Student Voice From a Turnaround Urban High School: An Account of Students With and Without Dis/Abilities Leading Resistance Against Accountability Reform

Abstract

The Every Student Succeeds Act redefines the priorities of our nation’s education system. Prior to its passage, turnaround strategies advanced solutions for low-performing schools. Research literature examining how these reforms impacted the schooling experiences of students attending these schools is lacking. We present the results of a qualitative case study of a reconstituted urban school in the Southwest United States, providing the perspectives of 10 students with dis/abilities and the effects accountability reform efforts had on their high school experience. Three expressed needs and desires were identified: (a) a positive school identity, (b) stability, and (c) to be recognized and heard.

¡Ya Basta! Countering the Effects of Neoliberal Reform on an Urban Turnaround High School

“…As a collective whole, the participants in this study elected to expose the school board and those willing to listen to the “novel and “critical interpretations” of their prior and current experiences that contradicted a “mainstream or ideal” (Daiute, 2014, p. 10) perspective, which the superintendent and members of the district administration had chosen to ignore (Pazey & DeMatthews, 2019; Pazey et al, 2017). To “respect the integrity” of participants’“consciousness and narratives” (Fine & Weis, 2010) and honor the voices and perspectives of those who had been “silenced, excluded, marginalized, expunged” (Smyth & McInerney, 2013, p. 2) and denied the opportunity and space to enter their voices into previous discussions about their school, I drew from the themes that emerged from their direct quotes to tell their story, as illustrated in Table 3.…”

“…Yet, taking an advocacy-oriented and critical approach, I sought to illustrate, support, or challenge the theoretical assumptions reinforcing neoliberal reform. In previous studies conducted over time at this school (Pazey & DeMatthews, 2019; Pazey et al, 2015; Pazey et al, 2017), I critiqued the implementation and results of these reforms by focusing on their disparate impacts, specifically their marginalizing effects on students with dis/abilities and their friends. By utilizing an interpretive critical approach, my initial intent was to illuminate the counternarratives of HHS student and adult advocates who, in opposition to the district’s proposed action, challenged the underlying assumptions and rhetoric of neoliberal-infused reform.…”

“…Under such regulations, students’ performance on state-mandated accountability measures were published for all to see, creating a binary narrative where (a) schools were reported as being good or bad (Niesz, 2010) and (b) the identity of the students and those associated with the school were constructed as abled versus failures or dis/abled (McDermott, 1987; McDermott & Varenne, 1995; Pazey, 1996). Adding insult to injury, parents, students, and other stakeholders residing in these communities disenfranchised (Lipman, 2013) or displaced from any conversations related to making decisions about how to improve and, ultimately, the future and fate of their school (Kirshner & Pozzoboni, 2011; Pazey & DeMatthews, 2019; Trujillo & Renée, 2012, 2015).…”

“…Due to the upheaval that individuals who are associated with a so-called failing school like HHS endure when branded with a negative label such as academically unacceptable (Granger, 2008; Kirshner, Gaertner, & Pozzoboni, 2010; Malen & Rice, 2004, 2009; Meier & Wood, 2004; Nichols & Berliner, 2007; Pazey, Cole, & Spikes, 2017; Pazey & DeMatthews, 2019; Pazey, Vasquez Heilig, Cole, & Sumbera, 2015; Ravitch, 2010; Shepard, 2008; Vasquez Heilig & Darling-Hammond, 2008), critiques of neoliberal reforms like NCLB (2002) abound (Ferri & Ashby, 2017; Hursh, 2007; Johnson, 2013; Tienken, 2013). What made HHS unique, however, stemmed from the level of student involvement and adult advocacy that occurred throughout the fall 2011 semester in efforts to disprove the academically unacceptable label that the state, the media, and individuals in the larger community repeatedly used to construct a negative identity of their school and school community.…”

“…Several students who addressed the school board represented their viewpoints as well as the concerns of their peers. Students identified themselves as active members of a number of cocurricular activities at the school as well as the HHS student leadership group, a grassroots, student-formed group, consisting of students with and without dis/abilities and separate from the school’s student council (Pazey & DeMatthews, 2019). Some students from the leadership group spoke while others held signs, protesting the potential “yes” vote for the charter school proposal—a proposal that, in their eyes, would effectively end the history and legacy of both CHS and HHS.…”