Rand Quinn | University of Pennsylvania (original) (raw)

Book by Rand Quinn

Papers by Rand Quinn

Educational Policy, 2020

We examine the role of ideas in the politics of school choice policy and situate our study within... more We examine the role of ideas in the politics of school choice policy and situate our study within scholarship that understands frames and logics as types of ideas operating in the foreground and background of policy debates. Our data are from a case study of political contention over portfolio management reform (in which a central office oversees a network of schools operating under varying forms of governance) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We find that frames and counterframes deployed by stakeholders are resonant with societal-level logics of community localism, market transaction, and state bureaucratic administration. For proponents of portfolio reform, diagnostic frames are drawn from logics of community and state, while prognostic frames are resonant with a market logic. For opponents, the association is flipped: diagnostic counterframes challenge a market logic, and logics of community and state inform prognostic counterframes. Our study demonstrates how ideational processes shape political contention in education reform.

Educational Researcher, 2020

Through school-based networks, parents obtain information, practical help, and other resources. B... more Through school-based networks, parents obtain information, practical help, and other resources. Because networks vary by size and structure, access to these resources is uneven. What accounts for differences in access to social ties and in the mobilization of those ties to provide resources? In this article, we analyze a network of mothers of eighth-graders at a Philadelphia public school. With a near-complete census of network ties, we explore mothers’ access to and mobilization of information and practical help through social ties. We find that mothers’ school-based participation, rather than their race or class-based social position, is associated with resource access and mobilization. Importantly, greater levels of participation increase the likelihood that a mother will provide — but not obtain — information and practical help. Our results can help inform public policy and practice on family and community engagement in schools.

Adequately preparing youth to enter the civic spheres of adulthood has emerged as an issue of con... more Adequately preparing youth to enter the civic spheres of adulthood has emerged as an issue of concern in recent years due to widening civic empowerment gaps that track along race and class lines. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Homeward Bound (pseudonym), a program for Vietnamese youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, we show how immigrant youth organizing functions as civic preparation. We identify three processes. Organizing has the potential to (1) develop the critical orientation of immigrant youth participants, and prepare them to (2) navigate the unique political dynamics within their local communities and (3) work cooperatively and productively with other communities. The study demonstrates the capacity of immigrant youth organizing to help close civic empowerment gaps.

Over the past 15 years, new education policies have led to a host of reforms throughout the count... more Over the past 15 years, new education policies have led to a host of reforms throughout the country, spanning everything from standardized accountability and class size reduction to school choice and merit pay. Which of these reforms have actually worked to improve the lives of students in the nation’s urban schools—and which have failed to live up to expectations despite the best intentions? This paper explores how education policy reforms in large urban districts can expand opportunity. In particular, we focus on what is known about the evidence-based outcomes of four major education reform initiatives: (a) investments in early childhood education; (b) human capital policies; (c) accountability, standards, and assessment; and (d) market-based reforms and school choice. We aim to inform policymakers, school leaders, and the public on critical issues in contemporary school reform, and the extent to which these efforts have improved the educational conditions in our major urban districts.

This article examines Homeward Bound, a political education youth organizing program geared towar... more This article examines Homeward Bound, a political education youth organizing program geared toward Vietnamese immigrant youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Inspired by Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy theory, the program sought to empower learners to challenge their pre-existing knowledge and experience of interracial relations. Drawing on data from observations, interviews, and document reviews, we describe the process by which the program shaped Vietnamese immigrant youth’s critical consciousness of Vietnamese/Asian-black interracial tension. While some participants expressed apprehension and prejudice toward African Americans, particularly in the early days of the program, by the end, participants demonstrated knowledge retained from lessons and activities on the shared history of Vietnamese immigrants and African Americans. Participants also identified roots of and offered solutions to interracial tension. This study illuminates the role of immigrant youth organizing programs in resolving interracial tension in multiracial contexts.

We examine how local school districts respond to statewide education finance reform. Specifically... more We examine how local school districts respond to statewide education finance reform. Specifically, we evaluate the impact of Pennsylvania’s Act 61, which provided additional state aid to districts spending below state-determined adequacy targets (spending shortfall districts), on district tax effort in support of education. We find that high-tax shortfall districts reduced their property tax rates significantly more than districts without spending shortfalls, and, as a consequence, did not increase educational spending compared with their no-shortfall counterparts. Our results suggest that state equalization aid for high-taxing districts with spending shortfalls was used for property tax relief rather than to supplement education spending.

Teachers College Record (2016)

In this article we apply insights from recent scholarship on ideas as mechanisms for change to an... more In this article we apply insights from recent scholarship on ideas as mechanisms for change to analyze the early diffusion of the charter management organization (CMO), a recent reform effort in the charter school movement. We argue that the CMO form benefited from and was advanced by widely held ideas underscoring the importance of scale. Understood and framed as the vehicle for getting to scale, the CMO form drew a disproportionate share of private philanthropy dollars, appealed to a new class of professionals from outside of education, and was successfully distinguished from alternative charter forms, all of which contributed to its early diffusion. The diffusion of the CMO form altered the ideals of the charter school movement by displacing ideas about school-level autonomy and decentralization in favor of ideas about getting to scale and tipping the system. In addition to developing a fuller understanding of the charter school movement, the article contributes to broader scholarship on the ideational mechanisms of education reform.

Teacher professional agency refers to the ability of teachers to control their work within struct... more Teacher professional agency refers to the ability of teachers to control their work within structural constraints. In this paper, we show how teacher activist organizations can assist in the development of professional agency. We focus on a teacher activist organization in a large urban district in the United States and identify three organizational processes. We find that teacher activist organizations can facilitate efforts to alter classroom instruction, create opportunities for teachers to challenge educational structures, and foster a shared belief in the collective power of teachers. However, teacher activist organizations may be limited in scope and impact, tempering these potential benefits.

Over the last four decades, legal mandates and legislative reforms have compelled states to impro... more Over the last four decades, legal mandates and legislative reforms have compelled states to improve the equitable distribution of state resources across school districts, and, more recently, to increase state expenditures to more adequately fund education. However, there is limited evidence on the extent to which differences in the resource, legislative, and political climates in a state over time may generate improvements in educational spending or whether spending in districts that serve the most disadvantaged students improves relative to their more advantaged counterparts. To gain insight into the relationship between a state’s educational funding climate and district spending, we turn to the case of Pennsylvania, which, in the previous two decades, has experienced dramatically different funding climates. While state expenditures on education were relatively flat between 1991 and 2001, the 2001 through 2011 period was characterized by increasing expenditures dedicated to improving adequacy and equity across districts in the state. Using panel data on Pennsylvania districts, we aim to uncover the extent to which differences across the two decades resulted in changes in adequate per-pupil spending and improvements in how districts that serve different student populations spent their educational resources. We find that Pennsylvania’s districts were more equitably and adequately spending educational resources by the end of the second decade period compared with the end of the first period; however, spending disparities persist across districts that serve different populations of students. Indeed, while adequacy improved among districts that serve larger shares of disadvantaged students and those located in rural communities, larger districts and urban districts did not improve relative to smaller districts and suburban districts, respectively.

Studies examining the role of philanthropic foundations in advancing social change have primarily... more Studies examining the role of philanthropic foundations in advancing social change have primarily focused on the impact of foundations' financial resources. Few scholars have analyzed how foundations also leverage social mechanisms to advance and legitimate desired change. We conceptualize philanthropic foundations as agents of change known as institutional entrepreneurs to illuminate the social mechanisms they employ in pursuit of institutional change. We study the case of charter schools within the field of U.S. public education, where foundations elevated a new organizational formthe charter management organization-by engaging in three social mechanisms: recombining cultural elements to establish the form, enforcing evaluative frameworks to assess the form, and sponsoring new professionals to populate the form with preferred expertise. We argue that foundations are distinctive due to their ability to simultaneously pursue social mechanisms that are often considered to be the realms of different types of institutional entrepreneurs.

Educational Administration Quarterly

In this essay, we examine the racial politics of education in the six decades after Brown. We co... more In this essay, we examine the racial politics of education in the
six decades after Brown. We consider the state of educational policy in an era in which market reform advocates often invoke the spirit of the Brown decision even as the Supreme Court has largely vacated the legal framework provided by Brown to desegregate schools. Background: Educational policy post-Brown has focused largely on expanding market reforms such as school choice, high-stakes testing, and federal and state accountability mechanisms in lieu of the radical shifts in the distribution of educational opportunities for which Brown called. Setting: We discuss these market oriented trends in San Francisco and Philadelphia. Findings: While many of these interventions have contributed to the growing racial, linguistic, and socioeconomic segregation in public education, efforts to realize more just and democratic schooling persist in these same urban school districts. Conclusion: We conclude with a call to educational leaders to partner with local communities to revive Brown’s promise for more just, diverse, and equitable schooling.

Research reports and other professional documents by Rand Quinn

Can education policy reforms improve the lives of students in the nation’s urban schools? We docu... more Can education policy reforms improve the lives of students in the nation’s urban schools? We document examples of policy reforms in urban school settings that show promise as effective strategies for improving school, teacher, and/or student outcomes in order to provide information to policymakers and practitioners serving students in urban school districts. We attend to four topics that have received much policy and research attention in the previous 15 years; including: (a) investments in early childhood education; (b) human capital policies; (c) accountability, standards, and assessment; and (d) market-based reforms and school choice. We focus our discussion on empirical evidence produced through rigorous analysis that lends itself to causal conclusions about the impact of education practices and policy reforms.

How and in what ways money matters in education is a long-standing question among policymakers an... more How and in what ways money matters in education is a long-standing question among policymakers and education researchers. This issue is particularly salient to large, urban school districts, where debates on the organization of school often gravitate toward issues of financial resources and academic performance. Large urban districts, the story goes, spend more money per pupil but generate lower than expected results. In this policy brief, University of Pennsylvania researchers Matthew P. Steinberg and Rand Quinn present evidence that addresses the oft-told story that large urban districts, such as the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), are inefficient.

We discuss how a group of philanthropic foundations combined financial and cultural-political res... more We discuss how a group of philanthropic foundations combined financial and cultural-political resources to elevate a new and divergent organizational form within the California charter school field. Foundations simultaneously pursued three activities that are often considered to be the realms of different types of institutional entrepreneurs. Foundations recombined cultural elements to establish a new organizational form, enforced evaluative frameworks to assess the new form, and sponsored new professionals to populate the form with desired expertise. We argue that foundations are a distinct type of institutional entrepreneur based on their simultaneous endowment of material and cultural-political resources.

Book chapters by Rand Quinn

Simon, E., Quinn, R., Golden, M., & Cohen, J. (2017). With our powers combined: Grassroots activi... more Simon, E., Quinn, R., Golden, M., & Cohen, J. (2017). With our powers combined: Grassroots activism in Philadelphia. In B. Ferman (Ed.) The Fight for America’s Schools: Grassroots Organizing in Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Publishing Group.

Educational Policy, 2020

We examine the role of ideas in the politics of school choice policy and situate our study within... more We examine the role of ideas in the politics of school choice policy and situate our study within scholarship that understands frames and logics as types of ideas operating in the foreground and background of policy debates. Our data are from a case study of political contention over portfolio management reform (in which a central office oversees a network of schools operating under varying forms of governance) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We find that frames and counterframes deployed by stakeholders are resonant with societal-level logics of community localism, market transaction, and state bureaucratic administration. For proponents of portfolio reform, diagnostic frames are drawn from logics of community and state, while prognostic frames are resonant with a market logic. For opponents, the association is flipped: diagnostic counterframes challenge a market logic, and logics of community and state inform prognostic counterframes. Our study demonstrates how ideational processes shape political contention in education reform.

Educational Researcher, 2020

Through school-based networks, parents obtain information, practical help, and other resources. B... more Through school-based networks, parents obtain information, practical help, and other resources. Because networks vary by size and structure, access to these resources is uneven. What accounts for differences in access to social ties and in the mobilization of those ties to provide resources? In this article, we analyze a network of mothers of eighth-graders at a Philadelphia public school. With a near-complete census of network ties, we explore mothers’ access to and mobilization of information and practical help through social ties. We find that mothers’ school-based participation, rather than their race or class-based social position, is associated with resource access and mobilization. Importantly, greater levels of participation increase the likelihood that a mother will provide — but not obtain — information and practical help. Our results can help inform public policy and practice on family and community engagement in schools.

Adequately preparing youth to enter the civic spheres of adulthood has emerged as an issue of con... more Adequately preparing youth to enter the civic spheres of adulthood has emerged as an issue of concern in recent years due to widening civic empowerment gaps that track along race and class lines. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Homeward Bound (pseudonym), a program for Vietnamese youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, we show how immigrant youth organizing functions as civic preparation. We identify three processes. Organizing has the potential to (1) develop the critical orientation of immigrant youth participants, and prepare them to (2) navigate the unique political dynamics within their local communities and (3) work cooperatively and productively with other communities. The study demonstrates the capacity of immigrant youth organizing to help close civic empowerment gaps.

Over the past 15 years, new education policies have led to a host of reforms throughout the count... more Over the past 15 years, new education policies have led to a host of reforms throughout the country, spanning everything from standardized accountability and class size reduction to school choice and merit pay. Which of these reforms have actually worked to improve the lives of students in the nation’s urban schools—and which have failed to live up to expectations despite the best intentions? This paper explores how education policy reforms in large urban districts can expand opportunity. In particular, we focus on what is known about the evidence-based outcomes of four major education reform initiatives: (a) investments in early childhood education; (b) human capital policies; (c) accountability, standards, and assessment; and (d) market-based reforms and school choice. We aim to inform policymakers, school leaders, and the public on critical issues in contemporary school reform, and the extent to which these efforts have improved the educational conditions in our major urban districts.

This article examines Homeward Bound, a political education youth organizing program geared towar... more This article examines Homeward Bound, a political education youth organizing program geared toward Vietnamese immigrant youth in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Inspired by Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy theory, the program sought to empower learners to challenge their pre-existing knowledge and experience of interracial relations. Drawing on data from observations, interviews, and document reviews, we describe the process by which the program shaped Vietnamese immigrant youth’s critical consciousness of Vietnamese/Asian-black interracial tension. While some participants expressed apprehension and prejudice toward African Americans, particularly in the early days of the program, by the end, participants demonstrated knowledge retained from lessons and activities on the shared history of Vietnamese immigrants and African Americans. Participants also identified roots of and offered solutions to interracial tension. This study illuminates the role of immigrant youth organizing programs in resolving interracial tension in multiracial contexts.

We examine how local school districts respond to statewide education finance reform. Specifically... more We examine how local school districts respond to statewide education finance reform. Specifically, we evaluate the impact of Pennsylvania’s Act 61, which provided additional state aid to districts spending below state-determined adequacy targets (spending shortfall districts), on district tax effort in support of education. We find that high-tax shortfall districts reduced their property tax rates significantly more than districts without spending shortfalls, and, as a consequence, did not increase educational spending compared with their no-shortfall counterparts. Our results suggest that state equalization aid for high-taxing districts with spending shortfalls was used for property tax relief rather than to supplement education spending.

Teachers College Record (2016)

In this article we apply insights from recent scholarship on ideas as mechanisms for change to an... more In this article we apply insights from recent scholarship on ideas as mechanisms for change to analyze the early diffusion of the charter management organization (CMO), a recent reform effort in the charter school movement. We argue that the CMO form benefited from and was advanced by widely held ideas underscoring the importance of scale. Understood and framed as the vehicle for getting to scale, the CMO form drew a disproportionate share of private philanthropy dollars, appealed to a new class of professionals from outside of education, and was successfully distinguished from alternative charter forms, all of which contributed to its early diffusion. The diffusion of the CMO form altered the ideals of the charter school movement by displacing ideas about school-level autonomy and decentralization in favor of ideas about getting to scale and tipping the system. In addition to developing a fuller understanding of the charter school movement, the article contributes to broader scholarship on the ideational mechanisms of education reform.

Teacher professional agency refers to the ability of teachers to control their work within struct... more Teacher professional agency refers to the ability of teachers to control their work within structural constraints. In this paper, we show how teacher activist organizations can assist in the development of professional agency. We focus on a teacher activist organization in a large urban district in the United States and identify three organizational processes. We find that teacher activist organizations can facilitate efforts to alter classroom instruction, create opportunities for teachers to challenge educational structures, and foster a shared belief in the collective power of teachers. However, teacher activist organizations may be limited in scope and impact, tempering these potential benefits.

Over the last four decades, legal mandates and legislative reforms have compelled states to impro... more Over the last four decades, legal mandates and legislative reforms have compelled states to improve the equitable distribution of state resources across school districts, and, more recently, to increase state expenditures to more adequately fund education. However, there is limited evidence on the extent to which differences in the resource, legislative, and political climates in a state over time may generate improvements in educational spending or whether spending in districts that serve the most disadvantaged students improves relative to their more advantaged counterparts. To gain insight into the relationship between a state’s educational funding climate and district spending, we turn to the case of Pennsylvania, which, in the previous two decades, has experienced dramatically different funding climates. While state expenditures on education were relatively flat between 1991 and 2001, the 2001 through 2011 period was characterized by increasing expenditures dedicated to improving adequacy and equity across districts in the state. Using panel data on Pennsylvania districts, we aim to uncover the extent to which differences across the two decades resulted in changes in adequate per-pupil spending and improvements in how districts that serve different student populations spent their educational resources. We find that Pennsylvania’s districts were more equitably and adequately spending educational resources by the end of the second decade period compared with the end of the first period; however, spending disparities persist across districts that serve different populations of students. Indeed, while adequacy improved among districts that serve larger shares of disadvantaged students and those located in rural communities, larger districts and urban districts did not improve relative to smaller districts and suburban districts, respectively.

Studies examining the role of philanthropic foundations in advancing social change have primarily... more Studies examining the role of philanthropic foundations in advancing social change have primarily focused on the impact of foundations' financial resources. Few scholars have analyzed how foundations also leverage social mechanisms to advance and legitimate desired change. We conceptualize philanthropic foundations as agents of change known as institutional entrepreneurs to illuminate the social mechanisms they employ in pursuit of institutional change. We study the case of charter schools within the field of U.S. public education, where foundations elevated a new organizational formthe charter management organization-by engaging in three social mechanisms: recombining cultural elements to establish the form, enforcing evaluative frameworks to assess the form, and sponsoring new professionals to populate the form with preferred expertise. We argue that foundations are distinctive due to their ability to simultaneously pursue social mechanisms that are often considered to be the realms of different types of institutional entrepreneurs.

Educational Administration Quarterly

In this essay, we examine the racial politics of education in the six decades after Brown. We co... more In this essay, we examine the racial politics of education in the
six decades after Brown. We consider the state of educational policy in an era in which market reform advocates often invoke the spirit of the Brown decision even as the Supreme Court has largely vacated the legal framework provided by Brown to desegregate schools. Background: Educational policy post-Brown has focused largely on expanding market reforms such as school choice, high-stakes testing, and federal and state accountability mechanisms in lieu of the radical shifts in the distribution of educational opportunities for which Brown called. Setting: We discuss these market oriented trends in San Francisco and Philadelphia. Findings: While many of these interventions have contributed to the growing racial, linguistic, and socioeconomic segregation in public education, efforts to realize more just and democratic schooling persist in these same urban school districts. Conclusion: We conclude with a call to educational leaders to partner with local communities to revive Brown’s promise for more just, diverse, and equitable schooling.

Can education policy reforms improve the lives of students in the nation’s urban schools? We docu... more Can education policy reforms improve the lives of students in the nation’s urban schools? We document examples of policy reforms in urban school settings that show promise as effective strategies for improving school, teacher, and/or student outcomes in order to provide information to policymakers and practitioners serving students in urban school districts. We attend to four topics that have received much policy and research attention in the previous 15 years; including: (a) investments in early childhood education; (b) human capital policies; (c) accountability, standards, and assessment; and (d) market-based reforms and school choice. We focus our discussion on empirical evidence produced through rigorous analysis that lends itself to causal conclusions about the impact of education practices and policy reforms.

How and in what ways money matters in education is a long-standing question among policymakers an... more How and in what ways money matters in education is a long-standing question among policymakers and education researchers. This issue is particularly salient to large, urban school districts, where debates on the organization of school often gravitate toward issues of financial resources and academic performance. Large urban districts, the story goes, spend more money per pupil but generate lower than expected results. In this policy brief, University of Pennsylvania researchers Matthew P. Steinberg and Rand Quinn present evidence that addresses the oft-told story that large urban districts, such as the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), are inefficient.

We discuss how a group of philanthropic foundations combined financial and cultural-political res... more We discuss how a group of philanthropic foundations combined financial and cultural-political resources to elevate a new and divergent organizational form within the California charter school field. Foundations simultaneously pursued three activities that are often considered to be the realms of different types of institutional entrepreneurs. Foundations recombined cultural elements to establish a new organizational form, enforced evaluative frameworks to assess the new form, and sponsored new professionals to populate the form with desired expertise. We argue that foundations are a distinct type of institutional entrepreneur based on their simultaneous endowment of material and cultural-political resources.

Simon, E., Quinn, R., Golden, M., & Cohen, J. (2017). With our powers combined: Grassroots activi... more Simon, E., Quinn, R., Golden, M., & Cohen, J. (2017). With our powers combined: Grassroots activism in Philadelphia. In B. Ferman (Ed.) The Fight for America’s Schools: Grassroots Organizing in Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Publishing Group.