The Politics of Charter School Evidence in Local Context

Scott, Janelle; DeBray, Elizabeth; Lubienski, Christopher; Hanley, Johanna; Castillo, Elise; Hedges, Samantha

doi:10.4324/9781351213318-12

Cited by 4 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Charter schools are especially relevant settings for studying the influence of the principal on trust and teacher turnover. Charter schools, including those managed by Charter Management Organizations (CMOs), have higher-than-average teacher turnover rates despite earning substantial political and philanthropic support nationwide (Furgeson et al, 2012;Lake et al, 2010;Merseth, 2009;Stuit & Smith, 2012;Tuttle et al, 2013) and are growing in number and influence in the United States (Ableidinger et al, 2012;Furgeson et al, 2012;Scott & Dimartino, 2011). Theoretically, charter schools provide principals or organizations with flexibility and autonomy to decide which teachers are hired and fired and set staff policies free of bureaucratic district constraints (Podgursky, 2006;Whitman, 2008;Wilson, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Uncertainty of High Expectations

Torres

2016

Journal of School Leadership

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Teacher turnover continues to be a chronic problem for low-income schools and is especially high in urban charter schools. New evidence shows that teachers' perceptions of school leadership and trust are two of the most powerful predictors of turnover. Using interviews with former No Excuses charter school (NECS) teachers, this study seeks to better explain the mechanisms influencing teacher turnover by analyzing teachers' perceptions of what principals do to influence relational trust and describing how this influences teachers' decisions to leave. Findings show how high and often-implicit expectations principals have for teachers affect teacher-principal trust relationships in ways that lead to turnover.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Uncertainty of High Expectations

Torres

2016

Journal of School Leadership

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“…Although the diversity of charters remained, corporate-like charters gained momentum in the mid-1990s, with for-profit companies leading the way (C. Lubienski & Weitzel, 2010; J. T. Scott & DiMartino, 2010).…”

Section: Research Review: Cmo Market Roots Growth Processes and Their...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over time, skepticism of for-profits led advocates to promote CMOs as an alternative because they could replicate charters without having to attend to shareholder demands, given their nonprofit status (Farrell et al, 2012). At the same time, CMOs continued to transfer private-sector practices into public schools and sought to bring high-quality charters to scale (J. T. Scott & DiMartino, 2010).…”

Section: Research Review: Cmo Market Roots Growth Processes and Their...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CMOs embody characteristics that situate them within the neoliberal project. They embody and advance the market logics that enable the application of business practices to the public sector and transform notions of public accountability, all without the stigma of a profit-rearing status (J. T. Scott & DiMartino, 2010).…”

Section: Research Review: Cmo Market Roots Growth Processes and Their...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CMO sector’s differential size and span may be attributed to the distinct approaches they take in recreating their schools. For example, J. T. Scott and DiMartino (2010) argued that CMOs tend to expand in two ways—corporate style growth or franchising.…”

Section: Research Review: Cmo Market Roots Growth Processes and Their...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Money Chase: The Role of Racial Innuendo and Marketized Discourse in Courting Private Dollars

Hernández

2022

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education

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Background/Context: The business and philanthropic sectors have been a persistent force in shaping U.S. schools. Recently, they have used their resources to advance policies that embody newer principles of industry—reforms that suggest that competition, choice, and deregulation can spur improvement and effectiveness. This has most notably included deep investments in the proliferation of charter schools, surfacing questions as to the sector’s reliance on private dollars as well as the equitable and democratic impact of advancing this manifestation of neoliberal reform. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: While scholars have elucidated the role of business and philanthropic funding in promoting charter schools, less is known about how the well-substantiated connections between charters and the private sector have been facilitated or how discourse—the ideas, representations, and argumentation conveyed in acts of communication—is mobilized to create a rationale for support. To date, research has typically examined the discourse and messaging intended for families navigating choice settings. Yet, how these depictions are crafted for donors, who typically inhabit positions of economic and social power and are critical actors in charter growth, remain comparatively less understood. Research Design: This study fills this empirical gap and investigates the tactics used to solicit donor investment by charter management organizations (CMOs). It uses a conceptual framework that synthesizes tenets from the research on neoliberal policy networks and the sociology of race to enable a multifaceted analysis of the discursive tactics used to secure donor support while attending to the often-nuanced ways in which race may be invoked in those efforts. Methodologically, this study follows an embedded case study design to investigate the tactics deployed by a population of CMOs in Northern California and relies on observational and documentary data to examine how CMOs design and execute donor outreach and the resonant messages they aim to elevate. Conclusions/Recommendations: I find that CMOs elevated business-friendly themes related to workforce preparation, impact, and return on investment in their outreach and at times commodified their constituents by offering their labor as exchangeable resources to elevate donor profiles. Simultaneously, CMOs advanced color-evasive discourse, relying on deficit-laden racial narratives to create a reinforcing and complementary rationale for intervention. These findings suggest that CMOs relied on market and racialized logics as the persuasive fodder for donor investment, leaving the economic and racial status quo—and the democratic and equity implications it perpetuates—unchallenged.

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Money and influence: philanthropies, intermediary organisations, and Atlanta’s 2017 school board election

DeBray

Hanley

Scott

et al. 2019

Journal of Educational Administration and History

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National philanthropies have recently played a prominent role in spending on U.S. urban school board elections, largely seeking to promote candidates who support charter schools. In Atlanta in 2017, 30 candidates competed for nine open school board seats. One practice has been to fund intermediary organisations (IOs) (e.g. advocacy groups, foundations) that disseminate information and research in an effort to shape public opinion. This paper analyses the role of IOs in the 2017 school board race in Atlanta. Drawing on 12 interviews with policymakers and IO representatives, analysis of campaign literature, and media accounts, the authors contrast the ways in which the intermediary and philanthropic sectors attempted to influence leaders' framing of educational policy issues. Findings reveal a nascent capacity for IOs in Atlanta for shaping support for pro-charter board candidates. The paper discusses implications for understanding the role that IOs may play in the politics of urban education. ARTICLE HISTORY Philanthropy; urban school board elections; intermediary organisations; education politicsOver the past several years, there has been increased attention in the politics of education to the role of philanthropies in the politics of urban board elections (Reckhow et al. 2017;Henig, Jacobsen, and Reckhow 2019). There has similarly been attention to the role that intermediary organisations play in disseminating research and information to policymakers about 'incentivist' educational policies such as charter schools in urban contexts (Scott and Holme 2016), as well as new studies of how national philanthropies are funding charter management organisations, or CMOs (Ferrare and Setari 2018;Quinn, Oelberger, and Meyerson 2016;Scott 2015).In this paper, we draw on a framework from our study of the politics of research used by policymakers, and the role of networks of intermediary organisations (referred to hereafter as IOs). Appendix A shows the relationship between IOs and foundations as our team has conceptualised it (Scott and Jabbar 2014). Rather than view philanthropies as being in a separate category from intermediaries, we instead have chosen to view the political relationship as one of 'a hub and spokes', since many philanthropies, both national and local, play a role of funding newer organisations, and serve not only a

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The Politics of Charter School Evidence in Local Context

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

The Uncertainty of High Expectations

The Uncertainty of High Expectations

The Money Chase: The Role of Racial Innuendo and Marketized Discourse in Courting Private Dollars

Money and influence: philanthropies, intermediary organisations, and Atlanta’s 2017 school board election

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