TY - JOUR
T1 - The “Post-Racial” Politics of Race
T2 - Changing Student Assignment Policy in Three School Districts
AU - McDermott, Kathryn A.
AU - Frankenberg, Erica
AU - Diem, Sarah
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2014
PY - 2015/5/6
Y1 - 2015/5/6
N2 - Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large school districts: Boston, Massachusetts; Wake County (Raleigh), North Carolina; and Jefferson County (Louisville), Kentucky. In all three districts, there has been pressure to change student-assignment policies in ways that respond to the priorities of White and middle-class populations, with the potential to worsen the options available to students of color. Our case studies reinforce the criticisms of race-neutral politics and policy that have been made by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and others. Race-neutral politics during fiscal retrenchment tends to reframe privilege as common sense and to obscure some students’ structural disadvantages.
AB - Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large school districts: Boston, Massachusetts; Wake County (Raleigh), North Carolina; and Jefferson County (Louisville), Kentucky. In all three districts, there has been pressure to change student-assignment policies in ways that respond to the priorities of White and middle-class populations, with the potential to worsen the options available to students of color. Our case studies reinforce the criticisms of race-neutral politics and policy that have been made by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva and others. Race-neutral politics during fiscal retrenchment tends to reframe privilege as common sense and to obscure some students’ structural disadvantages.
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U2 - 10.1177/0895904813510775
DO - 10.1177/0895904813510775
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84930385098
SN - 0895-9048
VL - 29
SP - 504
EP - 554
JO - Educational Policy
JF - Educational Policy
IS - 3
ER -