As policymakers, school district administrators, and school staff call for more parent voice and engagement in education, we must understand how and to what extent families, community members, and young people influence education decision-making processes in their schools and communities.
With funding from the Spencer Foundation Small Grant program, Alisha Butler, Assistant Professor of Education Studies, will explore how non-system policy actors attempt to influence education policy decisions in Washington, DC. In collaboration with Dr. Kristin Sinclair, Assistant Teaching Professor of Education Advocacy and Policy at Georgetown University, their project, “Control of the Schools, Control of the City: Education Policy and Politics in Washington, DC,” is poised to generate insights about the potential for democratic engagement in public education and its relationship to political power writ large.
The researchers have launched the first phase of their study, which includes surveys of public school parents/caregivers and youth in Washington, DC, and interviews with community-level actors who work closely with these populations. The study’s second phase will engage local politicians about how they incorporate feedback from parents, youth, and other community members as they make education policy decisions. The team expects to finish their work by the end of 2024.
Professor Butler and Michelle Seaberg, Wesleyan ’24 and a research assistant for the project, will present early findings from this work at the 2024 annual meeting of the Urban Affairs Association. Their presentation, “They pretend they’re giving you power”: Public Engagement in Education Policy in Washington, DC,” will discuss parents’ roles in influencing education policy decisions and implications for democratic governance of urban schools.
