ABSTRACT
A certain set of circumstances have aligned to create and solidify a niche high-end sector of Charter School Management Organizations (CMOs) which have come to represent an extreme example of neoliberal schooling. This is in contrast to the styles of schooling documented in other historic and contemporary school ethnographies. Achievement Academy must be considered as a relational entity, existing in a hierarchical field of American education and in an urban environment plagued with significant issues contributing to low-performing schools. Ethnography faces criticisms for documenting only the surface of events in particular local settings, rather than seeking to understand the deeper social forces and trends shaping society. To date, school ethnographies have focused less on considering the role of autoethnography in capturing one's personal experience with enculturation into institutional practices. Few school ethnographies, or sociological investigations of schooling practices, consider the importance of the self.
