“Holding the Line”: Investigating How Urban School Leaders’ Respond to Gentrification in New York City Schools

This case study investigated how three New York City schools responded to gentrification’s effects as student demographics shifted. I used the conceptual framework of urban school leaders as cultural workers to examine the tensions, successes, and challenges inherent in the school gentrification and integration process. I found that each school leader defied the school gentrification narrative by “holding the line” in terms of preserving diversity, cultivating integration, and counterbalancing the opportunity hoarding behaviors of White, advantaged parents. The results have implications for urban school leaders who want to be agents of change by leveraging gentrification’s effects into positive results.