School-Centered Neighbourhood Revitalization in Baltimore
Abstract
Despite the ways that schools are deeply tied to local conditions, we know less about how school change interacts with neighbourhood change. This study asks: How does a major investment in school facilities materially affect lived experiences in neighbourhoods? Using a case study approach, we present findings from a study of the policy apparatuses and impacts of Baltimore’s school closures, rehabilitation, and construction vis-à-vis patterns of uneven urban development and change in three Baltimore neighbourhoods that have each seen new school construction as part of the 21st Century Schools Buildings Plan (21CSBP): a cross-agency investment of nearly US $1.1 billion to build or renovate 28 public schools in some of Baltimore’s most neglected neighbourhoods. We argue that different agency stakeholders articulate competing operational theories of community development, which hinders collaborative efforts and creates obstacles to realizing deep impact of these school facilities investments on neighbourhood outcomes.
Keywords: Community development; public education; school facilities; neighbourhood change.
Speakers' bio
Ariel H. Bierbaum, MCP, PhD
Assistant Professor
University of Maryland, College Park
Dr Ariel H. Bierbaum is an assistant professor of urban studies and planning at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her work sits at the nexus of metropolitan inequality, planning practice, and K-12 public education. A leading scholar of cross-sector collaboration, public school closures, and school-centered community development, Dr Bierbaum investigates the institutional contexts, policy formation, and lived experiences of planning interventions. Her work builds understanding of how non-school systems support or hinder educational equity and racial justice, and how public schools play a role in urban planning and governance.
Speaker websiteAlisha Butler
PhD Candidate
University of Maryland, College Park
Alisha Butler is a PhD Candidate in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her work draws on interdisciplinary perspectives to interrogate the overlapping ecologies of schools, neighborhoods, and cities that shape students’ and families’ experiences with schools and education. Her dissertation uses qualitative methods to investigate gentrification’s effects on urban schools, with a focus on how middle-class families in gentrifying communities select secondary schools for their children, how administrators and educators respond to changing school demographics, and how gentrification shapes the politics of family engagement in urban schools.
Speaker websiteErin S. O'Keefe, MPP
PhD Candidate, Urban Policy
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Erin S. O’Keefe, M.P.P. is the director of Loyola University Maryland’s York Road Initiative and Center for Community Service and Justice. She is a doctoral candidate in urban policy at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. As an applied researcher and student of community and economic development, O’Keefe seeks to understand cultural, structural and systemic barriers to implementing equitable community development initiatives. Ms. O’Keefe is particularly interested in what it takes to leverage the assets of community residents, public agencies, community-based organizations and anchor institutions to effectively collaborate and move toward collective impact.
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