter activity, use of hashtags, and predominant topics. Results show that although the number of tweets was already steadily declining before, it sharply dropped during the lockdown. Moreover, the use of hashtags changed substantially and tweets focused increasingly on thematic discourses and debates around the legitimacy of FFF, while tweets about protests and calls for mobilization decreased.

Exploiting a Crisis: Abortion Activism and the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Kate Hunt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Movement Organizations ◽  
Medical Procedure ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Global Crisis ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Movement Organizations

How do social movement organizations involved in abortion debates leverage a global crisis to pursue their goals? In recent months there has been media coverage of how anti-abortion actors in the United States attempted to use the COVID-19 pandemic to restrict access to abortion by classifying abortion as a non-essential medical procedure. Was the crisis “exploited” by social movement organizations (SMOs) in other countries? I bring together Crisis Exploitation Theory and the concept of discursive opportunity structures to test whether social movement organizations exploit crisis in ways similar to elites, with those seeking change being more likely to capitalize on the opportunities provided by the crisis. Because Twitter tends to be on the frontlines of political debate—especially during a pandemic—a dataset is compiled of over 12,000 Tweets from the accounts of SMOs involved in abortion debates across four countries to analyze the patterns in how they responded to the pandemic. The results suggest that crisis may disrupt expectations about SMO behavior and that anti- and pro-abortion rights organizations at times framed the crisis as both a “threat” and as an “opportunity.”

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