Making Parents Experts: Parents for Public Schools at the Turn of the 21st Century

Author

Mikayla JordanFollow

Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2021

Document Type

Undergraduate Thesis

Department

History

First Advisor

Rebecca Marchiel

Second Advisor

Sally Quong

Third Advisor

Eva Payne

Relational Format

Dissertation/Thesis

Abstract

There has been a long history of debate in the United States about whether centralized or decentralized control of schools is better or more desirable for the education of the nation’s children. This conversation has been shaped heavily by changes in federal education policy since the mid 20th century such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, the Improving America’s Schools Act of 1994, No Child Left Behind in 2001, and the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015. The voices of parents have always been a prominent part of this dialogue as local citizens and as experts on their own children, but as the role of the federal government began to change in American public education, so did the role of parents. Responding to white flight in Jackson, Mississippi, a group of white, middle-class parents sought to repair the damage that had been done to their city by fleeing from and disinvesting in Jackson Public Schools and all the students in attendance. They came together to secure the futures of their own children in a city that was still not effectively integrated by 1989. After about ten years of recruiting members to their cause, Parents for Public Schools was perfectly positioned to take on the increasing demands of school improvement as mandated by the federal government in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They had to become experts on education policy so as to best support their local public schools and keep their voices heard in the increasingly centralized world of education.

Recommended Citation

Jordan, Mikayla, "Making Parents Experts: Parents for Public Schools at the Turn of the 21st Century" (2021). Honors Theses. 1825.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1825

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