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Study shows families making choices that perpetuate segregation in city with school choice policy
LAWRENCE — Even though Brown v. Board of Education outlawed school segregation in 1954, racially segregated schools have persisted in practice. In recent years, the decades-long trend of white flight to suburbs has reversed in some areas as some white residents are moving to city centers. New research from the University of Kansas shows that in one such city that also has school choice policy, families are making decisions that perpetuate school segregation despite more opportunities for integration.
‘Cabaret’ examines themes as relevant as ever, opening April 20 at KU Theatre
LAWRENCE — A large crew, cast and ensemble will stage “Cabaret” April 20-23 and April 25-30 at the University of Kansas, including Kansans from Basehor, Hesston, Lawrence, Maize, Marion, Olathe, Overland Park, Shawnee, Topeka and Wichita. Although “Cabaret” is currently sold out, University Theatre will update any ticket availability on its website April 11.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Mike Krings, KU News Service, 785-864-8860, [email protected], @MikeKrings
Study shows families making choices that perpetuate segregation in city with school choice policy
LAWRENCE — Even though Brown v. Board of Education outlawed school segregation in 1954, racially segregated schools have persisted in practice. In recent years, the decades-long trend of white flight to suburbs has reversed in some areas as some white residents are moving to city centers. New research from the University of Kansas shows that in one such city that also has school choice policy, families are making decisions that perpetuate school segregation despite more opportunities for integration.
Washington, D.C., is a major metropolitan area with a school district policy that allows parents to choose the school their children attend. Data has shown that white families are returning to the city’s core in recent years, and while in theory that could lead to more integrated schools in a city with racially diverse populations, a new study shows that is not happening. As families regularly move amongst schools to get the most desirable one, they do not use their voice in attempt to improve schools and even game the lottery system that is designed to assign to students equitably among systems.
Bryan Mann, assistant professor of educational leadership & policy studies at KU, was lead author of a study that interviewed nine white parents about how they chose their children’s schools. This was part of a broader study that interviewed 20 parents and triangulated findings with GIS mapping and quantitative data. This portion of the study used Exit, Voice, Loyalty, a framework common in organizational theory and political research. It examines why people choose to stay with or leave an organization. Exit is reflected by those who choose to leave, loyalty is reflected by those who stay, and voice is represented in the choice to advocate for changes and improvements to a system. The study, written with Annah Rogers of the University of West Alabama, was published in the journal Urban Education.
“When you think about community-driven school reform, you think about loyalty and how parents use their voice to change things. I was curious about the school ecosystem in D.C. that has gentrification and if it still tracks with these ideas of loyalty and voice,” Mann said. “Here people can exit a school or exit the system altogether and go to a private school. We found those who have the tools to exit or work within the system to move are more likely to move. That’s part of what exacerbated school segregation.”
The study focused on in-depth interviews with parents who recently moved into the city and whose children attended district schools. Part of a larger study focusing on gentrification and its effects on school integration and choice, it asked parents what they valued in a school and how they behaved in making their choices. Interviewees expressed logistical values such as commute time. Several said they wanted to avoid schools near downtown as that would exacerbate commute time because of heavy traffic. However, those with the means reported making alternate plans to work around such concerns in ways like flexible work schedules if that allowed them to get their child in a desired school. Parents also said they largely valued schools that feed from one elementary into a prestigious middle school, and they largely valued bilingual curriculum. Low-performing schools were said to be schools to avoid, not improve. Few parents mentioned racial makeup of schools, though the ones who did indicated schools with large minority populations were to be avoided.
In terms of behaviors, parents frequently reported playing the school system’s lottery every year. The lottery is intended to distribute students evenly among schools, based on available seats and where a family lives. But parents reported entering their children each year in hopes they would get selected for the one they wanted most. They even reported gaming the system, which it is set up to avoid, using tactics such as establishing a mailing address close to the school they wanted.
“This shows there is competition between children for spots in schools. This is different than competition between schools for children. Competition for spots undermines improvements and equality for schools,” Mann said. “Families showed that with all the ways they compete. It’s a lottery system that is supposed to be fair and ‘ungameable.’ But they still found ways to try to get the schools they viewed as prestigious.”
Parents also routinely mentioned the importance of “playing the long game.” If their student didn’t get the school they wanted one year, they would try again in each subsequent year in hopes of getting their child to a more desirable school to then feed into a better middle school. The lottery system includes public and charter schools, and when students did not get the school they wanted, they also reported having an easier time changing schools in transition grades such as pre-K/kindergarten, fifth and ninth grades. In addition to manipulating the system, others reported a willingness to move out of the city to avoid schools they didn’t want or sending their children to private school.
“Exit is the default, and disloyalty is the norm,” Mann and Rogers wrote about the findings that showed parents rarely used their voice in an attempt to improve schools and preferred leaving schools or the system.
The strategies and choices of parents in the study are important to consider, as “the long game remains separate and unequal,” the authors wrote. Census data shows that in 1954, D.C. public schools enrolled 57% Black/minority and 43% white students with complete segregation. The Brown decision led to white flight on a large scale, and by 1990, the percentages were 96% and 4%, respectively. Gentrification from 2000 to 2019 shows that trend reversing, but not equally, as the authors cite data that shows white enrollment in D.C. schools was 11.9% in the 2018-19 school year, even though white city population had increased to 39.6% in 2020. Racial segregation is persisting in the city’s schools, the data shows.
The results should be considered as part of the national debate about school choice policy and indicate that it tends to result in continued school segregation as affluent families and those with means navigate the systems to their benefit instead of working to improve schools viewed as less prestigious. Even when parents voiced concern about other children, communities and schools, the market-based school and housing system encouraged them to advocate for improving choice mechanisms rather than improving the schools themselves.
“If the ideal is a fully integrated school system, it’s barely trending in that direction, and it is not reaching the ideal,” Mann said. “These lessons are important because policymakers across the country are debating similar ideas, and understanding the outcomes of such policies is vital. This can be an early indicator of what to expect with these types of choice policies. People don’t often talk about what happens when parents are competing for spots in schools. Here it resulted in continued segregation, and we were able to get a better understanding of how families made the decisions that led to it.”
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Contact: Lisa Coble-Krings, Department of Theatre & Dance, 785-864-5685, [email protected], @KUTheatre, @KUDanceDept
‘Cabaret’ examines themes as relevant as ever, opening April 20 at KU Theatre
LAWRENCE — The University Theatre’s sold-out season finale opens with a big, inviting party. That’s one reason why Act 1 of “Cabaret” is so adored and a reason the musical’s ending hits so hard, said Markus Potter, director and assistant professor in the University of Kansas Department of Theatre & Dance. “It’s fun, until it’s not.”
“Cabaret” takes audience members to the Kit Kat Club and Fraulein Schneider’s boarding house in Germany 1930 with the rise of Nazism as the backdrop. The show compels audiences to ask what they would do if faced with the threat of hate and oppression or if they saw that a friend’s ignorance and apathy might cost them everything, Potter said.
“‘Cabaret’ doesn’t show us the horrors of the Holocaust; instead, it shows how hard it was to even imagine those horrors until it was too late to stop them,” said Henry Bial, professor in the theatre & dance department, whose research centers on the portrayal of Jewish people in theatre and popular culture. Bial will play the role of Herr Schultz, the love interest of Schneider, who will be played by Laura Kirk, associate teaching professor in the department.
All performances in the run are currently sold out. Shows are April 20-23 and April 25-30 on Stage Too! in Murphy Hall. Stage Too! is a configuration of the Crafton-Preyer Theatre where both the audience and playing area are on stage. It provides a more intimate setting.
The box office encourages patrons to check its website Tuesday, April 11, as any ticket availability updates will be announced at that time.
The production’s highly celebrated musical score gives fuel to choreography by Michelle Heffner Hayes, professor of dance, who has deviated from Bob Fosse’s original work. Musical direction is provided by Ryan McCall, musical director and lecturer in the department.
Students are working side-by-side with faculty in the areas of performance, design, direction and stage management. Some of these company members are featured in Willkommen: A Companion Podcast to The University of Kansas’s Cabaret.
Potter serves as the artistic director in the department, where he has recently directed productions of “The Christians,” “Changemakers” and the Kansas Repertory Theatre production of “Chasing Gods.” Additionally, he serves as the acting artistic director of Center Rep theatre in the Bay Area. Potter received an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination and the New York Times Critics’ Pick for the off-Broadway production of “Stalking the Bogeyman” at New World Stages. He is the founding artistic director of NewYorkRep and served as interim artistic director of Theatre Aspen. Read more about Potter’s directing projects.
Hayes holds a doctorate in critical dance studies from the University of California-Riverside. There, she choreographed solo and group works in both the postmodern and flamenco dance traditions. She also performed with the postmodern dance companies of Susan Rose and Stephanie Gilliland as well as the flamenco company of Armando Neri. While executive director of cultural affairs at Miami Dade College, Hayes taught jazz dance and expressive movement for actors in the internationally recognized bilingual theatre program Prometeo. Read more about Hayes.
The scenic designer is recent KU alumna Leah Mazur, whose participation in “Cabaret” is made possible by the Ronald A. Willis Visiting Scholar/Artist Fund, set up in honor of the late professor emeritus. The creative team is rounded out by Cassandra Ludlum, senior in theatre design and history of art from Topeka, costume designer; Ann Sitzman, faculty member and technical coordinator in the department, lighting designer; Tiffani Hagan, doctoral student in theatre studies from Spartanburg, South Carolina, intimacy choreographer; Paul Meier, professional accent/dialect coach, founder of Paul Meier Dialect Services and professor emeritus, dialect coach; Paul Laird, professor of music, as consulting musicologist; Jonah Greene, doctoral student in theatre studies from Fayetteville, Arkansas, dramaturg; and Jenna Link, production manager and faculty member in the department, stage manager.
In addition to Kirk as Fraulein Schneider and Bial as Herr Schultz, the cast consists of Katherine Leverenz, sophomore in theatre performance and speech, language & hearing from Houston, as Sally Bowles; Olly Mitchell, sophomore in theatre in culture & society from Maize, as Emcee; Diego Rivera-Rodriguez, senior in theatre performance and film & media studies from Lawrence, as Clifford Bradshaw; Asher Suski, senior in theatre performance and linguistics from Ames, Iowa, as Ernst Ludwig; Allison FitzSimmons, sophomore in theatre performance and psychology from Lincoln, Nebraska, as Fraulein Kost; Paul Ruf, first-year student in biochemistry from Overland Park, as Bobby/ensemble member; Brody Gable, sophomore in music therapy from Roca, Nebraska, as Victor/ensemble member; Charles Nordquist, senior in theatre performance from Marion, as Herman/ensemble member; Johnny Dinh Phan, senior in dance and chemistry from Overland Park, as Hans/ensemble member; Anna Avery, senior in strategic communication from Overland Park, as Lulu/ensemble member; Jordan Nevels, junior in theatre performance from Overland Park, as Rosie/ensemble member; Anna Shelton, sophomore in dance from Hesston, as Texas/ensemble member; Basia Schendzielos, junior in French and Francophone studies from Shreveport, Louisiana, as Fritzie/ensemble member; Olivia Johnson, senior in mathematics and dance, as Frenchie/ensemble member; Allison Rader, first-year student in theatre performance from Shawnee, as Helga/ensemble member (understudy for emcee); Myles Hollie, junior in theatre performance from Richmond, Virginia, as Max/ensemble member; and Rachel Meyer, senior in theatre performance from Topeka, as customs officer/ensemble member. Additional members of the dance ensemble are ShonMichael Anderson, first-year student in theatre performance from Wichita; Lane Barrette, senior in theatre performance and political science from Basehor; Hannah Gassman (understudy for Herr Schneider), junior in voice and theatre from Deerfield, Illinois; Brandon Heflin (understudy for Herr Schultz and Ernst Ludwig), first-year student in microbiology and pre-pharmacy from Olathe; Gracie Hernandez, first-year student in theatre performance from Overland Park; Christie Phillips, junior in psychology and dance from St. Louis.; Madi Seelye, first-year student in dance and pre-nursing from Lawrence; and Maya Welde (understudy for Fraulein Kost), first-year student in Spanish and theatre performance.
In addition, the band will provide accompaniment from on stage. The band consists of McCall on piano, Robert Vandivier on trumpet, Brady Gell on trombone, A.J. Bonci on guitar/banjo, Clarke Russell and Clare Hawkins on bass, Julia Reda and Grant Owen on drums, and Jenny Clink and Wesley Rhodes on reeds.
The University Theatre and University Dance Company are production wings of the University of Kansas’s Department of Theatre & Dance, offering six public productions throughout the academic year. The University Theatre and University Dance Company productions are funded in part by KU Student Senate, and the theatre’s season is supported by Truity Credit Union.
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