School Restructuring and Youth Political Incorporation in Suburban America

City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2018 The Structurally Adjusted School: School Restructuring and Youth Political Incorporation in Suburban America Erin Michaels The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2611 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] The Structurally Adjusted School: School Restructuring and Youth Political Incorporation in Suburban America by Erin Michaels A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2018 © 2018 ERIN MICHAELS All Rights Reserved ii The Structurally Adjusted School: School Restructuring and Youth Political Incorporation in Suburban America by Erin Michaels This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date Carolina Bank Muñoz Chair of Examining Committee Date Lynn Chancer Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: David Brotherton Philip Kasinitz Ruth Milkman THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii Abstract THE STRUCTURALLY ADJUSTED SCHOOL: SCHOOL RESTRUCTURING AND YOUTH POLITICAL INCORPORATION IN SUBURBAN AMERICA by ERIN MICHAELS Advisor: Professor Carolina Bank Muñoz My dissertation argues that key 21st century education reforms intended to improve education for Latinx and Black students are actually new mechanisms of educational inequality. I examine this trend in the suburbs where Latinx and Black populations are growing due to new immigration and gentrification. I show how state-mandated education reforms use conditional financing and coercive restructuring policies to undermine the school’s local control by tying major reforms to vital school aid and threatening it with closure. I relate this model to the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) the IMF and World Bank use globally in order to coerce countries to implement neoliberal policies. I argue that “failing” schools become "Structurally Adjusted Schools." This type of school has two elements: testing and surveillance. The school teaches to the test hoping to get students to produce certain state-mandated test scores, and students experience the testing regime as repressive but inescapable. The state also requires certain student behavior metrics and the school tries to comply through student surveillance and zero-tolerance discipline. For example, tardiness results in suspension and security staff forcefully regulate student compliance. The Structurally Adjusted School marginalizes Latinx and Black youth political incorporation by engendering disenfranchisement, undermining political agency, and damaging the potential for interracial solidarity. This research exposes iv political incorporation as a dimension of racialized educational inequality, highlights the experiences of Latinx and Black youth in the suburbs and explains how recent education reforms diverge from previous education models. v Acknowledgements I am grateful to everyone at "SHS" for answering my questions, sharing their knowledge, experience, time, and space. My greatest thanks go to the students at SHS because this project would not have existed without these sharp and insightful young people. My analysis of SHS is critical of social structures, practices, and ideologies that inform individual actions, and is not intended to criticize individuals themselves. It is my hope that revealing these patterns will help our society better understand and confront how racial inequality is reproduced in schools and eliminate it. A great number of scholars also made this dissertation possible. An enormous thank you to my dissertation advisor, Carolina Bank Muñoz, for her excellent guidance at every stage. Carolina believed in this project from the start, encouraged me to take on big ideas, and pushed me to find my voice. I also received wonderful direction from my other committee members, Ruth Milkman, David Brotherton, and Philip Kasinitz. I gained a lot from Ruth's close-reading and feedback on multiple drafts. Ruth has also been a great supporter for my development as a scholar since well before I even entered my PhD program. Dave also spent a great deal of time discussing my work with me, which considerably helped me to strengthen my analysis particularly in theorizing securitization and working-class youth. He also gave great methodological advice for dealing with the "messiness" of ethnographic data. I also value the excellent counsel of Phil, who also spent numerous hours discussing my work with me. These discussions helped me develop my ideas related to the urban and immigration sociology literatures. He also dispensed wonderful concrete suggestions for in-depth interviewing and data analysis. vi I am grateful to have had faculty beyond my committee supporting me as well. I am particularly thankful to Johanna Brenner for guiding me since I was an MA student at PSU with a big dream of getting a PhD and absolutely no idea how to even write a PhD program application. I also want to give a big thanks to Ruthie Gilmore. Her encouragement and openness to my early ideas were essential. She also served on my qualifying examination committee and gave valuable feedback on my dissertation proposal. I also want to thank Celina Su, her writing workshop was crucial to my progress as a writer. I am also super thankful to my community at the Inter-University Program for Latino Research Mellon Fellows Program: Jennifer Boles, Albert Laguna, Veronica Terriquez, Ramona Hernández, and Nena Torres; and especially the other Fellows: Kendy Rivera, Esther Díaz Martín, Nadia Rivera Fellah, Roberto Rincon, Pablo García Gámez, and Omar Ramadan- Santiago. I cannot imagine having completed this project without their counsel, peer-review and overall support. My Graduate Center student colleagues and friends also provided endless support over the years that helped me grow as a scholar and keep me sane, especially Bronwyn Dobchuk- Land, Anna Gjika, Brenda Gambol, Sara Martucci, Dominique Nisperos, Marnie Brady, and Jane McAlevey. Lastly, I thank my partner Jeff Hinton. He judiciously reviewed every page of this dissertation many times. I thank him for his love and patience during graduate school as well as his dedication and enthusiasm for my research. vii Preface Riding my bike down Main Street I notice several beautiful murals. I realize that one of the murals is masking a boarded-up window, it shows a montage of a diverse group of young people smiling. One young woman in the mural has a large green Afro and flashes a peace sign with her fingers. I continue to see many boarded-up buildings as well as several additional murals painted with messages of diversity, growth and hope. As I ride further down the street I notice that the majority of the stores I pass cater to low-income patrons: paycheck cashing, money mailing, pawnshops and dollar stores. Young men stand chatting on the sidewalk, some leaning on cars parked on the street. A number of young to middle-age women and men walk down the street in small groups. Most are speaking English, but I also hear a few groups chatting in Spanish. It is a hot and humid June day in Crane, a small town upstate New York.1 Eager to get out of the sun I pick up the pace on my bike as I head toward to the local high school, Sandhill High School (SHS). As I turn off Main Street and ride a few streets down, I see students walking through the residential neighborhood of older homes that surround the school. I park my bike in the empty metal bike rack near the entrance of SHS and look up to see an older brown building that could use a fresh coat of paint. Aging AC units dot the classroom windows. Students cross past a few large trees and over short grass covering the school grounds. Three security guards hover near the entrance, their bright yellow jackets reading "SECURITY" in heavy dark green lettering. In order to enter the school, I must wait until the security guard positioned inside unlocks the first round of doors. Standing in front of the door I wave to get the guard's attention and the red light above the door turns green, signaling to me that I can go inside and approach the 1 All places and names are pseudonyms viii security desk. As I wait behind two students who forgot their IDs, they take turns reciting their numbers to the security guard. The guard matches their photos and numbers with her computer screen to confirm their identities and see if their files show that they are cleared to attend class. The door buzzes, indicating that the second door is unlocked and the two students can enter the building. As a regular visitor, I show my SHS photo ID and sign-in manually. Once inside, I hear the Jeopardy music that plays over the loudspeaker between class periods, letting the kids know that the "clock is ticking" and they need to get to class. The main hall is large and lined with blue lockers. There is a low beat of students' sneakers squeaking against the grey and white spotted linoleum flooring. The students walk to their next class, chatting with their friends and seeming unmindful of the uniformed police strolling the hallway near them. I am struck by the number of signs here. There are signs above the students' lockers reminding them to follow the school's rules and prepare for the state exams. Past the lockers is a bulletin urging students to "work hard" and be on time to class. A different sign prompts the students to walk respectfully in the hallways, and a large red poster publicizes the number of days until the state exams.

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