Title Information
Title
School Choice, Self-Sorting, and the Pursuit of Equitable Education in Portland, Maine
Abstract
School choice has a long and checkered history in American education policy. This thesis examines the effects of school choice and self-sorting in a progressive district trying to produce quality and equitable education in the face of rapid demographic change. Racial and socioeconomic enrollment imbalances between the high schools have exposed how the social and cultural backgrounds of families shape their educational values, tastes, and perceptions. White, middle-class families weigh their progressive values against their structural privileges, often prioritizing perceived educational advantages for their children at the expense of the formation of diverse schools. Marginalized families both seek out opportunities for educational advancement and mobility and racial/ethnic/linguistic belonging. Competitive pressures further exacerbate identity-based self-sorting by motivating schools to signal educational values to certain demographic groups. Even in ideal conditions, I argue, school choice cannot produce diverse and balanced schools, but I offer insights and recommendations for how districts can craft controlled choice policies that steer individuals’ choices toward community values and meaningful social integration.
Name: Personal
Name Part
Pierce, Siri A.
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/cre")
creator
Name: Personal
Name Part
Levitas, Anthony
Role
Role Term (marcrelator) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/relators/ths")
thesis advisor
Name: Personal
Name Part
Flores, Andrea
Role
Role Term
reader
Name: Corporate
Name Part
Brown University. Public Policy
Role
Role Term: Text
sponsor
Origin Information
Copyright Date
2024
Type of Resource (primo)
text_resources
Physical Description
digitalOrigin
born digital
Language
Language Term: Text (ISO639-2B) (authorityURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2.html", valueURI="http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/eng")
English
Note: thesis
Senior thesis (AB)--Brown University, 2024
Note (displayLabel="Concentration")
International and Public Affairs
Genre (aat)
theses
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01086509")
Topic
Race relations
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01107255")
Topic
School choice
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01107474")
Topic
School integration
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/")
Topic
education policy
Subject (fast) (authorityURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast", valueURI="http://id.worldcat.org/fast/01213254")
Topic
Maine--Portland
Access Condition: use and reproduction
All rights reserved
Access Condition: rights statement (href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/")
In Copyright
Access Condition: restriction on access
All Rights Reserved
Identifier: DOI
10.26300/yk79-qe98