School reform policies, such as the closure of “low-performing” schools and the competitive introduction of school choice and charters, were presented to communities of color as the fix to educational inequities and the lifeline needed for urban Black students to have a chance at a quality education and social mobility. The ways in which reforms have under-delivered on this promise, and in some cases exacerbated negative academic outcomes, particularly for Black boys, are documented. Yet, research on the experience of Black adolescent girls is sparse. We explore ways that policies aimed at delivering a school choice environment have affected daily life for Black adolescent girls. We examine this issue in the context of the Detroit metropolitan area with Black adolescent girls, reflecting on their high school education experiences that spanned a time-period of rapid transitions in the schooling environment (2014–2016) prompted by a series of school reforms in Michigan. Through in-depth interviews we found that girls sought to invest in their high school education as a path to college; yet the very reforms advanced as ways to clear this path hindered their ability to spend time on the human and social capital activities believed to be important to their academic success and social mobility. Our findings suggest advantages for those students with proximal access to high quality neighborhood schools cannot be replicated in a choice environment. There may also be health consequences of the coping strategies girls are compelled to employ to carry on under adverse educational circumstances.

学校改革政策，例如关闭“表现不佳”的学校以及竞争性地引入择校和特许学校，被提交给有色人种社区，作为解决教育不平等的办法，以及城市黑人学生有机会获得入学机会所需的生命线。优质教育和社会流动性。改革未能兑现这一承诺，并且在某些情况下加剧了负面的学业成果，特别是对黑人男孩来说，这些都被记录在案。然而，对黑人少女经历的研究却很少。我们探讨旨在提供择校环境的政策如何影响黑人少女的日常生活。我们在底特律大都市地区黑人少女的背景下研究这个问题，反思她们在学校教育环境快速转变时期（2014-2016）的高中教育经历，这些经历是由一系列学校改革推动的。密歇根州。通过深入访谈，我们发现女孩寻求投资高中教育作为进入大学的途径；然而，作为扫清道路的方式而推进的改革阻碍了他们将时间花在人力和社会资本活动上的能力，而这些活动被认为对他们的学术成功和社会流动性很重要。我们的研究结果表明，那些最接近优质社区学校的学生所获得的优势无法在选择的环境中复制。女孩在不利的教育环境下被迫采取的应对策略也可能会对健康产生影响。