El libro-álbum

This qualitative case study sought to understand how African American parents socially construct school boundaries. The main research question, “How do middle-class African American parents socially construct school boundaries?” was divided into three questions: (1) How do middle-class, African American parents make meaning of school boundaries? (2) How do these meanings shape these parents’ decision to cross (or not cross) school boundaries? and (3) How does the act of boundary-crossing among middle-class, African American parents either disrupt or reproduce school boundaries? Though many studies examining school boundaries rely primarily on geospatial analyses of school districts as well as other quantitative methods used to examine boundary-crossing trends within and between school districts, this study uses a

qualitative approach to understand parents’ subjective beliefs about and experiences with school boundaries, and how these beliefs might can disrupt, but also result in the reproduction of school boundaries.

Research questions, study design, data collection, and data analysis were all guided by a theoretical framework that combined Critical Race Theory, social constructionism, and minority culture of mobility perspectives. During data analysis, three major themes emerged. The first was “Drawing the line”, which focuses primarily on middle-class, African American parents’

perceptions of why school boundaries exist and how they function. The second was, “Crossing the line”, examining what factors motivate middle-class African American families to cross school boundaries and the kinds of obstacles they face in attempting to cross them. The last, “Redrawing the line”, examines how parents’ decisions to cross school boundaries affected the neighborhood school and contributed to larger social changes.

Findings reveal that these middle-class, African American parents perceive significant disparities in the quality of schools available in their neighborhoods compared to those available in whiter, middle- to upper-middle class neighborhoods. They also believe that school

boundaries play a significant role in shaping multiple indicators of school quality. However, while most parents believed that school boundaries negatively impacted African American schools and limited African Americans’ access to high quality schools, a small minority of parents dismissed any notion that there is anything inherently racist or biased about school boundaries.

Nonetheless, whether parents perceived school boundaries to be racist structures or not, they engaged in boundary-crossing in search of what they believed to be better schools, investing a great deal of time and resources in the process. Although parents recognized that their greater access to more resources made it possible for them to cross school boundaries, they also gave a great amount of weight to personal attributes such as determination, sacrifice, and persistence in successfully crossing school boundaries.

Additional findings indicate that some of the consequences of middle-class, African American parents’ decisions to cross school boundaries included drops in school enrollment, school demographic changes, and a potential shift in the school’s culture. The broader implications of these actions allowed parents to disrupt the constraints imposed on families through school boundaries, particularly those of color and with fewer resources, creating opportunities for themselves and other families to gain access to better quality schools. These decisions to cross school boundaries however, are not free of negative consequences. In fact, by crossing school boundaries, these parents wound up reproducing these structures by causing

Responses from key informants also contribute to this study. Though on the surface school and district staff’s responses regarding boundary-crossing seem to either refute or support parents’ perceptions of school boundaries, findings indicate that these responses, in fact,

complicate parents’ understandings of the boundary-crossing process, and align with broader interpretations of boundaries as both racist and oppressive.

While the foregoing focus primarily on the products of how parents socially construct school boundaries, this study also highlights the processes through which parents’ beliefs and ideas are developed and transmitted. In arriving at their conclusions about school boundaries, both parent-participants and key informants appear to draw on broad narratives of racism, oppression, and marginalization of African Americans. These narratives constitute common sense knowledge among parents which not only shape their perceptions of schools and school boundaries, but influence their decision whether to cross school boundaries. Some of the modes through which many of these ideas are developed and transmitted include word of mouth, the media, “objective” information such as school ratings provided by online websites like Zillow or Great Schools and test scores provided by the district, and the advice of knowledgeable actors such as teachers, school administrators, and district administrators. Even more compelling, however, is information parents gleaned through observation and personal experience from their own schooling experiences as well as their experiences with older children or siblings.

Although all parent-participants in this study are referred to as Unity parents, parents’ responses revealed a few patterns in their perceptions of school boundaries and their school choices. For example, the parents referred to as inside parents (four parents) were those who lived within the Unity Elementary school attendance boundary but chose to send their children to other schools within the district. As a group, these parents were more educated and generally

displayed more reluctance than their counterparts to attribute race and/or racial bias to the way school boundaries were drawn and enforced.

Outside parents (six parents), on the other hand, were those who lived outside the Unity Elementary school attendance boundary, yet opted to send their children to Unity over their children’s assigned schools. These parents were more likely than inside parents to perceive school boundaries as racist and intentionally designed to exclude them from what they perceived to be better quality schools in more affluent area.

The last group of parents, are referred to as the contents. These two parents were the only two among the sample who did not cross school boundaries. Both lived within Unity

Elementary’s attendance boundary and sent their children to the school. There were no

observable patterns among their responses. While one provided responses that were more in line with the perception of school boundaries as neutral and unbiased, the other was adamant that race played a role in the way boundaries were drawn and enforced, though she expressed some beliefs in favor of the social exclusion of lower income families from good schools.

Ultimately, for many of the parents in this study, a more preferable boundary policy would be one in which school boundaries to be eliminated entirely, as many felt that as taxpayers and parents, choosing a school for their children should be within their province and not the province of the state. Though some parents, believed that eliminating school boundaries entirely would lead to increased access to better schools or improvements in underperforming

neighborhood schools, others argued that school boundaries would not be such a problem if education resources were distributed more equitably. A more detailed description of the study findings are provided in the following chapters.