Huriya Jabbar
The University of Texas at Austin, Educational Administration, Faculty Member
- Huriya Jabbar is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Administration. She studies the social and p... moreHuriya Jabbar is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Administration. She studies the social and political dimensions of market-based reforms in education, including school choice and incentive pay, and how research on such reforms is used by policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels. She was a 2013–2014 recipient of the National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship, which supported her study of school choice and competition in New Orleans using mixed methods, including qualitative interviews, surveys, and statistical analysis of social network data. She is also a current research associate at Era-New Orleans, where she continues to study issues related to school choice, charter schools, and student mobility in New Orleans. Her PhD is from the University of California, Berkeley in Education Policy, Organization, Measurement, and Evaluation. She has an M.A. in Economics from the New School for Social Research and a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz.edit
In recent years, districts have paid special attention to the common practice of “district hopping,” families bending geographic school assignment rules by sending a child to a school in a district where the child does not formally... more
In recent years, districts have paid special attention to the common practice of “district hopping,” families bending geographic school assignment rules by sending a child to a school in a district where the child does not formally reside—usually to a district that is more desirable because of higher performing schools or greater educational resources. In several high-profile cases, mothers who engaged in district hopping were charged with “grand theft” of educational services. By situating these cases in the broader context of market-based reforms, we refocus attention on the responses of districts rather than the actions of parents. We argue that increased privatization of education and growing dominance of a “private-goods” model of schooling create the conditions necessary for framing these actions as “theft.”
Research Interests:
School choice policies are often based on the idea that competition will generate better outcomes for all students. Yet there is limited empirical research about how school leaders actually perceive competition and whom they view as... more
School choice policies are often based on the idea that competition will generate better outcomes for all students. Yet there is limited empirical research about how school leaders actually perceive competition and whom they view as rivals. Drawing on concepts from economic sociology, I study principals’ competitive networks and the sets of schools they view as rivals, and I use network and statistical analysis to explore factors that explain the existence of a competitive tie between two schools. Most school leaders perceived some competition, but the extent to which they competed with other schools varied significantly. Factors that predicted a competitive relationship between two schools included geography, student transfers, school performance, principal characteristics, and charter network.
Research Interests:
As the city with the largest charter-school market share in the United States, New Orleans, Louisiana exemplifies market-oriented models in education. For a city that is so ‘drenched in the past,’ the reform movement in New Orleans... more
As the city with the largest charter-school market share in the United States, New Orleans, Louisiana exemplifies market-oriented models in education. For a city that is so ‘drenched in the past,’ the reform movement in New Orleans typically neglects historical context, often dismissing the education system pre-Katrina as simply corrupt and dysfunctional. This is an incomplete story. While national narratives and news media tend to downplay these features, there is no local consensus on the reforms. There is mistrust on both sides of the debate, and a growing opposition movement, which arises from decades of racial and political struggles, corrupt public officials, and previous experiences with the state exerting power over locally elected school boards, which disenfranchised African-Americans in New Orleans in particular. Although the new, post-Katrina educational system significantly altered political dynamics, it has not eradicated politics altogether. In this paper, I conduct a policy history of education reforms in New Orleans, connecting the historical and political context to current reform efforts. As researchers evaluate the effectiveness of the new reforms in terms of student achievement, it is important also to examine their impacts on communities and the democratic control of schools, as well as how they reproduce or break from historical patterns of political struggle and inequality.
Research Interests:
One of the primary aims of choice policies is to introduce competition between schools. When parents can choose where to send their children, there is pressure on schools to improve to attract and retain students. However, do school... more
One of the primary aims of choice policies is to introduce competition between schools. When parents can choose where to send their children, there is pressure on schools to improve to attract and retain students. However, do school leaders recognize market pressures? What strategies do they use in response? This study examines how choice creates school-level actions using qualitative data from 30 schools in New Orleans. Findings suggest that school leaders did experience market pressures, yet their responses to such pressures varied, depending in part on their perceptions of competition and their status in the market hierarchy. Some took steps toward school improvement, by making academic and operational changes, whereas others engaged in marketing or cream skimming.