The way race works to shape politics is changing as demographic patterns alter
the traditional dynamic of race relations throughout the United States. One pattern is the
increased tendency of African-Americans and Latinos to reside in the same locality.
While popular opinion suggests that such contexts should result in the formation of
âÂÂrainbow coalitions,â several scholars have found evidence that inter-minority relations
are characterized by high levels of political competition. One of the policy areas in
which competition has been observed most often is education.
This dissertation examines the conditions under which African-American/Latino
relations are likely to be characterized by cooperation or conflict within the education
policymaking process. It utilizes a survey of 1800 school districts, containing 96% of all
urban districts in the United States. The results produced by this study, therefore, are
applicable to nearly the entire universe of urban educational systems. Another unique
aspect of this project is that, rather than focusing on relations at one stage of the policy
process, it attempts to trace this dynamic through each stage. Thus, the dissertation
begins with a look at the circumstances under which Black/Brown electoral coalitions
will form in school board elections. The findings suggest that coalition formation is contingent upon structural contexts, specifically the presence of partisan elections, and
upon the citizenship status of the Latino population within a district. The dissertation
goes on to trace the cooperative and competitive forces that affect the hiring of African-
American and Latino administrators and teachers. Lastly, I use theories of bureaucratic
politics and racial context to study the quality of education received by minority
students. I find that, controlling for other factors, more diverse school districts have
more equitable educational policies. I also find evidence to support the contention that
more diverse teaching faculties tend to result in beneficial outcomes for both African-
American and Latino students.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/4383 |
| Date | 30 October 2006 |
| Creators | Rocha, Rene Rolando |
| Contributors | Meier, Kenneth J. |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | 521925 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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