Social Construction Is Racial Construction: Examining the Target Populations in School-Choice Policies

Area of Science:

• Education Policy
• Sociology of Education
• Racial Equity Studies

Background:

• School-choice policies aim to provide diverse educational options but can exacerbate existing inequities.
• Understanding how policy influencers perceive target populations is crucial for equitable policy design.
• Racialized perceptions can shape the implementation and outcomes of educational policies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine policy influencers' perceptions of school-choice policy targets across five states.
• To explore how racialized constructions of families (White vs. racially minoritized) vary.
• To determine if policy targets are viewed as children or parents and how this varies by policy type.

Main Methods:

• Conducted 56 semistructured interviews with state-level stakeholders in 2019.
• Focused on five diverse states to capture variations in policy and perceptions.
• Analyzed interview data to identify themes in racialized social constructions.

Main Results:

• Policy actors generally viewed White families as 'strong' and racially minoritized families as 'weak'.
• Constructions varied, showing fluidity and contradictions regarding both White and minoritized families.
• Color-evasive language was predominantly used, despite the salience of race in perceptions.

Conclusions:

• Racialized social constructions significantly influence equity in school-choice policies.
• These perceptions have broad implications for local, state, and federal educational policy.
• Further research is needed to address the impact of these constructions on educational equity.