District-Level School Choice and Racial/Ethnic Test Score Gaps

The rapid expansion of school choice is restructuring public education in the United States. This study examines associations between charter and magnet school enrollment, White-Black and White-Hispanic segregation, and test score gaps at the district level from 2009 to 2015 in third to eighth grade using the Stanford Education Data Archive and the U.S. Department of Education's Common Core of Data. Robust findings indicate that higher charter school enrollment is associated with larger White-Black test score gaps and this effect is mediated by White-Black segregation. There is also evidence that magnet school enrollment is associated with White-Hispanic test score gaps. Overall, this study suggests that the expansion of school choice may have negative implications for structural education equity.

Satisfaction, Preparedness, and Implementation: Teacher Culture and Climate in Magnet School Conversions

In this study, we examine teacher perspectives of magnet school implementation in two recently converted elementary schools that had received federal grants to reduce minority group isolation. We draw on 2 years of data on teacher perspectives related to satisfaction, preparedness, and implementation of the magnet program. Surprisingly, we found that as involvement and a sense of preparation increased, teacher satisfaction decreased from the planning year to first year of implementation. We conclude by considering the implications of these findings for magnet school success in creating staff culture and climate that are more likely to support successful magnet implementation.

Home-Schooling in David Makes Man

This essay explores the logic of capitalism that shapes the experiences of a precarious Black Miami teen in the OWN television series David Makes Man. Analyzing seven episodes of the first season, we develop the concept of home-schooling to describe hustlin’ as a capitalist logic operating within Florida public housing and meritocracy as a capitalist logic celebrated at an elite magnet school to reveal imaginative possibilities of survival in Miami. In this essay, we engage the circuit of culture to interrogate issues of racialized-class in the television series and within a broader social context.

Reassignment Policies and School Stratification

School choice is expanding, but the majority of students in countries like the United States still attend the school associated with their residential address. We study assignment policies and reassignments of students, where students apply to attend a magnet school or request to transfer to another school within the public school system. Policymakers and researchers have expressed concerns that these type of reassignment programs could increase racial and socioeconomic stratification and cause an imbalance of resources across schools. We provide evidence from the Wake County Public School System in North Carolina. Our focus is on changes in racial and socioeconomic stratification across schools relative to the existing degree of stratification that exists in the district through its assignment via schools’ attendance boundaries. The reassignment programs available in this district reduce stratification in terms of race, socioeconomic status, student need, and student ability. To place our results in context, we conduct several simulations to compare the observed changes in stratification to what changes are possible. The effects on stratification are similar to what would be expected if students move between schools without regard to school composition, and the effects are small relative to the largest increases or decreases in stratification that could be expected given the volume of reassignments observed in these data. Thus, the reassignment programs we study do not increase stratification in terms of race, socioeconomic status, or student need/ability, but they also do not reduce stratification to a particularly large degree. Our results speak to school choice programs that can be characterized as controlled choice programs in which the district places constraints on moves between schools.

Developing STEM Identity and Talent in Underrepresented Students: Lessons Learned From Four Gifted Black Males in a Magnet School Program

There is well-documented research and data that echo the concern for the future of United States’ ability to globally compete in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) innovation and to fulfill the shortage in talent that exists within this field of study. This concern compels us to seek more impactful and long-term solutions to the issues surrounding motivation and retention of underrepresented students in STEM disciplines. It is imperative that we increase our capability to effectively identify, recruit, and retain underrepresented students within the STEM pipeline. Focusing on identity development as the first of these critical capacities, a case study was conducted to determine if any central characteristics exist that shape the STEM self-concept and identity of four gifted, Black male students who were recent graduates from a predominantly Black, Title 1 high school within a southern, rural region of America. Two 90-min, audio-recorded interviews were conducted with a follow-up focus group discussion a year later. Their experiences were told in retrospect, narrated using their perspectives as they related to their “life” and “STEM” stories. The data revealed STEM identity development very much connected to race, cultural values, and contextual STEM environment. Exploring the dynamics of development surrounding motivation, this article highlights their STEM success to better understand how their STEM talent was developed. Their stories, common themes, and implications for educators are discussed followed by a call for further research.