“We Make Our Own Rules Here”: Democratic Communities, Corporate Logics, and “No Excuses” Practices in a Charter School Management Organization

Abstract

Recently, there has been growing debate over the managerial and leadership practices of expanding charter school networks, often referred to as Charter School Management Organizations (CMOs). CMOs—which typically serve low–socioeconomic status students of color—are deeply tied to education reform efforts in the United States. Many CMOs consistently promote the belief that education can and should borrow heavily from the “best practices” of corporate culture and many have unlimited resources to enact their vision of educational success, closely aligned with what has been called “no excuses” schooling. Research on the daily practices of leaders working in a CMO remains limited; we know very little of how corporate ideologies are enacted in schooling. Drawing on ethnographic vignettes, I explore the daily life in one school within a CMO network considering to what extent corporate practices de-democratize education, produce neoliberal subjectivities, and shape experiences with learning for disadvantaged populations.

Public School Choice Options in the United States

“…Such competition is intended to theoretically induce innovation at charter schools and encourage improvement at TPS to avoid losing students to charter schools [58]. Innovation is specifically garnered through charter schools' operational autonomy from the government, which allows the schools to be responsive to local needs [59] and act swiftly in the implementation of changes [60]. This inducement of innovation and competition has been argued to lead to better schooling options, especially for low-income families and Students of Color, who have been continuously siloed to underachieving urban schools [61].…”

“…One study found that in Massachusetts, urban charter schools improved math and English language arts outcomes for Students of Color and low-income students [91]. However, evaluations of no excuses charter schools, which are often defined by the enforcement of strict disciplinary codes and extended school days and years, have shown that these schools have a detrimental impact on the experiences of Students of Color, lead to exclusionary practices, and inhibit the implementation of restorative justice practices [60,104,105]. Collectively, these findings suggest that students' experiences and outcomes at charter schools vary greatly.…”

“…However, there are other metrics of achievement and support for students that should be considered in the evaluation of equity in choice schools. For example, both alternative and virtual schools have provided educational spaces for students who lacked adequate support or faced social issues in TPS [106,107,137], but some charter schools have utilized practices that are detrimental to the experiences of Students of Color [60]. These effects should be continuously evaluated because, similarly to the provision of rigorous academic programs, the provision of affirming educational spaces also contributes to the remedying of educational debt.…”

Durability and debate: How state-level policy actors frame school choice

“…Such schools are characterized by extended school days and years, use of regular student assessments to inform instruction, intensive professional development for teachers, and structured behavior management and discipline policies (Golann, 2015). Researchers have found that such models emphasize deference to authority rather than critical thinking (Golann, 2015), undermine democratic goals of education (Sondel, 2015;Stahl, 2020), create barriers to the development of respectful studentteacher relationships (Lopez, Kershen et al, 2018), and communicate racist narratives that center White educators as the "saviors" of racially minoritized youth (Sondel et al, 2019; also see Hernández, 2016).…”

Book Review: Homeschooling the right: How Conservative Education Activism Erodes the State, by Brown, H

“…Those of us who study nonprofit organizations have observed with interest the vast increase in the number of civil society organizations providing education to America’s youth through charter schools. Nonprofit scholars have examined this new nonprofit form, their management, governance, and relationship to governments at all levels (Edwards & Hall, 2018; Hill & Lake, 2017; Stahl, 2020). In addition, some have drawn attention to the outsized role philanthropic foundations, such as the Walton Foundation, have played in the spread of charter schools (Carr & Holley, 2014; Dixson et al, 2015; Fabricant & Fine, 2015), explored the role of community-based organizations as advocates for social change in public education (Flynt, 2010; Jha & Beckman, 2017; Milakovich & Wise, 2019), and tracked the increase in parent volunteering as a result of the charter school movement (Flynt, 2010; Oberfield, 2020; Wang & Fahey, 2011).…”