School Rights Project:Law and the Dynamics of

Everyday School Life

Principal Investigators-Calvin Morrill, UC Irvine

Richard Arum, New York UniversityLauren Edelman, UC Berkeley

Karolyn Tyson, UNC Chapel Hill

Research Assistant-Doreet Preiss, New York University

Research Question:

How does the law affect the social dynamics of everyday school life?

Sub-questions:How does the law matter in the everyday practices of schools (including school organization)?How do school actors understand and interpret the law and rights in schools?When and how do school actors mobilize their legal rights?

Why Study School Rights?

Legal reform in education regarded as a key lever to tackle social illsExamples - Brown v. Board of Education (1954), Goss v. Lopez (1975)

Previous research in the sociology of law has shown that the law tends to benefit and to be employed by the social “haves”To date, there is very little research on how the law affects the dynamics of school life

Literature ReviewLaw and Education• Explores the impact of changing legal rules

(Tyack, James and Benavot 1987; Arum 2003; Arum and Preiss 2009)

Sociology of Organizations• Focuses on the role of institutions in shaping organizational structure and behavior

(DiMaggio and Powell 1983; Powell and DiMaggio 1991)

Sociology of Law• Examines law in action (legal consciousness and legal mobilization)

(Ewick and Silbey 1998)

Research Design24 high schools in New York, California and North CarolinaSurvey research and ethnographic methods• Surveys -

-Students (9 & 11), teachers and administrators-demographics, behavior, commitment and attachment to school/work, ideas about law and authority, hypothetical scenarios

• Ethnographies --Six Schools per state-Participant and passive observation, in- depth and focus group interviews

How do Individual Perceived Rights Violations differ by race?

Student survey data

5105 Observations

Perceived Rights Violations by RaceMediating and Dependent Variables by Race

Implications

Perceived rights violations differ by race

Legal consciousness or teacher/ administrator bias?

Variation across different institutional contexts (SES, public vs. private schools)

Future Research

Explore legal mobilization• Why do students and their families choose not to pursue formal legal action in the face of perceived rights violations?

Replication of similar analysis for teacher surveys