Parental Accountability, School Choice, and the Invisible Hand of the Market. Issue 1 (January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Potterton, Amanda U.
• Other Names: Potterton Amanda U. guest-editor.; Edwards D. Brent guest-editor.; Yoon Ee-Seul guest-editor.; Powers Jeanne M. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Educational policy. Volume 34:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 166
• Page End: 192
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Subjects: educational policy -- equity -- marketing -- parent involvement -- politics of education -- social context -- education reform -- public education -- accountability -- charter schools; Education and state -- United States -- Periodicals; Education -- Periodicals; 379.2
• DOI: 10.1177/0895904819881155
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0895-9048

Abstract

I introduce the concept of parental accountability by examining how parents understand and cope with what I characterize are pressures fostered by the long-standing public-school choice market in Arizona. Parental accountability refers to the sensemaking, experiences, and consequences that are related to decision-making in a school choice environment, wherein parents' feelings about their child's schooling may be intense, emotionally stressful, malleable, cyclical, and ongoing—not static. I argue that parental accountability is a necessary concept for understanding these reforms. The analysis, based on data collected from a study using ethnographic methods, reveals contradictions between parents' perceptions of their responsibilities to public institutions and pressures to make private choices. Many parents acknowledged that socioeconomic and racial inequities may be exacerbated in some market-based, public-school choice systems. I show how school choice policies and programs can place unique pressure on parents that they experience as a distinct form of accountability.