Accountability Battle: A Critical Analysis of a Charter Renewal Decision.

Charter school policy represents two simultaneous forms of accountability, in which schools are accountable to both parents and authorizers. This study of a K-8 charter renewal decision interrogates these accountability relationships and the role of race and power in privileging the interests of particular stakeholders over others. Using counternarrative methodology and qualitative interviews and observations, we draw on critical race theory and new managerialism to make sense of the competing accounts surrounding a non-renewal process. We find four areas of tension, in which district officials subscribe to new managerialist authorizing styles that leave little room for participation from the Black and low-income school community. We conclude with recommendations for how districts can partner with communities to work toward frameworks of accountability that value the goals of multiple stakeholder groups.

Race, Gender, and Networks: How Teachers' Social Connections Structure Access to Job Opportunities in Districts With School Choice.

Research in sociology demonstrates the way social connections shape access to information about job opportunities. In education, we understand less about how social networks impact the job process for marginalized teachers and teachers in nontraditional labor markets. This study examines how teachers in New Orleans and Detroit, cities with high concentrations of charter schools, use their networks to search for jobs, and how their experiences vary by race and gender. We find that in choice-rich environments, there was an extensive reliance on social networks in the hiring process, and teachers had different access to key social networks that can help to land jobs. Hiring decisions and unequal access to job opportunities among teacher candidates, in part due to the reliance on networks, created conditions where teachers who cultivated stronger networks, or with access to the "right" networks, had greater opportunity, with implications for racial and gender equity and diversity.

Social Construction Is Racial Construction: Examining the Target Populations in School-Choice Policies.

Purpose: We examine policy influencers' perceptions of the targets of school-choice policy across five states, exploring how constructions varied for White and racially minoritized families, whether policy actors conceived of the "target" of policy as the child or the parent, and how these racialized constructions varied across different types of school-choice policies. Research Methods/Approach: We conducted 56 semistructured interviews in 2019 with state-level stakeholders across five states. Findings: We found that policy actors generally viewed White families as strong and racially minoritized families as weak. However, for both groups, we found variation in whether these constructions were positive or negative and differences between students and parents. We find that social constructions are fluid, with varying, sometimes conflicting and contradictory views of racially minoritized and White parents in the same period, within the same state context. Despite the salience of race throughout social constructions of the target population, policy actors primarily used color-evasive references. In general, we found little variation in policy components at the state level. Implications: Our work demonstrates how racialized social constructions matter for equity in school-choice policy, with implications for local, state, and federal policy and for future research.

School Choice, Teachers' Work, and Professional Identity.

Teacher professional identity, or what it means to be a teacher, informs the types of schools teachers seek for work. With the marketization of schools in the US and abroad, teachers' professional identities are changing. However, we know little about how teachers negotiate-and renegotiate-their professional identities during the job search in contexts with school choice, such as charter schools. This study uses qualitative interview data from 46 teachers in San Antonio, Texas, where over 25% of students attend charter schools. Our findings illuminate the job search as a critical juncture where teachers evaluate their professional identity as they make choices about the sector-charter or traditional public school-and/or school organization they prefer. In particular, the choice context legitimated flexibility and fluidity in teachers' professional identity as teachers moved between sectors to find jobs, even if the school did not align with their personal or professional values. We also found that employability and teachers' perception of the job market played an important role in how teachers strategically presented their professional identity on the job search. Findings offer implications for teacher education and teacher workforce policies.

La identidad profesional docente, o lo que significa ser docente, informa los tipos de escuelas que los docentes buscan para trabajar. Con la mercantilización de las escuelas en los EEUU y en el extranjero, las identidades profesionales de los docentes están cambiando. Sin embargo, sabemos poco acerca de cómo los docentes negocian y renegocian sus identidades profesionales durante la búsqueda de empleo en contextos de elección de escuela, como las escuelas chárter. Este estudio utiliza datos de entrevistas cualitativas de 46 maestros en San Antonio, Texas, donde más del 25 % de los estudiantes asisten a escuelas chárter. Nuestros hallazgos iluminan la búsqueda de empleo como un momento crítico en el que los docentes evalúan su identidad profesional al tomar decisiones sobre el sector (escuela pública autónoma o tradicional) y/o la organización escolar que prefieren. En particular, el contexto de elección legitimó la flexibilidad y la fluidez en la identidad profesional de los docentes a medida que los docentes se movían entre sectores para encontrar trabajo, incluso si la escuela no se alineaba con sus valores personales o profesionales. También encontramos que la empleabilidad y la percepción de los docentes sobre el mercado laboral jugaron un papel importante en la forma en que los docentes presentaron estratégicamente su identidad profesional en la búsqueda de empleo. Los hallazgos ofrecen implicaciones para la formación docente y las políticas de fuerza laboral docente.

A identidade profissional do professor, ou o que significa ser professor, informa os tipos de escolas que os professores procuram para trabalhar. Com o marketing das escolas nos EUA e no exterior, as identidades profissionais dos professores estão mudando. No entanto, sabemos pouco sobre como os professores negociam ­ e renegociam ­ suas identidades profissionais durante a busca de emprego em contextos de escolha escolar, como as escolas charter. Este estudo usa dados de entrevistas qualitativas de 46 professores em San Antonio, Texas, onde mais de 25% dos alunos frequentam escolas charter. Nossas descobertas iluminam a busca de emprego como um momento crítico em que os professores avaliam sua identidade profissional ao fazerem escolhas sobre o setor ­ escola charter ou escola pública tradicional ­ e/ou organização escolar de sua preferência. Em particular, o contexto de escolha legitimou flexibilidade e fluidez na identidade profissional dos professores à medida que os professores se desloc avam entre os setores para encontrar emprego, mesmo que a escola não se alinhasse com seus valores pessoais ou profissionais. Constatamos também que a empregabilidade e a percepção dos professores sobre o mercado de trabalho desempenharam um papel importante na forma como os professores apresentaram estrategicamente sua identidade profissional na busca de emprego. Os resultados oferecem implicações para as políticas de formação de professores e força de trabalho de professores.

The Age of Satisficing? Juggling Work, Education, and Competing Priorities during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic continues to shape individuals' decisions about employment and postsecondary education. The authors leverage data from a longitudinal qualitative study of educational trajectories to examine how individuals responded to the shifting landscape of work and education. In the final wave of interviews with 56 individuals who started their postsecondary education at a community college 6 years ago, the authors found that most respondents described engaging in satisficing behaviors, making trade-offs to maintain their prepandemic trajectories where possible. More than a quarter of individuals, primarily those with access to fewer resources, described trajectories fraught with insecurity; they struggled to juggle competing obligations, especially in the face of an unpredictable labor market. A small portion of participants described making optimizing decisions, which were sometimes risky, to prioritize their aspirations. These descriptive patterns may partially explain mechanisms shaping recent shifts in employment and postsecondary education, including lower labor-market engagement and declines in college enrollment.

Economic Imperialism in Education Research: A Conceptual Review.

In this review, we explore economic imperialism, a concept that captures the phenomenon of a single discipline's power over so many facets of social life and policy-including education. Through a systematic search, we examine how economic imperialism has been conceptualized and applied across fields. We uncovered three key, interconnected elements of economic imperialism that hold relevance for education research. First, economics has colonized other disciplines, narrowing the lens through which policymakers have designed education reforms. Second, an overreliance on economic rationales for human behavior neglects other explanations. Third, a focus on economic outcomes of education has subjugated other important aims of education. We share implications for researchers to use economic theory in ways that are interdisciplinary but not imperialist.

Bridges or Barriers? How Interactions between Individuals and Institutions Condition Community College Transfer.

Institutional practices and conditions at community colleges can improve rates of transfer, as can access to transfer student capital. However, we know little about how institutions attempt to build students' transfer capital, or about students' experiences within community colleges as they accumulate transfer capital. In this paper, we examine how students' institutional experiences, particularly their engagement with student supports at community colleges and transfer destinations, influence their understanding of, and ability to navigate, the transfer process. We view the accumulation of transfer student capital as an interactionist model between the students and their institution, where students' transfer knowledge and success is conditioned by an interaction between their background and institutional conditions. We draw on longitudinal qualitative interview data with transfer-intending community college students over the course of 3 years to understand how students access, receive, and accumulate transfer capital as they work toward their educational goals. By leveraging student experiences, our study can inform community colleges and transfer destinations about practices and policies interpreted as most effective from the perspective of students. Our work also connects to broader conversations about how institutions reproduce, ameliorate, or exacerbate inequalities based on student background.

How Political and Ecological Contexts Shape Community College Transfer.

Broad higher education contexts shape how community college students and postsecondary personnel approach transfer from community colleges to baccalaureate-granting institutions. We leverage the concept of strategic action fields, an organizational theory illuminating processes that play out as actors determine "who gets what" in an existing power structure, to understand the role of political-ecological contexts in "vertical" transfer. Drawing on interviews with administrators, transfer services personnel, and transfer-intending students at two Texas community college districts and with administrators, admissions staff, and transfer personnel at public universities throughout the state, we examine how institutional actors and students create, maintain, and respond to rules and norms in the community college transfer field. Our results suggest university administrators, faculty, and staff hold dominant positions in the field, setting the rules and norms for credit transfer and applicability. Students, who hold the least privilege, must invest time and energy to gather information about transfer pathways and policies as their primary means of meeting their educational aspirations. The complex structure of information-wherein each institution provides its own transfer resources, with little collaboration and minimal alignment-systematically disadvantages community college students. Although some community college personnel voice frustration that the field disadvantages transfer-intending community college students, they maintain the social order by continuing to implement and reinforce the rules and norms set by universities.

Thinking Through Transfer: Examining How Community College Students Make Transfer Decisions.

Objective: For many students, community college is a convenient first step toward a bachelor's degree. Yet, although more than 80% of those who enroll in community colleges intend to transfer to a 4-year institution, fewer than 35% do so within 6 years. Quantitative data reveal the presence of a transfer gap and there is extensive research on college choice for high school students, but little qualitative research has been done to examine the transfer process for community college students to identify what drives their decisions. Method: In this article, we draw on interviews with 58 community college students in Texas to examine how they made transfer decisions. Results: We find that their decision-making and transfer pathways were complex and nonlinear in ways that were particular to the uncertainty of the community college context. For a subset of students, we identify minor hurdles that could derail their decision-making, lengthen their timelines to transfer, or lead to a failure to transfer. Contribution: By illuminating student pathways to transfer using qualitative research, our work identifies potential areas where policy and practice could strengthen transfer to improve student outcomes.

It's Who You Know: The Role of Social Networks in a Changing Labor Market.

Teacher labor markets are evolving across the United States. The rise of charter schools, alternative teacher certification, and portfolio districts are transforming teachers' access to employment, changing the way they search for and apply for jobs, and may also change the role that social networks play in the job search. However, we know little about how teachers use their networks to find jobs, particularly in increasingly fragmented local labor markets. We draw on interviews with 127 teachers in three districts chosen to reflect an increasing presence of charter schools: New Orleans, Detroit, and San Antonio. We find that the extent of fragmentation in a city's labor market drives the use of networks, with important implications for job access and equity.

Teacher Power and the Politics of Union Organizing in the Charter Sector.

Despite the growing media attention paid to charter-school unions, comparatively little empirical research exists. Drawing on interview data from two cities (Detroit, MI, and New Orleans, LA), our exploratory study examined charter-school teachers' motivations for organizing, the political and power dimensions, and the framing of unions by both teachers and administrations. We found that improving teacher retention, and thus school stability, was a central motivation for teacher organizers, whereas, simultaneously, high teacher turnover stymied union drives. We also found that charter administrators reacted with severity to nascent unionization drives, harnessing school-as-family metaphors and at-will contracts to prevent union formation. As the charter sector continues to grow, understanding why teachers want unions and how those unions differ from traditional public school unions is crucial to analyzing the long-term viability of these schools and the career trajectories of the teachers who work in them.

Choice, Competition, and Cognition: How Arizona Charter School Leaders Interpret and Respond to Market Pressures.

A key goal of school choice policies is to generate competition between schools, which should theoretically drive school leaders to improve their programs to attract and retain students. However, few studies examine how principals actually perceive and define competition. This article empirically examines school leaders' conceptions of competition and their strategic behaviors using cognitive frameworks from new institutional theory, including sensemaking theory. Drawing on data from qualitative interviews with 30 charter school leaders in Arizona, we explore how leaders' cognitive understandings of competition influence their actions in an educational "marketplace." We find charter school leaders make meaning of "competition" in different ways, influenced by their local contexts and their conceptions of what actions are legitimate. Our work suggests that it is important to study the meanings of competition to school leaders, as it has important implications for schools' competitive responses and, ultimately, student outcomes. Our work has important implications for policy makers seeking to expand school choice as it sheds light on how competition works in practice, with implications for equity and access.

Choosing transfer institutions: examining the decisions of Texas community college students transferring to four-year institutions.

As more students begin their higher education trajectory in community colleges in the US, there are few studies investigating the choice process for community college transfer students. This study draws on models of college choice to examine community college student transfer decisions. Using longitudinal administrative data, we examine institutional characteristics associated with students' decisions about enrollment. We find that most transfers were to a relatively small subset of public, research institutions, despite a large and diverse set of options. Our results also indicate notable student subgroup preferences associated with measures of institutional support and quality for schools in student choice sets.

Poor Choices: The Sociopolitical Context of "Grand Theft Education".

In recent years, districts have paid special attention to the common practice of "district hopping," families bending geographic school assignment rules by sending a child to a school in a district where the child does not formally reside-usually to a district that is more desirable because of higher performing schools or greater educational resources. In several high-profile cases, mothers who engaged in district hopping were charged with "grand theft" of educational services. By situating these cases in the broader context of market-based reforms, we refocus attention on the responses of districts rather than the actions of parents. We argue that increased privatization of education and growing dominance of a "private-goods" model of schooling create the conditions necessary for framing these actions as "theft."

"Échale ganas": Family support of Latino/a community college students' transfer to four-year universities.

Families play a key role in students' school choices throughout their education. While research has explored the familial supports for high-school students transitioning to college for the first time, few scholars have examined how family engagement influences the decisions of current community-college students seeking to transfer to four-year universities. We explore how Latino communitycollege students' social ties to family played a role in the transfer process. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 56 Latino students in Central Texas, we find that families shaped students' "choice sets" and played a complex role, providing inspiration and emotional, informational, and financial supports, among others.

On Becoming a District of Choice: Implications for Equity Along the United States-Mexico Border.

Purpose: Despite the popularity of open enrollment as a school choice mechanism, there is little research on how principals behave in a district-run competitive setting. This study adds to our understanding of how open enrollment policies affect the role of the principal as well as educational equity by examining the roles and behaviors of school principals in an unregulated marketplace of schools. Research Method: This study uses an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach. We first analyze school-level transfer data for school year 2014-2015 and demographic data in order to examine trends such as poverty concentration as well as to identify "winners," "losers," and "nonplayers" in the open enrollment marketplace. Since principals are heavily involved in recruitment, student screening, and selection of specialized programs, we interviewed 12 principals to better understand their role in the competitive settings. Findings: We find that some schools have emerged as "winners" in this marketplace, attracting large numbers of transfers without losing many students, while other principals and schools struggle to overcome a negative perception and find a market niche to attract students. Our quantitative analysis indicates a relatively small relationship between open enrollment and increased segregation in the district. District oversight seems to have prevented worsening segregation. However, many principals seek more control on the screening process raising equity concerns if formal regulations are not provided. Implications: These findings have implications for school and district leaders navigating open enrollment plans as a means to increase enrollments and encourage innovation while also maintaining equity.

Crossing the Shapeless River on a Government Craft: How Military-Affiliated Students Navigate Community College Transfer.

Many community college entrants, attracted by these institutions' variety of academic offerings and low cost, intend to earn a baccalaureate degree but never transfer to a four-year institution. A growing number of researchers seek to understand transfer patterns and behavior, but they often overlook some student groups, including those who receive military benefits. Military-affiliated students may fail to transfer at the same rate as their peers, or their unique supports may help them navigate the transfer process more successfully. In this paper, we draw from three years of longitudinal qualitative interviews to investigate the transfer journey of 16 veterans and active duty soldiers in Central Texas, as well as the experiences of nonveteran students who have access to family members' veterans' benefits. We focus on the institutional factors and the individual characteristics that contribute to transfer. Our findings suggest that receiving military benefits increases students' interactions with college staff, limits financial pressures, and encourages students to pursue behaviors that may contribute to a successful transfer process. We conclude with suggestions for practice and future research.

To Switch or Not to Switch? The Influence of School Choice and Labor Market Segmentation on Teachers' Job Searches.

Informal and institutional barriers may limit teacher movement between charter schools and traditional public schools (TPSs). However, we know little about how teachers choose schools in areas with a robust charter school sector. This study uses qualitative data from 123 teachers to examine teachers' job decisions in three cities with varying charter densities: San Antonio, Detroit, and New Orleans. Our findings illuminate different types of segmentation and factors that facilitate and limit mobility between sectors. We find that structural policies within each sector can create barriers to mobility across charter schools and TPSs and that teachers' ideological beliefs and values serve as informal, personal barriers that reinforce divides between sectors. This study offers implications for policy in districts with school choice.

Diving Into the Pool: An Analysis of Texas Community College Students' Transfer Institution Choice Sets.

Background/Context: Community colleges are drawing renewed attention from policy makers and advocates seeking to increase college attendance and completion. Nearly half of all students awarded a bachelor's degree attended a community college. However, we know little about how community college students decide where and how to pursue postsecondary education, or how they select a four-year institution-choices that have significant implications for student outcomes. Focus of Study: This study examines transfer-intending community college students' choice sets, or the list of institutions they are selecting from. Specifically, we ask: What kinds of colleges and universities are in transfer-intending students' choice sets, and how are these choice sets shaped by individual and structural barriers? Setting: The research took place in two community college systems in Central Texas. Research Design: Drawing on data from 95 interviews with transfer-intending community college students in Texas-the majority of whom are first-generation college-goers, low-income, or students of color-we examine their choice sets, the institutions to which they considered transferring. Conclusions/Recommendations: Our findings suggest significant heterogeneity among our sample of community college students seeking transfer to four-year institutions. We find that geography, financial concerns, and quality of institution all play a role in student considerations-though these mechanisms operate differently for groups of students. Students' choices are bounded, but in different ways. We identify five approaches to choice-set construction among our sample that have differential implications for programs and policies that help students successfully apply and transfer to high-quality four-year institutions.

Complex Pathways to Transfer: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of the Transition From Community College to 4-Year University.

Many community college students express a desire to transfer to a 4-year institution, but few achieve that goal. In this article, we examine what conditions lead to successful student transfer and which serve as barriers. Drawing on data from a longitudinal qualitative study of 61 transfer-intending students in Texas and using qualitative comparative analysis, we investigate the student-level conditions and experiences that contribute to successful or unsuccessful transfer to a 4-year institution. We find that there is no single condition that can predict success. Instead, we describe how factors such as social capital, students' family background, and advising supports interact with one another to determine student success or failure in the transfer process. We identify specific pathways to transfer, with implications for policies and programs that can help bolster students in the face of potential barriers. We provide suggestions for policy, practice, and future research.