The Opt-Out of testing social movement gathered a significant following in New York state after the change to assessments based on the newly adopted Common Core State Standards in 2013. Parents and educators in other states joined, but most states moved to hamper these protests. However, Colorado state instead allowed parents to choose whether to…

This interview study explored the experience of principals as they mediate reforms marked by high-stakes accountability and competition between schools at the intersection of gentrification occurring in their school communities. School principals of high schools within New York City are called to mediate mandated school choice with the continued…

Public schools in New Orleans are changing our normative understandings of what it means to be a teacher, student, or administrator in our global society. The New Orleans public schools underwent a process of deregulation initiated by the State of Louisiana and the local school board in 2005. The process, truly the first of its kind, was expedited…

People "shopping for schools," which is paying a premium for homes that are in areas within the attendance zones of prestigious schools, routinely do not consider test scores, curriculum, or teachers when defining what is a "good school." This dissertation argues that suburban mayors use incorporation frameworks and operate out…

This qualitative study examines the education policies, political dynamics, and key players in Wisconsin (WI) and North Carolina (NC) to develop a theory to explain how a targeted parental school choice voucher policy was legislated in WI but not in NC. The study seeks to offer a theoretical policy framework that explains the absence of a targeted…

The research is to understand the historical sociopolitical context of the emergence of school choice, more specifically magnet schools, and the consequences of this choice on student enrollment patterns. The approach is a critical examination of Neoliberalism as an ideology and polarizing sociopolitical movement and the intersection of this…

This study investigates the relationship between parents and politics. In part one, the effect of having school-aged children on parents' political outcomes is examined. Do the resource constraints associated with child-rearing depress participation, or does the presence of children increase activity? One finds that parents are more active in…