“Solidifying Segregation or Promoting Diversity? School Closure and Rezoning in an Urban Area” by Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kimberly Bridges, and Thomas J. Shields.
This article explores the politics and impacts of a contemporary urban school closure and rezoning process in Richmond, Virginia. By using qualitative, quantitative, and spatial methods, the authors examine the impact of school closure and redrawing attendance boundaries—both affecting the racial and economic composition of schools. Their case study yielded four findings. (1)The budget pressures, intergovernmental politics, and leadership turnover prompted the newly reconfigured school board leaders to look for short-term savings in the form of school closures. (2) A swift, chaotic and nontransparent political process to close and rezone elementary schools was conducted in opposition to board protocols, policies, and possibly state law. This process was intersected with minimized broad-based public participation and privileged voices of White families. (3)The politically contentious closure and rezoning process in Richmond was related to clear and consistent increases in school segregation. (4)Despite the negative, rather starkly segregative impacts of the rezoning, possibility and hope remains. The case study illustrates the difficult political calculations and pressure that comes into play when it comes to school closure and rezoning. However, the key finding is that school closure and rezoning solidifies segregation. The authors discussed how choice plays a key role in sorting students among schools, creating a new majority-White zone. The choice option also contributes to the presence of disproportionately White schools in an overwhelmingly non-White districts.20
“Organizational “Failure” and Institutional Pluralism: A Case Study of an Urban School Closure” by Vontrese Deeds and Mary Pattillo
Using the framework of institutional pluralism, authors of this article aim to provide new insights to school closures, arguing that failure is an interpretive process that varies widely across constituents. Their main argument is school deemed as a “failure” is a result of a single stakeholder groups’ evolution criteria, ignoring the voices and values of teachers, students, and parents. Authors highlight that the hyper focus accountability metrics as a means to evaluate schools combined with school choice obscured the reality of how school closures disrupt the lives of many living in the communities. Using qualitative study of a district school closure in Newark, New Jersey, the article improves our understanding of how institutional pluralism leads to a variety of interpretations around organizational failure. The article highlights that schools are embedded in pluralistic environments, where it is not just a place of learning for students. There needs to be more than one group of stakeholder determining the success or failure of schools, because school closure based on the evaluative criterion of district administrators creates a competitive weeding out process disproportionally affecting low-income, minority children.21
20. Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kimberly Bridges, and Thomas J. Shields (2017). Solidifying Segregation or Promoting Diversity? School Closure and Rezoning in an Urban Area. Educational Administration Quarterly. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0013161X16659346
21. Vontrese Deeds and Mary Pattillo (2015). Organizational “Failure” and Institutional Pluralism: A Case Study of an Urban School Closure. Urban Education Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0042085913519337