For Some and for All: Subgroup Entitlement Policies and Daily Opportunity Provision in Segregated Schools

Abstract

Educators in economically and racially segregated schools enact subgroup entitlement policies, such as Title III and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), as they negotiate the diverse and underserved needs throughout the student body. How do subgroup entitlement policies for English learners and students with disabilities shape daily opportunity provision—the day-to-day distribution of resources—in segregated schools? This ethnographic study of a public middle school reveals that the implementation of subgroup entitlement policies shaped the opportunity structure for all students through (1) creating tracks that offered distinct conditions for learning, (2) fragmenting the organizational structure and inhibiting coordination, (3) exposing the school to increased compliance pressure that hierarchized priorities, and (4) utilizing subgroup-specific resources for general education students.