Two Tales of One City: A Political Economy of the New York City Public High School Admissions Process
Item
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Title
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Two Tales of One City: A Political Economy of the New York City Public High School Admissions Process
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:42f9a6655087:10778
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identifier
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11093
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Creator
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Perez, Madeline,
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Contributor
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Jean Anyon
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Date
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2011
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Education policy | high school admissions | high school selection | institutional ethnography | political economy | school choice | social capital
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Abstract
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Increased choice about which public school to attend is advocated by policy makers as a strategy for urban education reform and for improving school quality (Fuller & Elmore, 1996). This strategy cannot be effective if only families who already have multiple educational options are able to utilize these opportunities. This dissertation addressed the process of NYC Public High School Admissions and how this is experienced differently by families and school staff across race and class lines.;This study utilized a multi-sited qualitative approach with a focus on ethnography and interviews to study two middle schools. Questionnaires were also used to gain a larger picture of how families experienced school choice. Central to the research design and analysis was MADRES, an advisory group of mothers of color who, themselves, has recently undergone the high school application process with their own children.;The data show that families' familiarity and comfort level with navigating the school system was linked to class-based experiences and the resources and support they received from their middle school. Parents' ability to intervene effectively in a way in which their actions influenced the school applications process was shaped by the social, cultural, and economic capital that they had been provided or denied.;The Department of Education often misrecognized families' capital for competence and caring about their children's education. Middle Schools were the most important link between eighth-grade families and the high school admissions process, and their ability to support families heavily relied on the amount of resources, time and expertise that staff members have available. Moreover, the political economy creates the conditions in which the DOE is dependent on white middle-class families for their dominant capital, and caters to them without seeming to do so.;The data illuminate what it is like to navigate a system that is already set up to privilege those who already have resources. Ultimately, high school admissions will only fulfill its espoused theory of ensuring choice and equity when educational administrators cease to operate a process that serves a majority of low-income people of color based solely on white middle-class assumptions and redesign appropriately.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Urban Education
