Latent Conflict in Urban Public Education
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LATENT CONFLICT IN URBAN PUBLIC EDUCATION: SILENT DOMINATION AND THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF DISCRIMINATORY ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS by ARGUN SAATCIOGLU Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation adviser: Dr. Eric H. Neilsen Department of Organizational Behavior CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY August, 2007 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the dissertation of ______________________________________________________ candidate for the Ph.D. degree *. (signed)_______________________________________________ (chair of the committee) ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________ (date) _______________________ *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. To my parents… TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents i List of Tables iv List of Figures v Acknowledgements vii Abstract x Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: The Rise of Manifest Conflict around Segregated Public Education in 17 the United States 2.1. The Origins, the Logic, and the Aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education Ruling 17 2.2. Political Opportunity Structure and the Process of School Desegregation in the Late 1950s and the Early 1960s 29 2.2.1. Opportunity structure and social change 29 2.2.2. The gradual expansion of the opportunity structure for manifest struggle regarding school desegregation and the eventual progress in the implementation of Brown 35 2.3. Educational Inequality in the North and the Contraction of Political Opportunity in the Late 1960s and Early 1970s 56 2.3.1. The logic of urban educational reform outside the South 61 2.3.2. Initial decline in the opportunity for manifest conflict around school desegregation 64 2.3.3. Stalemates in school desegregation in a time of declining political opportunity for manifest conflict 77 2.3.4. Closing the door on school desegregation 91 Chapter 3: The Progressive Value of Urban School Desegregation and the Rise of Latent Conflict around Segregated Public Education in the United States 105 3.1. School Desegregation in a Time of Rapid Urban Decline and Vanishing Opportunity for Manifest Conflict 105 3.2. Conceptualizing School Effectiveness 108 3.2.1. Contradictory logics in the conception of public schools 108 3.2.2. Urban public schools as “organizations of salvation” 115 3.3. Contemporary Concepts Regarding the Key Components of the Non-School Context and the Recent Findings on the Basic Educational Implications of These Components 120 i 3.4. A Conceptual Model of Public School Interaction with the Urban Non-School Context and the Implications of School Desegregation 127 3.4.1. Overview of a neo-ecological theory of the non-school context 128 3.4.2. Basic hypotheses 135 3.4.3. Dynamics concerning white children 156 3.5. Full-Fledged Latent Conflict around Segregated Schooling 161 3.5.1. The 1980s 164 3.5.2. The 1990s and beyond 182 3.6. The Function of Discourse in Rationalizing Unfair Inequality 220 Chapter 4: An Institutional View of the Latent Conflict around Segregated Public Education in the United States 224 4.1. The Relevance of the New Institutionalism in Organizational Sociology to Urban Educational Inequality 224 4.2. An Overview of the New Institutionalist Literature in Organizational Sociology 230 4.2.1. Early insights and basic weaknesses 230 4.2.2. Responses to criticisms and the process of theoretical maturation 238 4.2.3. Most recent developments 249 4.3. Broadening the Theoretical Reach of the New Institutionalism in Organizational Sociology 256 4.3.1. The “third face” of power and the study of latent conflict 257 4.3.2. Moving from the organizational field to the class level of analysis 268 Chapter 5: Data and Methods 283 5.1. Empirical Context: Unfair Educational Inequality in the City of Cleveland 283 5.1.1. A brief overview of the history of black children’s school and non-school problems in Cleveland 283 5.1.2. The expansion of the political opportunity structure in the mid-1960s 288 5.1.3. Renewed opportunity in the early 1970s 293 5.2. Data Sources and Analysis Techniques 305 5.2.1. Cleveland Municipal School District archives 305 5.2.2. Variables 308 5.2.3. Econometric modeling 312 5.2.2. Discourse data from the Cleveland Plain Dealer 322 5.2.3. A strategy for exploratory frame analysis 324 Chapter 6: Results 329 6.1. Econometric analysis: 1978-1998 330 6.2. Frame analysis on public discourse: 1993-1998 362 ii Chapter 7: Discussion and Conclusion 372 7.1. Contributions to theory and research 376 7.2. Contributions to policy 388 Tables 392 Figures 422 Appendices 447 References 504 iii LIST OF TABLES Table 5.1. Yearly Change in Population and Racial Composition of the Student Body: 1978-1998 393 Table 5.2. Keys/Cues Associated with Collective Action and Conservative Frames 394 Table 6.1. Yearly Means of Key Measures on Non-School Deprivation and Educational Inequality in CMSD by Race: 1978-1998 395 Table 6.2. Yearly Descriptives for Organizational Effectiveness of CMSD Schools by Race and School Type 397 Table 6.3. Results of Granger Causality Tests to Examine the Relationship of Cultural Capital with Economic and Social Capital within Selected Intervals 398 Table 6.4. Lagged Bivariate Correlations of Cultural Capital with Economic Capital and Social Capital in Selected Intervals 399 Table 6.5. First Stage Results of Yearly TSLS Models by School Type and Race: Predicting Family Disadvantage Based on Economic Capital and Social Capital—1978-1998 400 Table 6.6. Second Stage Results of Yearly TSLS Models by School Type and Race: Predicting School Effectiveness Based on Family Disadvantage— 1978-1998 411 Table 6.7. Results of Yearly Logit Analyses Predicting the Odds of Magnet School Enrollment in CMSD: 1981-1998 418 Table 6.8. Yearly Correlations of Frame Cues Pertaining to the “Neighborhood School” to Other Frame Cues: 1993-1998 421 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1. Percentage of Southern Black Students in Majority-White Schools, 1954-2002 423 Figure 3.1. Changes in Components of Metropolitan Segregation by Region, 1970 to 2000 424 Figure 3.2. A Conceptual Model of the Interaction between Family-Transferred Non-School Disadvantages and Urban Public Schools 425 Figure 5.1. Racial and Poverty Concentration across Cleveland’s Neighborhoods in 2001 426 Figure 5.2. Population Pattern of Cleveland and Non-Cleveland Cuyahoga County: 1930-2000 427 Figure 5.3. Dispersion of School Buildings in CMSD: 1978-1998 428 Figure 5.4. Yearly Change in Population and Racial Composition of the Student Body: 1978-1998 429 Figure 5.5. Yearly Average Rate of Grade Promotion for All Grades by Race in CMSD: 1978-1998 430 Figure 5.6. Yearly Article and Editorial Counts Regarding CMSD from the Cleveland Plain Dealer: 1993-1998 431 Figure 6.1. Yearly Pattern of Means for Key Measures on Non-School Deprivation and Educational Inequality in CMSD by Race: 1978-1998 432 Figure 6.2. Yearly Pattern for Mean Organizational Effectiveness of CMSD Schools by Race and School Type: 1978-1993 434 Figure 6.3a. Lagged Bivariate Correlations of Cultural Capital with Economic and Social Capital: 1983←1979 435 Figure 6.3b. Lagged Bivariate Correlations of Cultural Capital with Economic and Social Capital: 1988←1984 436 Figure 6.3c. Lagged Bivariate Correlations of Cultural Capital with Economic and Social Capital: 1993←1989 437 Figure 6.3d. Lagged Bivariate Correlations of Cultural Capital with Economic and Social Capital: 1998←1994 438 v Figure 6.4. The Yearly Effect of the Predicted Lack of Cultural Capital on the Organizational Effectiveness of CMSD Schools by Race: 1978-1998 439 Figure 6.5. Density and Geo-Spatial Dispersion of Lunch Subsidy at the Neighborhood Level in CMSD during Selected Years between 1978 and 1998 440 Figure 6.6. Density and Geo-Spatial Dispersion of Drug Violation Arrests at the Neighborhood Level in CMSD during Selected Years between 1978 and 1998 441 Figure 6.7. Density and Geo-Spatial Dispersion of Low Birth Weight at the Neighborhood Level in CMSD during Selected Years between 1978 and 1998 442 Figure 6.8. Density and Geo-Spatial Dispersion of Personal Crime at the Neighborhood Level in CMSD during Selected Years between 1978 and 1998 443 Figure 6.9. Yearly Pattern of Enrollment in Different School Types in CMSD: 1978-1998 444 Figure 6.10. The Yearly Effect of the Predicted Lack of Cultural Capital on the Organizational Effectiveness of CMSD Schools by School Type and Race 445 Figure 6.11. Yearly Counts of Interpretive Frames in the Content of the Cleveland Plain Dealer: 1993-1998 446 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my dissertation advisor, Eric H. Neilsen, for his enduring support in my intellectual development. He diligently taught me how to read social systems and how to articulate my concern for justice and fairness. I could not have finished my dissertation without Eric’s nurturing and encouragement. He is the best advisor ever! My research on public education started eight years ago as a study in organizational sociology. I eventually branched out into the sociology of education and urban sociology. My advisors James C. Carl and Claudia J. Coulton were pivotal in this interdisciplinary process. Jim painstakingly made an education scholar out of me. Claudia guided me in the study of poverty. Thanks to them, I see things from a much broader and meaningful perspective than ever before. I also appreciate all the help and support from my remaining committee members, Diana Bilimoria and Ron Fry. Their trust in me played an important role in keeping me on track in times when I felt discouraged. Special thanks to Jagdip Singh for teaching me “rigor” in research. Without his pushing and his unyielding standards in empirical analysis, and, most importantly, his friendship, I would not have many of the skills I have as a researcher today.