Publications by Amanda U. Potterton
Communication and Catastrophic Events: Strategic Risk and Crisis Management, 2022
Holliday, E., Hope, J., & Potterton, A. U. (2022). Where is it safe? Questioning education policy... more Holliday, E., Hope, J., & Potterton, A. U. (2022). Where is it safe? Questioning education policy, safety, and choices for students traveling internationally during a global health crisis. In H. D. O’Hair, & M. J. O’Hair (Eds.), Communication and catastrophic events: Strategic risk and crisis management (pp. 11-28). Wiley Blackwell.
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Communication+and+Catastrophic+Events%3A+Strategic+Risk+and+Crisis+Management-p-9781119751816
Kappa Delta Pi Record, 2021
The authors illustrate how language favoring educational choice shapes U.S. educational policy am... more The authors illustrate how language favoring educational choice shapes U.S. educational policy amid continued, evolving efforts by some to privatize public resources.
Maximizing the Policy-Relevance of Research for School Improvement, Edited by A. M. Urick, D. E. DeMatthews, & T. G. Ford , 2020
Qualitative research can — and, to some extent, currently does — play a key role in terms of guid... more Qualitative research can — and, to some extent, currently does — play a key role in terms of guiding and informing education policy. This chapter provides an exploration of the ways in which qualitative research designs can be useful in education and, more specifically, how they might better inform school improvement efforts at both the national and international levels.
Flip the System US, Edited by M. Soskil, 2020
Educational Policy, 2019
I introduce the concept of parental accountability by examining how parents understand and cope w... more 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.
Educational Policy, 2019
The introduction to the Yearbook provides an overview of the global context of school choice poli... more The introduction to the Yearbook provides an overview of the global context of school choice policies and practices, trends in research and reform, and extant knowledge about research on school choice that draw upon the sociology of education. The article also highlights the contributions of the papers included in the Yearbook. The co-editors explain how the studies engage, complement, and extend existing streams of literature by bringing together a collection of contemporary sociological studies from the United States and other countries that illuminate understudied aspects of school choice reform policies, practices, and politics from across the globe. The Yearbook aims to raise the international profile of sociological research on school choice, and document how school choice policies and programs can be understood through a sociological lens, with a focus on how stakeholders perceive, experience, and respond to these reforms in local settings. This Yearbook also offers directions for future studies.
In Papa, R. (Ed.), Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education (pp. 1-26). , 2019
Journal of Public Management & Social Policy, 2019
This paper investigates the mobility patterns of elementary students enrolled in Arizona’s tradit... more This paper investigates the mobility patterns of elementary students enrolled in Arizona’s traditional public school districts and charter schools. We address movement related to two forms of public school choice simultaneously: interdistrict choice and charter schools. Most student movement is interdistrict or between school districts. In Arizona, interdistrict mobility has played a greater role in creating and sustaining an educational market than charter schools. There is also a substantial amount of student movement from charter schools to school districts. Regression analyses suggested that the relationships between different types of student mobility and school characteristics varied across the two sectors. We also document regional differences in mobility patterns, which indicate that education markets vary considerably across and within local contexts.
Journal of Educational Administration, 2019
In Arizona’s mature, market-based school system, we know little about how school leaders make mea... more In Arizona’s mature, market-based school system, we know little about how school leaders make meaning of school choice policies and programs on the ground. Using ethnographic methods, the author asked: How do school leaders in one Arizona district public school and in its surrounding community, which includes a growing number of high-profile and “high-performing” Education Management Organisation (EMO) charter schools, make meaning of school choice policies and programs? The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Power and Education, 2018
Arizona’s “Wild West,” free-market education approach via school-choice policies reflects the exp... more Arizona’s “Wild West,” free-market education approach via school-choice policies reflects the expansion of neo-liberal reforms, which emphasize private provision and governance of public services once markets are established. Indeed, charter schools, tax credit programs for public (state) and private schools, inter-district open enrolment, and neovouchers are changing Arizona’s traditional public school systems and the communities where they are situated. It is known that new, incentivist market-based systems can result in decreased democratic school accountability and the thinning of collective democratic political actions. Further, the rapid entry and growth of not-for-profit and profit-making charter schools and education management organizations in the USA raises questions about equitable student access. It is not fully understood, however, how mature school-choice systems affect local communities “on the ground”—that is, how are school policies understood and acted out? This study employed ethnographic methods to analyze the perceptions and actions of community stakeholders in Arizona, including school leaders, teachers, parents, students, and institution and community organizers, at one district public school and in its surrounding community, including its charter schools. The author examines issues of power, since all community actors are not equally able to engage in school-choice practices.
Research in Educational Administration & Leadership (REAL), 2018
In the United States, long-standing school choice policies and practices in Arizona have develope... more In the United States, long-standing school choice policies and practices in Arizona have developed into a market-based system of schooling for many residents in the state, especially in the larger cities. In this study, I analyze qualitative data gathered from school leaders and parents in one Arizona district public school who discussed marketing pressures and various notions of accountability and whose perceptions related to rapidly growing school choice reforms and increasing testing demands. I also describe the ways in which many members of the school team (e.g., school administrators, teachers, staff) were affected by ever increasing competitive expectations. By examining market pressures experienced by parents and other stakeholders, we can understand better some consequences of expanding school choice policies and programs on those experiencing educational reforms in local settings.
The Qualitative Report, 2018
In the United States, state and federal reforms increasingly encourage the expansion of school ch... more In the United States, state and federal reforms increasingly encourage the expansion of school choice policies. Debates about school choice contrast various concepts of freedom and equality with concerns about equity, justice, achievement, democratic accountability, profiting management organizations, and racial and class segregation. Arizona’s “market”-based school choice programs include over 600 charter schools, and the state’s open enrollment practices, public and private school tax credit allowances, and Empowerment Scholarships, (closely related to vouchers), flourish. This qualitative analysis explores one district-run public school and its surrounding community, and I discuss socio-political and cultural tensions related to school choice reforms that exist within the larger community. This community experienced school changes, including demographic shifts, lowered test scores, failed overrides, and the opening of high-profile charter school organizations near the school.
In Arizona, individuals can receive a tax credit of up to US$200 per individual taxpayer for dona... more In Arizona, individuals can receive a tax credit of up to US$200 per individual taxpayer for donations to public schools. We analyze public school tax credit donations to charter schools and document inequalities in the distribution of donations associated with the percentages of more advantaged students charter schools serve. The differences in donations may be partially attributable to parents’ ability to invest in their children and the extent to which schools actively solicit donations. These dynamics suggest a Matthew effect of cumulative advantage among Arizona’s charter schools. We discuss our findings in relation to a legislative proposal to change the public school tax credit program, the current political environment in Arizona, and in the context of a more transformative social change.
Journal of Educational Controversy, 2017
In this chapter, we provide an overview of the case against private schools. Debates about priva... more In this chapter, we provide an overview of the case against private schools. Debates about private schooling generally revolve around the use of public funding to support students attending private schools. We begin by providing an overview of private school attendance. Next, we outline the different mechanisms whereby public dollars are used to fund students’ private school attendance. The remainder of the chapter addresses the major research debates about private schools, including: the extent to which private schools maintain or exacerbate racial segregation, the potential for tax credits and vouchers to expand the participation of low income and minority students in private schools, and the achievement effects of public and private schools. We conclude that research debates about private schools may gain new relevance as tax credit and voucher programs that use public funds to support students’ private school attendance are expanded.
In K. Cumings Mansfield, A. D. Welton, & P. Lee (Eds.), Identity Intersectionalities, Mentoring, ... more In K. Cumings Mansfield, A. D. Welton, & P. Lee (Eds.), Identity Intersectionalities, Mentoring, and Work-Life (Im)Balance: Educators (Re)Negotiate the Personal, Professional, and Political (pp. 65-78). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Education Review//Reseñas Educativas, 2015
Teachers College Record, 2013
This article examines two Arizona-based charter school organizations, well known for their high a... more This article examines two Arizona-based charter school organizations, well known for their high academic rankings locally and nationally. In response to President Obama's May 5th through May 11th 2013 “National Charter Schools Week” proclamation, and his call for the nation's support of highly performing charter schools, the author analyzes the schools' demographic profiles, using data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Common Core of Data (CCD), and the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). The author also explores current public discourses surrounding the two charter school organizations. The findings are relevant and timely in light of Obama’s call to extend and replicate successful charter schools throughout the United States, because the results problematize the definition and nuances of charter school “success” by considering the study’s schools in relation to their underrepresentation of disadvantaged students. Based on evidence discovered in the study, the author provides relevant policy questions and suggestions for local, state, and federal education policymakers.
Papers by Amanda U. Potterton
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Publications by Amanda U. Potterton
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Communication+and+Catastrophic+Events%3A+Strategic+Risk+and+Crisis+Management-p-9781119751816
Papers by Amanda U. Potterton
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Communication+and+Catastrophic+Events%3A+Strategic+Risk+and+Crisis+Management-p-9781119751816
In All in the Mix: Race, Class, and School Choice, Bridget Byrne and Carla De Tona examine the perceptions and influences of parents choosing secondary schools for their children in three areas of Greater Manchester, United Kingdom (hereafter, U.K.): Cheadle Hulme, Chorlton, and Whalley Range. The authors conducted fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with families of children in the process of transitioning to secondary school, seeking to understand parents’ and caregivers’ conceptualizations of available choices (or lack thereof), particularly at the intersections of spatial location, race, and class. The book contributes new parental perspectives to school choice literature, with interview respondents ranging in ethnic background, socioeconomic class, and geographic location. The authors present similarities and differences amongst the participants’ perspectives.