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The Discursive Practice of Education Policy: A Case Study of Local Foundations and School Choice Policies in Cleveland, Ohio

DePaoli, Jennifer L
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386881970

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, EDU Policy and Leadership.
This dissertation presents a study of the processes of education policymaking within current neoliberal education reform, using Cleveland’s 2012 Transformation Plan as my case. In three separate scholarly articles, I critically analyze the social actors and institutions driving Cleveland’s core reform strategy, school choice, through strategic discourses and narratives, and present a policy analysis of high-performing urban schools, largely “choice” schools, to examine the veracity of the discourses employed in Cleveland, and elsewhere, to propel school choice policies. Utilizing a critical policy scholarship approach, I study the role of local foundations in shaping the policies and discourses of education and re-defining the possibilities of education policy in Cleveland leading to the Transformation Plan. In the first article, I analyze the processes through which neoliberal school reforms promulgated by national-scale foundations are localized to Cleveland’s urban context. In then exploring the resulting misalignments and policy adjustments of the localized national scheme, I find that Cleveland’s local foundations proved to be effective vessels of the national agenda in spite of contradictions and contestations of their school reforms, and I discuss the political and social implications this has for the city and its schools. In the second article, I analyze the political narrative employed by local foundations to define the school district’s problems, and in turn, assign blame, legitimize “fixers,” and challenge existing institutions. I find Cleveland’s local foundations used stories of their funded magnet schools’ successes coupled with the systemic failure of the public education system to legitimize themselves as “fixers” while laying blame on the teachers union, and therefore, challenging the prevailing political institution in public education. I then trace the narrative through to its political success and add a critical lens to deepen understanding of how the foundations’ narrative became the predominant policy solution in Cleveland. The third article is a policy analysis of top-rated urban schools in Ohio, presenting a wider geographic lens to study the demographics and enrollment policies of these schools, which are often used as reasons, as in Cleveland, to advance school choice. I find the majority of top-rated urban schools across the state employ selective enrollment policies, class size limits, or both, and the students at these schools are demographically different in terms of their racial, economic, and disability status. Altogether, these articles pose a significant challenge to the discourses and policies of education reform in Cleveland, and representative of those used in cities across the U.S., and this dissertation as a whole reveals the influence of foundations in education policy and their shift from a social-oriented institution to one focused on furthering economic and political goals.
Jan Nespor (Advisor)
Ann Allen (Committee Member)
Antoinette Errante (Committee Member)
210 p.
Education

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • DePaoli, J. L. (2014). The Discursive Practice of Education Policy: A Case Study of Local Foundations and School Choice Policies in Cleveland, Ohio [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386881970

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • DePaoli, Jennifer. The Discursive Practice of Education Policy: A Case Study of Local Foundations and School Choice Policies in Cleveland, Ohio. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386881970.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • DePaoli, Jennifer. "The Discursive Practice of Education Policy: A Case Study of Local Foundations and School Choice Policies in Cleveland, Ohio." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386881970

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1386881970
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© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12