Call for Chapter Proposals – The Costs of School Closure: Contexts and Consequences
WORKING TITLE: The Costs of School Closure: Context and Consequences
EDITOR: Ebony M. Duncan, Sociologist of Education at Washington University in St. Louis
Abstract Deadline: December 1, 2015
Chapter Deadline: June 1, 2016
Schools are key social organizations that allocate status and facilitate opportunities for upward social mobility. They are also sites where competing and contradictory public policies perpetuate deleterious educational and social outcomes—especially for underserved groups. In recent years, municipal governments across the United States have closed increasing numbers of public schools—particularly in high poverty, predominately African American neighborhoods. Recent reports on school closings in major cities like Chicago and Philadelphia suggest that the rise in school closings in the last two decades is associated with increasing charter school enrollment, municipal budget deficits, and a host of other political and contextual factors. The causes and consequences of school closings are certainly relevant to immediate neighborhoods, but they are also emblematic of inequities in educational access on a global scale.
The book series, Research on African American Education, is accepting manuscripts for an upcoming title,The Costs of School Closure: Context and Consequences. The editor of The Costs of School Closure seeks original, robust manuscripts on the contexts and consequences of recent primary and secondary school closures in the United States and elsewhere. The purpose of this interdisciplinary volume is to identify how recent school closures are associated with shifts in social, economic, legal, and political contexts, as well as the implications of closures for students, their families, their teachers, and their communities. Key points to consider include: school district characteristics; historical contexts of school closures; changes in education policy; reasons for closure; how social, political, and economic contexts influence closure; and implications of school closures for students, teachers, and neighborhoods (etc.).
SUBMISSIONS
Authors are invited to submit abstracts (up to 250 words) by December 1, 2015. Formal invitations for submission will be extended by February 1, 2016. Accepted manuscripts are due June 1, 2016.
Please submit abstracts to: duncane@wustl.edu with“School Closure Abstract” in the subject line.
Please direct any inquiries to: Dr. Ebony M. Duncan at duncane@wustl.edu.