'The kind of things we've heard keep people in the district': White racial exclusion and the evolution of school choice policies in Portland Public Schools. (November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Serbulo, Leanne
• Other Names: Boterman Willem guest-editor.; Musterd Sako guest-editor.; Pacchi Carolina guest-editor.; Ranci Costanzo guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Urban studies. Volume 56:Number 15(2019:Nov.)
• Page Start: 3292
• Page End: 3307
• Publication Date: 2019-11
• Subjects: displacement/gentrification -- diversity/cohesion/segregation -- education -- neighbourhood -- race/ethnicity -- school choice; 取代/绅士化 -- 多样性/凝聚力/种族隔离 -- 教育 -- 街区 -- 种族/民族 -- 学校选择; Cities and towns -- Periodicals; City planning -- Periodicals; 307.1216
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098019842974
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0042-0980

Abstract

This policy history traces the evolution of Portland Public Schools' school choice programme from the early 1970s until 2010 and examines its impacts on the historically black Albina neighbourhood. The purpose of this research is to identify the ideologies and assumptions that led to the establishment of the initial school choice programme and continued to influence decision makers as the programme evolved into a more neoliberal marketplace of schools. The district originally embraced controlled choice as a means to manage integration so it would not significantly tip the racial balance in predominantly white schools. By opting to make integration voluntary for students in predominantly white schools, the board legitimised white parents' preferences for racially exclusionary school settings. In Portland Public Schools, white racial exclusion laid the foundation that shaped the technologies of the school choice programme as it developed into a more neoliberal iteration.