Browsing by Author "Rhodes, Anna"

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    Avoiding "Mommy Grades": Homeschool Parent Strategies for College Preparation
    (2020-08-13) Lewis, Bethany A; Lopez Turley, Ruth N; Rhodes, Anna
    Homeschooling high school presents a unique set of opportunities and challenges for parents who want their children to attend college. This study draws upon a set of qualitative interviews with homeschooling mothers in the Houston, TX area who are currently or have recently homeschooled children for high school. The study finds that parents feel homeschooling is the ideal way to prepare their children for college, but the structural constraints of the practice coupled with their concerns of how colleges evaluate homeschooled applicants led them to depend heavily on homeschool instruction provided outside of the home. Though outsourcing was a practice used by families before their children entered high school, it took on new and important meanings as their children progressed closer to the external evaluation of the college admissions process. These findings highlight how college preparation among homeschooling families in Texas is dependent upon familial privilege and speaks to the gatekeeping power of college admissions.
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    Finding La Raza in the Suburbs: Race, Place, and Schooling in a Latino-majority Suburb
    (2024-07-16) Szabo, Julia Colleen Campbell; Lopez Turley, Ruth; Rhodes, Anna
    As American suburbs become increasingly diverse, a growing share of Latino families call them home. In 2020, 61% of Latinos living in major metropolitan areas lived in the suburbs, including ethnic suburbs or ethnoburbs that are majority Latino. Latino-majority suburbs upend assumptions about race, class, and nativity in suburbia, offering a strategic case to explore the residential selection and suburban schooling experiences of families in this new iteration of a contemporary suburb. This dissertation examines these dynamics in a Latino-majority suburb and school district in Houston, Texas, which I call Arroyo. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 70 parents and 40 educators in district middle schools, I examine why families and educators came to live and teach in Arroyo and their schooling experiences and schooling decisions once there. I find that family, co-ethnicity, and schools were important factors drawing families to Arroyo but that the bundle of factors and perceived benefits of co-ethnicity varied by immigrant generation and race. Additionally, I demonstrate that educators’ narratives of district choice and narratives of Latino students and families varied by educator race, as Latino and white educators drew on distinct lived experiences in Arroyo and closeness to the Latino community. These varied narratives were consequential because they informed educators’ classroom and family engagement practices, leading some to adopt practices that affirm and include Latino families, and others, practices that blame and exclude them. Finally, I illustrate that school dissatisfaction led some families to exit the school district, given unresolved challenges related to bullying, safety, and academics in district middle schools. However, mobility was a poor proxy for dissatisfaction in the sample broadly, as some dissatisfied families chose to stay despite facing similar challenges, and other satisfied families left the district in response to new opportunities and constraints. This research contributes to our understanding of the residential selection and schooling experiences within Latino-majority suburbs, pointing to their perceived protective promise for Latino families and the challenge of living up to this promise in racially changed suburban schools.
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    Neighborhood Opportunity Mapping
    (Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research, 2024) Sherman, Stephen Averill; Rhodes, Anna; Njeh, Joy; Banerjee, Debolina; Kim, Andrew
    In December 2023, the Houston Housing Authority (HHA) received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to fund a household mobility program that would expand the number of affordable housing options for people who rely on housing choice vouchers. Specifically, the grant aims to move voucher families to “opportunity neighborhoods” or “opportunity areas,” which have high-performing schools, low crime rates, access to jobs, and other characteristics that promote the broader goal of upward mobility for low-income residents. Kinder Institute for Urban Research staff assisted in data collection and analysis, measuring key indicators on poverty, education, crime, jobs, and transportation to identify high-opportunity areas within HHA’s jurisdiction.