Creating and maintaining student diversity: strategies and challenges for school leaders

Pursuing Diversity: The Context, Practices, and Diversity Outcomes of Intentionally Diverse Charter Schools

“…Looking across all data sources, we can begin to answer our overarching research question: How do context and school practices shape diversity at IDCS? First, our participants' reports of the influence of residential segregation, gentrification, and race-neutral policies are in line with prior research examining the causes of increased segregation in charter schools (e.g., Jacobs, 2013;Lubienski et al, 2009) and the recruitment challenges faced by intentionally diverse schools (e.g., Jabbar & Wilson, 2018;Villavicencio, 2016). To overcome these influences, educators in IDCS developed data-driven recruitment and enrollment practices that attempted to communicate the value of their diversity mission and influence the choice sets of diverse parents.…”

“…Within these recruitment efforts, staff members worked with the community, sought to open schools in locations where they could attract a diverse student body, and tapped into social networks. At the same time, state and local policies designed to prevent exclusionary enrollment practices created barriers to diversity (Jabbar & Wilson, 2018), paralleling other evidence that charter school leaders had to flexibly interpret state policies in order to meet diversity goals (Villavicencio, 2016). Our study builds on this work by focusing on different states, examining local context and providing evidence on diversity outcomes.…”

“…In a study of four intentionally diverse public schools, three of which were choice schools, Siegel-Hawley (2020) identified a number of practices that supported school diversity, including setting diversity goals, using lottery-based (as opposed to competitive) admissions processes, having a racially diverse faculty, engaging in extensive targeted outreach, and publicly communicating the value of diversity. Other studies focused on diverse charter schools have found that many use similar practices to promote diversity (Jabbar & Wilson, 2018; Villavicencio, 2016). Other charter school practices that support diversity include forging connections with community organizations, using multilingual messaging, and providing culturally responsive information to families (Garcia & Morales, 2016; Villavicencio, 2016).…”

“…Other studies focused on diverse charter schools have found that many use similar practices to promote diversity (Jabbar & Wilson, 2018; Villavicencio, 2016). Other charter school practices that support diversity include forging connections with community organizations, using multilingual messaging, and providing culturally responsive information to families (Garcia & Morales, 2016; Villavicencio, 2016). At the same time, some diverse districts and schools have used messaging and made programmatic changes that cater to White families, in effect commodifying families of color and/or linguistically diverse families rather than centering the needs and experiences of these families (Cucchiara, 2013; Palmer, 2010; Posey-Maddox, 2014; Turner, 2020; Woody, 2020).…”

Washing the world in whiteness; international schools’ policy

“…(Xoà, 2020, p. website) By turning to the policy of whiteness in international education, in this case, as manifest in international IB schools, this article shows how policy makers there reinforce a 'covert and systematic' ontology of whiteness and Anglo 'Englishness' through a hegemonic understanding of what it is to be international. This contribution speaks to the field of educational leadership and its literatures through lenses of whiteness and diversity (see Villavicencio, 2016;Wilkinson, 2008;Whitehead, 2007), international schools and internationalism (see: Gardner-McTaggart, 2016;20018: 2019;Bunnell, 2019;Caffyn, 2010;Cambridge, 2002;Doherty, 2009;Keller, 2014;Kenyon, 2018;Pearce, 2013;Walker & Dimmock, 2002 etc. ), and post-colonialism/hegemony and knowledge generation (e.g.…”