Changing Spaces: Urban School Interrelationships and the Impact of Standards-Based Reform

Abstract

Background: This article is an historical sociospatial analysis of change during the past three decades within and between three high schools in a deindustrialized city in the northeastern United States. Sociospatial relations are the everyday spatial practices, perceptions, and representations that constitute social worlds. Interrelated with the continued economic decline and spatial segregation in many U.S. cities, state standards-based reform policies are reinforcing and furthering a more hierarchical, homogeneous, and fragmented educational space, increasing the marginalization of some urban schools, teachers, and students. Purpose: This historical sociospatial analysis of urban secondary schools will describe the conjunction of demographic and policy changes contributing to patterns of uneven development that raise questions about the consequences and sustainability of the current state and federal standards-based reform initiatives.