“We are looking forward to another great year!”: How principals’ language-in-use reflect school quality ratings in Chicago Public Schools

Abstract

Abstract Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has been a laboratory for privatization and school choice through a neoliberal market model put in place in the 1990s. Every year, the District rates schools based on the School Quality Rating Policy (SQRP), and those results are made public through the CPS data portal and other media outlets. Using the method and theory of critical discourse analysis ( Gee, 2011 , 2014 ), I analyzed the principals’ discourse of the CPS-run high schools rated 1+ in the 2017–2018 school year. Specifically, I illustrate how the language principals use on their school websites’ welcome messages is used to further neoliberal initiatives through business-classified discourses, reproduction of the SQRP language, and school positioning statements which classify the schools in the school choice hierarchy.