Abstract
This community-based participatory research study examined the perspectives of parent participants in an organized parent network in Detroit seeking the best school options for their children entering Kindergarten within city boundaries. Their residency and school choices have emerged against the grain of public schools that have racially charged histories and decades of residential mobility trends. Examined are ways in which the parent network researched, collaborated, and made informed public, private, and charter school choices. Through the lens of Freire’s concept of praxis, interviews documented parents’ perspectives during the inception year for fulfilling school and community linkages and roles in improving city schools and enhanced knowledge of traits of successful schools that inform expectations for curriculum, school culture, and impressions of school visits.
This study documented Detroit families with children born 2009 and later, who, against the common convention of moving to the suburbs upon their children reaching school age, continued residing in the city on the basis of peer groups and the city’s cultural resources. Similar to trends in other major cities, remaining in the city and selecting schools in an uncertain school landscape for their children necessitated participation in a parent network (Lareau & Goyette, 2014). Participants in the network researched and supported aspiring and high performing urban school options. Participants aimed to promote sustainable racial integration in segregated schools or sustain integration in multiracial schools.
Their residency and school choices have emerged against the grain of public schools that have racially charged histories (Carter, 2007) and decades of residential mobility trends. Trends include families who, in response to failing or perceived failing city schools, have moved to neighboring suburbs for higher achieving suburban public schools. Others have remained in the city but have opted for suburban private options or schools of choice. In an educational landscape that is constrained by a proliferation of school choice, paced curriculum, and teaching to the test, the parent network aimed to influence their select schools’ implementation of innovative curricular practices. The parent network additionally aimed to facilitate community-based, parent organizing school reform efforts to reclaim the concept of community-oriented schools and residential sustainability. Members have identified the potential separation of school and community upon leaving city boundaries for school, amid cultivating relationships, playgroups, and activities in their city neighborhoods.
Many newcomers revealed possessing very little knowledge or experience with the schools in Detroit. Families, regardless of newcomer or longtime status, were confronted with an overabundance of underperforming charter schools that were largely disconnected from the community. In addition, concerns were raised about a reduced number of public schools that, with few exceptions, were low performing. Private schools that were connected to the community were not affordable for all parents in the group. Although families were learning about the higher performing school options across public, private, and charter school entities, parents without a background in education were uncertain about traits of successful schools and did not know what to look for during a school visit.
Through the lens of Freire’s (2000) concept of praxis, analysis of semi-structured interviews aims to document parents’ perspectives surrounding their desire to live in Detroit, in addition to perspectives of racially integrated schools. Expectations for curriculum, conceptualized community organizing efforts, and enhanced knowledge of the landscape of city schools will also be examined.
Research questions guiding the study
What are participants’ beliefs and rationale for living in Detroit?
What are participants’ personal experiences that influence a preference for racially and economically integrated schools?
What are parent’s expectations for curriculum?
What are participants’ perspectives of community organizing?
What knowledge do parents have about Detroit schools as a consequence of participating in the parent network?
Theoretical framework
Where people live and attend school poses consequences for life outcomes and one’s ability to get ahead. Many families send their children to the best schools in accordance with resources they are able to provide (Lareau & Goyette, 2014). The concentration of populations in economically homogeneous neighborhoods perpetuates economic inequality, racial segregation, and consequently inequality within the realm of school resources and educational attainment. Lareau and Goyette (2014) investigated complex factors surrounding Americans’ preferences for residential areas and school choice, and the consequent influence on racial and economic segregation and desegregation. Until the last decade, the selection of a house for families with resources was inextricably linked with the community and neighborhood school, posing a segregative effect across urban and suburban communities and schools, and consequently perpetuating inequality.
This trend was reflected in Detroit in 1999, a Midwest city that experienced population loss as a consequence of decades of divisions of race and class, issues of quality of life and public safety, perceptions of poor school quality, to residential mobility trends to its surrounding suburbs.
Lareau and Goyette’s (2014) investigation of housing and school decisions across economic boundaries is pertinent to this study, beginning in 2009. As families are moving into revitalized urban areas, a trend is emerging, which suggests they are more likely to pursue housing preferences without regard for its neighborhood school, but with the intent of sending their children to select urban, non-neighborhood public, and charter schools. As school options are sought, Lareau and Goyette (2014) have determined that an integrative effect on city schools and neighborhoods is gradually emerging. Thus, the increase of schooling options postulates a weakened connection between residency and school quality. The perspectives of the desire to remain in the city and contribute an integrative effect on city schools will be documented in this study.
According to Lareau and Goyette (2014), urban parents are more likely than their suburban counterparts to actively research schools as they rely on the Internet and sources of information to inform school options and preferences. In addition, an investigation of urban parents’ perceptions of school choice (Kimelberg, 2014) identified parents’ willingness to contribute reform efforts by giving time and resources to fulfill resource gaps and promote educational parity.
Stillman (2011) coined the term ‘tipping in’ to encompass the phenomenon of middle- and upper-middle-class White parents residing in gentrified neighborhoods who enroll their children in segregated urban schools. Tipping in emerges as once segregated schools gradually transform into integrated schools as a consequence of innovator parents who are willing to be the first among their peers to network and enroll in a segregated school. Innovator parents are followed by early and late majority parents who enroll their children after the group preceding them has changed the school to reflect a middle-class culture. Consequently, Stillman (2011) documented an integrative effect on schools, but difficulty with long-term retention due to segregated schools not sharing the attributes of progressive schools and parents’ expectations ultimately not aligning with the integrating schools. Administrators experience difficulty managing the cultural gap between longtime and newcomer families.
Freire’s concept of practice postulates raising awareness of broader circumstances shaping current conditions, particularly in circumstances of inequality. In this study, inequality refers to the inequitable distribution of resources across urban and suburban boundaries. Awareness of circumstances promotes reflection and dialogue, and ultimately action to facilitate desired change. Thus, the conceptual framework guiding parents’ advocacy is influenced by Freire’s (2000) concept of praxis, in which reflection prompts action and learning, within the realm of making informed school choices. An educational landscape with an abundance of high, aspiring, and low performing public and charter school options necessitates knowledge of traits of successful schools and willingness to participate in reform and advocacy efforts, toward promoting educational equality for selected urban schools.
Embracing parent participation in urban school reform efforts presents a stark contrast from traditional parent and school relationships where parents are unwelcome (Carter, 2007). The body of knowledge surrounding ‘community-based parent organizing’ (Mediratta & Karp, 2003; Warren, 2005) and urban school reform efforts is well documented. Collaborative efforts between educators, communities, community-based organizations, and parent groups facilitate systemic, community-based urban school reform efforts (Carter, 2007; Giles, 1998; Mediratta & Karp, 2003; Orr, 2003; Warren, 2005). Organized parent groups facilitate urban school reform by influencing, working within, and attempting to transform institutional hierarchies (Carter, 2007).
These efforts are a response to a failed educational landscape that is a consequence of historically constructed divisions of race and class (Carter, 2007). Failed school reform efforts in the city have historically been grounded in the local political culture and mayors’ inability to fully advocate for its schools, superintendent turnover, and school board membership changes (Mirel, 1993; Orr, 2007; Sugrue, 1996). Concerted, structural, failed reform efforts on a local level are numerous, including site-based management, the advent of charter schools, schools of choice, and private management (Orr, 2007).
In a case study in the Hunts Point neighborhood and its schools in the Bronx, Mediratta and Karp (2003) documented the efforts of MOM (Mothers on the Move), an organized parent group that sought to expose the failure of their schools and challenged accepted policies that perpetuated disparities between their community schools and their affluent suburban counterparts. Successful school reform requires effective collaboration with educators and calls for accountability and strategizing based on awareness of school failure and a knowledge base for improving schools.
Carter (2007) examined the experiences and participation of parents who were knowledgeable of the urban schools serving their children. Such parents were ultimately able to mediate outcome and accountability. However, Carter identified disconnected relations that hampered full participation in reform efforts. At the national level, parental engagement provisions have been underfunded under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which suggests that parents have not been included in broader school reform agendas (Carter, 2007).
Effective school reform requires collaborative efforts on behalf of local stakeholders, including teachers, parents, and non-profit organizations (Carter, 2007; Giles, 1998; Orr, 2007). Giles (1998) claimed that the most successful reform initiatives are collaborations between parents and schools that view the school and community as an ecology. Matters surrounding the local community must be identified and understood to take action and conceptualize solutions (Heckman, 1996; Lewis, 1997; Murnane & Levy, 1996). Parent group efforts have the potential to positively influence a child-centered school culture and academic achievement (Carter, 2007; Eccles & Harold, 1993; Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995; Lewis, 1997; Murnane & Levy, 1996). School reform efforts are situated in relationship building (Giles, 1998). Giles (1998) documented organizers of community-school initiatives who nurtured trust as stakeholders shared concerns and information. Efforts led to a transformative effect on schools (Coleman, 1990). Reform efforts were dialogic as participants discussed beliefs about education and co-constructed curriculum with parents (Giles, 1998). One study that identified a correlation between parent engagement and student achievement suggested a need for a common ground surrounding expectations for involvement to ensure successful parent–school relationships (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995).
Methodology
Site and participants
This community-based participatory research study was guided by the researcher’s ongoing participation, observations, and documentation of parent activism and organizing efforts in Detroit. The researcher has fulfilled a dual obligation as a researcher and parent member.
The participants reside in a city that has experienced residential flight to its neighboring suburbs, beginning with ‘white flight’ in the 1960s, ‘black flight’ in the 1980s, and consequently a shrinking tax base and racially charged history defined by tensions of race and class.
Although the state takeover of Detroit Public Schools in 1999 was an effort to reform low performing schools and alleviate systemic mismanagement, the advent of charter schools, followed by multiple public school closures beginning in 2005, intensified its struggles and declining enrollment. By 1999, once stable neighborhoods with school-aged children well into 1980s were visibly devoid of young families, as many children of that time grew up and opted to raise their families in surrounding suburbs or out of Michigan altogether. The housing foreclosure crisis and declining economy compromised the stability of its neighborhoods, as vacancy rates increased throughout the city.
The participants in the study reflect a stabilized housing market during a second state takeover of Detroit Public Schools in 2009, as foreclosed homes were selling at a fraction of their value, presenting opportunities for newcomer and lifelong residents with young children ownership of homes that otherwise may not have been attainable. During the time of the study in early 2014, in spite of Detroit’s status as the largest city undergoing Chapter 9 bankruptcy in US history, newcomer and longtime Detroiters were contributing to the city’s longtime stable neighborhoods, and the presence of young children became visible. Similar to urban centers around the country undergoing gentrification, negative perceptions of the city shifted as residents and businesses were moving back or remaining and reinvigorating the city landscape (Lareau & Goyette, 2014). Young families were enjoying the revived riverfront parks, the city’s cultural center, and downtown.
Although the city population is currently 80 percent African American, disproportionately poor and working class, the multiracial parent group members represent lower-middle-class households, along with middle- to upper-middle-class households that contribute the city’s tax base. The parent group members have a preference for schools that are in close proximity to their neighborhoods. Focus areas include downtown, midtown, and the northwest area of the city.
Participants in the study represent families who desired citywide, multiracial magnet schools that are rooted in the community and understand and embrace urbanite children. However, most citywide magnet schools that thrived through the 1990s either closed or transitioned to underperforming schools.
During the first year of the study, participants organized monthly meetings and coordinated daytime school visits. The selection of schools was guided by a list of high performing schools identified by school scorecards disseminated by Excellent Schools Detroit, a non-profit school evaluation agency. The school evaluation checklist guided school visits, used for information sharing purposes during meetings and through a private social networking site. Some participants are longtime residents of 6 or more years, while others are newcomers to the city of 1 to 5 years.
The sample size from the first year is six participants, a combination of longtime residents and newcomers. Purposive sampling was based on participants’ responses on surveys, particularly perspectives surrounding concerns about class sizes and desire to advocate for child-centered pedagogies in select schools. Participants were additionally selected based on compelling interactions during meetings and school visits. The participants reflect the diversity of the active core group.
Kayla is Central American, a longtime Detroit resident of 18 years during the time of the study. She grew up in California. Her husband is African American, a lifelong Detroiter. Kayla’s middle-class family resided in an historic district in a largely middle-class Palmer Park neighborhood in Northwest Detroit, located in close proximity to Ferndale, a neighboring suburb that borders 8 Mile Road, the dividing line between the city and suburbs. Their son attended a university lab pre-school in a neighboring suburb.
Sharon is European American, a longtime Detroit resident of 15 years and lifelong Michigan resident. Her husband is also European American. Sharon’s upper-middle-class household resided in Rosedale Park, an historic district on Detroit’s West side. Their two daughters attended the same university lab pre-school as Kayla’s son.
Stewart is Jewish, a 15-year-longtime Detroit resident and lifelong Michigan resident. He resides with his wife, also Jewish, in an historic district on Detroit’s Southwest side. Stewart’s family represents upper-middle-class households in the study. Their daughter attended an independent pre-school in Detroit during the time of the study.
Lisette is biracial, of German and Mexican parentage, and a newcomer Detroit resident of 3 years. Lisette and her husband, European American, reside in Indian Village, an historic neighborhood on Detroit’s East side. Lisette’s family represents upper-middle-income households in the study. Their son attended the same independent pre-school as Stewart’s son.
Paige is European American and a newcomer Detroit resident of 5 years. Her husband is biracial, African American and European American, and a lifelong Detroiter. Paige represents the middle-class households in the study. They resided with their son in the Eastern Market area, a historic district on Detroit’s East side, and also enrolled at the previously mentioned independent pre-school.
Kristin is European American and a 5-year Detroit resident. Her husband is African American, a lifelong Detroiter. Kristin’s family represents the lower-middle-class income households in the study. They reside with their daughter in an historic district on Detroit’s East side. During the time of the study, she was enrolled at a university lab pre-school in Detroit.
The researcher and parent member is a longtime Detroiter. She is biracial, of German and Jamaican parentage. Her husband is African American and a lifelong Detroiter. They are an upper-middle-class household and reside in Indian Village, an historic district on the city’s East side. During the study, their daughter attended the same university lab pre-school as Kayla and Sharon’s children. The researcher had positive schooling experiences in Detroit’s citywide, multiracial magnet schools during the 1980s, where teachers cared, knew, and maintained high expectations for students. The families attending citywide magnet schools during this time remained in the city, while many families were moving to the suburbs. During the time of the study, she identified patterns of families moving or remaining in the city, including many longtime Detroiters who attended magnet schools who revealed frustration upon knowing that the schools they attended as children were not available to their children in the present day. The researcher determined that longtime families and the influx of newcomer families into cities necessitated a social network as a key source of information to guide school choice.
She was hopeful that in spite of the changing educational landscape, the group could have enough advocacy to duplicate the diversity and trust of the citywide schools of the 1980s.
Data collection and analysis
The researcher audio-recorded semi-structured parent interviews from February to May 2014. The interviews were conducted, intended to inform longtime and newcomer parent perspectives about their desire to live in Detroit and to send children to racially integrated schools. Perspectives additionally included expectations for curricular practices, of community organizing, school visits, and enhanced knowledge of the landscape of schools in Detroit.
Qualitative research methods informed data analysis procedures. Documentation included transcripts from the parent interviews. Interview transcripts were read and manually coded line by line. Reduction of excerpted data was guided by affective coding (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana), in the endeavor of capturing salient emerging themes related to participants’ beliefs and rationale for living in the city, personal experiences influencing a preference for racially and economically integrated schools, preferred curriculum, perspectives of community organizing, and knowledge of traits of good schools during visits.
Findings
Rationale for living in the city
Interview excerpts revealed newcomer and longtime residents who reported a preference for urban living, sustainability, and revitalization. Participants reported a desire to cultivate a strong sense of pride in the city and its cultural resources for their children. Kayla, a longtime resident from the historic University District on the Northwest side, referred to the role of local techno artists who sustained her initial desire to move to the city 18 years ago:
What influences you to stay here?
Have I told you the story of how I ended up here?
No
I graduated in California with a degree in American studies and I decided to drive around the country and make sure I got a PhD in American studies. My material was laid out in front of me. I drove around the country in a Volkswagen Vanagon for 5 months – by myself (laughter). And when I went places where I was like, I could live here! I went all around the country. But when I came to Detroit I said I WILL live here at some point. There was not one place I wanted to live, and this was 1996–97. Because it was just the most unusual place, it was against anything anyone had told me about the city of Detroit. Growing up in California, oh, don’t go there, it’s the murder capital. But I came to Detroit and there was such a strong sense of community, I was drawn by techno music, so that’s what I wrote my dissertation about
Right, the techno music mecca
I knew techno was from Detroit, I met some techno artists, they took me on the tour, they showed me the Heidelberg project, they showed me houses that were well maintained and they said this a black owned home, then they showed me houses that were not well maintained and said this is an absentee suburbanite homeowner. So they gave me the picture of, here’s the true story of Detroit
So it’s not just black people not maintaining their property, it’s intra housing stock diversity
against the stereotypes of why the city of Detroit was the way it was. Here are people very rooted, who believe in their city who love their city, and who create art in their city just like techno musicians were creating art out of the special urban condition that was the city of Detroit.
Kayla organized a playgroup with families who shared her passion for the city’s resources, which underscores her desire to move to Detroit. This was particularly evidenced by her discussion of her experiences with suburban families who were not comfortable with crossing over to city boundaries for playgroups:
It’s one of the regional gems (referring to a neighborhood library branch), you walk in and it’s a majestic building and so we’re going to organize a pre-school storytime with the librarian. We try to make neighborhood things happen. I was in a playgroup in Ferndale (a neighboring suburb to the West), so it was me driving over the border and hanging out with Ferndale moms and their kids, and I thought, I need this in my neighborhood, I don’t need to drive to Ferndale for this, and as nice as the people are in Ferndale, there was a sense, some of them won’t drive across 8 mile to go to the new splash pad, they drive all the way out to Farmington Hills instead. That’s not the community for my son.
They don’t understand what’ s on our side of 8 mile and aren’t willing to understand it
Some of them would come, it was too much work, it shouldn’t be that much work. I want to be able to raise my son with like minded families
who will come to your house without question
and who use the neighborhood parks, the neighborhood library branches, who are interested in the city itself.
Similarly, Sharon, a longtime resident from Rosedale Park, a historic district on the city’s West side, reported, I like being in a city, I like the opportunities that we have to, especially our daughters have, to experience what city living is. Our neighborhood is wonderful. Probably the biggest thing that’s keeping us in Detroit is our neighbors. We have a very tight knit community, and great amenities close by. We have the park and community house, but we like being able to go to Belle Isle and the DIA. We take advantage of those things that are here.
Lisette, a newcomer to Indian Village, a historic district on the city’s East side, identified the caring in her community as a factor influencing her desire to remain:
The upsides are definitely the people, there’s a we’re all in this together kind of mentality to the city that’s unlike anywhere else. Living in New York, you might know your neighbors, but for the most part you don’t talk to each other, people have their blinders on when they’re going from point A to point B. Here, if I go on a run, every person I pass, we say hello to each other. You know, some of my tougher times here, I would be embraced by the community and neighbors and people really cared and they were there for me. And . . . That was important to me. There’s nothing like it anywhere else.
So the caring and the knowing aspect is what keeps you here. A lot of the people who come to the our neighborhood say that they stay because of the people, it really does make a difference
Absolutely, but I think not just Indian Village, here, even with the small businesses, I feel like anywhere else, anybody you want to cut down anyone you see as a threat for the business. Here it’s I’ve started doing this, how can we work together. Everyone wants to love thy neighbor or something
Everyone wants to contribute
and work together and build each other up.
When asked about urban resources sustaining her, Lisette informed:
Oh yeah, I would get pretty bored if I was in a suburb surrounded by box stores everywhere, I mean there’s parks in the burbs, and then there’s box stores in the burbs. Here, what I like is a couple weekends ago my husband and I had zero plans, and we spent the day, we went to the riverfront with the kids to go to the playground, decided to play in the sand at Campus Martius, there was a concert that night. Bob Marley’s son was playing in Campus Martius, he showed up and that was happening. That doesn’t happen in the suburbs! (laughter)
Kayla, Sharon and Lisette represent longtime and newcomer residents across the United States who desire to remain for an urban lifestyle in revitalized city centers. Their preferences for cultivating a supportive community, appreciation for the arts, and conscientious contributions to revitalization efforts are indicative of Lareau and Goyette’s (2014) claims about families nationwide who promote an emerging integrative effect on city neighborhoods. In a similar vein, the next section will explore experiential factors shaping participants’ perspectives of a welcoming school culture.
Personal experiences informing a preference for racially and economically integrated schools
When asked about factors shaping school choices, respondents desired a welcoming atmosphere for all children, guided by their personal experiences. Kayla represents the perspectives of longtime Detroit residents: What is definitely important is to move away from the attitudes I witnessed in Ferndale. This sense of liberal tolerance only to a point, so it’s really important that, not necessarily to go to school with kids who are exactly like him, but at least ones who are tolerant and open minded and see that there’s not only one way to live your life.
Sharon grew up in a small Michigan town and desired a neighborhood school, similar to her schooling experience, albeit desiring a racially integrated school:
Well, my experience and what is offered here are totally different. I grew up in a small town with an almost uniformly white student body, and I’m not looking to duplicate that (laugher). I couldn’t even if I wanted to, the landscape has completely changed, since I went through school. School choice has upended everything.
It’s dismantled a lot of our options.
The neighborhood school? That’s all there was when I grew up. And the parents in my neighborhood don’t even consider the neighborhood school an option, and even in the suburbs, I talk to suburban parents – so this does get to your question, I would like my daughters to have the experience of growing up in a neighborhood with kids they also go to school with, and having that community with the school, home, community gang. So I guess I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking for that. My friends in the suburbs raising their kids there tell me, that doesn’t even exist the suburbs because you have many many families who are opting for other options there and they are also not going to the neighborhood school.
In addition to desiring diversity, Paige, a newcomer residing in the Eastern Market neighborhood, grew up in a small town in the Western part of the country and stressed a connection to the community: I do think that it’s important to be intentional about being in a socioeconomically diverse environment and learning environment and to know that that’s a part of his education as the books, so I was incredibly involved in school activities and community activities that brought us out of our school and into the community, so I think that’s a value I would try to replicate.
Sharon mentioned a similar sense of community: It’s important to be in a place where they foster a sense of community and responsibility.
Kayla, Sharon, and Paige represent the perspective of longtime and newcomer Detroiters who desired schools that nurtured belonging and a connection to the community. Their prospective school choices have the potential to contribute a racially and economically integrative effect in city schools. In addition to desiring a sense of community in city schools, another factor influencing school choice was expectations for innovative curriculum practices.
Curriculum
Interview excerpts revealed participants who desired innovative, project-based, rigorous teaching practices. According to Kayla, I want him to be academically challenged. I myself did a lot of years of schooling so I expect that he will be thinking creatively, working hard. I teach my classes in a way that encourages critical thinking so I’m always going to want that for him. I’m not going to want rote memorization, and I want him to be able to do group projects and work on investigating his world.
In a similar vein, Sharon informed about what she did not want, and was not confident about primary schools and their ability to provide experiences that would bridge the progressive pre-Kindergarten offered for her daughters at their university lab pre-school:
There’s what I would like and what I can reasonably expect. I would love an experience like they have now that is child directed, exploratory, building on experience, sort of school experience, but I know they won’t get that after they leave here.
You can hope for it – you might advocate for it too, but that’s what you’d like to have
It’s easier to talk about what I don’t want – I don’t want rote work, seatwork, I want my girls to be engaged, to be able to use their imaginations. I fully expect the schools will be following the state standards and meeting those expectations
It’s a place where the instruction is engaging and hands on, but also meeting the standards in an interesting way without teaching directly to the test.
Teaching to the test is – but I don’t know how realistic it is that they’re not going to have that, but that’s what I would like.
Sharon preferred a school that would satisfy requirements outlined in the common core standards, without being constrained by pacing guides. Paige shared a similar perspective, while also desiring differentiated instruction, particularly within the realm of individually challenging students or providing additional support, as necessary: I think something that will be a balance between being challenging enough for our child, but also willing to be supportive and follow him wherever he’s at. I’m not sure if that’s specific in terms of curriculum, but that’s what I generally think, but also something that is rigorous and to standards. Math and science, social studies, history.
College preparation and a school culture promoting college was another expectation among participants:
I want to be sure there’s a culture of, an expectation that he’ll go to college, that academics are important, so a culture of prioritizing academics.
So the question is where are you going instead of are you going?
Yes, for sure! When I went to school it was everything was getting ready for college so I want him to think that way
Sharon, Paige, and Kayla represent the perspective of desiring a curriculum that is rigorous, differentiated, and satisfies the standards, while promoting student inquiry and creativity.
Perspectives of community organizing
Community organizing became a mechanism for parents to learn more about schools, within the realm of information sharing and learning from others to inform school choices:
I love it! Because I’m all about research. You don’t just accept anything, you want to know this side, that side, and maybe you want to look at test scores, but you also want to know what curriculum is used, you want to know everything, you want to know experiences of people who are there, you want to hear it and that perspective, whether you agree with it, or you don’t. The more information the better. So I love a group that gets together and sort of holds out the fact that information is a good thing. And shared and collaborative information.
It makes a difference doing this in collaboration together as opposed to doing this alone. You can’t possibly go to every school visit, but you pick and choose the wants you want to go to or consider yourself going, or you didn’t consider a visit but read a report on it and want to go on your own accord, so the information sharing is very valuable
And to hear the process about other people coming to these decisions, to hear which priorities they set gives you a better sense of how your priorities rank. I think it’s important still to have your own priorities that align with the person you see your child developing into. But to hear other people’s priority rankings just gives you a chance to shake yours up a little. And make sure they’re exactly in the order you want them to be. And they’re not just yours. Sometimes when there’s that pressure, and then I realize this is where Kayla would like to go to school, not where it would be a good fit for my son. So always, thinking that is pushed from other people, it’s always been productive.
Participants additionally voiced perspectives about reforming schools, within the vein of offering time and resources. According to Lisette, I would definitely contribute my time, that’s a given. I was a teacher for four years before having my babies (laughter). I feel really comfortable with helping with reading groups if I needed to do that, all the way to if the teacher wants me to put up new bulletin boards, I’d be happy to do that. I love to do that kind of stuff, I love the creativity part of the classroom, I love small groups because when I was a teacher that was a fantasy to have that kind of time that I could work with groups.
School reform efforts were also viewed as opportunities to influence administrators against teaching to the test:
That’s my biggest concern with Lincoln (a pseudonym for a high performing school), I spent some time on their website and found the word creative all over it, we use creative methods, our students are creative in the classroom, but I have a hard time believing that with the standard DPS curriculum that they would be able to do that, so that is a main thing that I will be able to do between now and then, to find out if there are avenues for them to use more creative opportunities for students, especially if they’re teaching to the test a half year ahead, more of that will limit opportunities for group work, project based work, things that allow students to develop at their own pace . . . It’s a constant juggling act. If there was a space to help the principal to work toward less teaching to the test, it would be my preference
Finally, participants voiced perspectives about differing and perceptions about how the group defined itself, namely, the mass enrollment perspective or the information sharing perspective. According to Lisette,
Not one of us wants to be perceived – there’s nobody in this group who wants to be perceived as a white group of parents to rescue a school. Nobody wants to do that
I think that was the original
there were two viewpoints – one was, if we all go in together, we can save a school – and the other was, let’s research together and each make the best choice for our child, and I’m glad that that mentality won. There can be a lot of resentment if you were to enter a school like that.
exactly and I’m not one to say our perspective was better, there are different perspectives, but I didn’t want to be regarded in that way, of a takeover
there were quite a few people who said they were gonna leave the group if that was gonna be our goal.
Similarly, Kristen informed, I’ve been working on this school thing and I’m feeling more positive about the group, so that at the very least and at the very best you might get another parent who’s like-minded and likes the same school. I don’t see us all making a massive push into one school because everyone has different priorities.
Paige voiced the following perspective: Yeah, a lot of the different perspectives about newcomers coming to Detroit, too, and just the perspective that this is the new Detroit, the blank slate. That’s totally disrespectful, and that’s not to say it lightly, you know?
Conversely, within the frame of being a part of a school community, Stewart offered, I’m excited about what we can do as a group, and I would hope we would have a transformative effect on the schools we’re considering, I’m finding I’m becoming a part of these school communities too.
Kayla represents Lareau and Goyette’s (2014) claims about the need for urban parents to participate in parent networks in the endeavor of learning about characteristics of good schools.
Lisette and Kayla represent Kimelberg’s (2014) claims about parents’ willingness to contribute reform efforts by giving time and resources to fulfill resource gaps and promote educational parity. They demonstrate the potential to positively influence a child-centered school culture and academic achievement (Carter, 2007; Eccles & Harold, 1993; Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1995; Lewis, 1997; Murnane & Levy, 1996). They support school reform efforts, situated in relationship building (Giles, 1998).
Lisette, Kristen, and Paige’s preference for the information sharing perspective reflected their concerns about a faction of newcomers in the group who were encouraging everyone to mass enroll and take over one school. Such a perspective was a concern, because it assumed a deficit perspective of the school’s existing culture and student body. Although participants’ responses reflected the desire to promote an integrative effect on select schools indicative of tipping in coined by Stillman (2011), their perspectives differed concerning the issue of the potential cultural gap between longtime and newcomer families. Respondents preferred to promote an integrative effect and offer support within the parameters of a select school and were critical of parents desiring to mass enroll and change the culture of the school to reflect the blank slate that Paige was concerned about. Moreover, families who assumed the information sharing perspective recognized that one school is not the best fit for each child. While Kristen recognized the benefit of another parent from the group with similar values, the bottom line became a matter of selecting the best-fit school that could satisfy parents’ expectations. Finally, from Stewart’s perspective, the group could promote a viable contribution to a school community.
Enhanced awareness of the landscape of Detroit schools
The parent group initially formed as a response to families desiring to better understand Detroit schools. The changing landscape of public, private, and charter schools was bewildering. Moreover, the ubiquitous mistrust for public schools, multiple school closures, limited resources, and high-stakes testing pressures instilled concerns about whether any viable schools remained. Information sharing and school visits rendered the following perspectives: So I think I came into the parent group before we even went to a school or had the idea to tour schools. I was thinking, how the hell am I going to find a school for my child and not take him out to the burbs to do it? I really thought he would be going to a school, public or private in Grosse Pointe. But I was just hoping we could find something in the city proper. And now that we are involved in it, I see a number of options I would be happy with. So now it’s not a matter of how am I going to find a school, it’s how am I going to choose one. (Lisette)
Similarly, Kayla informed, I didn’t know there were so many high performing elementary schools in DPS, so even though, I have been a spokesperson, well there are high performing schools, look at Bates, I didn’t know about Chrysler and Nichols and Davison, I didn’t know there were so many, it gives me hope for all of the city kids, not just my own.
Stewart was additionally pleased with an unexpected abundance of choices: I have learned of a lot of schools I never knew existed, I’ve met a lot of new people, I’ve gotten excited too, met new parents. It’s a very interesting experience – for all of us, there’s a sense of hope that there are some choices to draw from. I felt a little hopeless last year. This is a benefit for me, too!
Perspectives on behalf of Lisette, Kayla, and Stewart represent confidence in city schools that would not have been realized without researching, conducting school visits, and sharing outcomes of visits to inform school choices.
Implications for future research
The educational research community demonstrates resounding concerns that systemic innovative practices are at a standstill as a consequence of NCLB. Parent knowledge and activism may be one response to ensuring school quality. During its second year, the parent group gained knowledge of traits of effective schools. Parent knowledge and collaboration transitioned to momentum and recognition from local and national media outlets while Detroit emerged from bankruptcy status. Consequently, membership began to increase and more families began considering the city neighborhoods and schools. Schools and district officials took notice and began collaborating with the group to arrange school visits, understand parents’ criteria, and make attempts to meet parents’ expectations, particularly regarding class size and child-centered, innovative curriculum.
Uncertainty resonates surrounding the public and charter entities’ ability to meet parent expectations. Group membership continued to increase during 2015–2016 academic year, in spite of a succession of teacher sick-outs in Detroit Public Schools, a process in which teachers collectively organized school closures to gather in protest and raise awareness about poor working conditions and the district’s inability to pay teachers beyond the end of the year (Higgins & Matheny, 2016). The district was operating at a considerable deficit, while a reform package to sustain the district was approved by the state senate and under debate with the Michigan House of Representatives (Higgins & Matheny, 2016), which was passed by the legislature prior to the 2016–2017 school year. The approved reform package or House plan called for splitting Detroit Public Schools into two districts: the old Detroit Public Schools for the purpose of paying off the district’s debt and the new Detroit Public Schools Community District that operates from remaining transition costs (Gray, 2016). Particularly controversial was the omission of the Detroit Education Commission that would have had oversight over where public and charter schools are located in Detroit. What was approved instead was an advisory-only body that would not have the same authority to determine the location of schools (Gray, 2016). However, the transition costs allotted for innovative programming, including the offering of Montessori programs in three of the district’s schools, which have attracted families from the parent group.
As the uncertain future unfolds, continued research will center around parents’ perspectives of the approved House plan, particularly the Montessori program enrollees. Whether schools will meet parents’ expectations and retain students, and ultimately inform reform efforts one school at a time, presents opportunities for future research. Future directions include revisiting participants’ perspectives of Detroit schools after they have been enrolled, their advocacy efforts for select schools, and documenting the perspectives of generations that proceed the originating families.
Conclusion
This study is significant, within the realm of education praxis, research, and theory that have the potential to guide policies that may transform city schools, toward more justice and equity. The phenomenon of urban parents networking and researching the best city schools aligns with the recognition of education’s potential to promote equal opportunity. Members have the resources to live elsewhere, but desire to participate in organized reform efforts to promote educational parity in the city, not only for themselves but for all students who attend the selected schools.
Freire’s concept of praxis aligns with parents’ steadfast efforts to organize ongoing meetings, information sharing during meetings and through social networking resources, and organizing school visits. Reflection among members is dialogic, as they question and engage in dialogue surrounding the changing educational landscape and realities of school offerings. Information sharing of school visits intends to prompt action and awareness of school resources, organization, and culture. Action emerges through a willingness to promote and/or sustain an integrative effect on selected schools by sending cohorts of children. Action emerges as schools are attempting to satisfy parents’ expectations. Moreover, acting as partners with the administration and with teachers provides resources, such as extracurricular gaps, that may otherwise not be feasible. Action additionally emerges as parents insist upon teacher autonomy to implement innovative teaching practices, against the grain of high-stakes testing pressures.
Lareau and Goyette (2014) claimed that traditional patterns of families selecting schools based on residential communities they can afford reinforce racial and educational inequality, given the separation of urban and suburban neighborhoods and schools. Conversely, racially and economically integrated schools reduce inequality. Focal families represent families across the country promoting an integrative effect by enrolling in urban schools and participating in reform efforts. Participants live in affluent and aspiring racially integrated neighborhoods, but reside within a broader context of an underresourced city and dismantled school system. Thus, factors in the community in which families have chosen to live compromise their prospects for equitable attainment of a quality education. Awareness of this dilemma prompts reflection and action, toward organized reform efforts. Reform, one school at a time, has the potential for transforming the landscape of the city’s schools. Reclaiming quality and trust in schools aim to contribute culturally and socially, and to overall economic and residential stability.
Recommendations for establishing a parent network
Connect with parents with similar aged children who participate and are active in shared community activities;
Connect with local school reporting agencies for resources;
Organize a school evaluation checklist that is informed by parents’ preferred criteria and by the local school reporting agency;
Connect with administrators at the school or district level to arrange daytime school visits;
Establish a Facebook or similar social networking site for arranging meetings and sharing information about school open houses;
Establish a private social networking site such as Big Tent for posting school evaluation checklists. Different school entities compete for students and have a preference for not reporting school visits publicly;
Parents should never post negative information about a school on public or private social media;
Arrange for child care during meetings. All members who participate in child care services should compensate the caregiver;
Respect parent’s school choices, even if you selected a different school for your child;
Respect personnel during school visits, even if you disagree with the school’s philosophy.