Impact of Mayoral Control, Charter Schools, No Excuses Schools and Vouchers?

GUIDING REFLECTION QUESTION: What does research say about the impact of mayoral control, charter schools, no excuses schools, and vouchers on the equitable distribution of resources and students’ academic achievement?

According to Marsh (2018), labeling students as high risk or struggling academically is a form of symbolic violence (p. 1). Referencing Bourdieu (2001), Marsh (2018) defined symbolic violence as “an invisible violence that is not recognized as such and is exercised often with the unwitting consent of those impacted by its effects,” (p. 1). Within his study, Marsh (2018) focused on an urban public charter middle school espousing a “no-excuses” orientation. He centered the following questions: (1) how does school-imposed labeling act as a form of symbolic violence towards Black male students and (2) how does school-imposed labeling affect the labeled students’ schooling experiences and their teachers’ perceptions? Using classical labeling theory, Marsh (2018) engaged a sociological framework to establish how labels are constructed and how the constructed labels of a group influence the perception of those who are labeled (p. 2).

Marsh (2018) went on to echo Becker’s (1963) conclusion that, “This labeling occurs while reinforcing core values and norms for other members of society,” (p. 2). Collecting data from observations and interviews with students and teachers over a course of five months, from mid-October 2013 to mid-February 2014 within a new after-school intervention program called Excellence Counts (EC), Marsh (2018) affirmed that such labeling led teachers to affirm biased perceptions; fostering low expectations for students, specifically Black male students enrolled in the program. In spite of the program’s attempt to improve the educational experiences of Black male students, it can be argued that it had a limited effect due to “not focusing on equity as well as excellence” (Willie, 2000, p.1). This is the same fate of schools impacted by mayoral control within the American public education system.

A study by Keisch and Scott (2015) declared that “education systems in all societies are designed to serve as the primary institutions that reproduce dominant social and economic orders, customs and beliefs systems,” (p. 4). Due to this, Keisch and Scott (2015) questioned whether public schools are the best hope for achieving social and economic equity (p. 2). At the Albert Shanker Institute in which “no excuses” schools were discussed, Fenwick (2016) stated:

Local control of public schools through elected school boards is supposed to empower parents and community residents. However, this rarely happens, particularly, in school districts serving urban or Black students and Brown students. Too often, predators eager to exploit schools for their own benefit, short-circuit the work of deep and lasting school and community uplift. Mayoral control, Teach for America, education management organizations, venture capital funded charter schools have not – according to the research and commentary – garnered much grassroots support or enthusiasm among parents whose children actually attend urban schools. (Albert Shanker Institute, 00:04:19 – 00:05:20)

Fenwick (2016) went on to elaborate on the conditions that affirm community members’ distrust toward so-called “school reform efforts” such as school closures and disinvesting in schools, perpetuating a cycle of poverty and neglect. She asserts, “While more schools are closed and fewer new schools are opened in lower-income Black areas, this increases the level of educational inequity,” (Albert Shanker Institute, 00:06:00 – 00:06:09). In light of this reality, many schools across America are like communities in Chicago, Washington, D.C.’s gentrified southwest as discussed by Fenwick (2016) and schools in Ferguson, Missouri as described by Keisch and Scott (2015) in which Mike Brown, a victim of police brutality, navigated prior to his death months after his high school graduation. These schools are an emblem of “the neglect of the nation’s promise to end racial segregation in schools” (Keisch, 2015, p. 4).

As emphasized, mayoral control of public schools does not serve Black, Brown or students within lower-income communities. Perhaps, such a lack of effort to use existing resources to truly transform school systems, may reveal a darker objective of the American education system. This objective could be one that seeks to maintain violent labeling and reinforce social conditioning.

References

Albert Shanker Institute. (2016, March 9). No excuses schools (Leslie Fenwick) [video].

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofa8IUxeIc

Becker, H.S. (1963). Outsiders. New York.

Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of theory and

research for the sociology of education (pp. 241-258). New York, NY: Greenwood.

Keisch, Deborah M. and Scott, Tim. (2015). U.S. education reform and the maintenance of

White supremacy through structural violence. Landscapes of Violence 3(3), 1-46.

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=lov

Marsh, L. (2018). Symbolic violence: school-imposed labeling in a “no-excuses” charter

school. University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education’s Online Urban

Education Journal. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1194452.pdf

Willie, C. (2000). Confidence, Trust and Respect: The Preeminent Goals of Educational

Reform. The Journal of Negro Education, 69(4), 255-262. doi:10.2307/2696244