Raising Citizens or Raising Test Scores? Teach For America, “No Excuses” Charters, and the Development of the Neoliberal Citizen

Abstract

This article addresses how teachers conceptualize and attempt to develop citizens within the context of market-based reforms. Findings are based on a qualitative case study of Teach For America teachers at a Knowledge is Power Program charter school in New Orleans. Using Westheimer and Kahne’s taxonomy of citizenship, I provide evidence that participants envision multiple types of citizenship, yet only those who seek to develop personally responsible citizens, which I argue accept the fundamental tenets of neoliberalism, are able to actualize their goals and implement a pedagogy that reflects their ideology. Teachers’ lack of capacity and freedom to develop participatory and justice-oriented citizens stands in stark contrast to the justice-based rhetoric employed by market-based reformers and further calls into question the assumption that increased test scores are an indication of successful reforms.