Why the Opportunity School District Failed? An Examination of Coalitions and the Politics of School Improvement

Abstract

In this study, we examine coalition building and coordination using a qualitative case study of the coalition opposing a ballot initiative to create a state-run turnaround district in Georgia. The findings highlight three important strategies in coalition building: (a) incorporating new actors, especially noneducation advocacy groups and noneducator groups in education; (b) incorporating noneducation and African American advocacy groups in the leadership of the coalition; and (c) identifying and coalescing around core beliefs early to unite a diverse coalition. Time to organize, prior relationships, and interest group autonomy were key factors in navigating tensions between coalition breadth and coalition cohesion. Salient coalition coordination strategies included the following: (a) “keep it local and grassroots,” and (b) diverse messaging.

Beyond the Parameters of “Choice”: An Obliterated Vision for Traditional Public Schooling and the Contamination of the New Orleans Charter Restart Model

“…African American struggles for public education are by no means new (J. D. Anderson, 1988;Ceceleski, 1994;Du Bois, 1998). An abundance of research indicates that Black communities have resisted takeover initiatives (Buras, 2013;Danley & Rubin, 2020;Glazer & Egan, 2018;Morel, 2018;Welsh & Graham, 2021;Wright & Kim, 2020) and school closures (Dixson et al, 2015;Freelon, 2022;Lipman, 2017;McWilliams & Kitzmiller, 2019;C. Wilson et al, 2019).…”

Administering Discipline: An Examination of the Factors Shaping School Discipline Practices

“…For nearly all of the interviews, both researchers (author and research assistant) were present and took notes. These notes were shared and compared after the interviews were completed, which led to multiple "norming" sessions (Welsh & Graham, 2021), which were used to ensure consistent interpretation and application of codes. Specifically, researchers, using both individual notes and transcripts, highlighted excerpts related to any of the codes in which we were interested.…”