Suburban School Districts and Demographic Change

Abstract

Purpose: Suburban school districts have undergone significant demographic shifts over the past several decades. The research literature to date, however, has yet to explore how suburban district leaders are responding to such changes, or examine the factors that shape response. In this article, we apply a "zone of mediation" framework to examine how the leaders of one large and rapidly changing suburban school district in Texas responded to its changing student population. In our analysis, we consider the technical, normative, and political dimensions of this district's response to demographic shifts. Research Methods/Approach: We conducted an indepth qualitative case study of a large and rapidly changing district in the San Antonio Metropolitan area, which we named "Southern Independent School District." Our data included interviews with 28 district-level and community actors and interviews with 26 educators across three "focus"

Looking Back, Moving Forward: Technical, Normative, and Political Dimensions of School Discipline

“…Political dimensions are related to power and resource stratification in schools. If an educational practice is linked to racial and economic stratification (both within schools and later in students’ life trajectories), as was the case with tracking, reforms seeking parity in educational opportunity can anticipate pushback from those benefiting from the previous arrangement (Holme et al, 2014; Oakes, 1992; Stuart Wells & Serna, 1996; Wells & Oakes, 1996). Reforms that challenge the distribution of educational opportunity shift schools’ “political arrangement in terms of ‘who gets what, when, and how’” (Lasswell, 1936, as cited in Oakes et al, 1993, p. 472).…”

“…In addition to changing the policies that dictating educational practices, effective reforms attended to the social context in which these practices were embedded. This required facing complex belief systems and power arrangements, particularly since these educational policies made salient issues of racial stratification (Holme, Diem, & Welton, 2014; Oakes, 1992; Oakes, Quartz, Gong, Guiton, & Lipton, 1993; Oakes, Quartz, Ryan, & Lipton, 2000; Welner, 2001). Thus, research on the detracking movement offers a warning to discipline reformers and researchers that without attention to the norms and politics that sustain disparities in student outcomes, technical strategies can be engulfed by old systems of beliefs and resource conflicts.…”

Coign of vantage and action: Considering California’s local accountability and school finance plans for English learners

“…This mediating role requires school districts to negotiate normative and political forces at the community, societal, and global levels as they adopt new reforms or policies. In this process, school districts often come up against existing power dynamics related to race, class, and language that make the implementation of equity-minded reforms difficult (Holme, Diem, & Welton, 2014). As a result, it can be challenging for school districts to go beyond the technical aspects of reform, such as adopting new curricula or hiring instructional staff, to address normative and political aspects.…”

“…While normative change requires confronting dominant ideologies related to intelligence or merit and the resulting structures developed around them (e.g., tracking, pull-out language programs), political change must address issues related to power and resource distribution (Holme et al, 2014). With respect to the latter, research suggests that district policymakers often relent to the demands of middle-and upper-class and White families who are threatened by policies perceived as redistributive (Frankenberg, McDermott, DeBray, & Blankenship, 2015;Posey 2012;Wells & Serna 1996), making it essential that diverse voices are included in district reform efforts.…”

“…Even resources focused on parent engagement tended to focus on technical features such as translators and providing parents with school-based resources. This attention to technical reforms is common in school districts that have not sought to expand their zones of mediation by including diverse voices in their decision-making processes in ways that would address more normative and political reform aspects (Holme et al, 2014;Oakes et al, 2005).…”