ERIC Number: ED647134
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 176
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-8417-9864-4
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Student Learning, Student Demographics, or Something Else? A Quantcrit Analysis of How School Accountability Reflects Student Labels but Not Student Needs
Kim Strong
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder
Improving educational outcomes and school conditions for historically marginalized students has been a primary goal since the school accountability movement began in the 1960s. However, despite decades of legislation, policy, and enactment designed to achieve this purpose, historically marginalized students continue to suffer from disparate academic outcomes. Using Critical Race Theory and QuantCrit frameworks, this dissertation analyzed accountability outcomes in relation to student demographics, school contexts, and English Learner characteristics and services in Denver Public Schools over three years to understand what the accountability framework employed by the district was and was not measuring. Findings indicate that the schools with the highest accountability ratings consistently had (a) smaller proportions of students of color, students receiving Free and Reduced Lunch services, and English Learners; (b) higher rates of Fully Qualified teachers and students identified as Gifted and Talented; and (c) nearly half the frequency of disciplinary actions, incidents, and actions resulting in instructional loss. When these variables were used in Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and ordinal logit multiple regressions, this study revealed that student demographics and disciplinary actions were statistically significant predictors of both accountability scores and outcomes. These results indicate that the accountability framework used by the district was biased in favor of schools that served small proportions of historically marginalized students while ignoring and hence failing to address disparate access to educational resources like high quality teachers, Gifted and Talented programs, native language supports, and less punitive disciplinary environments. These failures to measure and thus encourage equitable learning environments coincided with a downward trend of schools increasingly gaining failing accountability status during the study, with charter schools - which some see as solutions to public school dysfunctions - having the highest rates of discipline and lowest rates of language supports for English Learners. Implications of this study include the recommendation that districts conduct "equity reviews" to ensure accountability policies do not disproportionately harm historically marginalized students and that accountability frameworks include metrics to evaluate school contexts and services to promote the equitable allocation of resources and opportunities to all students. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: School Responsibility, Accountability, Student Needs, Critical Race Theory, Demography, Public Schools, Educational Practices, Minority Group Students, Lunch Programs, English Language Learners, Academically Gifted, Discipline
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Colorado (Denver)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A