Catherine DiMartino, Sarah Butler Jessen
Foreword by: Christopher A. Lubienski
Publication Date: April 20, 2018
Pages: 208
This timely book outlines the growth and development of marketing and branding practices in public education. The authors highlight why these practices have become important across key fields within public education, including leadership and governance, budgeting and finance, strategic initiatives, use of new technology, the role of teachers in marketing, and messaging. From an organizational perspective, they explore the implications of edvertising on the democratic mission of public education, especially as related to issues of equity and access for students who have been historically underserved. The authors argue that expansive marketing campaigns, unequal funding sources, and lack of regulation are quickly and profoundly reshaping public education without the benefit of robust research or public debate. Selling School is important reading for principals navigating increasingly marketized school systems, for policymakers constructing legislation, and for parents negotiating school choice.
Book Features:
Catherine DiMartino is an associate professor in the Department of Administrative and Instructional Leadership at St. John’s University. Sarah Butler Jessen is a faculty member at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service.
"For administrators, teachers, and those planning a career in education, Selling School can be profitably read as a field guide to the world of edvertising that is reshaping their profession. For policymakers, parents, and scholars, Selling School would most ideally be encountered alongside works of educational philosophy or communication ethics...For anyone invested in the consequences of school choice policy, Selling School is mandatory reading."
— Teachers College Record
“Especially useful to anyone employed by a public school system, or those studying education, social media, strategic communication, public relations, advertising, or marketing.”
—Communication Booknotes Quarterly
"In this comprehensive and thoughtful analysis, DiMartino and Jessen dig deep into the rise of advertising in education (or edvertising as they call it), thoroughly investigating incentives, actors, strategies, and content. They are right in their prescient discussion of the muddling of public and private models in public education through marketing."
—From the foreword by Christopher Lubienski, Indiana University, Bloomington
"This book pioneers new ground as the authors move the literature on the marketization of education into a more nuanced analysis of how branding discourses and practices, and the managerialist and neoliberal economic theories they are based on, have entered the logic of public schooling."
—Gary L. Anderson, New York University
“DiMartino and Jessen provide a comprehensive examination of how marketing and advertising, in tandem with school choice policies and alternative teacher and leadership pathways, have permeated the selling of schools to parents, funders, teachers, and policymakers. This book is essential for readers interested in learning about how private sector practices affect the functions of public schools.”
—Janelle Scott, University of California, Berkeley
Foreword by Christopher Lubienski
Acknowledgments
Introduction: From "Kipp-notizing" to an Edvertising Industry
Why Edvertising?
Theoretical Frameworks
About This Book
Chapter 1. What We Know About Edvertising: Marketing, Branding, and Advertising in Public Education
On Marketing, Branding, and Advertising: Connecting Business to Educational Research
Market Leaders, Challengers, Followers, and Nichers
Product Positioning and Market Segmentation
Consumer Preferences
Edvertising Resources: Time and Money
Chapter 2. EduMarketers: The Emergence of a New Executive Class in Public Education
The Evolution of the Educational Marketing Industry in New York City
Compensating the New Executives
Making Sense of the New Executive Class in Public Education
Chapter 3. "An Expression of Values": Four Case Studies of Edvertising Budgets
Four Case Studies
"You Can Tell a Lot About an Organization's Priorities": Reflections on Advertising Budgets
Chapter 4. The Activities of Edvertising: Traditional and Digital Advertising
Branding and Marketing: The Case of New York City
The Activities of Edvertising: Traditional and Digital
Edvertising in the Big Apple: A Primer on "How To" Target Specific Populations
Chapter 5. Perceptions of Prestige: An Analysis of Digital Marketing
Messaging "Schools" in the Age of Twitter
Invested in Prestige
Chapter 6. Becoming the Organization: Teachers as Edvertising Actors
On Teachers and Teach for America in New Orleans
New Teachers, New Roles
Teachers, TFA, and Charters in New Orleans
"That’s a Really Weird Goal": Implications of Teachers as Edvertising Actors
Chapter 7. Net Impressions: Where Rhetoric Meets Reality
An Analysis of Edvertising Videos
"Just Not as Advertised": New Orleans Teachers' Perceptions of the Gap Between Net Impressions and Reality
Unpacking the Message and Reality
Chapter 8. Conclusion: The Future of Edvertising
Broad Themes
Philosophical Questions
Recommendations for Policy, Practice, and Research
Appendix: Data Collection for Case Study Budgets
References
Index
About the Authors
Professors: Request an Exam Copy
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