Article
Opportunity Hoarding in School Choice Contexts: The Role of Policy Design in Promoting Middle-Class Parents’ Exclusionary Behaviors
Educational Policy
(2018)
Abstract
Multiple studies have shown the potential for school choice policies to benefit middle-class families, often to the detriment of lower income students in the same district. Yet, there is limited research examining the role of policies in promoting inequality by encouraging exclusionary behaviors. In this article, we utilize the concept of opportunity hoarding to analyze the specific policy provisions built into New York City’s elementary and high school choice plans that prompt middle-class parents to act in ways that secure advantages for their children. We find that parents’ anxiety about scarcity of high-quality educational options combined with the design of the choice policies facilitated pervasive opportunity hoarding that functioned as a collective strategy of class preservation.
Keywords
- school choice,
- educational equity,
- parent involvement,
- social reproduction,
- middle-class parents,
- urban schools,
- educational policy
Disciplines
Publication Date
October 10, 2018
Citation Information
Allison Roda and Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj. "Opportunity Hoarding in School Choice Contexts: The Role of Policy Design in Promoting Middle-Class Parents’ Exclusionary Behaviors" Educational Policy (2018) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/allison-roda/10/