Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This project explores the GOTV efforts of campaigns, parties, and non-profit groups in Atlanta, Charlotte, and Chicago. These three cities are of particular interest given their location in battleground states this election season. The purpose of the study is to identify and document the strategies employed by these organizations to encourage political participation among citizens, particularly low income citizens. In essence, the project is designed to get a sense of the standard operating procedures of organizations that engage in voter mobilization efforts. In order to shed light on these procedures, the research employs multiple methods including interviews and participant observation. The research will address the following questions. First, when local organizations contact potential voters, what is the purpose of the contact? Second, what types of outreach activities do organizations employ to reach voters? Next, how do organizations maximize success when contacting potential voters? Are outreach activities designed to reach a particular segment of the electorate? Finally, what inter-organizational support networks exist, and how do these networks facilitate the sharing of resources, staff, and expertise?

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Charlotte, NC is a global city with a large, diverse, transnational population, and it is home to the second largest banking industry in the United States. Over the past decade, in its efforts to create a viable center city capable of attracting a professional class, Charlotte has implemented a market-based neoliberal philosophy for city-wide redevelopment. Thus, the question that is driving this research is: Are the neoliberal policies of globalization influencing public education in Charlotte? Given these conditions, this research examines the relationship between neoliberal economic policies and public education in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), emphasizing issues of school re-segregation, student achievement, and student outcomes. Utilizing a case study of a middle school in CMS, this paper presents results that illustrate the effects of neoliberal policies in such areas as school demographics and student achievement. Essentially, as the schools within CMS re-segregate due in part to city-wide gentrification and segregation of wealth, a direct correlation to school quality and school failure along racial and geographical lines emerges. This paper builds on previous literature that connects globalization to education, and provides recommendations aimed at helping to improve the quality of education for all students.

Publication Type: Invited Paper
Abstract: Abstract



Presenter: Griffin, Willie James

Title of Paper: An Indigenous Civil Rights Movement: Charlotte, North Carolina 1940-1963



“An Indigenous Civil Rights Movement: Charlotte, North Carolina 1940-1963” is an historical analysis of the Civil Rights Movement in Charlotte, North Carolina. Through the mobilization and agitation of its indigenous population – local people organizing to meet their local needs and demands – Charlotte’s Black community garnered numerous civil rights successes. This paper examines the organizing tradition and revises the top-down approach scholars have used in researching Charlotte’s Civil Rights Movement.
Beginning in 1940 the activity of local organizations and institutions along with the reactivation of a defunct National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) branch recharged Charlotte’s black community, spawning years of consistent social activism. Various organizations spotlighted the inequities that blacks faced; and through their activism were able to secure better employment opportunities and increase blacks’ political awareness and participation in the Civil Rights Movement. Through 1963 the revived portion of the local black community consisted of a small but effective middle class, high school and college youth, and a large working class. Together they organized and protested for the procurement of rights on all levels where social inequity prevailed including: employment, government aid programs, veterans’ benefits, political representation and voter registration, health care, housing, recreational facilities, and the desegregation of public schools.
The paper concludes by highlighting some of the areas in which blacks continued to push for change, and carries out a brief analysis of the main arguments of the paper. Finally it provides a snapshot of what contemporary Charlotte looks like in terms of racial integration in areas such as housing and education.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In the following study, I explore how school level characteristics such as student-teacher ratios and the racial and socioeconomic composition in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools impact eighth grade student achievement. Although individual characteristics of children are often predictors of academic success, it is impossible for U.S. education policy to control these characteristics. It is, however, possible for public policy to control the characteristics of the schools children attend. I employ Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) to analyze data on eighth grade students and schools in the Charlotte Mecklenburg school system. The strategy allows me to control for as well as explore the effects of individual activities, prior test scores, and family backgrounds of students while simultaneously observing the effects of the racial and socioeconomic composition and student-teacher ratios of the school on student’s end of grade test scores. I find that both the racial and socioeconomic composition of schools are important predictors of both math and reading achievement for Charlotte-Mecklenburg eighth grade students.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The enactment of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) (2002) was touted as a major legislative achievement in President George W. Bush’s first term, which emphasizes a neoclassical economic based model that assumes that markets and competition will produce a competitive education system. This paper offers a case study of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School (CMS) District in Charlotte, North Carolina to test both the efficacy and assumptions of NCLB (2002). Utilizing hierarchical linear modeling of population data for all public elementary schools in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district, this research explores whether race-gender achievement gaps are ameliorated or exacerbated following a unitary court declaration and whether neoclassical theoretical assumptions are supported or not. Contrary to neoclassical assumptions, findings suggest that school choice resulted in increased segregation in CMS and greater inequality. In addition, this research found that both black male and female students had lower achievement scores and white females had lower achievement scores in racially segregated black schools after choice was implemented. The result is that, as school choice increased racial isolation in schools and black students are at risk of having lower scores on their end of grade tests. This result directly contradicts the stated goal of No Child Left Behind, which seeks to increase test scores, performance and accountability.