When Middle-Class Parents Choose Urban Schools

In recent decades a growing number of middle-class parents have considered sending their children to - and often end up becoming active in - urban public schools. Their presence can bring long-needed material resources to such schools, but, as Linn Posey-Maddox shows in this study, it can also introduce new class and race tensions, and even exacerbate inequalities. Sensitively navigating the pros and cons of middle-class transformation, When Middle-Class Parents Choose Urban Schools asks whether it is possible for our urban public schools to have both financial security and equitable diversity. Drawing on in-depth research at an urban elementary school, Posey-Maddox examines parents' efforts to support the school through their outreach, marketing, and volunteerism. She shows that when middle-class parents engage in urban school communities, they can bring a host of positive benefits, including new educational opportunities and greater diversity. But their involvement can also unintentionally marginalize less affluent parents and diminish low-income students' access to the improving schools.In response, Posey-Maddox argues that school reform efforts, which usually equate improvement with rising test scores and increased enrollment, need to have more equity-focused policies in place to ensure that low-income families also benefit from - and participate in-school change.

"Posey-Maddox's book makes an original contribution that is important to current conversations about urban schools. The question of what role middle-class families can/should play in urban school reform is a pressing one, and her research raises a series of questions that I have not seen raised elsewhere as clearly or directly. It captures key dimensions of how cities are changing and the impact those changes are having on our most important institutions." (Amanda E. Lewis, Emory University)"

Linn Posey-Maddox is assistant professor of educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.