Chicago School Policy: regulating Black and Latino youth in the global city

Abstract

The author examines the relationship between accountability and militarization of urban US schools and social and economic processes in cities. The focus is the role of education policies in the production of inequality and racial oppression in the context of a new geography of centrality and marginality in world cities. This analysis is developed through a case study of Chicago school policy, which has been presented as a model for US schools nationally. The analysis is grounded in critical policy scholarship and critical race theory and draws on qualitative studies of four Chicago schools and system-wide data. It is argued that Chicago's policies serve to regulate and marginalize African American and Latino youth and sort and discipline them for differentiated roles in the economy and the city. It is also argued that these policies establish racialized social control through direct force and internalized discipline. The author contends that in the new urban landscape, education policies rooted in accountability and militarization reinforce patterns of racial domination and help produce new, racist differentiations.