ERIC Number: EJ1039710
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Sep
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0042-0972
EISSN: N/A
The Theatre of Competing Globally: Disguising Racial Achievement Patterns with Test-Driven Accountabilities
Koyama, Jill P.; Cofield, Candace
Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education, v45 n3 p273-289 Sep 2013
A discourse placing schools in the service of the economy has become ubiquitous in the United States (US), and current educational policies, including No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and movements, such as the Common Core Learning Standards, have been positioned as necessary in an account of global competitiveness. In this hegemonic script, implementing standardization and test-driven accountabilities across schools become not only the means, but also the goals of reform. This, we argue, undermines policy aims to reduce the persistent racial achievement gap. Here, we reconsider NCLB's accountabilities within "political spectacle," a framework we use to highlight the purposeful and public enactment of the worldwide educational-economic crisis. We demonstrate that this spectacle, when performed by politicians, city officials, school district administrators, educational support businesspersons, and the media, draws attention away from the ways in which NCLB negatively impacts poor, Black, and Latino youth who disproportionately attend "failing" public schools. Drawing upon data ethnographically collected in New York City (NYC) between June 2005 and October 2010, we reveal education officials and politicians justifying accountability in terms of global competiveness--often to reap personal benefit and political support--while minimizing the ways in which racial disparities continue even a decade after the implementation of NCLB mandates.
Descriptors: Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation, Academic Achievement, Accountability, State Standards, Educational Policy, Academic Standards, Politics of Education, African American Students, Hispanic American Students, Low Income Groups, Underachievement, Public Schools, Ethnography, Global Approach, Competition, Racial Differences, Disproportionate Representation
Springer. 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-348-4505; e-mail: service-ny@springer.com; Web site: http://www.springerlink.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: New York
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: No Child Left Behind Act 2001
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A