Educational Ecosystems and Charter Policy Development in the United States

Abstract

Why have charter schools been embraced as an urban educational solution in many metropolitan areas, but not in others? I develop a theoretical framework whereby the “educational ecosystem” of metropolitan areas—formed through the social geography of school district boundaries and school integration plans—supplement existing perspectives, thereby aiding in the understanding of policy adoption variability. I provide an initial test to the theoretical framework through a case study of a metropolitan hub that continues to have no charter schools: Louisville, Kentucky. I demonstrate how Louisville’s particular urban educational ecosystem, which diverges from the overall national pattern of racially and socioeconomically isolated urban systems, transformed the perceptions of the urban district and shaped the battles over an otherwise nationally popular school reform.