Middle-class School Choice in Urban Spaces examines government-funded public schools from a range of perspectives and scholarship in order to examine the historical, political and economic conditions of public schooling within a globalized, post-welfare context. In this book, Rowe argues that post-welfare policy conditions are detrimental to government-funded public schools, as they engender consistent pressure in rearticulating the public school in alignment with the market, produce tensions in serving the more historical conceptualizations of public schooling, and are preoccupied by contemporary profit-driven concerns. Chapters focus on public schooling from different global perspectives, with examples from Chile and the US, to examine how various social movements encapsulate ideologies around public schooling. Rowe also draws upon a rich, five-year ethnographic study of campaigns lobbying the Victorian State Government in Australia for a brand-new, local-specific public school. Critical attention is paid to the public school as a means to achieve empowerment and overcome discrimination, and both a local and global lens are used to identify how parents choose the public school, the values they attach to it, and the strategies they use to obtain it. Also considered, however, are how quality gaps, distances and differences between public schools threaten to undermine the democracy of education as a means for individuals to be socially mobile and escape poverty. This book makes an important contribution to our understanding of global social movements and activism around public education. As such, it will be of key interest to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the field of education, specifically those working on school choice, class and identity, as well as educational geography.

In recent decades a growing number of middle-class parents have considered sending their children to—and often end up becoming active in—urban public schools. Their presence can bring long-needed material resources to such schools, but, as Linn Posey-Maddox shows in this study, it can also introduce new class and race tensions, and even exacerbate inequalities. Sensitively navigating the pros and cons of middle-class transformation, When Middle-Class Parents Choose Urban Schools asks whether it is possible for our urban public schools to have both financial security and equitable diversity. Drawing on in-depth research at an urban elementary school, Posey-Maddox examines parents’ efforts to support the school through their outreach, marketing, and volunteerism. She shows that when middle-class parents engage in urban school communities, they can bring a host of positive benefits, including new educational opportunities and greater diversity. But their involvement can also unintentionally marginalize less-affluent parents and diminish low-income students’ access to the improving schools. In response, Posey-Maddox argues that school reform efforts, which usually equate improvement with rising test scores and increased enrollment, need to have more equity-focused policies in place to ensure that low-income families also benefit from—and participate in—school change.

A series of policy shifts over the past decade promises to change how Americans decide where to send their children to school. In theory, the boom in standardized test scores and charter schools will allow parents to evaluate their assigned neighborhood school, or move in search of a better option. But what kind of data do parents actually use while choosing schools? Are there differences among suburban and urban families? How do parents’ choices influence school and residential segregation in America? Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools presents a breakthrough analysis of the new era of school choice, and what it portends for American neighborhoods. The distinguished contributors to Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools investigate the complex relationship between education, neighborhood social networks, and larger patterns of inequality. Paul Jargowsky reviews recent trends in segregation by race and class. His analysis shows that segregation between blacks and whites has declined since 1970, but remains extremely high. Moreover, white families with children are less likely than childless whites to live in neighborhoods with more minority residents. In her chapter, Annette Lareau draws on interviews with parents in three suburban neighborhoods to analyze school-choice decisions. Surprisingly, she finds that middle- and upper-class parents do not rely on active research, such as school tours or test scores. Instead, most simply trust advice from friends and other people in their network. Their decision-making process was largely informal and passive. Eliot Weinginer complements this research when he draws from his data on urban parents. He finds that these families worry endlessly about the selection of a school, and that parents of all backgrounds actively consider alternatives, including charter schools. Middle- and upper-class parents relied more on federally mandated report cards, district websites, and online forums, while working-class parents use network contacts to gain information on school quality. Little previous research has explored what role school concerns play in the preferences of white and minority parents for particular neighborhoods. Featuring innovative work from more than a dozen scholars, Choosing Homes, Choosing Schools adroitly addresses this gap and provides a firmer understanding of how Americans choose where to live and send their children to school.

This second handbook offers all new content in which readers will find a thoughtful and measured interrogation of significant contemporary thinking and practice in urban education. Each chapter reflects contemporary cutting-edge issues in urban education as defined by their local context. One important theme that runs throughout this handbook is how urban is defined, and under what conditions the marginalized are served by the schools they attend. Schooling continues to hold a special place both as a means to achieve social mobility and as a mechanism for supporting the economy of nations. This second handbook focuses on factors such as social stratification, segmentation, segregation, racialization, urbanization, class formation and maintenance, and patriarchy. The central concern is to explore how equity plays out for those traditionally marginalized in urban schools in different locations around the globe. Researchers will find an analysis framework that will make the current practice and outcomes of urban education, and their alternatives, more transparent, and in turn this will lead to solutions that can help improve the life-options for students historically underserved by urban schools.

Privatisation and Commercialisation in Public Education asks how publicness is being redefined through the restructuring of nominally public school systems. Over the past few decades, governments have engineered a wave of reforms in their public systems opening them to privatisation and commercialisation. In public education systems competition, choice and autonomy have become entrenched vectors of these reforms. This edited collection carefully examines the difference between privatisation and commercialisation and traces the varying effects privatised and commercialised policy reforms have had in different educational contexts. Many countries have approached the thorny issues of school choice and school autonomy in different ways, and this book investigates the impact of these agendas across the USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, parts of Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and India. This book brings together contemporary, international perspectives from high-profile policy academics on both privatisation and commercialisation in public education systems under the provocation of how the ‘public’ nature of schooling is changing. This is essential reading for those interested in the idea that current education policy reforms are reshaping what might be considered core educational practices in public schooling.

A comprehensive collection of essays from leading experts on family and community engagement The Wiley Handbook of Family, School, and Community Relationships in Educationbrings together in one comprehensive volume a collection of writings from leading scholars on family and community engagement to provide an authoritative overview of the field. The expert contributors identify the contemporary and future issues related to the intersection of students’ families, schools, and their communities. The Handbook’s chapters are organized to cover the topic from a wide-range of perspectives and vantage points including families, practitioners, policymakers, advocates, as well as researchers. In addition, the Handbook contains writings from several international researchers acknowledging that school, family, and community partnerships is a vital topic for researchers and policymakers worldwide. The contributors explore the essential issues related to the policies and sociopolitical concerns, curriculum and practice, leadership, and the role of families and advocates. This vital resource: Contains a diverse range of topics related to the field Includes information on current research as well as the historical origins Projects the breadth and depth of the field into the future Fills a void in the current literature Offers contributions from leading scholars on family and community engagement Written for faculty and graduate students in education, psychology, and sociology, The Wiley Handbook of Family, School, and Community Relationships in Educationis a comprehensive and authoritative guide to family and community engagement with schools.

This book explores the experiences of early career teachers in a profession that has become highly stratified by market processes. The author presents New South Wales, Australia as a case study: a state with a long history of academically selective and private sector schooling, which has become increasingly segregated under a series of neoliberalised policy reforms since the 1980s. The experiences of teachers in this book are rich and varied, from a variety of different contexts – ranging from public schools enrolling students experiencing significant educational disadvantage to elite independent schools serving much more advantaged student cohorts. Highlighting teachers’ experiences in themselves rather than their impact on students, this timely book will be of interest and value to scholars of sociology of education, teachers’ work and education policy.