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Dissertation Information for Rebecca Suzanne Pack Marrero

NAME:
- Rebecca Suzanne Pack Marrero

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Curriculum and Instruction

SCHOOL:
- Indiana University (USA) (2005)

ADVISORS:
- Ellen Brantlinger

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Khaula Murtadha
- Barbara Korth
- David J. Flinders

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: Inventing educational heaven: Ethnographic case study of an Edison Inc. partnership for public school change

Abstract: This ethnographic case study examines public school choice and corporately funded reform in a district's public-private partnership with Edison Inc., a for-profit company. District leaders opened two new full choice Edison elementary schools, hoping to address overcrowding, to avoid redistricting, and to provide a change catalyst. The partnership and new school context afforded Edison the opportunity to create ideal schools. This project offers an inside look at the planning and first year of the district's second Edison school. Administrators, teachers, and families were studied using qualitative methodology---extensive observation, interviews, and document analysis. Attractive extended resources caused parents and teachers to choose this new school they viewed as an educational heaven, offering private school advantages within a public school setting. The Edison design included corporate conference style training for administrative leadership, teacher leaders, curriculum coordinators, and teacher training; unique corporate level curricular selection and support; enhanced technology and liberal arts classes; and an increased emphasis on student testing and data driven instruction. Edison sold the district a package designed to make better schools, improving student achievement. However, the purchase came with unintended, unanticipated, and costly consequences. Edison teachers were overextended with increased demands, showing signs of burn-out. Partnership administrators were distracted serving both corporate and district supervisors. Edison choice students were subjected to an intensification of schooling. Students labeled emotionally disturbed were placed in a special non-Edison class in the Edison building without choice, resulting in further marginalization. At the district level, the Edison reform influenced curricular selection, the addition of Edison's Tungsten testing program, and district philosophy regarding teachers, moving from a respect of teachers as professionals to a view of teachers as scripted curricular program deliverers. Exploring the effects of corporatization and privatization on school reform in a single school context, this study offers background, insights, and critique of public school partnerships with for-profit educational corporations. Educational heaven in this public Edison school was in one sense a reality; in another sense, it was fabricated. An exceptional school resulted, but Edison components were exported prematurely, without adequate examination.

MPACT Scores for Rebecca Suzanne Pack Marrero

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2010-10-18 16:14:17

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