Beyond test scores: Middle-class mothers, cultural capital, and the evaluation of urban public schools

The pursuit of high-quality schools for their children is one of the main factors motivating middle-class families to exit urban communities. This study draws on interviews with middleclass mothers in Boston who have opted instead to stay in the city to explore how they evaluated their local public elementary schools. Specifically, I examine how some middle-class mothers deploy their cultural capital in the process of embracing a choice that others may see as risky or surprising. Findings reveal that respondents' awareness of and confidence in their own cultural capital-in particular, their ability to provide enriching learning opportunities outside the classroom-shape how they think about the kind of school their children need and enable them to downplay the relevance of the district's standardized test scores. This, in turn, allows them to privilege other aspects of the educational experience when deciding among public school options.