Research: Schools and Skills

What social and behavioral skills do students learn in school? In my book, Scripting the Moves: Culture and Control in a “No Excuses” Charter School, I shift the lens from the academic successes of “no-excuses” schools like KIPP, Uncommon Schools, and Success Academy to look at the lessons students learn through their everyday interactions in these highly structured schools. Based on 18 months of fieldwork and 132 interviews, I highlight how rigid scripts for student and teacher behavior can achieve order, accountability, and standardization but at a cost to autonomy, creativity, and flexibility.