Bridging education and transportation literature in the context of expanding school choice, this qualitative case study utilizes a student-centered epistemological approach to examine the impacts of extended high school commute on student experience and well-being. Fifteen semi-structured interviews with recent alumni of Lane Tech College Prep – a selective enrollment high school in Chicago – capture student perceptions to determine what commuters themselves believe to be the most salient consequences or benefits of extended school commute. This research is intended to unravel the connections between long-distance commuting and students' mental and physical wellness, academic performance, safety, and social networks, particularly examining disparities along racial, gender, and class lines. I argue extended commute, institutionally normalized by CPS' competitive choice model, disproportionately burdens students concurrently experiencing other forms of marginalization. As with other facets of schooling, interlocking identities shape commute experiences in a simultaneously raced, gendered, and classed experience. Students highlight increased stress, financial strain, social and academic barriers, and safety concerns as major themes. Despite these difficulties, long-distance commuters gain navigational, social, and resistant capital they deem highly valuable which contributes to their community cultural wealth. Recommendations for policymakers and educators include increased school- and district-level interventions to improve commute experience and mitigate its potentially deleterious effects. This work acknowledges students' resilience, but emphasizes the responsibility of school districts in supporting students who undertake extreme commutes to access essential public education resources and opportunities.
Katherine B. Shah (Tue,) studied this question.