Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Date

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Leadership & Policy Studies

Committee Chair

Alison Happel-Parkins

Committee Member

Charisse Gulosino

Committee Member

Dustin Hornbeck

Committee Member

Stephen Zanskas

Abstract

High-stakes accountability policies have reshaped urban school governance by linking standardized test performance to decisions about intervention, restructuring, and closure. Although these systems are designed to improve low-performing schools, prior research suggests that accountability classifications reflect broader structural conditions, including racial segregation and concentrated poverty, rather than isolated instructional deficits, with schools serving Black and Latino students in historically disinvested communities bearing a disproportionate share of these consequences. This study examines the 2010–2025 achievement trajectories and survival-to-closure patterns of reform-resistant schools in Memphis–Shelby County Schools, guided by Quantitative Criticalism (QuantCrit) as both a theoretical and methodological framework. School-level administrative records were compiled into a longitudinal dataset and analyzed using descriptive statistics, disaggregated by race and accountability era; Kaplan–Meier survival estimation; and time-varying Cox proportional hazards models, with closure operationalized as verified exit from the district roster. Three findings emerged. Black subgroup on-track/mastered rates were substantially lower than White subgroup rates in the early accountability era (27.14% versus 50.35%), and remained persistently low across all subsequent periods. Reform-resistant schools generally tracked within districtwide performance ranges rather than exhibiting wholly distinct trajectories, suggesting systemic rather than isolated institutional failure. Closure risk was associated with time-varying measured conditions, suggesting that school closure may reflect cumulative policy exposure rather than a discrete performance event. Interpreted through QuantCrit, these findings underscore how accountability systems can normalize structural inequality as institutional failure, and call for equity-centered accountability redesign that prioritizes sustained capacity investment over repeated cycles of punitive intervention.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest/Clarivate.

Notes

Open Access

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