Shane Goodridge Presents at NCAPCS

Newly-arrived faculty member Shane Goodridge, PhD, is presenting at the North Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools 2017 Conference, July 30 through August 1. The title of his presentation is "Exploring the DNA of the American Charter School Movement."

Abstract of Presentation

Over three million children in the United States are currently enrolled in charter schools, with increasing enrollments despite strong evidence of academic gains. This historical analysis moves beyond a focus on academic outcomes and traces the success of the charter school movement, in part, to the foundational premise of restoring agency to educational stakeholders. State mandated schooling was a counterintuitive feature of American policy that chafed against the founding ideals of the Republic and gradually engendered resentment amongst mostly white conservatives. Concurrently, in the aftermath of Brown, factions of African American policy makers began to look for equitable educational alternatives. The unlikely alliance of these two antithetical constituencies resulted in the creation of a unique- albeit fragile- coalition and the passing of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program and paved the way for the nation’s inaugural charter school policy passed in Minnesota in 1991.

About Shane Goodridge

Dr. Goodridge has recently joined UCI's School of Education from his previous position as Assistant Dean, Trinity College, Duke University. He has taught in public and private schools in Canada, the U.S., and the United Kingdom. He is an educational historian interested in how broad shifts in the American narrative have influenced the creation and implementation of education policy at both the state and federal levels. Currently, he is focused on exploring the place of school choice in general, and charter schools in particular, in American policy and history.