Housing Choices as School Choices: Subsidized Renters’ Agency in an Uncertain Policy Context

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 444-467 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annah Bender ◽  
Molly Metzger ◽  
Vithya Murugan ◽  
Divya Ravindranath
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
High Performing Schools ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Neighborhood Preferences ◽  
Heads Of Household ◽  
Previous Scholarship

Previous scholarship on the federal Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program has found that HCV renters are less likely than other households living below the poverty line to live in neighborhoods with high–performing schools. These findings are troubling because HCV renters have some choice about where they live, yet aggregate data linking HCV renters’ neighborhoods with school performance shows that renters tend to be concentrated in impoverished areas with poor schools. To better understand whether and how schools factor into HCV renters’ neighborhood preferences when searching for a home, semistructured interviews with 17 HCV heads–of–household in the St. Louis region were conducted. Findings from this project reveal that some HCV renters prioritize school choice when deciding to move, sending their children to schools that may or may not be located within their neighborhood. A minority of families in this study actually enrolled their children in the school district indicated by their address. Three families had intentionally moved to unaccredited districts to take advantage of a transfer law that allowed students in unaccredited school districts to attend an out–of–district school. Although not a direct counterpoint to previous scholarship, these findings lend some balance to the idea that HCV renters are compelled to live in districts with lower property values and thus lower performing schools than other households receiving government assistance. HCV renters encounter many constraints on their choice of housing and neighborhood, and legacies of racism, housing discrimination, and predatory landlords may indeed limit renters to poor neighborhoods with underperforming school districts, but as interviews with 17 participants with school–age children demonstrate, their children may not be attending their neighborhood schools after all. These findings help contextualize HCV renter concentration in low–income neighborhoods, while further research is needed to address the education and housing policy ramifications of this work on a national scale.

High-Stakes Testing: Worth the Price?

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen P. Gordon ◽  
Marianne Reese
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
High Performing Schools ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Depth Data ◽  
Negative Side Effects ◽  
Learning School ◽  
Texas School Districts

The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) is a classic case of the high-stakes test, accompanied by rewards for high performing schools and sanctions for lower performing schools. In this study, over 100 teachers from Texas school districts completed open-ended surveys on how they prepare students for TAAS and the effects of the test on students, teachers, and schools. Twenty of the survey respondents engaged in interviews to gather in-depth data on their perceptions of TAAS. Results provide preliminary indications that, for many schools, high-stakes testing has become the object rather than the measure of teaching and learning, with negative side effects on curriculum, teacher decision making, instruction, student learning, school climate, and teacher and student self-concept and motivation.

Political Risk-Taking: Leading Literacy Education in an Era of High-Stakes Accountability

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rose M. Ylimaki
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Political Risk ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
High Performing Schools ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Political Act ◽  
Multicase Study ◽  
Very High

In the current accountability environment, many school districts have mandated test preparation courses, canned programs, and otherwise limited teacher risk-taking in all but very high-performing schools. This article further suggests that extant literature on risk-taking as part of educational change is no longer sufficient for understanding risk-taking in the current political environment. The author uses findings from a multicase study that investigated what happens in school districts that makes educators willing to take risks and resist the pressures of current accountability policies to redefine risk-taking as a political act. Through the use of interview data, field notes, and literature, the study describes four conditions that support political risk-taking in the current accountability context.

scholarly journals Market Signals: Evidence on the Determinants and Consequences of School Choice From a Citywide Lottery

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 593-619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Glazerman ◽  
Dallas Dotter
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
School Choice ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
School Capacity ◽  
Academic Quality ◽  
High Performing Schools ◽  
High Performing ◽  
School Demographics ◽  
Market Signals ◽  
Heterogeneity Of Preferences

We estimate school-choice preferences revealed by the rank-ordered lists submitted by more than 22,000 applicants to a citywide lottery for more than 200 traditional and charter public schools in Washington, D.C. The results confirm previously reported findings that commuting distance, school demographics, and academic indicators play important roles in school choice and that there is considerable heterogeneity of preferences. Higher and lower income choosers respond to academic quality measures, but respond to different indicators of quality. Simulations suggest segregation by race and income would be reduced and enrollment in high-performing schools increased if policymakers were to relax school capacity constraints in individual campuses. The simulations also suggest that removing the lowest performing schools as choice options could further reduce segregation and increase enrollment in high-performing schools.

Tennessee Education Savings Account: Tipping the Scales From Equity to Choice

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 98-110
Author(s):  
Erin Curtin
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
School Choice ◽  
State Level ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Comprehensive Education ◽  
Policy Window ◽  
Federal Poverty Line ◽  
Scholarship Program ◽  
Shelby County ◽  
K 12

This article provides an analysis of Tennessee’s newly signed Education Savings Account policy, a school choice initiative. The policy provides vouchers, in the form of a debit card, to students in grades K-12 who are at or below 200% of the federal poverty line and are zoned to attend a Nashville, Shelby County, or Achievement School District school. Using the Policy Window Framework the author uncovers that the policy was created in a federal and state-level political convergence, which attempted to place equity at the forefront of the issue. However, using Levin's Comprehensive Education Privatization Framework, we can see that neoliberal ideals of choice and efficiency conquer equity in the finalized policy. The author predicts the outcomes of this new policy using this framework in tandem with 3 case studies: Louisiana Scholarship Program, DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, and Tennessee’s Individualized Education Accounts.

Penerapan Weighted Sum Model (WSM) Dalam Penentuan Peserta Jaminan Kesehatan Masyarakat

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Mesran Mesran ◽  
Suginam Suginam ◽  
Surya Darma Nasution ◽  
Andsyah Putera Utama Siahaan
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Poverty Line ◽  
Weighted Sum ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
Head Of Household ◽  
Treatment Services ◽  
The People ◽  
Community Health Insurance ◽  
The Government ◽  
Simple Additive Weighting

Community Health Insurance is one of the government programs for the people of Indonesia in obtaining treatment services at Puskesmas. The program is very helpful for people who are low income and live below the poverty line. Indicators for the government in providing this service consists of 10 (ten) criteria that are House Ownership Status, Floor Area per Household Member, Type of Floor of House, Type of Wall House, Lighting House Used, Fuel Used, Frequency Of Eating In A Day, Ability Buy meat/chicken/milk in a week, Employment of head of household, Education of head of household. In the application, of course, has constraints in deciding who the participants who get the Jamkesmas service. With the application of one of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) able to overcome obstacles faced by government. Some methods of MCDM such as Simple Additive Weighting(SAW), Weighted Product(WP), Weighted Sum Model(WSM) can solve this problem. By applying the WSM is relatively easy and fast, is believed to be able to get the best results.

scholarly journals School Choice During a Period of Radical School Reform. Evidence from Academy Conversion in England

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bertoni ◽  
Stephen Gibbons ◽  
Olmo Silva
Keyword(s):  
School Choice ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
English Education ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
State Control ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Opt Out ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
Expected Benefits ◽  
State Schools

Abstract We study how demand responds to the rebranding of existing state schools as autonomous ‘academies’ in the context of a radical and large-scale reform to the English education system. The academy programme encouraged schools to opt out of local state control and funding, but provided parents and students with limited information on the expected benefits. We use administrative data on school applications for three cohorts of students to estimate whether this rebranding changes schools’ relative popularity. We find that families – particularly higher-income, White British – are more likely to rank converted schools above non-converted schools on their applications. We also find that it is mainly schools that are high-performing, popular and proximate to families’ homes that attract extra demand after conversion. Overall, the patterns we document suggest that families read academy conversion as a signal of future quality gains – although this signal is in part misleading as we find limited evidence that conversion causes improved performance.

Has the Allocation of Certain Teachers Impacted Student Achievement and Upward Economic Mobility? The Case of Forsyth County, NC Elementary Schools

2020 ◽  
pp. 001312452097267
Author(s):  
Zachary D. Blizard
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Economically Disadvantaged ◽  
Local System ◽  
Experienced Teachers ◽  
Economic Mobility ◽  
High Performing Schools ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Disadvantaged Children ◽  
Forsyth County ◽  
Inexperienced Teacher

Forsyth County, North Carolina has one of the lowest rates of upward economic mobility in the entire United States. Researchers find that one of strongest correlates of upward mobility is the quality of schools in the local system. Using 2018 and 2017 NC Public School Report Card (SRC) data for Forsyth County elementary schools, I find that the percentage of experienced teachers at a school is a significant predictor of school performance. At high-performing schools, a much larger share of their faculties consist of highly experienced and educated teachers, compared to low-performing schools that predominately serve economically disadvantaged children. Experienced and high-quality teachers can have significant long-term impacts on elementary school children, especially those who come from underprivileged families. Yet in Forsyth County, schools with greater shares of economically disadvantaged children have lower percentages of teachers with these characteristics. I argue that the Forsyth County school system can assist in reversing low mobility rates by allocating more experienced teachers toward low-performing elementary schools that serve mostly disadvantaged children. This will insure that these schools have higher experienced-to-inexperienced teacher ratios, while also helping to reduce teacher turnover.

scholarly journals Identifying Meaningful Indicators of Parent Engagement in Early Learning for Low-Income, Urban Families

2020 ◽  
pp. 004208592096861
Author(s):  
Amie F. Bettencourt ◽  
Deborah Gross ◽  
Kelly Bower ◽  
Lucine Francis ◽  
Kathryn Taylor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Parent Engagement ◽  
Panel Discussion ◽  
Urban Families ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Urban School Districts ◽  
School Based ◽  
Home Based

The purpose of this study was to identify indicators of parent engagement in early learning that would be relevant for children’s academic success; equitable for all families regardless of social, educational, or economic backgrounds; and actionable for urban school districts seeking to promote parent engagement with limited resources. Using a Delphi technique, a panel of parents, school staff, and researchers rated 106 parent engagement indicators extracted from stakeholder interviews. After multiple Delphi rounds and panel discussion, 30 indicators were retained. Retained indicators focused on home-based activities and home-school relationships/communication; no school-based activities met criteria for relevance, feasibility, and actionability.

scholarly journals Mitigating Childhood Food Insecurity during COVID-19: A Qualitative Study of how School Districts in California’s San Joaquin Valley Responded to Growing Needs

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Ashley H. Jowell ◽  
Janine S. Bruce ◽  
Gabriela V. Escobar ◽  
Valeria M. Ordonez ◽  
Christina A. Hecht ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Distribution Systems ◽  
Community Organizations ◽  
San Joaquin Valley ◽  
School Meal ◽  
Fresh Foods

Abstract Objectives: To explore best practices and challenges in providing school meals during COVID-19 in a low-income, predominantly Latino, urban-rural region. Design: Semi structured interviews with school district stakeholders and focus groups with parents were conducted to explore school meal provision during COVID-19 from June to August 2020. Data was coded and themes were identified to guide analysis. Community organizations were involved in all aspects of study design, recruitment, data collection, and analysis. Setting: Six school districts in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Participants: School district stakeholders (n=11) included food service directors, school superintendents, and community partners (e.g., funders, food co-operative). Focus groups (n=6) were comprised of parents (n=29) of children participating in school meal programs. Results: COVID-19-related challenges for districts included developing safe meal distribution systems, boosting low participation, covering COVID-19-related costs, and staying informed of policy changes. Barriers for families included transportation difficulties, safety concerns, and a lack of fresh foods. Innovative strategies to address obstacles included pandemic-EBT, bus-stop delivery, community pick-up locations, batched meals, and leveraging partner resources. Conclusions: A focus on fresher, more appealing meals and greater communication between school officials and parents could boost participation. Districts that leveraged external partnerships were better equipped to provide meals during pandemic conditions. In addition, policies increasing access to fresh foods and capitalizing on USDA waivers could boost school meal participation. Finally, partnering with community organizations and acting upon parent feedback could improve school meal systems, and in combination with pandemic-EBT, address childhood food insecurity.

scholarly journals Diversity for Whom? Gentrification, Demographic Change, and the Politics of School Integration

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Diem ◽  
Jennifer Jellison Holme ◽  
Wesley Edwards ◽  
Madeline Haynes ◽  
Eliza Epstein
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
District Leaders ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
School Demographics ◽  
The Face ◽  
Critical Policy

Gentrification and the displacement of low-income residents of color from neighborhoods where they have long resided has accelerated over the last 20 years. In some cities, this process has begun to impact school demographics. Although research shows that school districts experiencing gentrification are responding in ways that fuel segregation and inequality, in some contexts gentrification is viewed by administrators as an opportunity to seek racial and economic integration. In our exploratory comparative case study, we examined districts in gentrifying cities pursuing integration in the face of rapid gentrification. Our critical policy analysis illustrates how district leaders’ diversity efforts can be overshadowed by their desire to appease and attract gentrifying families. Although districts are maintaining or increasing diversity in gentrifying contexts, our study raises broader equity questions that call for further inquiry of within-district equity and the displacement of students.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document