School Choice or Schools' Choice? Managing in an Era of Accountability

Autor/in	Jennings, Jennifer L.
Titel	School Choice or Schools' Choice? Managing in an Era of Accountability
Quelle	In: Sociology of Education, 83 (2010) 3, S.227-247 (21 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0038-0407
DOI	10.1177/0038040710375688
Schlagwörter	School Choice; Ethnography; Accountability; Social Networks; Principals; School Role; Educational Administration; Student Recruitment; Enrollment Management; Incentives; Participant Observation; Network Analysis; Organizational Climate; Organizational Culture; Educational Sociology; New York + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Choice of school; Schulwahl; Ethnografie; Verantwortung; Social network; Soziales Netzwerk; Principal; Schulleiter; Bildungsverwaltung; Schuladministration; Schulverwaltung; Anreiz; Teilnehmende Beobachtung; Netzplantechnik; Organisationsklima; Unternehmenskultur; Bildungssoziologie; Erziehungssoziologie
Abstract	Drawing on a year and a half of ethnographic research in three New York City small high schools, this study examines the role of the school in managing school choice and asks what social processes are associated with principals' disparate approaches. Although district policy did not allow principals to select students based on their performance, two of the three schools in this study circumvented these rules to recruit and retain a population that would meet local accountability targets. This article brings together sensemaking and social network theories to offer a theoretical account of schools' management of choice in an era of accountability. In doing so, the author demonstrates that principals' sensemaking about the accountability and choice systems occurred within the interorganizational networks in which they were embedded and was strongly conditioned by their own professional biographies and worldviews. Principals' networks offered access to resources that could be activated to make sense of the accountability and choice systems. How principals perceived accountability and choice policies influenced whether they activated their social networks for assistance in strategically managing the choice process, as well as how they made sense of advice available to them through these networks. Once activated, principals' networks provided uneven access to instrumental and expressive resources. Taken together, these results suggest that schools respond to accountability and choice plans in varied ways that are not simply a function of their short-term incentives. (Contains 1 note.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10