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theses

School choice and charter schools have been presented as ways to induce competition in public school systems to improve student outcomes in underperforming urban school districts. This approach continues a trend in Western Europe and the United States to make public institutions operate more like the private sector and is indicative of Neoliberalism and New Public Management. The rationale relies on the theory that public sector actors are motivated by self-interested economic incentives. An alternative argument uses a public service perspective, that public employees are motivated by noneconomic factors. For competition to have an effect on student outcomes, charter schools have to be perceived as a threat to local school districts and district responses must be predicated on economic incentives. This study was conducted in two stages using an exploratory mixed-methods approach. To develop an alternative discourse from the state’s policies, a discursive analysis was conducted on archival documents that established school choice, charters schools, and education reform in New Jersey. Interpretation of the documents was used to design a questionnaire to measure perceptions of charter schools and education reform in New Jersey among urban school district personnel in one urban district in New Jersey. The interpretation of the documents established an alternative discourse of the public education reform that showed a bias toward urban and poor school districts. Survey findings showed a high level of opposition to neoliberal and neoconservative education reform initiatives. Respondents agreed that public education reform causes more harm than good in the district. This perspective that neoliberal public education reform adversely affects urban school districts focuses on policies to produce better student outcomes. Reform initiatives did not factor in societal conditions that affect student learning. Neoliberal and neoconservative solutions for correcting underperforming school districts are based on institutional changes such as school governance, teacher competency, and organizational management. Multiple research studies have shown that social conditions based on race, poverty, and employment have a significant impact on students’ ability to learn. This study shows that, despite state preferences for neoliberal education reform, public school personnel in this urban district overwhelmingly disagreed with these reforms.

ETD_7336

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

by Kevin W. Davis

doi:10.7282/T3T155V2

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.