“Raw Intelligence Does Not Help You”: Exploring Teachers’ Conceptualizations of Success at One “No-Excuses” Charter School

• Published in: Urban education (Beverly Hills, Calif.) Vol. 56; no. 7; pp. 1106 - 1136
• Main Author: Marsh, L. Trenton S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2021; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement Gap; Charter Schools; Compliance (Psychology); Discipline Policy; Ethnography; Minority Group Students; Moral Development; Success; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Expectations of Students; Teacher Role; Teachers; Teaching; Urban Schools; Urban Teaching; White Teachers; Zero Tolerance Policy; “no-excuses” charters; teacher beliefs; charter school; success; subjects; programs; Black and Latinx students; ethnography; scale construction
• ISSN: 0042-0859; 1552-8340
• DOI: 10.1177/0042085920979677

This paper explores the ways in which success in school is constructed by a majority White teaching staff during day-to-day classroom practices and schoolwide policies, such as the disciplinary systems at a “no-excuses” charter school in one of the largest urban districts in the U.S. Stakeholders were assessed by interviews and observations during a year-long situated ethnography with an analysis of teachers’ dispositions and actions. As “no-excuses” public charters are proliferated across the country due to purported students’ success, it is important to understand how success in school is conceptualized and measured by teachers.