Intersections of Race and Class in Urban School Choice

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Educational researchers have produced a large and diverse body of research that explores the unequal ways families engage in school choice. The goal of this panel is to advance scholarship on the racialized and classed nature of school choice in the United States by theorizing and empirically substantiating the intersections of race and class in urban school-choosing. The papers in this panel interrogate the social, economic, and spatial factors that differentiate Black, white, and multiracial middle-class families; long-time residents compared to gentrifiers; and relative advantages or disadvantages among low-income Black and Hispanic families. The studies focus on two school choice-rich districts—Washington, D.C. and Detroit—which provides an additional point of contrast to contextualize race and class intersections in school-choosing.

Sub Unit

• Division L - Educational Policies and Politics / Division L - Section 4: School Choice and Other Market Reforms

Chair

• Jeremy L. Singer, Michigan State University

Papers

• “Happy Land” Versus “East-of-the-River”: Racialized Spatial Imaginaries and School Choice in Washington, DC - Bryan Mann, University of Kansas; Alexander Bittel, University of Kansas

• “It’s a Chance, Not a Choice”: How Longtime-Resident Black Parents Navigate School Choice and Gentrification - Bradley Quarles, WestEd

• The Racialized Dimension of School Choice for Middle-Class Families in Detroit - Danica Brown, Wayne State University; Jeremy L. Singer, Michigan State University; Alisha Butler, Wesleyan University; Michelle D. Taylor, Wayne State University

• Who Has Choice? School Choice and Socioeconomic Differences Among Low-Income and Racially Minoritized Families - Jeremy L. Singer, Michigan State University

Discussants

• Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Wayne State University

• Dwuana Bradley, University of Southern California