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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for school discipline
82 results foundAuthor: Neiman, Samantha Title: Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings from the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2007-08. Summary: From the introduction: "[t]his report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2007-08 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2008). First administered in school year 1999-2000 and repeated in school years 2003-04, 2005-06, and 2007-08, SSOCS provides information about school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools. Developed and managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences and supported by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools of the U.S. Department of Education, SSOCS asks public school principals about the frequency of incidents, such as physical attacks, robberies, and thefts, in their schools. Portions of this survey also focus on school programs, disciplinary actions, and the policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime in schools." Details: Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, 2009 Source: Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 114863 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Sanneh, Sia Title: Dignity Denied: The Effect of Zero Tolerance Policies on Students' Human Rights: A Case Study of New Haven, Connecticut, Public Schools Summary: This report examines how the involvement of the criminal justice system in school discipline policies and practices causes deprivations of human rights for children in four key areas: the right to be free from discrimination, the right to education, the right to proportionality in punishment, and the right to freedom of expression. Drawing on a case study of the New Haven, Connecticut, public school system, this report describes the effects of the school-to-prison pipeline -- the process whereby discipline policies channel students out of school and into the criminal justice system -- and provides recommendations for improving policies and practices in order to ensure that students enjoy a safe and high-quality education without sacrificing their human rights. Details: New York: American Civil Liberties Union; Hartford, CT: American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, 2008. 48p. Source: Yale Law School, Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 116255 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineZero Tolerance |
Author: Sullivan, Elizabeth Title: Teachers Talk: School Culture, Safety and Human Rights Summary: This study surveyed more than 300 middle and high school teachers, conducted interviews and held focus group meetings of teachers in New York City public schools to solicit their opinions on how to make schools safer. The study found that teachers reject the punitive measures that are often used to discipline students, and feel that more constructive measures such as the teaching of behavior skills or conflict resolution should be used more often. Details: New York: National Economic and Social Rights Initiative and Teachers Unit, 2008. Source: Internet Resource; Accessed August 8, 2010 at http://www.nesri.org/Teachers_Talk.pdf Year: 2008 Country: United States URL: http://www.nesri.org/Teachers_Talk.pdf Shelf Number: 116294 Keywords: School DisciplineSchool Safety (New York City)School Violence |
Author: Skinns, Layla Title: An Evaluation of Bristol RAiS Summary: Since April 2007, the programme, Restorative Approaches in Schools (RAiS), has been implemented in four schools in the South of the Bristol. The aims of this evaluation of the program were: To describe how school leaders and teachers incorporate restorative approaches in the development of school policies and processes; To examine to what extent the use of whole-school restorative approaches can produce positive changes in pupil and staff perceptions of the climate for learning; To examine whether and how restorative processes impact on attendance levels of the pupils involved in restorative conferences or across the whole of the school; To examine whether and how the use of restorative conferences can reduce school term exclusions (permanent and fixed-term): and To examine whether and how restorative processes impact on educational attainment levels of the pupils involved in restorative conferences or across the whole of the school. Details: London: Institute for Criminal Policy Research, King's College London, 2009. 77p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 7, 2010 at: http://www.restorativejustice.org.uk/Resources/Research/Schools/RAiS%20Bristol%20Full%20Evaluation.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.restorativejustice.org.uk/Resources/Research/Schools/RAiS%20Bristol%20Full%20Evaluation.pdf Shelf Number: 120398 Keywords: Restorative JusticeSchool CrimeSchool Discipline |
Author: Knaack, Frank Title: Use of Force in Texas Public Schools: The Case for Transparency, Accountability and Decriminalization Summary: A surprising number of Texas school districts have turned responsibility for what used to be routine student discipline over to law enforcement. As a result, many students receive a criminal record instead of a trip to the principal’s office for engaging in childish misbehavior. This trend is detrimental to Texas schoolchildren, their families and communities, and ultimately, to Texas’ economic well-being. The presence of law enforcement officials, commonly known as school resource officers (SROs), in Texas’ public schools has significantly expanded since the late 1990s. Today in Texas, there are 178 independent school districts (ISDs) that employ their own police departments. Unfortunately, no statewide guidelines exist to govern the mission of SROs, nor does any statewide entity have responsibility for oversight over SROs in Texas public schools. Each individual ISD creates its own governing policies, resulting in an inconsistent patchwork across the state. While some districts have formulated policies that help ensure a safe and positive educational environment, others have adopted policies that are counterproductive to public schools’ core mission: providing the best possible education for students. In the absence of statewide legislative guidance, a number of school districts have encouraged their SROs to take on a dual law enforcement and disciplinary enforcement role. In many school districts, the negative impact of this blending of responsibilities is exacerbated by the blurring of the distinction between criminal acts and childish or adolescent misbehavior. Behavior once subject to school discipline, such as using profanity in class, is now subject to criminal sanction. To make matters worse, despite the obvious differences between apprehending adults in the street and ensuring the safety of children in a school, SROs are currently only required to receive the same basic training that municipal law enforcement personnel receive. Moreover, law enforcement departments operating in schools are not required to provide use of force data to the state. The lack of this basic transparency and accountability mechanism results in an inability of parents, school officials, legislators and other stakeholders to ensure that SROs are acting within their local guidelines. Increased criminalization of childish misbehavior and the failure to require relevant training requirements, coupled with the lack of institutional transparency and accountability in the context of school discipline, leads to escalating consequences for minor conduct infractions. This phenomenon is problematic on multiple levels. First, criminalization of student conduct increases the likelihood of confrontations between children and SROs during which physical force may be deployed. Second, criminalizing non-criminal behavior of schoolchildren introduces affected children into the Texas criminal justice system, which negatively impacts their ability to obtain employment or gain admission to college. Finally, the creation of an adversarial environment “pushes students, particularly at-risk students, out of school rather than engaging them in a positive educational environment.” To address this dangerous and unproductive trend, the Texas Legislature must amend the Texas Education Code to define the mission and role of on-campus law enforcement, and establish a statewide policy governing the use of force by SROs with mandated basic reporting and training requirements. Specifically, the Texas Legislature must ensure that if SROs are deployed, they are provided with a clearly defined mission and the tools necessary to carry out that mission. In addition, the Texas Education Code must be amended to ensure that childish misbehavior is not regarded as a criminal act. Adoption of these recommendations will positively impact not just student safety and education, but will also strengthen Texas’ economic well-being, as a student's disciplinary history is a major indicator in determining the likelihood of student dropout. Texas’ student dropout rate is a scourge on our state’s economic profile. As a recent study issued by the Texas A&M Bush School of Government and Public Service estimated, “[t]he total of the predicted cost [to Texas] of dropouts from the cohort of the senior class of 2012 is between $6 billion and $10.7 billion” over their lifetimes. This report is intended to provide the context necessary to accurately access the real world implications of current Texas law vis-à-vis law enforcement and discipline in Texas public schools. In addition, this report provides recommendations focused on ensuring a safe and positive school environment. In doing so, Section II will look at SROs in Texas ISDs, including a history of SROs and the sources of authority. Section III examines the increased negative interactions between SROs and Texas public schoolchildren. Section IV will discuss use of force policies in Texas school districts, including the use of force continuum, reporting requirements, training requirements, and the Public Information Act exemption that permits law enforcement agencies to withhold their use of force policies. Finally, Section V concludes with ACLU of Texas’ legislative recommendations. Details: Austin, TX: American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, 2011. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 7, 2011 at: http://www.aclutx.org/reports/2011UseofForce.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.aclutx.org/reports/2011UseofForce.pdf Shelf Number: 121264 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Resource Officers (Texas)School SafetyStudent Misbehavior |
Author: Moss, Kary Title: Reclaiming Michigan's Throwaway Kids: Students Trapped in the School to Prison Pipeline Summary: This report documents the disproportionate suspensions of public students of African descent in a significant number of school districts throughout Michigan. The school-to-prison pipeline problem experienced by these students and others is due in significant part to the following: a.) Lack of universal access to quality education; b.) Institutional obstacles that limit educational opportunities of children enrolled in school; c.) The loss of educational opportunities by large numbers of students because competing institutional concerns displace consideration of what is in the best interest of the child; d.) Sometimes insurmountable obstacles to restoration of lost educational opportunities; e.) The criminalization of students who lose their educational opportunities. These problems are manifested in the following specific ways: Access to Education • Children have no “right” to an education. Michigan’s constitution [Art. 8, Section 2] requires only that the state “maintain and support” a system of free schools in a nondiscriminatory manner. By contrast, the constitutions of more than 30 states require, in some form, that the state provide all children with a quality education. Michigan is one of only eleven states that fail to give students a right to a quality or adequate education. Thus, when Michigan’s racially disparate suspension and expulsion patterns and other factors remove large numbers of children from the educational system many have no prospects for access to additional education or the means to re-enter the educational system. Institutional Threats to Educational Opportunities • Michigan’s “zero tolerance” expulsion law is broader in scope than federal law requires, and it increases the chances of expulsion for all students, including students of African descent who are already expelled at high rates. The impact of this law on expulsion rates is compounded when administrators decline to exercise permissible discretion when considering whether the law’s harsh penalties are appropriate. • The absence of uniform procedural guidelines for suspensions and expulsions has sometimes resulted in failure to provide adequate opportunities for accused students to be heard and to otherwise defend themselves against accusations of misconduct. • The absence of safeguards against cultural misunderstanding, cultural ignorance and cultural conflict that account to some extent for disproportionate discipline of black students. • Some school districts’ failure to comply with laws that require evaluation and/or treatment of students with disabilities prior to suspension or expulsion. • Mechanical application of rules leading to suspension and expulsion without use of discretion or individualized consideration of circumstances that indicate that exclusion of certain children from school is inappropriate. Loss of Educational Opportunities • In a significant number of Michigan school districts, students of African descent are suspended and expelled at rates that are disproportionately high relative to their representation in the school population. In contrast, white students tend to be disciplined at rates that are proportionate to their numbers, or disproportionately less than their representation in the school population. • Many students who are suspended longterm, or who are expelled drop out of school altogether. Obstacles to Restoration of Lost Educational Opportunities • The process for readmission to school after expulsion is complex and may present insurmountable obstacles to low-income families that lack the wherewithal to prepare and timely submit required petitions. • Many students who have been suspended long-term or expelled have no alternative opportunities for learning or other productive activities. A 1985 Attorney General’s opinion that concluded that school districts are not required to establish or maintain alternative education programs has apparently contributed to confusion about whether, when and by whom these programs should be established. Nevertheless, Michigan’s statutory framework suggests that in some way, the state is responsible for providing alternative education opportunities to students who are excluded from school for extended periods of time. The Criminalization of Students • When school administrators refer some student discipline matters to law enforcement agencies, there is a consequent criminalization of many students whose offenses would otherwise have been dealt with entirely by school officials. • The growing presence in schools of “school resource officers,” and police personnel generally has resulted in not only arrests of students on school premises, but also incidents of police misconduct on school grounds. • It costs the state more to maintain a prisoner than it does to educate a student. This results in not only an immediate financial loss, but a long-term loss of the productive capacity of former students. Details: Detroit: American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, 2009. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 21, 2011 at: http://www.aclumich.org/sites/default/files/file/reclaimingmichigansthrowawaykids.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.aclumich.org/sites/default/files/file/reclaimingmichigansthrowawaykids.pdf Shelf Number: 121473 Keywords: Delinquency Prevention (Michigan)EducationRacial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Resource OfficersSchool SuspensionsStudent ExpulsionZero Tolerance |
Author: Howard, Sharon Title: The Use and Effectiveness of Anti-Bullying Strategies in Schools Summary: This project aimed to examine which strategies schools in England use to deal with episodes of bullying, which are supported by local authorities, why schools choose these strategies, and how choice of strategy varies by sector and type of bullying. It also aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a range of strategies, from the perspective of the anti-bullying lead, pupils and other school personnel. Details: Runcorn, UK: Department of Education, 2011. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 3, 2011 at: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR098.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DFE-RR098.pdf Shelf Number: 121575 Keywords: Bullying (U.K.)School CrimeSchool Discipline |
Author: Seeley, Ken Title: Peer Victimization in Schools: A Set of Quantitative and Qualitative Studies of the Connections Among Peer Victimization, School Engagement, Truancy, School Achievement, and Other Outcomes Summary: The authors designed and completed three studies to explore the connections among the variables of bullying/peer victimization, school engagement and the school outcomes of attendance and achievement. They also addressed some of the limitations in previous research efforts dealing with these topics. Study 1 was a quantitative study whose purpose was to develop a predictive/causal model that would explain the relationships among peer victimization, school attendance, school engagement and school achievement. This study used direct measures of school attendance and achievement and a previously validated measure of school engagement. Study 2 was a qualitative study of the school experiences of bullied children. From this study we planned to gain insight into school instructional, interpersonal, and structural factors that affect the victimization-attendance connection. Study 3 was also a qualitative study of teachers’ experiences with efforts to ameliorate the impact of school victimization. The underlying premise of the quantitative study was that school truancy serves as a gateway to numerous negative outcomes for today’s youth: dropping out of school, onset of drug use, engaging in criminal activity, and the like. Our conversations with youth in a truancy diversion program (see Appendix B) posited some connection between students being truant, and their experiencing victimization or bullying from their peers in school. The existing research literature suggested that such a connection may be less than direct – it could be difficult to establish that bullying somehow directly “causes” truancy – but that an indirect connection, mediated by one or more other factors, might be shown to exist. A short-term longitudinal study was undertaken, in which 1000 students were surveyed in the fall and the spring of their 6th grade year. Two sets of questions were asked: one set pertaining to whether the students were engaged in school (behaviorally, cognitively, and emotionally), and a second set pertaining to whether students were subject to actions by their peers that fall within the definition of bullying. Using structural equation modeling, the data collected were analyzed to determine the connections, if any, between being victimized, being engaged in school, and the outcomes reflected in school records of attendance and achievement (measured by grade point average). What was learned from this analyzed data set was this: while bullying does not directly relate to truancy or to school achievement, a statistically significant relationship can be shown where the effects of bullying; victimization; can be mediated by the factor of school enga gement. In other words, being bullied may not be a direct cause of truancy or low school achievement. If, however, bullying results in the victim becoming less engaged in school, that victim is more likely to cease attending and achieving; if the victim can remain or become engaged in school, his or her attendance and achievement are less likely to be effected. If, as the quantitative study appears to show, school engagement acts as a protective factor between being bullied and being truant, what has to happen for that engagement to occur? What does school engagement actually mean, under these circumstances? Why do some students manage to be engaged in school, and then thrive after bullying, while others cannot seem to connect to school? Details: Denver, CO: National Center for School Engagement, 2009. 291p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 1, 2011 at: http://www.schoolengagement.org/TruancypreventionRegistry/Admin/Resources/Resources/PeerVictimizationinSchoolsAsetofQualitativeandQuantitativeStudies.pdf Year: 2009 Country: United States URL: http://www.schoolengagement.org/TruancypreventionRegistry/Admin/Resources/Resources/PeerVictimizationinSchoolsAsetofQualitativeandQuantitativeStudies.pdf Shelf Number: 121949 Keywords: HarassmentSchool Bullying (U.S.)School CrimeSchool DisciplineStudents, Crimes AgainstTruancy |
Author: Advancement Project Title: Test, Punish, and Push Out: How Zero Tolerance and High-Stakes Testing Funnel Youth Into the School-To-Prison Pipeline Summary: Our tragically low national high school graduation rates should shock the conscience of every American. Reform is clearly needed, but it should start with the policies and practices that have resulted in millions of children not receiving a full and equal chance to receive a high quality education. While there are many factors that contribute to this sad reality, this report explores the two policies that may pose the most direct threat to the educational opportunities of America’s youth: “zero tolerance” school discipline and high-stakes testing. While they are usually considered separately, these two policies are actually closely related. In fact, zero tolerance and high-stakes testing both share the same ideological roots, and together they have combined to seriously damage the relationships between schools and the communities they serve throughout the country. Rather than helping to provide all students with enriching learning experiences, zero tolerance and high-stakes testing lead to an impoverished education for many young people. Instead of supporting students who are struggling or in need, both needlessly punish young people and limit their opportunities to fulfill their potential and achieve their goals. Together, zero tolerance and high-stakes testing have turned schools into hostile and alienating environments for many of our youth, effectively treating them as dropouts-in-waiting. The devastating end result of these intertwined punitive policies is a “school-to-prison pipeline,” in which huge numbers of students throughout the country are treated as if they are disposable, and are being routinely pushed out of school and toward the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The first section of the report examines the common origins and ideological roots of zero tolerance and high-stakes testing. In the 1980s, a movement began to implement far more punitive policies in both the criminal justice and public education systems. Modern zero tolerance (throughout this report, “zero tolerance” is used as shorthand for all punitive school discipline policies and practices) and high-stakes testing policies are the direct result of that movement. Within criminal justice policy, it was zero tolerance-style policing strategies implemented starting with the “War on Drugs” that led to the massive expansion of the adult prison population. This “get-tough” approach was eventually exported to schools, leading to a huge increase in the police and security presence in schools and far more harsh responses to student behavior. The results have been devastating, as across the country there have been dramatic increases in the use of lengthy out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, referrals to alternative schools, referrals to law enforcement, and school-based arrests. In effect, these policies and practices have blurred the line between the education and criminal justice systems. In public education, the equivalent to the War on Drugs was the crackdown on so-called “failing schools” following the 1983 publication of “A Nation at Risk.” That led to a push for greater school accountability, which came to mean broader use of standardized tests to measure achievement. As with zero tolerance, over time policymakers began using these tests punitively, in this case against both students and educators. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was both a product of this movement and a catalyst for its growth, as it has ushered in a new wave of inflexible, test-based accountability. Since the passage of NCLB in 2002, both the use of highstakes tests and the severity of the consequences attached to them have risen dramatically, leading to a rapidly dwindling set of opportunities for students who do not score well on these exams. Moreover, this “test and punish” approach has had a devastating effect on the quality of education being offered at many schools. Because of the severe consequences attached to these tests, many schools have been turned into test-prep factories, with narrowed, distorted, and weakened curricula often dominated by mindless drilling, rote memorization exercises, and “teaching to the test.” This has suffocated high-quality instruction, and made it more difficult than ever for teachers to engage students and create authentic and sustained learning. Thus, this “get-tough” approach to accountability has created an education system that increasingly turns students off to learning and teachers off to teaching. Despite substantial evidence of the damage caused by zero tolerance and high-stakes testing and the overwhelming body of research supporting alternative approaches, these policies have spread like wildfire due to their easy political appeal. The promoters and defenders of these policies have used the same, undeniably persuasive arguments grounded in principles of accountability and personal responsibility that many Americans associate with success in other fields, such as business. Indeed, the driving ideology behind both high-stakes testing and zero tolerance comes right out of the corporate playbook, as it is based on the notion that problems are solved and productivity is improved through rigorous competition, uncompromising discipline, constant assessment, performance-inducing incentives, and the elimination of low performers. While these principles may work in the business world, they are simply a bad fit in the context of public education. They are based on faulty assumptions, fail to create real improvement in schools, ensure that large numbers of students will fail academically, and fall far short of the democratic purposes of our public education system. Nevertheless, zero tolerance and high-stakes testing have followed the same path on their way to being frequently – and inappropriately – substituted for meaningful education reform. The second section of the report examines the current state of zero-tolerance school discipline across the country, and includes local, state, and national data. School districts around the country have adopted extraordinarily severe discipline policies and practices in recent years. These punitive measures extend far beyond serious infractions; instead, the vast majority of punitive disciplinary consequences tend to result from relatively minor misbehavior or trivial student actions. In fact, the problem in most cases is not the student, but, rather, the adults who react inappropriately to youthful behavior. Details: Los Angeles: Advancement Project, 2010. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 5, 2011 at: http://www.advancementproject.org/sites/default/files/publications/rev_fin.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.advancementproject.org/sites/default/files/publications/rev_fin.pdf Shelf Number: 118080 Keywords: Delinquency PreventionEducationSchool DisciplineSchool DropoutsZero Tolerance Policies (Schools) |
Author: Losen, Daniel J. Title: Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice Summary: In March of 2010, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan delivered a speech that highlighted racial disparities in school suspension and expulsion and that called for more rigorous civil rights enforcement in education. He suggested that students with disabilities and Black students, especially males, were suspended far more often than their White counterparts. These students, he also noted, were often punished more severely for similar misdeeds. Just months later, in September of 2010, a report analyzing 2006 data collected by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found that more than 28% of Black male middle school students had been suspended at least once. This is nearly three times the 10% rate for white males. Further, 18% of Black females in middle school were suspended, more than four times as often as white females (4%). Later that same month, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary Duncan each addressed a conference of civil rights lawyers in Washington, D.C., and affirmed their departments’ commitment to ending such disparities. This policy brief reviews what researchers have learned about racial disparities in school discipline, including trends over time and how these disparities further break down along lines of gender and disability status. Further, the brief explores the impact that school suspension has on children and their families, including the possibility that frequent out-of-school suspension may have a harmful and racially disparate impact. As part of the disparate impact analysis, the brief examines whether frequent disciplinary exclusion from school is educationally justifiable and whether other discipline policies and practices might better promote a safe and orderly learning environment while generating significantly less racial disparity. Findings of this brief strongly suggest a need for reform. A review of the evidence suggests that subgroups experiencing disproportionate suspension miss important instructional time and are at greater risk of disengagement and diminished educational opportunities. Moreover, despite the fact that suspension is a predictor of students’ risk for dropping out, school personnel are not required to report or evaluate the impact of disciplinary decisions. Overall, the evidence shows the following: there is no research base to support frequent suspension or expulsion in response to non-violent and mundane forms of adolescent misbehavior; large disparities by race, gender and disability status are evident in the use of these punishments; frequent suspension and expulsion are associated with negative outcomes; and better alternatives are available. Details: Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center, 2011. 34p., appendix Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 21, 2011 at: http://greatlakescenter.org/docs/Policy_Briefs/Losen_Discipline_PB.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://greatlakescenter.org/docs/Policy_Briefs/Losen_Discipline_PB.pdf Shelf Number: 123073 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Disciplines |
Author: Petteruti, Amanda Title: Education Under Arrest: The Case Against Police in Schools Summary: The increase in the presence of law enforcement in schools, especially in the form of school resource officers (SROs) has coincided with increases in referrals to the justice system, especially for minor offenses like disorderly conduct. This is causing lasting harm to youth, as arrests and referrals to the juvenile justice system disrupt the educational process and can lead to suspension, expulsion, or other alienation from school. All of these negative effects set youth on a track to drop out of school and put them at greater risk of becoming involved in the justice system later on, all at tremendous costs for taxpayers aswell the youth themselves and their communities. Details: Washington, DC: Justice Policy Institute, 2011. 43p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 15, 2011 at: http://www.justicepolicy.org/research/3177 Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.justicepolicy.org/research/3177 Shelf Number: 123357 Keywords: Police PersonnelSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Resource OfficersSchool Security Officers(U.S.) |
Author: Advancement Project Title: Zero Tolerance in Philadelphia: Denying Educational Opportunities and Creating a Pathway to Prison Summary: This report criticizes zero tolerance in Philadelphia schools as a failed policy that makes city schools less safe, criminalizes or pushes out of school tens of thousands of students every year, and creates a School-to-Prison Pipeline. Among the most startling findings in the report are the following: •Philadelphia’s arrest rate was up to 25 times higher than some of the other large districts in the state. In fact, one single high school in Philadelphia had more arrests in 2008-09 than 17 of the other 19 largest school districts in the state. •According to the data, Philadelphia schools are punishing the same behavior far more harshly than it did just a few years ago, and also appear to be criminalizing its students far more often than other Pennsylvania school districts for the same behaviors. •Philadelphia’s school security force is almost three times larger than that of the 19 other districts combined, despite a far lower student enrollment. •The number of expulsions has skyrocketed in recent years, and nearly all of the students expelled in 2008-09 were between the ages of 8 and 14, with the most common ages of the expelled students being 11 and 12. •Black and Latino students are far more likely to be suspended, transferred to alternative schools, and arrested than White students, and the data suggests that students of color are being punished more harshly than their peers for the same behavior. •There are strong negative relationships between the use of exclusionary discipline and both graduation rates and academic achievement rates, meaning that schools with high suspension and arrest rates are far more likely to have low graduation rates and low achievement levels. •Charter schools in Philadelphia appear to have disciplinary practices that are as harsh, or even harsher, than traditional public schools. The report recommends a number of steps that the district, Department of Education, and state legislators can take to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline in Philadelphia. Details: Washington, DC: Advancement Project, 2011. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 26, 2012 at: http://www.advancementproject.org/sites/default/files/publications/YUC%20Report%20Final%20-%20Lo-Res.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.advancementproject.org/sites/default/files/publications/YUC%20Report%20Final%20-%20Lo-Res.pdf Shelf Number: 123764 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetyZero Tolerance, Schools (Philadelphia) |
Author: Kaba, Mariame Title: Policing Chicago Public Schools: A Gateway to the School-to-Prison Pipeline Summary: This report relies on data from the Chicago Police Department (CPD) to show (for the first time in seven years) the type of offenses and the demographics (gender, age and race) of the juveniles arrested on Chicago Public Schools properties in calendar year 2010. We were limited because CPD reports data by police district rather than by individual school. In the 2003-2004 academic year, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) had about 1,700 security staff, nearly tripling in number in five years (2). We were unable to obtain the current number of security guards in CPS despite repeated requests. We are sure that this number exceeds the 1,700 from the 2003-2004 academic year. The presence of so many security staff and especially police officers in schools means that school discipline issues quickly turn into police records. In our discussions about the school-to-prison pipeline, we need concrete examples of how the process works. As such, it is important to understand the role that police and security staff play in our schools. Yet reports about police involvement in CPS have unfortunately not been readily available to the public. There is no easily accessible citywide or statewide data that illustrate how many students are arrested in schools each year. The last report that was written about the role of police in Chicago Public Schools was published in 2005 by the Advancement Project. That report, “Education on Lockdown,” found that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) referred over 8,000 students to law enforcement in 2003. Forty percent of these referrals were for simple assault or battery with no serious injuries. Most of these cases were dismissed (3). Our purpose in writing this report was to ensure that the public is informed about the scope and extent of policing in Chicago Public Schools. We hope that this will galvanize educators, parents, students, policymakers and community members to advocate for a dramatic decrease of CPS’s reliance on law enforcement to address school discipline issues. Instead, we would like to see an increase in the use of restorative justice, which is an effective approach, to respond to student misbehavior in our schools. In light of a push for budget austerity, limited resources should be re-directed away from policing and into affirming programs and opportunities for students. This, we believe, will improve the overall well-being of all stakeholders in the educational system (most especially students). We also call on our city council to improve data transparency by passing an ordinance requiring CPS and CPD to report quarterly on the numbers of students arrested in the district. Having timely and reliable information will support efforts to hold CPS and CPD accountable. Finally, we believe that student privacy should be protected rather than further eroded. Current reporting practices between schools and law enforcement do not need to be reformed to increase the exchange of student information between these parties. The key data points in the report are that: 1.Too many young people are still being arrested on CPS properties. Over 5,500 arrests of young people under 18 years old took place on CPS properties in 2010. If we include those between 18 and 20 years old, the number increases to over 6,100 arrests. 2.Black youth are disproportionately targeted by these arrests. While they represent 45% of CPS students, black youth account for 74% percent of juvenile school-based arrests. This mirrors the general trend of disproportionate minority contact within the juvenile legal system. For example, while they comprise only 34% of youth ages 5 to 17 in the city of Chicago, African American youth accounted for 76% of citywide juvenile arrests (youth 17 and under) in 2010. 3.Young men are much more likely to be arrested on CPS properties than are their female counterparts [73% vs. 27%]. 4.Male youth under 21 years old are most often arrested on CPS property for simple battery followed by drug abuse violations and disorderly conduct. Females under 21 are most often arrested for simple battery, disorderly conduct and miscellaneous non-index offenses. Nearly a third (27%) of school-based arrest offenses on CPS property are simple battery. This suggests that a significant number of CPS students are probably being arrested for fighting. 5.Certain police districts are more likely to arrest youth in schools than others. In particular, the highest aggregate (4) numbers of juvenile school-based arrests are in the 4th, 6th, 8th, 22nd, and 5th police districts. Together these five districts account for 39% of total juvenile school-based arrests on CPS properties. Details: Chicago: Project NIA, 2012. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 26, 2012 at: http://www.reclaimingfutures.org/blog/report-policing-chicago-public-schools Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.reclaimingfutures.org/blog/report-policing-chicago-public-schools Shelf Number: 123767 Keywords: School Crimes (Chicago)School DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Suspensions |
Author: Sumner, Michael D. Title: School-Based Restorative Justice as an Alternative to Zero-Tolerance Policies: Lessons from West Oakland Summary: In this report we examine a pilot restorative justice program at a school that primarily served students of color from low-income families. We document the implementation of the program at Cole Middle School in West Oakland, California, and the observations and perceptions of those who participated in it. We also draw lessons from Cole’s experiences that we hope will be helpful to those interested in implementing school-based restorative justice. Restorative justice is an alternative to retributive zero-tolerance policies that mandate suspension or expulsion of students from school for a wide variety of misbehaviors including possession of alcohol or cigarettes, fighting, dress code violations, and cursing. Although zero-tolerance policies have resulted in substantial increases in student suspensions and expulsions for students of all races, African American and Hispanic/Latino youth are disproportionately impacted by a zero-tolerance approach. Under zero tolerance, suspensions and expulsions can directly or indirectly result in referrals to the juvenile and adult criminal systems where African American and Hispanic/Latino youth are also disproportionately represented. This phenomenon, part of a process that criminalizes students, has been termed the school-to-prison pipeline. Proponents of restorative justice have begun to promote school-based restorative justice as an alternative to zero-tolerance policies. Restorative justice is a set of principles and practices grounded in the values of showing respect, taking responsibility, and strengthening relationships. When harm occurs, restorative justice focuses on repair of harm and prevention of re-occurrence. Although preliminary research suggests that school-based restorative justice reduces violence, school suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to the juvenile and criminal justice systems, little research looks at the impact of restorative justice programs as an alternative to zero-tolerance policies for youth of color. This research seeks to fill that gap. The findings presented in this report are based on a case study of a single school conducted by researchers at the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. Data are drawn from observations, openended interviews and a questionnaire along with statistics collected from published reports from the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and the California Department of Education. Details: Berkeley, CA: Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, 2010. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed on January 26, 2012 at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/11-2010_School-based_Restorative_Justice_As_an_Alternative_to_Zero-Tolerance_Policies.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/11-2010_School-based_Restorative_Justice_As_an_Alternative_to_Zero-Tolerance_Policies.pdf Shelf Number: 123776 Keywords: Delinquency PreventionEducationRacial DisparitiesRestorative JusticeSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsStudent ExpulsionZero Tolerance |
Author: Stephen, Christine Title: Evaluating Crannog Summary: The Crannog service is intended to offer support to 12-16 year olds who are experiencing repeated exclusion from school or are at risk of repeated exclusion or who are at risk of being referred to a residential school. This document reports on an external evaluation by Stirling University, drawing on quantitative evidence about the service, the outcomes recorded and the costs incurred; the perspectives of other professionals who are involved with the young people or the commissioning of the service; the ways in which young people and their families experience Crannog. Details: Stirling, UK: University of Stirling, Institute of Education, 2003. 88p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 2, 2012 at: http://www.aberlour.org.uk/evaluatingcrannog.aspx Year: 2003 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.aberlour.org.uk/evaluatingcrannog.aspx Shelf Number: 124339 Keywords: Delinquency Prevention (U.K.)Expulsion from SchoolJuveniles, Anti-Social BehaviorSchool Discipline |
Author: Florida Department of Education Title: Developing Effective Education in Department of Juvenile Justice and other Dropout Prevention Programs Summary: The purpose of this report is to provide the Florida legislature with the information required by section 1003.52(19), Florida Statutes (F.S.), Educational services in Department of Juvenile Justice programs, and section 1003.53, F.S., Dropout prevention and academic intervention. Section 1003.52, F.S., requires the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) and the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to report annually on the progress toward developing effective educational programs for juvenile delinquents. The report is divided into seven sections. The first section provides demographic data for all students served in dropout prevention (DOP) programs. The second section addresses the types of data indicators used to measure student outcomes in dropout prevention programs, followed by four sections that address these outcomes in each of the four major dropout prevention programs: educational alternatives, teenage parent, disciplinary, and educational services in Department of Juvenile Justice programs. The final section addresses additional juvenile justice topics required by s. 1003.52, F.S. This section includes information on funding and expenditures, cooperative agreements and educational service contracts, school improvement plans, services to exceptional education students, and recommendations for system improvement. Details: Tallahassee, FL: Florida Department of Education, 2012. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 30, 2012 at: http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-6321/dps-2012-23a.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-6321/dps-2012-23a.pdf Shelf Number: 124774 Keywords: Education (Florida)Juvenile DelinquencyJuvenile OffendersSchool DisciplineSchool Dropouts |
Author: Skiba, Russell Title: Are Zero Tolerance Policies Effective in the Schools? An Evidentiary Review and Recommendations Summary: There can be no doubt that schools have a duty to use all effective means needed to maintain a safe and disciplined learning environment. Beyond the simple responsibility to keep children safe, teachers cannot teach and students cannot learn in a climate marked by chaos and disruption. About this there is no controversy. Abundant controversy has arisen however, over the methods used to achieve that aim. Since the early 1990s, the national discourse on school discipline has been dominated by the philosophy of zero tolerance. Originally developed as an approach to drug enforcement, the term became widely adopted in schools in the early 1990s as a philosophy or policy that mandates the application of predetermined consequences, most often severe and punitive in nature, that are intended to be applied regardless of the seriousness of behavior, mitigating circumstances, or situational context. Such policies appear to be relatively widespread in America’s schools, although the lack of a single definition of zero tolerance makes it difficult to estimate how prevalent such policies may be. In addition to universal goals of any school discipline approach, such as maintaining a safe school climate, zero tolerance policies assume that removing students who engage in disruptive behavior will deter others from disruption, and create an improved climate for those students who remain. In an era of educational policy defined by accountability, it is appropriate and important to examine the extent to which any widely-implemented philosophy, practice, or policy has demonstrated, through sound research, that it has contributed to furthering important educational goals. Thus the American Psychological Association, as part of its mission to advance health, education, and human welfare, commissioned the Zero Tolerance Task Force to examine the evidence concerning the effects of zero tolerance policies. The task force examined the assumptions that underlie zero tolerance policies and all data relevant to testing those assumptions in practice. In addition, due to concerns about the equity of school discipline, the task force synthesized the evidence regarding the effects of exclusionary discipline on students of color and students with disabilities. Finally, the Zero Tolerance Task Force examined research pertaining to the effects of zero tolerance policies with respect to child development, the relationship between education and the juvenile justice system, and on students, families, and communities. The task force was also charged with offering recommendations for the improvement of zero tolerance policies and with identifying promising alternatives to zero tolerance. Thus the report concludes with recommendations for both reforming zero tolerance policies and for implementing alternatives in practice, policy, and research. The following are the findings of the Zero Tolerance Task Force. Details: Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, Zero Tolerance Task Force, 2006. 141p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 2, 2012 at: http://fairfaxzerotolerancereform.org/images/20060221_APA_Report_on_Zero_Tolerance.pdf Year: 2006 Country: United States URL: http://fairfaxzerotolerancereform.org/images/20060221_APA_Report_on_Zero_Tolerance.pdf Shelf Number: 104040 Keywords: School DisciplineSchool SafetyZero Tolerance Policies, Schools |
Author: Neiman, Samantha Title: Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings From the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2009-10, First Look Summary: This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools, using data from the 2009-10 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2010). First administered in school year 1999-2000 and repeated in school years 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08, and 2009-10, SSOCS provides information on school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools. Developed and managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences and supported by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools of the U.S. Department of Education, SSOCS asks public school principals about the frequency of incidents, such as physical attacks, robberies, and thefts, in their schools. Portions of this survey also focus on school programs, disciplinary actions, and the policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime in schools. SSOCS:2010 is based on a nationally representative stratified random sample of 3,476 U.S. public schools. Data collection began on February 24, 2010, when questionnaires were mailed to principals, and continued through June 11, 2010. A total of 2,648 public primary, middle, high, and combined schools provided usable questionnaires, yielding an unweighted response rate of approximately 77 percent. When the responding schools were weighted to account for their original sampling probabilities, the response rate increased to approximately 81 percent. A nonresponse bias analysis was performed because the weighted response rate was less than 85 percent, and the results suggest that nonresponse bias is not an issue for SSOCS:2010. For more information about the methodology and design of SSOCS, including how response rates were calculated and the details of the nonresponse bias analysis, please see Appendix B: Methodology and Technical Notes in this report. Because the purpose of this report is to introduce new NCES data through the presentation of tables containing descriptive information, only selected findings are presented below. These findings have been chosen to demonstrate the range of information available when using SSOCS:2010 data rather than to discuss all of the observed differences. The tables in this report contain totals and percentages generated from bivariate cross-tabulation procedures. All of the results are weighted to represent the population of U.S. public schools. Comparisons drawn in the bulleted items below have been tested for statistical significance at the .05 level using Student's t statistic to ensure that the differences are larger than those that might be expected due to sampling variation. Adjustments for multiple comparisons were not included. Many of the variables examined are related to one another, and complex interactions and relationships have not been explored. Due to the large sample size, many differences (no matter how substantively minor) are statistically significant; thus, only differences of 5 percentage points or more between groups are mentioned in the findings. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2011. 85p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 15, 2012 at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011320.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011320.pdf Shelf Number: 124948 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Skiba, Russell J. Title: Parsing Disciplinary Disproportionality: Contributions of Behavior, Student, and School Characteristics to Suspension and Expulsion Summary: It has been widely documented that the characteristics of behavior, students, and schools all make a contribution to school discipline outcomes. The purpose of this study is to report on a multilevel examination of variables at these three levels to identify the relative contributions of type of behavior, student demographic variables, and school characteristics to rates of and racial disparities in out-of-school suspension and expulsion. Results indicated that variables at all three levels made a contribution to the odds of being suspended or expelled. Type of behavior and previous incidents at the behavioral level; race, gender and to a certain extent SES at the individual level; and school enrollment, percent Black enrollment, and principal perspectives on discipline at the school level all made a contribution to the probability of out-of-school suspension or expulsion. For racial disparities in discipline, however, school level variables, including principal perspective on discipline, appear to be stronger predictors of disproportionality in suspension and expulsion than either behavioral or individual characteristics. Details: Bloomington, IN: Indiana University, 2012. 32p. Source: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April 16, 2012: Internet Resource: Accessed April 24, 2012 at http://www.indiana.edu/~equity/docs/SkibaAERAParsingDisciplinaryDisproportionality.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~equity/docs/SkibaAERAParsingDisciplinaryDisproportionality.pdf Shelf Number: 125053 Keywords: Demographic TrendsSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsStudent Expulsion |
Author: Taylor, Rachel S. Title: Kept Out: Barriers to Meaningful Education in the School-To-Prison Pipeline Summary: In the United States today, a large subset of our student population is denied the right to an education. Most of these youth, low-income and at-risk, are already particularly vulnerable, yet rather than being provided support services and a meaningful education, they are labeled “undesirable” or “bad kids.” Denying access to education can produce life-altering results for any student, and for these vulnerable youth the effects are often especially dire. “Keep Out” is a phenomenon that occurs when students try to reenter a setting where they can access meaningful education and are denied by the policies and practices of the education and juvenile justice systems. Keep Out is a part of the larger School-To-Prison Pipeline. The Pipeline includes disciplinary and discretionary policies that push youth out of school and into the criminal justice system. Students of color, low-income students, and students with disabilities are disproportionately affected. This report is the product of interviews with over 100 stakeholders — including students, teachers, administrators, probation officers, education advocates, and many others — in Los Angeles, California, all of whom were interviewed in January of 2012. These interviews tell the stories of students who were unable to access education after being removed from school, often for disciplinary reasons. The report is organized around three main findings: “You Can’t Come Back” deals with direct Keep Out and tells the stories of students who, when trying to reenter their schools, were denied access or transferred away. Schools use a variety of excuses and evade general school-access requirements in order to keep these students out. • School safety concerns are often cited to justify student exclusion, which affects particularly vulnerable groups of students including youth on probation, girls who are pregnant, students with perceived and actual disciplinary problems, or those who are or are thought to be academically low performing. • Some students are kept out based on the rationale that they are too old, have too few credits, or some combination of the two. • Schools deny students access to education by transferring them away to schools that are physically inaccessible or unsafe for that student. “Slipping Through the Cracks” discusses indirect Keep Out and addresses what happens to students who are unable to reenter school because of administrative and logistical barriers. • Inadequate crediting and record keeping in alternative and juvenile justice schools impede students’ return to traditional schools by making enrollment and completion of sufficient credits for graduation nearly impossible. • Lack of coordination and planning among alternative schools, juvenile justice schools, and traditional schools prevents students from transitioning back to traditional schools. • Traditional schools are able to keep students out because students and families do not know the extent of their educational rights or how to enforce them. “School Is Not for Me” explains constructive Keep Out and highlights the stories of students whose school experiences have been so discouraging and inadequate that they have given up on pursuing a traditional education. • A lack of wrap-around services in traditional schools means that students’ most basic needs are often unmet, leaving little room for students and families to focus on education. • Students are not always given the support they need to succeed and are often harshly stigmatized when they are suspended, expelled, or associated with the criminal justice system. • Even if students are able to get back into a classroom, alternative and juvenile justice system schools often lack a consistent education that meets students’ needs. Details: Washington, DC: Georgetown Law School Human Rights Institute, 2012. 84p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 8, 2012 at: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/humanrightsinstitute/documents/keptout.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/humanrightsinstitute/documents/keptout.pdf Shelf Number: 125166 Keywords: EducationJuvenile Delinquency PreventionRacial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Suspensions (U.S.)School-to-Prison PipelineZero Tolerance |
Author: Calbom, Linda M. Title: School Bullying: Extent of Legal Protections for Vulnerable Groups Needs to Be More Fully Assessed Summary: Millions of youths are estimated to be subject to bullying in U.S. schools. GAO was asked to address (1) what is known about the prevalence of school bullying and its effects on victims, (2) approaches selected states and local school districts are taking to combat school bullying, (3) legal options federal and selected state governments have in place when bullying leads to allegations of discrimination, and (4) key federal agencies’ coordination efforts to combat school bullying. GAO reviewed research on the prevalence and effects on victims; analyzed state bullying laws, and school district bullying policies; and interviewed officials in 8 states and 6 school districts. States were selected based on various characteristics, including student enrollment, and their definitions of bullying. Also, GAO reviewed selected relevant federal and state civil rights laws, and interviewed officials from Education, HHS, and Justice. GAO recommends that Education compile information about state civil rights laws and procedures that relate to bullying, and inform complainants about state legal options; Education, HHS, and Justice develop information about bullied demographic groups in their surveys; and assess whether legal protections are adequate for these groups. Education disagreed with our first recommendation and we clarified it to address some of their concerns. Education is considering our second recommendation, agreed with our third, and provided information on efforts related to the last. HHS agreed with our recommendations. Justice Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2012. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-12-349: Accessed June 26, 2012 at: http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/591202.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.gao.gov/assets/600/591202.pdf Shelf Number: 125401 Keywords: School Bullying (U.S.)School CrimesSchool DisciplineSchool Safety |
Author: Great Britain. Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) Title: No Place for Bullying: How Schools Create a Positive Culture and Prevent and Tackle Bullying Summary: A wide body of research indicates that bullying is a problem for many young people, and that some of this takes place in schools. The aim of this survey was to evaluate the effectiveness of the actions that schools take to create a positive school culture and to prevent and tackle bullying. A large part of the survey focused on pupils’ own experiences and understanding of bullying and its effects. Details: Manchester, UK: Ofsted, 2012. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 12, 2012 at: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/no-place-for-bullying Year: 2012 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/no-place-for-bullying Shelf Number: 125592 Keywords: School Bullying (U.K.)School Discipline |
Author: Virginia. Department of Education Title: Study of the Nature and Effectiveness of Virginia School Divisions' Antibullying Policies (HJR 625, 2011) Summary: In 2011, the Virginia General Assembly passed House Joint Resolution No. 625, requesting the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) to study the nature and effectiveness oflocal school divisions' antibullying policies. Specifically, the directive ofthe resolution requested VDOE: to study the nature and effectiveness of local school divisions' antibullying policies, completing its meetings by November 30, 2011, and submitting to the Governor and General Assembly an executive summary and a report of its findings and recommendations for publication as a House or Senate document...no later than the first day ofthe 2012 Regular Session of the General Assembly (January II, 2012). The study directives were: 1. To review and compare "antibullying measures in the student codes of conduct from each school division;" n. To compare "existing policies with the Department (of Education's) model policy for codes of student conduct;" and iii. To detennine "if improvements to existing policies are warranted, in order to more effectively combat bullying in Virginia public schools." In response to this resolution, VDOE surveyed all school divisions regarding policies, regulations, procedures, discipline actions, prevention and intervention programs, and strategies surrounding bullying. VDOE worked with the Center for School Safety within the Department of Criminal Justice Services to utilize school-level data from the 2011 Virginia School Safety Audit (SSA). VDOE contracted with the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University to conduct the study. Methodology of the study included several steps. A review was conducted of bullying policies collected in a VDOE division-level survey and division-written policies posted on school division Web sites. Themes across school division policies were culled. Division-level policies also were compared to ten components of best practice identified by a literature review and review of the policies of states held in high national regard surrounding bullying efforts. Four of the elements of the Board of Education's Student Conduct Policy Guidelines (2009) were examined as they coincide with the ten components of best practice. These components are: (I) standards of student conduct; (2) training of school personnel; (3) dissemination and review of standards; and (4) discipline procedures. In addition, school-level activities, programs, and policies as reported by schools in the SSA were examined. Study Findings It was found that all school divisions in Virginia meet the requirements of the Code of Virginia and include bullying as a part of character education and as a prohibited behavior. Details: Richmond: Virginia Department of Education, 2012. 56p. Source: Internet Resource: House Document No. 7: Accessed July 25, 2012 at: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/prevention/bullying/2011_legislative_study.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/prevention/bullying/2011_legislative_study.pdf Shelf Number: 125771 Keywords: School Bullying (Virginia)School CrimesSchool Discipline |
Author: Eriksen, Tine Louise Mundbjerg Title: The Effects of Bullying in Elementary School Summary: Bullying is a widespread social phenomenon. We show that both children who are being bullied and children who bully suffer in terms of long-term outcomes. We rely on rich survey and register-based data for children born in a region of Denmark during 1990-1992, which allows us to carefully consider possible confounders. Evidence from a number of identification strategies suggests that the relationship is causal. Besides the direct effect bullying may have on the child in the longer run, we show that an additional mechanism can arise through teacher perceptions of short-run abilities and behavior. Details: Bonn, Germany: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), 2012. 47p. Source: Internet Resource: IZA Discussion Paper Series, No. 6718: Accessed July 25, 2012 at: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6718.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Denmark URL: http://ftp.iza.org/dp6718.pdf Shelf Number: 125777 Keywords: Elementary SchoolSchool Bullying (Denmark)School CrimesSchool Discipline |
Author: Losen, Daniel J. Title: Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis Summary: Since the early 1970s, out-of-school suspension rates have escalated dramatically. In part, the higher use of out-of-school suspension reflects the growth of policies such as “zero tolerance,” an approach to school discipline that imposes removal from school for a broad array of school code violations - from violent behavior to truancy and dress code violations. There is no question that teachers and principals must use all effective means at their disposal to maintain safety and to provide the most effective learning environments practicable. There is controversy, however, about the means to this end. The advent of harsher approaches has resulted in a deeply divided national debate on school discipline. Supporters of zero tolerance offer a host of reasons why frequent resort to out-of-school suspension is critical for maintaining order and discipline in our schools.1 While the philosophy and practice of zero tolerance has led to increases in the use of suspension and expulsion, recent examinations (e.g., APA, 2008; Skiba & Rausch, 2006) have raised serious questions about both the effectiveness and fairness of such strategies. Some have argued that suspensions remove disorderly students and deter other students from misbehaving, thereby improving the school environment so that well-behaving students can learn without distractions (Ewing, 2000). Yet, despite nearly two decades of implementation of zero tolerance disciplinary policies and their application to mundane and non-violent misbehavior, there is no evidence that frequent reliance on removing misbehaving students improves school safety or student behavior (APA, 2008). Because suspended students miss instructional time, frequent use of out-of-school suspension also reduces students’ opportunity to learn. In order to better understand the issues of efficacy and fairness in the use of out-of-school suspension, we first must answer two questions: How frequently is suspension being used in our schools? Are there significant differences in the frequency of suspension when we look at subgroups of children by race/ethnicity and gender? This report is designed to help answer these questions. Details: Atlanta, GA: Southern Poverty Law Center, 2012. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 10, 2012 at: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/school-discipline/suspended-education-urban-middle-schools-in-crisis/Suspended-Education_FINAL-2.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/school-discipline/suspended-education-urban-middle-schools-in-crisis/Suspended-Education_FINAL-2.pdf Shelf Number: 125961 Keywords: School DisciplineSchool SuspensionsZero-Tolerance Policies |
Author: DeLauri, Linda Title: A Seamless Web of Support: Effective Strategies for Redirecting the School-to-Prison Pipeline Summary: Decrying an escalation in harsh, exclusionary school discipline and its ensuing “school to prison pipeline,” educators, civil rights lawyers, civil libertarians, parents and students have successfully moved “zero-tolerance” to the center of educational policy discussions. It is obvious that suspension and expulsion rob students of instructional time, endangering their academic performance in the short term. But research also demonstrates a strong association between suspension/expulsion and dropping out of school. It is well established that dropping out is strongly associated with involvement in the criminal justice system and incarceration. This CHHIRJ brief, “A Seamless Web of Support,” explores promising alternatives to suspension and expulsion and offers concrete recommendations to educators, litigators, advocates and the professionals who work with youth and their families. Details: Cambridge, MA: Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice, Harvard Law School, 2010. 21p. Source: CHHIRJ Brief: Internet Resource: Accessed September 30, 2012 at http://www.charleshamiltonhouston.org/assets/documents/publications/SeamlessWeb.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.charleshamiltonhouston.org/assets/documents/publications/SeamlessWeb.pdf Shelf Number: 126510 Keywords: EducationJuvenile Delinquency PreventionSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison Pipeline, Alternatives to |
Author: Rigby, Ken Title: Applying the Method of Shared Concern in Australian Schools: An Evaluative Study Summary: The general aim of this inquiry is to provide a description and evaluation of the Method of Shared Concern, a non-punitive method of addressing cases on bullying in schools. It inquires into how the Method is being applied in a sample of Australian schools in 2008 and examines its general effectiveness. Specifically, the inquiry examines how in practice the Method is being employed by practitioners in Australian schools. As such, the aim is to obtain detailed accounts of a number of cases, focusing on: • what the practitioner did in applying the method, the decisions they made and the outcomes achieved at each stage of the process • how the students involved in the intervention actually reacted • what problems were encountered • reflections of the practitioner and researcher on the applications. The effectiveness of the Method was to be judged according to two criteria: 1. whether the application of the Method brought about a cessation or reduction in the bullying experienced by the person or persons being targeted 2. the effects on other persons taking part in the interventions process, including those who had participated and the person acting as the practitioner. Details: Canberra, ACT: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, 2010. 124p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 15, 2012 at: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/NationalSafeSchools/Documents/covertBullyReports/MethodOFSharedConcern.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Australia URL: http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/NationalSafeSchools/Documents/covertBullyReports/MethodOFSharedConcern.pdf Shelf Number: 126736 Keywords: School Bullying (Australia)School CrimeSchool Discipline |
Author: High Hopes Campaign Title: From Policy to Standard Practice: Restorative Justice in Chicago Public Schools Summary: The High HOPES (Healing Over the Punishment of Expulsions and Suspensions) Campaign is calling on Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to reduce suspensions and expulsions by 40% through the implementation of restorative justice practices, which are recognized and embraced in CPS' own Student Code of Conduct. A reduction of at least 40% would mean that thousands of students would be disciplined more effectively and a true culture shift would begin to take place throughout the city's schools. To do this, we call on CPS to work with youth, parent, and community organizations to implement restorative justice strategies, as well as develop and provide accurate and timely performance measures to track the effectiveness of reaching our goals. Details: Chicago: High Hopes Campaign, 2012. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 23, 2013 at: http://www.dignityinschools.org/sites/default/files/FromPolicyToStandardPractice.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.dignityinschools.org/sites/default/files/FromPolicyToStandardPractice.pdf Shelf Number: 127356 Keywords: Restorative JusticeSchool Crimes (Chicago)School DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Suspensions |
Author: NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund Title: Dismantling the School-to-Prison-Pipeline Summary: Criminal justice policy in the United States has for some time now spurned rehabilitation in favor of long and often permanent terms of incarceration, manifesting an overarching belief that there is no need to address root causes of crime and that many people who have committed crimes can never be anything but “criminals.” These policies have served to isolate and remove a massive number of people, a disproportionately large percentage of whom are people of color, from their communities and from participation in civil society. In the last decade, the punitive and overzealous tools and approaches of the modern criminal justice system have seeped into our schools, serving to remove children from mainstream educational environments and funnel them onto a one-way path toward prison. These various policies, collectively referred to as the School-to-Prison Pipeline, push children out of school and hasten their entry into the juvenile, and eventually the criminal, justice system, where prison is the end of the road. Historical inequities, such as segregated education, concentrated poverty, and racial disparities in law enforcement, all feed the pipeline. The School-to-Prison Pipeline is one of the most urgent challenges in education today. Details: New York: NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, 2005. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 24, 2013 at: http://www.naacpldf.org/files/publications/Dismantling_the_School_to_Prison_Pipeline.pdf Year: 2005 Country: United States URL: http://www.naacpldf.org/files/publications/Dismantling_the_School_to_Prison_Pipeline.pdf Shelf Number: 127388 Keywords: School DisciplineSchool SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Losen, Daniel J. Title: Out of School & Off Track: The Overuse of Suspensions in American Middle and High Schools Summary: In this first of a kind breakdown of data from over 26,000 U.S. middle and high schools, we estimate that well over two million students were suspended during the 2009-2010 academic year. This means that one out of every nine secondary school students was suspended at least once during that year. As other studies demonstrate, the vast majority of suspensions are for minor infractions of school rules, such as disrupting class, tardiness, and dress code violations, rather than for serious violent or criminal behavior. Serious incidents are rare and result in expulsions, which are not covered by this report. Given the recent research showing that being suspended even once in ninth grade is associated with a twofold increase in the likelihood of dropping out, from 16% for those not suspended to 32% for those suspended just once (Balfanz, 2013), the high number of students suspended, as presented in this report, should be of grave concern to all parents, educators, taxpayers, and policymakers. We are publishing this report because of the serious academic implications these statistics have for students who attend schools with high suspension rates. We believe greater awareness will help produce more effective approaches that create safe, healthy, and productive learning environments, which research indicates is best accomplished without resorting to frequent out-of-school suspensions. Done well, efforts to reduce suspensions should also improve graduation rates, achievement scores, and life outcomes, while also decreasing the rate of incarceration for juveniles and adults. The findings of this report also highlight critical civil rights concerns related to the high frequency of secondary school suspensions. We focus on secondary schools because children of color and students from other historically disadvantaged groups are far more likely than other students to be suspended out of school at this level. Our prior report, released in August 2012, looked only at K-12 suspension rates across the entire grade span and contained no new analysis at the secondary school level. While the racial discipline gap has always been largest in middle schools and high schools, it has grown dramatically at the secondary level since the early 1970s. Details: Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Civil Rights Remedies, 2013. 105p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 6, 2013 at: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/out-of-school-and-off-track-the-overuse-of-suspensions-in-american-middle-and-high-schools/OutofSchool-OffTrack_UCLA_4-8.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/out-of-school-and-off-track-the-overuse-of-suspensions-in-american-middle-and-high-schools/OutofSc Shelf Number: 128670 Keywords: School DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Suspensions (U.S.) |
Author: American Educational Research Association. Title: Prevention of Bullying in Schools, Colleges, and Universities: Research Report and Recommendations Summary: Bullying presents one of the greatest health risks to children, youth, and young adults in U.S. society. It is pernicious in its impact even if often less visible and less readily identifiable than other public health concerns. Its effects on victims, perpetrators, and even bystanders are both immediate and long term and can affect the development and functioning of individuals across generations. The epicenter for bullying is schools, colleges, and universities, where vast numbers of children, youth, and young adults spend much of their time. Bullying—a form of harassment and violence—needs to be understood from a developmental, social, and educational perspective. The educational settings in which it occurs and where prevention and intervention are possible need to be studied and understood as potential contexts for positive change. Yet many administrators, teachers, and related personnel lack training to address bullying and do not know how to intervene to reduce it. The report is presented as a series of 11 briefs. All but one present research and set forth conclusions and implications. The briefs, which range in length from four to 10 pages each, include: •Looking Beyond the Traditional Definition of Bullying •Bullying as a Pervasive Problem •Bullying and Peer Victimization Among Vulnerable Populations •Gender-Related Bullying and Harassment: A Growing Trend •Legal Rights Related to Bullying and Discriminatory Harassment •Improving School Climate: A Critical Tool in Combating Bullying •Students, Teachers, Support Staff, Administrators, and Parents Working Together to Prevent and Reduce Bullying •Putting School Safety Education at the Core of Professional Preparation Programs •Reinvigorated Data Collection and Analysis: A Charge for National and Federal Stakeholders. Details: Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association, 2013. 79p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 15, 2013 at: http://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/News%20Release/Prevention%20of%20Bullying%20in%20Schools,%20Colleges%20and%20Universities.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/News%20Release/Prevention%20of%20Bullying%20in%20Schools,%20Colleges%20and%20Universities.pdf Shelf Number: 128730 Keywords: Bullying (U.S.)Bullying PreventionColleges and UniversitiesSchool CrimesSchool DisciplineSchool Security |
Author: McCallion, Gail Title: Student Bullying: Overview of Research, Federal Initiatives, and Legal Issues Summary: Many Members of Congress have become increasingly concerned about what can be done to address student bullying. This concern has arisen in response to high-profile bullying incidents that have occurred in recent years, and due to a growing body of research on the negative consequences of school bullying. Congress is interested in ensuring that schools are safe, secure places for students, so that they can receive the full benefits of their education. Several bills that address school bullying have already been introduced in the 113th Congress, although none has been enacted as of the date of this report. Some of the research on anti-bullying programs has found mixed success, particularly in the United States. However, a meta-analysis of 44 evaluations identified particular characteristics of school-based bullying programs that may help reduce bullying. This study found the intensity and duration of a program, as well as the number of program elements, to be linked with effectiveness. Other factors found to be important to effectiveness were parent training, parent meetings, firm disciplinary methods, classroom rules, classroom management, and improved playground supervision. Currently, there is no federal statute that explicitly prohibits student bullying or cyber-bullying. Under some circumstances, however, bullying may be prohibited by certain federal civil rights laws. In addition, bullying may, in some instances, constitute a violation of state criminal or tort law. There are several federal initiatives that are specifically focused on student bullying, including interagency initiatives. In addition, there are a variety of federal initiatives that are not solely or primarily focused on student bullying, but permit some funds to be used for this purpose. Representatives from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, the Interior, and Justice, as well as the Federal Trade Commission and the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, have formed a Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Steering Committee. The Federal Partners work to coordinate policy, research, and communications on bullying topics. The Federal Partners have created a website, http://www.stopbullying.gov, which provides extensive resources on bullying, including information on how schools can address bullying. Although there is currently no federal anti-bullying statute, there has been a surge in state legislation in recent years. A Department of Education (ED) study found that between 1999 and 2010, 120 bills and amendments to existing bills were introduced by states. Currently, 49 states have passed anti-bullying legislation. The majority of these laws direct school districts to adopt anti-bullying policies. However, the requirements placed on schools by these laws are quite varied. In addition, many of these laws do not contain all the key components of anti-bullying legislation that the U.S. Department of Education identified as important in a document it distributed to school districts. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2013. 29p. Source: Internet Resource: R43254: Accessed November 11, 2013 at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43254.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43254.pdf Shelf Number: 131638 Keywords: School Crime School DisciplineStudent Bullying (U.S.) |
Author: Cornell, Dewey Title: Prevention v. Punishment: Threat Assessment, School Suspensions, and Racial Disparities Summary: Racial disparities in school discipline today are troubling. Nationally, nearly one third of black male high school and middle school students undergo suspension, while only one in ten white males are suspended. In Virginia, black males are suspended at approximately twice the rate of white males in elementary, middle, and high schools. Black females are suspended at more than twice the rate of white females. There are racial disparities even when controlling for a variety of other factors, such as poverty and delinquency. Because suspension is linked to school dropout and delinquency, reducing disparities in suspension rates could help reduce school dropout and delinquency rates for all students, but especially for black males. This report presents new evidence that the implementation of Virginia Student Threat Assessment Guidelines (VSTAG) in Virginia public schools is associated with marked reductions in both short-term and long-term school suspensions. Furthermore, use of VSTAG is associated with reductions in the racial disparity in long-term suspensions. Schools using VSTAG have substantially lower rates of school suspensions, especially among black males, who tend to have the highest suspension rates. Details: Charlottesville, VA: JustChildren, Legal Aid Justice Center, University of Virginia, 2013. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 13, 2014 at: Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.justice4all.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/UVA-and-JustChildren-Report-Prevention-v.-Punishment.pdf Shelf Number: 131755 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsThreat Assessments |
Author: Kang-Brown, Jacob Title: A Generation Later: What We've Learned about Zero Tolerance in Schools Summary: In considering different strategies for promoting productive and safe school environments, it can be difficult to know what works and what doesn't. In particular, longstanding debates about zero tolerance policies leave many people confused about the basic facts. How do these policies that mandate specific and harsh punishments affect individual students and the overall school environment? Have zero tolerance policies helped to create a school-to-prison pipeline as many people argue? And if the costs outweigh the benefits, are there alternatives to zero tolerance that are more effective? This publication aims to answer these questions by drawing on the best empirical research produced to date, and to identify the questions that remain unanswered. Most importantly, this publication strives to be practical. We believe that with a clearer understanding of the facts, policymakers and school administrators can join with teachers and concerned parents to maintain order and safety in ways that enhance education and benefit the public interest. Details: New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2013. 10p. Source: Internet Resource: Issue Brief: Accessed January 27, 2014 at: http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/zero-tolerance-in-schools-policy-brief.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/zero-tolerance-in-schools-policy-brief.pdf Shelf Number: 131807 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsZero Tolerance Policies |
Author: American Civil Liberties Union of Florida Title: Still Haven't Shut Off the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Evaluating the Impact of Florida's New Zero-Tolerance Law Summary: In the spring of 2009, the Florida legislature amended its harsh zero-tolerance school discipline law with the passage of SB 1540. The law enacted some significant changes, such as encouraging schools to handle petty disciplinary infractions and misdemeanor offenses in school instead of relying on the juvenile justice system and exclusionary discipline. It seemed like after nearly a decade's worth of embarrassing news reports and multiple studies about the devastating effects of harsh school disciplinary practices in Florida schools, Florida was finally moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, our analysis demonstrates that meaningful reform has still not reached most of the schools - and students - across the state. While there has been some encouraging progress, the implementation of Florida's new zero-tolerance law has fallen substantially short of what is needed to adequately address the over-criminalization of Florida's youth and the over-reliance on exclusionary discipline by Florida's schools. For example: - Nearly half of all Florida school districts had more or the same number of referrals to the Department of Juvenile Justice following the passage of SB 1540 than they had the year before. - 67% of student referrals to the juvenile justice system were for misdemeanor offenses, meaning there were over 12,000 referrals just for these lower-level offenses. - Racial disparities in referrals to the juvenile justice system actually got worse after the passage of SB 1540. - Most school districts' policies still allow for extremely severe punishments - such as arrest, referral to law enforcement, and expulsion - for relatively minor infractions. Because Florida's students continue to have their educational opportunities - and thus, their life chances - limited by the over-use of harsh and unfair school discipline, there is an urgent need for action, at both the state and local levels. Fortunately, schools and districts across the country have already shown the way forward, and have pursued highly-effective strategies that can serve as a model for Florida. Still Haven't Shut Off the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Evaluating the Impact of Florida's New Zero-Tolerance Law presents a series of recommendations that, if implemented, can reduce Florida's dropout rate, build safer and more effective schools, limit the number of youth entering the juvenile and criminal justice systems, use the State's law enforcement agencies more efficiently, save taxpayer dollars, and build healthier communities throughout Florida. Details: Miami, FL: ACLU of Florida, 2012. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 21, 2014 at: http://aclufl.org/resources/still-havent-shut-off-the-school-to-prison-pipeline-evaluating-the-impact-of-floridas-new-zero-tolerance-law/ Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://aclufl.org/resources/still-havent-shut-off-the-school-to-prison-pipeline-evaluating-the-impact-of-floridas-new-zero-tolerance-law/ Shelf Number: 132102 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsZero Tolerance |
Author: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights Title: Data Snapshot: School Discipline Summary: INSIDE THIS SNAPSHOT: School Discipline, Restraint, & Seclusion Highlights - Suspension of preschool children, by race/ethnicity and gender (new for 2011-2012 collection): Black children represent 18% of preschool enrollment, but 48% of preschool children receiving more than one out-of-school suspension; in comparison, white students represent 43% of preschool enrollment but 26% of preschool children receiving more than one out of school suspension. Boys represent 79% of preschool children suspended once and 82% of preschool children suspended multiple times, although boys represent 54% of preschool enrollment. - Disproportionately high suspension/expulsion rates for students of color: Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than white students. On average, 5% of white students are suspended, compared to 16% of black students. American Indian and Native-Alaskan students are also disproportionately suspended and expelled, representing less than 1% of the student population but 2% of out-of-school suspensions and 3% of expulsions. - Disproportionate suspensions of girls of color: While boys receive more than two out of three suspensions, black girls are suspended at higher rates (12%) than girls of any other race or ethnicity and most boys; American Indian and Native-Alaskan girls (7%) are suspended at higher rates than white boys (6%) or girls (2%). - Suspension of students with disabilities and English learners: Students with disabilities are more than twice as likely to receive an out-of-school suspension (13%) than students without disabilities (6%). In contrast, English learners do not receive out-of-school suspensions at disproportionately high rates (7% suspension rate, compared to 10% of student enrollment). - Suspension rates, by race, sex, and disability status combined: With the exception of Latino and Asian-American students, more than one out of four boys of color with disabilities (served by IDEA) - and nearly one in five girls of color with disabilities - receives an out-of-school suspension. - Arrests and referrals to law enforcement, by race and disability status: While black students represent 16% of student enrollment, they represent 27% of students referred to law enforcement and 31% of students subjected to a school-related arrest. In comparison, white students represent 51% of enrollment, 41% of students referred to law enforcement, and 39% of those arrested. Students with disabilities (served by IDEA) represent a quarter of students arrested and referred to law enforcement, even though they are only 12% of the overall student population. - Restraint and seclusion, by disability status and race: Students with disabilities (served by IDEA) represent 12% of the student population, but 58% of those placed in seclusion or involuntary confinement, and 75% of those physically restrained at school to immobilize them or reduce their ability to move freely. Black students represent 19% of students with disabilities served by IDEA, but 36% of these students who are restrained at school through the use of a mechanical device or equipment designed to restrict their freedom of movement. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2014. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Issue Brief No.1: Accessed April 23, 2014 at: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-snapshot.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-snapshot.pdf Shelf Number: 132140 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Suspension |
Author: Council of State Governments Justice Center Title: The School Discipline Consensus Report: Strategies from the Field to Keep Students Engaged in School and Out of the Juvenile Justice System Summary: This comprehensive report provides school leaders and state and local government officials more than 60 recommendations for overhauling their approach to school discipline. The recommendations focus on improving conditions for learning for all students and staff, strengthening responses to student's behavioral health needs, tailoring school-police partnerships, and minimizing students' involvement with the juvenile justice system. The result of more than 700 interviews spanning 3 years, The School Discipline Consensus Report: Strategies from the Field to Keep Students Engaged in School and Out of the Juvenile Justice System reflects a consensus among a wide collection of leaders in the areas of education, health, law enforcement, and juvenile justice, establishing the strategies necessary to reduce the number of youth suspended from school while providing learning conditions that help all students succeed. Details: New York: Council of State Governments Justice Center, 2014. 461p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 16, 2014 at: http://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/The_School_Discipline_Consensus_Report.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/The_School_Discipline_Consensus_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 132474 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SecuritySchool Suspension |
Author: Burke, Arthur Title: Suspension and Expulsion Patterns in Six Oregon School Districts Summary: An analysis of six Oregon school districts' data from the 2011/12 school year, conducted by REL Northwest, shows that minority students are more likely to be suspended or expelled than their White peers. Suspension and Expulsion Patterns in Six Oregon School Districts - the first-ever Oregon study to look at discipline information across districts (including Beaverton, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Portland, Reynolds, and Tigard-Tualatin) - also reveals that male students are more likely to face exclusionary discipline than females, and that special education students are disciplined more frequently than students not in special education. The findings mirror those in a March 2014 report by the Office of Civil Rights[external link], showing disproportionately high suspension/expulsion rates for students of color and for other student subgroups. The REL Northwest study found: - 6.4 percent of students were suspended or expelled during 2011/12 across the six districts - Suspension and expulsion rates varied by student grade level, gender, race/ethnicity, and special education status - Rates for male students were 2.5 times higher than for females - Rates for American Indian, Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students were 1.2-3.1 times those of their White classmates - Rates for special education students were 2.6 times those of students not in special education - Physical and verbal aggression was the most common reason for suspension or expulsion among elementary and middle school students, while insubordination/disruption was the main cause in high schools Details: Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Education, Northwest Regional Education Laboratory At Education Northwest, 2014. 46p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 11, 2014 at: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/northwest/pdf/REL_2014028.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/northwest/pdf/REL_2014028.pdf Shelf Number: 132657 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Suspension |
Author: Mitchum, Preston Title: Beyond Bullying: How Hostile School Climate Perpetuates the School-to-Prison Pipeline for LGBT Youth Summary: School discipline policies have been under heightened scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Education because of the disparate impact they have on students of color. Data released last spring by the Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, revealed that rigid school discipline policies - which lead to suspensions and expulsions of students for even the most minor offenses - perpetuate a school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately criminalizes students of color and students with disabilities. Last month, the U.S. Department of Education released "Guiding Principles: A Resource Guide For Improving School Climate and Discipline," the first time federal agencies have offered legal guidelines to address and reduce racial discrimination and disproportionality in schools. This guidance makes tremendous strides in reporting on the stark racial disparities in school discipline, however, missing from this groundbreaking work are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, youth - who are also disproportionately affected by harsh school discipline policies - due to the dearth of data to illuminate their experiences. All too often, LGBT youth are pushed out of the classroom as a result of a hostile school climate. When an LGBT youth is tormented in school by classmates and is emotionally or physically harmed, or even worse, driven to suicide, the news media rightly shines a spotlight on the situation. And while bullying grabs the headlines, as it should, it is only a portion of the story when it comes to LGBT youth feeling unwelcome and less than safe in school. To be certain, peer-on-peer bullying is an important factor that influences school climate and has been linked to poor health, well-being, and educational outcomes. But research suggests that harsh school discipline policies also degrade the overall school experience and cycle LGBT youth and students of color into the juvenile justice system at alarming rates. The role that overly harsh school discipline policies and adults in schools play in setting school climate is often overlooked. School discipline policies and the application of those rules set the tone for the school environment and shape the experiences for students of color and LGBT youth. Studies suggest that the actions (or inactions) of adults in schools associated with school climate - issues that go beyond bullying - have the potential to derail youth, particularly LGBT youth, and push them into a cycle of unfair criminalization that has lifelong consequences: - LGB youth, particularly gender-nonconforming girls, are up to three times more likely to experience harsh disciplinary treatment by school administrators than their non-LGB counterparts. - As with racial disparities in school discipline, higher rates of punishment do not correlate with higher rates of misbehavior among LGBT youth. - LGB youth are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system; they make up just 5 percent to 7 percent of the overall youth population, but represent 15 percent of those in the juvenile justice system. - LGBT youth report significant distrust of school administrators and do not believe that school officials do enough to foster safe and welcoming school climates. Safe and welcoming school climates are essential to achieving positive educational outcomes for all youth, especially students of color and LGBT youth who often face harassment, bias, and discrimination at school based on their race, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression. In this report, we examine the disparate impact of harsh school discipline and the policing of schools on students of color and LGBT youth, as well as the role that adults in schools play in perpetuating hostile school climates for those youth. Furthermore, we explain why it is important that discipline policies are fair and supportive, rather than punitive and criminalizing, and foster healthy learning environments in which all students can excel. Details: Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, 2014. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 9, 2014 at: http://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/BeyondBullying.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/BeyondBullying.pdf Shelf Number: 133191 Keywords: Bias-Related CrimeDiscriminationLGBT YouthRacial DisparitiesSchool Bullying (U.S.)School DisciplineSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Jacobsen, Wade C. Title: Punished for their Fathers: School Discipline Among Children of the Prison Boom Summary: By the late 2000s the US incarceration rate had risen to more than 4 times what it was in the mid- 1970s, and school suspension rates more than doubled. Many incarcerated men are fathers, yet prior research has not examined the influence of paternal incarceration on children's risk of school discipline. Literature suggests multiple causal pathways: externalizing behaviors, system avoidance, and intergenerational stigmatization. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, I examine the effects of recent paternal incarceration on risk of exclusionary school discipline among urban nine year-olds. Results suggest that (1) recent paternal incarceration increases children's risk of being suspended or expelled from school; (2) effects are largely due to student behavioral problems; (3) beyond behavioral problems, effects are not due to parents' system avoidance following incarceration; and (4) although risk is highest for blacks and boys, effects do not vary by race or gender. Details: Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2014. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Fragile Families Working Paper: 14-08-FF: Accessed October 22, 2014 at: http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP14-08-FF.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP14-08-FF.pdf Shelf Number: 133799 Keywords: Children of Prisoners (U.S.)Families of PrisonersSchool Discipline |
Author: Swayze, Dana Title: Law enforcement in Minnesota schools: A statewide survey of school resource officers. Summary: Police agencies have long had a role in service to schools. Traditional activities have included periodic patrols, responding to calls for service and criminal investigations of offenses involving youth. Only in the last 20 years has assigning law enforcement officers to schools on a full-time basis become a widespread practice. Some factors thought to have contributed to the expanded use of police in schools include the rising involvement of juveniles in crime in the 1980s and 1990s; the shift to accountability-based policies to behavior in schools, including "zero tolerance;" and new, federal funding for community oriented policing, which includes funding for law enforcement in schools. In addition, high profile school shootings in the late-1990s, coupled with the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, significantly elevated concern for schools as targets of violence. The presence of law enforcement in schools has been controversial. Proponents assert that School Resource Officers (SROs) keep students and educators safe, which in turn creates an environment conducive to learning. SROs help schools prepare for potential external threats and help reduce the internal presence of drugs, alcohol, weapons, gangs and violence. In addition, SROs can serve as mentors for youth, and educators for students and staff. Supports believe SRO programs encourage positive relationships between students and police, increasing the likelihood that youth will come to police with information about illegal activity. Those opposed to law enforcement presence in schools contend there is little evidence to demonstrate that SRO programs reduce illegal or disruptive behavior. By the time SROs became common in the late 1990s, juvenile involvement in crime was already declining both inside and outside of schools. Opponents express concern that SROs can negatively affect school climate and compromise the civil rights of youth. Of particular concern is the criminalization of certain behaviors by a justice system response - behaviors which, in the absence of an SRO, would have been addressed with school-based discipline. Furthermore, justice system responses are more likely to be applied to youth of color, special education students and low income students. The practice of school-based policing expanded rapidly in the mid-1990s and early 2000s, leaving little time for evaluation or establishment of best practices. Goals and outcome measures for SRO programs have been elusive given the tremendous variability across states and jurisdictions. Throughout the 2000s, researchers studied the effects of law enforcement in schools in an attempt to provide policy-and-practice guidelines for these unique partnerships. Details: St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Office of Justice Programs, 2014. 111p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 28, 2015 at: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ojp/forms-documents/Documents/SRO%20REPORT.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ojp/forms-documents/Documents/SRO%20REPORT.pdf Shelf Number: 134478 Keywords: School Crime (Minnesota)School DisciplineSchool Resource OfficersSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Diaz, Jay Title: Kicked Out! Unfair and Unequal Student Discipline in Vermont's Public Schools Summary: Over the course of the last decade, Vermont policymakers have shown great concern about the widening achievement gap between low-income students and their upper-income peers. This achievement gap is closely connected to disability, race, and poverty. Because kids with disabilities, of color, and from low-income families do worse in school, they are more likely to grow up to be poor adults. Not only does this outcome violate our sense of justice as Vermonters, it also weakens our faith that education is the great equalizer. If our state is to create and maintain a stable, productive, and vibrant society, we must do something to ensure that all students are able to succeed. To that end, Vermont is making strides to reduce child poverty and ensure educational equality. We fund our schools through a system that promotes equal access to quality public education no matter the town's property values or income levels. We are also moving toward universal pre-K and healthcare, improving access to early childcare for low-income families, and raising the minimum wage. However, we have shied away from coming up with policy solutions to reduce other continuing inequities in our education system. While Vermont's education system ranks high nationally, we continue to see gaps in achievement, skills, aspiration for post-secondary attendance, and direct college attendance. Why? Across the country, educators, policymakers, advocates, parents, and students are finding some of the answers. In a 2014 report, The Council of State Governments found large disparities between the rates of exclusionary discipline for students with disabilities, students of color, and students from low-income families when compared with other students. The report emphasized that "an overreliance on suspensions, expulsions, and arrests has been shown as counterproductive to achieving many of a school's goals and has had tremendously negative consequences for youth." For instance, a Johns Hopkins study showed that students suspended just one time in grade 9 had double the risk of dropping out. Other studies have shown that disciplinary removal increases the likelihood of contact with the juvenile justice system by threefold. Myriad other studies connect drop-out rates to a greater likelihood of incarceration as an adult and higher poverty rates. Furthermore, the issue is seen as having such great importance that the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education jointly released legal guidance on the need to improve school discipline and climate. Thankfully, the Council also found that intentionally correcting these disparities by lowering exclusionary discipline not only improved school climate, safety, and order, but also kept students engaged in learning and increased their chances for life-long success. According to the Discipline Disparities Research Collaborative, numerous studies show that the use of positive behavior interventions and supports, non-punitive response protocols, restorative justice, and associated professional development for school staff have effectively improved school climate and academic achievement for all students. This report seeks to provide Vermont's policymakers, educators, advocates, parents, and students with the information necessary to assess school discipline in Vermont and to identify where we must go from here. Sadly, when it comes to school discipline rates and disparities, Vermont is not faring better than most other states. A comprehensive review of Vermont's school discipline data submitted to the 2011-2012 US Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) shows that we suspend students at a rate similar to most other states. During 2011-2012, 5-10% of Vermont's public school students were suspended, losing at least 8,000 days of school. In addition, Vermont's students with disabilities and students of color were two to three times more likely to be excluded from school through suspension and expulsion. These disparities persisted for restraint, seclusion, and referral to law enforcement. Details: Vermont Legal Aid, 2015. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 28, 2015 at: http://www.vtlegalaid.org/assets/Uploads/Kicked-Out-Unfair-and-Unequal-Student-Discipline-in-Vermonts-Public-Schools.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.vtlegalaid.org/assets/Uploads/Kicked-Out-Unfair-and-Unequal-Student-Discipline-in-Vermonts-Public-Schools.pdf Shelf Number: 134482 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool Crime (Vermont)School DisciplineSchool Suspensions |
Author: Crenshaw, Kimberle Williams Title: Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected Summary: It is well-established in the research literature and by educational advocates that there is a link between the use of punitive disciplinary measures and subsequent patterns of criminal supervision and incarceration. Commonly understood as the "school-to-prison pipeline," this framework highlights the ways that punitive school policies lead to low achievement, system involvement, and other negative outcomes. Efforts to reverse the consequences of this pipeline have typically foregrounded boys of color, especially Black boys, who are suspended or expelled more than any other group. Against the backdrop of the surveillance, punishment, and criminalization of youth of color in the United States, Black Girls Matter: Pushed Out, Overpoliced, and Underprotected seeks to increase awareness of the gendered consequences of disciplinary and push-out policies for girls of color, and, in particular, Black girls.11 The report developed out of a critical dialogue about the various ways that women and girls of color are channeled onto pathways that lead to underachievement and criminalization. At the 2012 UCLA School of Law Symposium, "Overpoliced and Underprotected: Women, Race, and Criminalization,"12 formerly incarcerated women, researchers, lawyers, and advocates came together to address the alarming patterns of surveillance, criminal supervision, and incarceration among women and girls of color. The symposium was an effort to investigate the specific contours of race and gender in relationship to zero-tolerance policies, social marginalization, and criminalization. Details: New York: African American Policy Forum, Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies: 2015. 53p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 4, 2015 at: http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/sites/default/files/uploads/BlackGirlsMatter_Report.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/sites/default/files/uploads/BlackGirlsMatter_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 134747 Keywords: Disproportionate Minority ContactMinority Youth (U.S.)Racial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsZero Tolerance Policies |
Author: Losen, Daniel J. Title: Are We Closing the School Discipline Gap? Summary: Nearly 3.5 million public school students were suspended out of school at least once in 2011-12.12. That is more than one student suspended for every public school teacher in America. This means that more students were suspended in grades K-12 than were enrolled as high school seniors. To put this in perspective, the number of students suspended in just one school year could fill all of the stadium seats for nearly all the Super Bowls ever played-(the first 45). Moreover, recent estimates are that one in three students will be suspended at some point between kindergarten and 12th grade (Shollenberger, 2015). If we ignore the discipline gap, we will be unable to close the achievement gap. Of the 3.5 million students who were suspended in 2011-12, 1.55 million were suspended at least twice. Given that the average suspension is conservatively put at 3.5 days, we estimate that U.S. public school children lost nearly 18 million days of instruction in just one school year because of exclusionary discipline. Loss of classroom instruction time damages student performance. For example, one recent study (Attendance Works, 2014) found that missing three days of school in the month before taking the National Assessment of Educational Progress translated into fourth graders scoring a full grade level lower in reading on this test. New research shows that higher suspension rates are closely correlated with higher dropout and delinquency rates, and that they have tremendous economic costs for the suspended students (Marchbanks, 2015), as well as for society as a whole (Losen, 2015). Therefore, the large racial/ethnic disparities in suspensions that we document in this report likely will have an adverse and disparate impact on the academic achievement and life outcomes of millions of historically disadvantaged children. This supports our assertion that we will close the racial achievement gap only when we also address the school discipline gap. Suspension rates typically are three to five times higher at the secondary level than at the elementary level, as illustrated in figure 1. Furthermore, the actual size of the racial gap, such as that between Blacks and Whites, is much greater at the secondary level. The national summary of suspension rate trends for grades K-12 indicates that these rates increased sharply from the early 1970s to the early 2000s, and then more gradually, until they leveled off in the most recent three-year period. We conclude that in this recent period, no real progress was made in reducing suspension rates for grades K-12. After many years of widening, the gap in suspension rates between Blacks and Whites and between Latinos and Whites narrowed slightly in the most recent time period-that is, the 2009-10 and 2011- 12 school years. The gap narrowed, however, only because of the increase in the White suspension rate. Specifically, 16% of Blacks and 7% of Latinos were suspended in both years, while rates for Whites rose from 4% to 5%. We next broke down the national trend analysis to the elementary and secondary levels. We only had the necessary data for the three years shown in figure 3. Despite the persistence of deeply disturbing disparities, the good news is that we estimate a slight reduction nationally in suspension rates for Blacks, Latinos, and Whites at the secondary level, along with a small narrowing of the racial discipline gap. Details: Los Angeles: Center for Civil Rights Remedies, 2015. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 16, 2015 at: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/are-we-closing-the-school-discipline-gap/AreWeClosingTheSchoolDisciplineGap_FINAL221.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/are-we-closing-the-school-discipline-gap/AreWeClosingTheSchoolDisciplineGap_FINAL221.pdf Shelf Number: 134942 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsStudent Discipline |
Author: Smith, Edward J. Title: Disproportionate impact of K-12 school suspension and expulsion on Black students in southern states. Summary: Nationally, 1.2 million Black students were suspended from K-12 public schools in a single academic year - 55% of those suspensions occurred in 13 Southern states. Districts in the South also were responsible for 50% of Black student expulsions from public schools in the United States. This report aims to make transparent the rates at which school discipline practices and policies impact Black students in every K-12 public school district in 13 Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Despite comprising only 20.9% of students in the 3,022 districts analyzed, Blacks were suspended and expelled at disproportionately high rates. The authors use data from the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to present school discipline trends related to Black students district-by-district within each state. Districts in which school discipline policies and practices most disproportionately impact Black students are also highlighted. The report concludes with resources and recommendations for parents and families, educators and school leaders, policymakers, journalists, community stakeholders (NAACP chapters, religious congregations, activists, etc.), and others concerned about the school-to-prison pipeline and the educational mistreatment of Black youth in K-12 schools. The authors also offer implications for faculty in schools of education, as well as other sites in which teachers are prepared (e.g., Teach for America) and administrators are certified. Details: Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education, 2015. 92p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 11, 2015 at: http://www.gse.upenn.edu/equity/sites/gse.upenn.edu.equity/files/publications/Smith_Harper_Report.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.gse.upenn.edu/equity/sites/gse.upenn.edu.equity/files/publications/Smith_Harper_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 136719 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool Suspensions |
Author: University of Utah. S.J. Quinney College of Law Title: From Fingerpaint to Fingerprints: The School-to-Prison Pipeline in Utah Summary: In the first report of its kind in the state, students at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law used recently released U.S. Department of Education data to examine school discipline rates in Utah. Their findings indicate that Utah students are being disciplined in extraordinarily high numbers starting in elementary school. Significant findings in the report include the following: - Children with disabilities in Utah are twice as likely to be disciplined as their non-disabled peers. - Children in elementary schools are being referred to law enforcement, arrested in their schools, and expelled. - Children of color, and American Indian children in particular, are one-and-half to three-and-half times more likely to be disciplined than their white counterparts. - Male children in Utah are disciplined twice as often as female children. - School districts across the country - including some here in Utah - have maintained safe learning environments while reducing the use of school discipline. Students who are suspended even once are more likely to drop out of school, and the Department of Justice reports that nearly 70% of those in prison nationwide dropped out of high school. Details: Salt Lake City: University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, Public Policy Clinic, 2014. 34p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 28, 2015 at: https://app.box.com/s/7cijulegy85dk2557i1figi7fs36777o Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: https://app.box.com/s/7cijulegy85dk2557i1figi7fs36777o Shelf Number: 136827 Keywords: School DisciplineSchool SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Harvard Law School. Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice Title: Building Equalizing Schools Within Inclusive Communities: Strategies in the Classroom and Beyond that Redirect the School-to-Prison Pipeline Summary: We explore exclusionary discipline not necessarily because we consider it more important than all the other urgent challenges facing African-American males, though it is indeed a powerful generator of inequality. We choose to examine school discipline for three reasons. One, it offers a window into larger social inequalities and "a way in" to two distinct yet related arenas that have potentially significant and direct influences upon boys and men of color: education and criminal justice. Two, we consider harsh school discipline precisely because we can do something about it fairly immediately. This is both because there are clear alternatives and because a social-science consensus has emerged about its harms. And three, a close examination of the causes and cures for exclusionary school discipline - or "zero tolerance" - clearly illustrates the need to apply knowledge from a range of fields in developing lasting, effective policy and practice that gets to the root of complex, long-standing social problems. Drawing attention to the causes of and potential cures for exclusionary discipline offers a concrete, manageable way for educators, and the communities they serve, to begin to untangle and, perhaps, dismantle the more complex, often obscured opportunity-limiting structures of which school discipline is but one small part. Thus, for those of you who consider discipline not your "issue," or too narrow to spend time on, we urge you to read this report, because we believe there are lessons to draw and to apply to other policies and challenges. Details: Cambridge, MA: Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, 2010. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 13, 2016 at: http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/Harvard_-_Building_Equalizing_Schools_-_Full_Report.pdf Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/Harvard_-_Building_Equalizing_Schools_-_Full_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 137559 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool-to-Prison PipelineZero Tolerance |
Author: Redfield, Sarah E. Title: School-To-Prison Pipeline: Preliminary Report Summary: In 2014, the American Bar Association (ABA) Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice (COREJ) turned its attention to the continuing failures in the education system where certain groups of students - for example, students of color, with disabilities, or LGBTQ - are disproportionately over- or incorrectly categorized in special education, are disciplined more harshly, including referral to law enforcement for minimal misbehavior, achieve at lower levels, and eventually drop or are pushed out of school, often into juvenile justice facilities and prisons - a pattern now commonly referred to as the School-to-Prison Pipeline (StPP). While this problem certainly is not new, it presented a convergence of several laws, policies, and practices where the legal community's intervention is critical. Joined by the ABA Pipeline Council and Criminal Justice Section, and supported by its sister ABA entities, COREJ sponsored a series of eight Town Halls across the country to investigate the issues surrounding this pipeline. The focus of these Town Halls was to 1) explore the issues as they presented themselves for various groups and various locales; 2) gather testimony on solutions that showed success, with particular focus on interventions where the legal community could be most effective in interrupting and reversing the StPP; and 3) draw attention to the role implicit bias plays in creating and maintaining this pipeline. This report is a result of those convenings. Also a result was the formation of a Joint Task Force among the three convening entities to provide an organizational structure to address Reversing the School-to-Prison Pipeline (RStPP) To analyze the complexities surrounding the school-to-prison pipeline and identify potential solutions to reverse these negative trends, the Joint RStPP Task Force: 1. Organized and conducted eight Town Hall meetings in various parts of the United States during which several area experts and community members voiced concerns, discussed the problems, and proposed solutions. 2. Analyzed and cumulated national data from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection and other available local data to gauge the magnitude and scope of the problems. 3. Served as a clearinghouse for information and reports relevant to the RStPP effort and disseminated that information. 4. Examined national and state laws and local school district's policies and practices that have combined to push an increasing number of students out of school and into the justice system. 5. Analyzed laws that several states have enacted to reverse the school-to-prison pipeline. 6. Evaluated evidence-based policies and practices that various schools have implemented to reverse the school-to-prison pipeline. 7. Organized and conducted a roundtable discussion to focus exclusively on mapping out solutions to reverse these negative trends by identifying model programs and successful strategies. 8. Planned for two additional Town Halls focused on LGBTQ (San Diego) and entry points to the pipeline and juvenile justice (Memphis). 9. Drafted this preliminary report and prepared recommendations for consideration by the larger ABA. Details: Chicago: American Bar Association, Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice, 2016. 167p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 22, 2016 at: http://jjie.org/files/2016/02/School-to-Prison-Pipeline-Preliminary-Report-Complete-Final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://jjie.org/files/2016/02/School-to-Prison-Pipeline-Preliminary-Report-Complete-Final.pdf Shelf Number: 137937 Keywords: Racial DiscriminationRacial DisparitiesRacial Profiling School DisciplineSchool Suspension School-to-Prison PipelineZero Tolerance |
Author: Fronius, Trevor Title: Restorative Justice in U.S. Schools: A Research Review Summary: This report provides a comprehensive review of the literature on restorative justice in U.S. schools. The review captures key issues, describes models of restorative justice, and summarizes results from studies conducted in the field. The review was conducted on research reports and other relevant literature published, or made publicly available, between 1999 and mid-2014 and was guided by the following questions: - What are the origins and theory underlying U.S. schools' interest in restorative justice? - How does the literature describe restorative justice programs or approaches in U.S. schools? - What issues have been identified as important to consider for implementing restorative justice in the schools? - What does the empirical research say about the impact of restorative justice in the schools? In the literature reviewed for this report, restorative justice is generally portrayed as a promising approach to address school climate, culture, and safety. Although the community of support for its implementation has grown exponentially over the past several years, more research is needed. Several rigorous trials underway will perhaps provide the evidence necessary to make stronger claims about the impact of restorative justice, and the field will benefit greatly as those results become available over the next several years. Details: San Francisco, California: WestEd Justice and Prevention Research Center, 2016. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 1, 2016 at: https://www.wested.org/wp-content/files_mf/1456766824resourcerestorativejusticeresearchreview.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.wested.org/wp-content/files_mf/1456766824resourcerestorativejusticeresearchreview.pdf Shelf Number: 138001 Keywords: Restorative JusticeSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Safety |
Author: Jacobsen, Wade C. Title: Even at a Young Age: Exclusionary School Discipline and Children's Physically Aggressive Behaviors Summary: Exclusionary school discipline has become an increasingly common experience among US children, with rates of suspension and expulsion highest among boys, minorities, and the poor. Although well documented among middle and high school students, less is known about the prevalence or consequences among younger children. We examine rates of school discipline across gender, race, and class for urban-born children by about age nine. We then estimate the effect of school discipline on physically aggressive behavior. Results reveal severe disparities, especially among poor children where 1 in 2 black boys and more than 1 in 3 black girls have been suspended or expelled, compared to fewer than 1 in 30 non-black non-Hispanic boys or girls. We find no evidence that school discipline reduces children's physically aggressive behaviors. Indeed, it appears to be associated with increases in such behavior, with similar effects across gender, race, and class. Details: Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2016. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper: Accessed March 14, 2016 at: http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP16-04-FF.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP16-04-FF.pdf Shelf Number: 138229 Keywords: School DisciplineSchool SuspensionSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Losen, Daniel J. Title: Keeping California's Kids in School: Fewer Students of Color Missing School for Minor Misbehavior Summary: Recently the California Department of Education released new data on school discipline. This report compares this year's data release covering 2012-13 to the data released last year covering 2011-12. We find a reduction in the use of out-of-school suspension for every racial/ethnic group. Specifically, based on the statewide averages for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, progress was made for every racial/ethnic subgroup toward reducing the rate of out-of-school suspensions (OSS) per 100 students enrolled from the prior year. Data source and limitations: The state and district level data used to construct this report and compare years, include data on every district in California collected by the state and available on the state's Department of Education website. We have conducted the additional analysis on racial gaps and trends over time. We provide that information for every district in a sortable spreadsheet that accompanies this report. The state has discouraged comparisons with reported data from earlier years because the definitions, collection methods and other inconsistencies make such comparisons unreliable. The reduction in state averages suggest that some progress has been made toward reducing the reliance on out-of- school suspensions and the racial gap in disciplinary exclusion is narrowing in California. This report only provides a summary of some of the more significant state and district level improvements. Details: Los Angeles: Center for Civil Rights Remedies, 2014. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 21, 2016 at: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/summary-reports/keeping-californias-kids-in-school/WithChange.pdf Year: 2014 Country: United States URL: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/summary-reports/keeping-californias-kids-in-school/WithChange.pdf Shelf Number: 138357 Keywords: Racial Disparities School Discipline School Suspensions Student Discipline |
Author: Losen, Daniel J. Title: Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion from School Summary: Does anybody know how many students were suspended from school in their child's district? Should we care? In most schools and districts in the nation, the answer to the first question is that most do not know, even though out-of-school suspension is no longer a measure of last resort in a large number of school districts across the country. As this report will show, many districts are frequently resorting to suspension for violations of even minor school rules. Well over three million children, K-12, are estimated to have lost instructional "seat time" in 2009-2010 because they were suspended from school, often with no guarantee of adult supervision outside the school. That's about the number of children it would take to fill every seat in every major league baseball park and every NFL stadium in America, combined. Besides the obvious loss of time in the classroom, suspensions matter because they are among the leading indicators of whether a child will drop out of school, and because out-of- school suspension increases a child's risk for future incarceration. Given these increased risks, what we don't know about the use of suspensions may be putting our children's futures (and our economy) in jeopardy. Furthermore, the high risk of getting suspended is not borne equally by all students, which raises civil rights issues and questions about fundamental fairness. This report will demonstrate that, while children from every racial group can be found to have a high risk for suspension in some school districts, African American children and children with disabilities are usually at a far greater risk than others. For example, one out of every six enrolled Black students was suspended, compared with one in twenty White students. This national report, based on suspensions of students in K-12 in 2009-2010, represents the first major effort to fill the knowledge gap around school discipline as it stands in thousands of districts in nearly every state. Based on data released in March 2012 by the U.S. Department of Education, we analyze the risk of out-of-school suspension for every racial/ethnic group, as well as for students with and without disabilities. The report begins by providing national- and state-level estimates, but perhaps the most valuable information presented is the detailed analysis of nearly 7,000 school districts from every state. In this national database, using the companion spreadsheets, readers will easily locate the highest suspending school districts for each racial group, and for students with and without disabilities. This report demonstrates that, in most districts, the highest risk for suspension is revealed when the data are disaggregated by race and combined with gender and/or disability status. Details: Los Angeles: Center for Civil Rights Remedies, 2012. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 24, 2016 at: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/upcoming-ccrr-research/losen-gillespie-opportunity-suspended-2012.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/resources/projects/center-for-civil-rights-remedies/school-to-prison-folder/federal-reports/upcoming-ccrr-research/losen-gillespie-opportunity-suspended-2012.pdf Shelf Number: 138407 Keywords: Racial Disparities School Discipline School Suspensions Student Discipline |
Author: Action for Children North Carolina Title: From Push Out to Lock Up: North Carolina's Accelerated School-to-Prison Pipeline Summary: More than 80 percent of today's fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs require post-secondary education or training. In the 21st century global economy, a high school diploma and resultant skills to succeed in college and the workplace are essential. And yet, each year far too many students in North Carolina fail to graduate on time with their peers. Studies have shown a link between juvenile and adult criminal system involvement and dropouts. A student arrested in high school is twice as likely to leave school early or to be pushed out, and a court involved high school student is four times as likely to drop out of school as his or her peers. Although juvenile delinquency has declined across the nation and the state, the percentage of complaints filed against juveniles that originate in North Carolina public schools continues to rise. The funneling of students from schools to jail or prison is a national phenomenon that has come to be called the school-to-prison pipeline. North Carolina's pipeline differs from that in most other states because it deposits 16- and 17-year-old students directly into the adult criminal system, regardless of the severity of their alleged offense. Juveniles who are prosecuted in the adult system are more likely to reoffend, and to commit more serious crimes when they do, than youth who receive age-appropriate treatment and rehabilitation through the juvenile justice system. The stigma of an adult criminal record erects barriers that, in many cases, prevent young people from reintegrating into society, successfully transitioning into the workforce or pursuing advanced education or training. The school-to-prison pipeline leaks talent and potential from North Carolina's future workforce, while limiting the trajectory of many of our students' lives. Investing in dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline is good policy because it ensures that students become productive and contributing members of society. At a time when businesses face an increasingly competitive global marketplace, it is imperative that every student in North Carolina graduates from high school prepared to pursue college and career success. This report presents a statewide overview of the various segments in North Carolina's school-to-prison pipeline that move vulnerable students into the court system: underfunded schools, harsh discipline, increased policing of school hallways and a lack of adequate intervention programs or alternative education placements. The final section of the report proposes four recommendations to begin dismantling the school-to-pipeline: 1.Raise the age of juvenile court jurisdiction from 16 to 18 for youth who commit misdemeanor offenses; 2.Implement evidence based reforms to ensure equitable treatment for all students in North Carolina; 3.Improve data collection and reporting requirements to better inform school administrators, parents and policymakers; and 4.Establish a legislative task force on school discipline policies. Details: Raleigh, NC: Action for Children North Carolina, 2013. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 21, 2016 at: http://www.ncchild.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2013_STPP-FINAL.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.ncchild.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2013_STPP-FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 132009 Keywords: EducationJuvenile OffendersSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Palmer, Neal A. Title: Educational Exclusion: Drop Out, Push Out, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline among LGBTQ Youth Summary: Over the past decade we have witnessed enormous growth in interest in the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students in school. More and more attention has been paid to LGBTQ student safety, particularly regarding their disproportionate exposure to bullying and potential ways to make schools safer and more supportive. For the first time, the federal government has committed to asking about harassment and bullying based on sexual orientation via the Civil Rights Data Collection that all U.S. school districts are required to complete. In addition, the Department of Education has added LGBT-inclusive questions to other government surveys, such as the High School Longitudinal Survey , and more LGBTQ students than ever indicate that their schools have anti-bullying policies that specifically protect them based on their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. Yet, despite these recent gains, schools still remain unsafe for many LGBTQ students and may also be unwelcoming to LGBTQ students because of discrimination and a lack of affirming resources. There also has been growing attention to harsh and exclusionary disciplinary policies that effectively push students, including LGBTQ students, out of schools. A great deal of research has documented the over-representation of certain groups of students in the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP). Specifically, Black/AfricanAmerican youth, Latino/a youth, and youth with disabilities experience disproportionately higher rates of school discipline and involvement with the criminal/juvenile justice system and lower high school graduation rates. Emerging research suggests that these harsh forms of discipline may be also applied disproportionately to LGBTQ youth, thus depriving this population of educational opportunities. This report expands on the current body of literature by examining potential pathways that push youth out of school and potentially into the criminal justice system in a national sample of LGBTQ middle and high school students. This report draws from data from GLSEN's 2013 National School Climate Survey, sharing both relevant, previously reported findings, and presenting new findings from analysis conducted specifically for this report. Details: New York: GLSEN, 2016. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 20, 2016 at: https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/Educational%20Exclusion_Report_6-28-16_v4_WEB_READY_PDF.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.glsen.org/sites/default/files/Educational%20Exclusion_Report_6-28-16_v4_WEB_READY_PDF.pdf Shelf Number: 145891 Keywords: DiscriminationLGBTQSchool BullyingSchool DisciplineSchool SecuritySchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Title: Report on the Evaluation of Judicially Led Responses to Eliminate School Pathways to the Juvenile Justice System Summary: Many schools across the United States have enacted zero tolerance philosophy in response to perceived increases in violence and drugs in schools. It is believed that aggressive and unwavering punishment of many school infractions, including relatively minor infractions, will create safer schools. However, zero tolerance policy is said to have contributed to increased number of disciplinary actions and increased number of students who come in contact with the court system. Effects of the policy include the removal of students from the educational system, through disciplinary actions such as expulsions and suspensions. These disciplinary actions have negative unintended consequences for families and society. The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) received grant funding from the Atlantic Philanthropies, Public Welfare Foundation, and the Open Society Foundation to provide training and technical assistance to jurisdictions preparing to start or continue initiatives with judicially-led collaboratives to reduce stringent school discipline and referrals of youth to juvenile courts for school-based behaviors. Additional funding was provided by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to conduct a process and outcome evaluation. This research report discusses the findings from the process and outcome evaluation, including some lessons learned about the challenges of collecting data on this complex issue. Details: Reno, NV: The Council, 2016. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 28, 2016 at: http://www.ncjfcj.org/sites/default/files/NCJFCJ%20Evaluation%20Report%20School%20Pathways%20Final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.ncjfcj.org/sites/default/files/NCJFCJ%20Evaluation%20Report%20School%20Pathways%20Final.pdf Shelf Number: 147918 Keywords: At-Risk YouthDelinquency PreventionSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool-to-Prison PipelineZero Tolerance Policy |
Author: Pownall, Samantha Title: A, B, C, D, STPP: How School Discipline Feeds the School-to-Prison Pipeline Summary: Overly punitive school discipline feeds the school-to-prison pipeline and contributes to the failure of New York's public school system to educate the city’s most disadvantaged students. Research consistently demonstrates the importance of keeping students with the greatest academic and economic needs in school. Under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, these are the same students who are at greatest risk of being pushed out through suspensions and arrests. Black students, who are disproportionately arrested in school compared with white students, are the least likely to graduate from high school with a Regents Diploma. Black students and students with special needs are disproportionately suspended from city schools. And black students with special needs have the highest suspension rate of any group. Low-income students are also disproportionately suspended. This report reviews the policies and practices that produced these results and provides recommendations to help end the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) in New York City, and for the first time, links school suspension to NYPD stop-and-frisk patterns in four out of five boroughs. Details: New York: New York Civil Liberties Union, 2013. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 8, 2017 at: https://www.nyclu.org/sites/default/files/publications/nyclu_STPP_1021_FINAL.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://www.nyclu.org/sites/default/files/publications/nyclu_STPP_1021_FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 141378 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Jacobsen, Wade C. Title: Punishment and Inequality at an Early Age: Exclusionary Discipline in Elementary School Summary: We fill an important gap in prior research by assessing (1) the prevalence of exclusionary discipline in elementary school; (2) racial disparities in exclusionary discipline in elementary school; and (3) the association between exclusionary discipline and aggressive behavior in elementary school. Using the Fragile Families Study, we estimate that more than 1 in 10 children born 1998-2000 in large US cities were suspended or expelled by age nine (most in third grade). We also find extreme racial disparity; upwards of 30% of non-Hispanic black males were suspended or expelled, compared to 8% of non-Hispanic white or other-race males. Disparities are largely due to differences in children's school and home environments rather than to behavior problems. Furthermore, we find suspension or expulsion associated with increased aggressive behavior in elementary school. These results are robust to a rich set of covariates, within individual fixed-effects, matching methods, and sensitivity checks for reverse causality and selection. Our results imply that school discipline policies relying heavily on exclusionary punishment may be fostering childhood inequality. Details: Princeton, NJ: Princeton University, 2017. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Fragile Families Working Paper: WP16-04-FF: Accessed April 12, 2017 at: http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP16-04-FF.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://crcw.princeton.edu/workingpapers/WP16-04-FF.pdf Shelf Number: 144815 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool Discipline School Suspension School-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Hemphill, Sheryl Title: Positive associations between school and student problem behaviour: Recent Australian findings Summary: School suspension- the temporary removal of a student from school-is one of the most severe responses to student misbehaviour in Australian schools. Evidence suggests school suspension is associated with negative behavioural outcomes in adolescence. Using data from the International Youth Development Study, a large longitudinal study of adolescent development, this research found positive associations between school suspension and adolescent problem behaviour. These associations remained after taking into account other known risk factors for such behaviours. The paper discusses the implications for policy development around the management of student misbehaviour and conduct breaches. Details: Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, 2017. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 531: Accessed June 5, 2017 at: http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi531.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Australia URL: http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/tandi_pdf/tandi531.pdf Shelf Number: 145924 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Suspensions |
Author: New York (City). Mayor's Leadership Team on School Climate and Discipline Title: Safety with Dignity: Phase 1 Recommendations Summary: Safety with Dignity details policy recommendations made by the Mayor's Leadership Team on School Climate and Discipline ("Leadership Team"). The Leadership Team is a one-year task force that was launched by Mayor Bill de Blasio in February 2015 with the mission of developing recommendations to enhance the well-being and safety of students and staff in the City's public schools, while minimizing the use of suspensions, arrests and summonses. Co-chaired by Ursulina Ramirez, Chief of Staff, NYC Department of Education and Vincent Schiraldi, Senior Advisor, Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, the Leadership Team was charged with the task of examining data and studying best practices in order to: Improve the use of data to assess the effectiveness of current policy and practice, and spread promising positive discipline innovations system-wide; Reduce the frequency and duration of suspensions and minimize arrests and referrals to the justice system for school-based disciplinary offenses; Reduce disparities by race, gender, disability and Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender (LGBT) status in student discipline, arrests and summonses; Increase access to mental health and other community-based supports for high-need students; and Update the Discipline Code and the Memorandum of Understanding between the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the Department of Education (DOE) to align the use of school discipline and security personnel and security measures with supportive school climate goals. To meet its objectives, the Leadership Team developed five Working Groups that involved more than 150 stakeholders, including representatives from city agencies, community organizations, and unions, as well as researchers, practitioners, educators, students and parents. Over the past five months, these Working Groups convened to define a vision and system-wide approach to positive climate, discipline and safety in schools, as well as to develop targeted initiatives to assist schools with high rates of suspensions, arrests and summonses - and high disparities in those areas - to improve their practices. Details: New York: The Leadership Team, 2015. 51p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 29, 2017 at: http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/sclt/downloads/pdf/safety-with-dignity-final-complete-report-723.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/sclt/downloads/pdf/safety-with-dignity-final-complete-report-723.pdf Shelf Number: 146597 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Safety |
Author: Davis, Alicia J. Title: How Has the Baltimore County Public School System Addressed Disproportionate Minority Suspensions? Summary: Disproportionate minority contact refers to the higher proportion of minority youth who come into contact with the juvenile justice system (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention [OJJDP], 1999). Researchers have found overrepresentation at every point of contact, from arrest to referral to adjudication (Hamparian & Leiber, 1997; Kakar, 2006). Furthermore, research has shown that the school system is yet another point of contact, where minority students are disproportionately arrested or referred to the juvenile justice system. Nicholas-Crotty, Birchmeier, and Valentine (2009) argue that the disproportionate use of exclusionary discipline by schools has created patterns of disproportionate minority contact, which ultimately are replicated, at least in part, by referrals to juvenile courts. They examined school disciplinary data from 53 Missouri counties and found that schools disproportionately targeting African American students for exclusionary sanctions also experienced higher rates of juvenile court referrals for African American youth. This trend has been defined as the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP), which is a system of educational public safety policies that pushes students out of school and into the criminal justice system (N.Y. Civil Liberties Union, n.d.). The STPP is fueled by zero-tolerance school policies. Zero-tolerance policies have been blamed for many of the disparities in school disciplinary actions. These policies, initially intended to deter serious offenses from occurring in schools, now include mostly minor offenses leading to more suspensions and expulsions (Johnson-Davis, 2012; Skiba, 2004). According to Skiba and Knesting (2001), 94 percent of schools now have some form of zero-tolerance policy in effect. In addition, although all races and genders are affected by these strict policies, researchers find that children of color are impacted the most (Advancement Project, 2005). For years, researchers and advocates have attempted to expose the negative consequences of zero-tolerance policies, such as the STPP. Studies across the nation - notably in Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, and Oregon public schools - have proven that minority students are overrepresented in the use of out-of-school suspensions (Florida State Conference NAACP, 2006; Johnson-Davis, 2012; Langberg & Brege, 2009; Portland Public Schools, 2002-03). Consequently, students are directly and indirectly being filtered into the juvenile justice system. Studies also have shown that children who have been suspended are more likely to be retained in grade, to drop out, to commit a crime, and/or to end up incarcerated (Johnson-Davis, 2012). Johnson-Davis (2012) conducted a study on Maryland's Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) for the 2008-09 school year and found that out of 103,180 students, 20,178 (19.5 percent) were suspended out of school. Of this number, 13 percent were in elementary school, 28 percent were in middle school, and 55 percent were in high school. At all school levels, suspensions were given most for disrespect/insubordination/disruption offenses. For these minor infractions, the percentage of suspensions given in elementary school, middle school, and high school were 24 percent, 44 percent, and 41 percent, respectively. The main focus of the BCPS study was to determine if a relationship existed between African American students and disproportionate school discipline practices in the system. The study explored the relationship between African American students and suspensions (in and out of school), and attempted to determine if that relationship varied based on students' academic performance. Results of a correlation and chi-square analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between African American students and suspension rates in BCPS (Johnson-Davis, 2012). The data revealed the strongest relationship in elementary schools. Specifically, a significant relationship was observed between the percentage of African American students and both in-school (0.328) and out-of-school (0.634) suspensions. Also, in high schools, a significant relationship was revealed between the percentage of African American students and in-school (0.465) suspensions. Additionally, a logistic regression analysis was used to determine if the percentage of African American students significantly predicted school suspensions when controlling for the effects of gender and student performance on standardized math tests (Johnson-Davis, 2012). Again, in elementary schools, the percentage of African American students was significantly and positively related to out-of-school suspensions even after controlling for gender and student performance on standardized math tests. Furthermore, the analysis revealed that performance on the standardized math test was significantly and negatively related to out-of-school suspensions in elementary schools, suggesting that African American youth who scored high on the standardized math test were less likely to receive an out-of-school suspension than African American youth who performed poorly (Johnson-Davis, 2012). Details: Baltimore: Schaefer Center for Public Policy University of Baltimore - College of Public Affairs, 2015. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 4, 2017 at: https://www.ubalt.edu/cpa/schaefer-center/minority_-suspensions_report_revised.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://www.ubalt.edu/cpa/schaefer-center/minority_-suspensions_report_revised.pdf Shelf Number: 147542 Keywords: Disproportionate Minority ContactRacial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison PipelineZero Tolerance Policy |
Author: Council of State Governments Justice Center Title: Realizing the Full Vision of School Discipline Reform: A Framework for Statewide Change Summary: In 2017, The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center convened policymakers and education leaders from five states - California, Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, and Tennessee - that have seen success in reducing suspensions and expulsions to identify the strategies they used to achieve these successes, and to determine how similar approaches could be adopted in other states seeking to achieve comprehensive school discipline reform. The five states convened by the CSG Justice Center and highlighted in this report represent a diverse cross-section of regions of the country, varying student population sizes and compositions, and unique education system structures, and are at different stages of reform. As such, the strategies they used to facilitate these reforms are instructive both for states looking to advance further reforms and for states that have just started their reform efforts. This report first describes the framework that all five featured states used to advance their statewide school discipline reform efforts, and provides corresponding examples of state-specific strategies that have been successful in limiting the use of out-of-school suspension. The second section of the report provides recommendations to help all states apply this framework further in order to realize the full vision of school discipline reform. Details: New York: The Justice Center, 2017. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 9, 2017 at: https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/JC_Realizing-the-Full-Vision-of-School-Discipline-Reform_A-Framework-for-Statewide-Change.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/JC_Realizing-the-Full-Vision-of-School-Discipline-Reform_A-Framework-for-Statewide-Change.pdf Shelf Number: 147614 Keywords: School DisciplineSchool SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Loveless, Tom Title: The 2017 Brown Center Report on American Education: How Well are American Students Learning? With sections on the latest international test scores, foreign exchange students, and school suspensions Summary: This Brown Center Report (BCR) on American Education is the sixth and final edition in the third volume and the 16th issue overall. The series began in 2000. As in the past, the report comprises three studies. Also in keeping with tradition, the first section features recent results from state, national, or international assessments; the second section investigates a thematic topic in education, either by collecting new data or by analyzing existing empirical evidence in a novel way; and the third section looks at one or more education policies. In Part I, this year's focus is on the latest results from two international tests, the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Both tests were administered in 2015, and the U.S. participated in both. TIMSS tests fourth and eighth grade students in math and science. PISA tests 15-year-olds in reading literacy, mathematics literacy, and science literacy. TIMSS began in 1995. From 1995-2015, the U.S. made statistically significant gains on TIMSS fourth grade math, eighth grade math, and eighth grade science assessments. The four-point scale score gain in fourth grade science is not statistically significant. PISA began in 2000. Since PISA's inception, U.S. scores have been flat on all three subjects; however, the 2015 math score of 470 marks a significant decline from 481 in 2012 and 487 in 2009. Part II revisits one of the most popular studies in BCR history, a 2001 survey of foreign exchange students. The same survey was conducted in 2016. The idea is simple, asking kids from abroad who have attended U.S. high schools what they think about U.S. education and their American peers. Comparing the results, 15 years apart, suggests that not much has changed. International students still think U.S. schools are much less challenging than schools in their home countries and that American teens are more focused on success at sports compared to their peers back home. Part III examines race and school discipline. Exclusionary punishments, those that remove students from schools, have come under fire in recent years. California officials have been pushing schools to reduce out-of-school suspensions, especially because of the racial disparities associated with that form of discipline. The policy has succeeded in reducing suspensions in the state - they are down dramatically - but racial disparities persist. Black students continue to be suspended at three to four times their proportion of student enrollment. The study examines three years (2013-2015) of California school-level data (a sample of 7,180 schools) to identify characteristics of schools that are correlated with high- and low- suspension-rates for African-American kids. Schools with large populations, schools exclusively serving middle school grades (e.g., grades six to eight), and schools serving a high proportion of poor or black students are all associated with elevated suspension rates for African-Americans. Disciplinary reformers have promoted restorative programs as alternatives to exclusionary punishment, but the approaches are controversial and the empirical evidence of their impact is limited. The current study cannot draw causal conclusions, but altering the structural characteristics of schools associated with higher suspension rates should be considered in future reform efforts. Details: Washington, DC: Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, 2017. 38p. Source: Internet Resource: Volume 3, Number 6: Accessed October 10, 2017 at: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017-brown-center-report-on-american-education.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017-brown-center-report-on-american-education.pdf Shelf Number: 147654 Keywords: Educational ProgramsRacial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool Suspensions |
Author: Walsh, Vanessa Title: Misbehavior or Misdemeanor? A Report on the Utah's School to Prison Pipeline, Summary: The school to prison pipeline is a national trend where children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. This trend is exacerbated by zero tolerance policies and criminalizing behavior that should be handled inside schools instead of resorting to law enforcement action. Students who are suspended, expelled, referred to law enforcement, or have a school related arrest are more likely to not finish high school than their peers. Within this pipeline are major issues that need to be addressed. There are unacceptably high racial disparities. We are suspending too many kids. Despite common belief, Utah is not doing any better than the nation at large. The U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) has provided data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation's public schools since 1968. The following report uses this data to explore these areas and how they apply to Utah specifically. - Recent national data shows that students of color are disproportionately singled out for suspensions, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement as well as school-based arrests. - Utah is not immune to these trends. Although the total number of disciplinary actions in Utah is decreasing, disproportionality along racial demographics continue to exist, and in some cases, is getting worse. - In the 2013-2014 school year, almost 9% of black students, 8.5% of American - Indian students, and approximately 5% of Pacific Islander and Hispanic students received a suspension. In comparison, only slightly more than 2% of white students were suspended. - In the 2011-2012 school year, Hispanic students were 1.3 times more likely than white students to be expelled. This increased to 2.3 times more likely in 2013-2014. Asian students were less likely than white students to be expelled in 2011, but they were 3.3 times more likely to be expelled in the 2013-2014. - During the 2013-2014 school year, 1.5% of American Indian students and almost 1.2% of black students were referred to law enforcement. In comparison, less than one half of one percent (0.4%) of white students received this action - American Indian students were 6.2 times more likely than white classmates to be arrested at school in the 2011-2012 school year. That disparity increased to 8.8 times more likely in the 2013-2014 school year. Similarly, Pacific Islanders were 1.7 times more likely in 2011-2012 and 3.3 times more likely in 2013-2014. - American Indian student feel the brunt of school disciplinary actions in every category except in-school suspensions. Overall,10.3% of all American Indian students received some sort of school disciplinary action in the 2013-2014 school year. In comparison, 5.6% of all other students of color received an action, and 2.6% of the white student population received an action. Details: Salt Lake City: University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, Public Policy Clinic, 2017. 35p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 7, 2018 at: http://utahchildren.org/images/pdfs-doc/2017/Misbehavior_or_Misdemeanor_-_Report_on_Utahs_School_to_Prison_Pipeline.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://utahchildren.org/images/pdfs-doc/2017/Misbehavior_or_Misdemeanor_-_Report_on_Utahs_School_to_Prison_Pipeline.pdf Shelf Number: 149016 Keywords: Racial Disparities School Discipline School SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison PipelineZero Tolerance |
Author: Diliberti, Melissa Title: Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings From the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2015-16 First Look Summary: This report presents findings on crime and violence in U.S. public schools,1 using data from the 2015-16 School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS:2016). First administered in school year 1999-2000 and repeated in school years 2003-04, 2005-06, 2007-08, 2009- 10, and 2015-16, SSOCS provides information on school crime-related topics from the perspective of schools. Developed and managed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education and supported by the National Institute of Justice of the U.S. Department of Justice, SSOCS asks public school principals about the prevalence of violent and serious violent crimes in their schools. Portions of this survey also focus on school security measures, disciplinary problems and actions, school security staff, the availability of mental health services in schools, and the programs and policies implemented to prevent and reduce crime in schools. SSOCS:2016 is based on a nationally representative stratified random sample of 3,553 U.S. public schools. Data collection began on February 22, 2016, when questionnaires were mailed to principals, and continued through July 5, 2016. A total of 2,092 public primary, middle, high, and combined schools provided complete questionnaires, yielding a response rate of approximately 63 percent once the responding schools were weighted to account for their original sampling probabilities. Per NCES Statistical Standards, a unit nonresponse bias analysis was performed due to the weighted response rate being less than 85 percent. The results suggest the characteristics of nonresponding schools differed significantly from those of responding schools. However, the unit nonresponse bias analysis also provided evidence that the nonresponse weighting adjustments used for SSOCS:2016 removed the observed nonresponse bias in characteristics known for both respondents and nonrespondents. This suggests that the weighting adjustments likely mitigated nonresponse bias in the SSOCS:2016 survey estimates, although some bias may remain after adjustment. For more information about the methodology and design of SSOCS, including how response rates were calculated and the details of the nonresponse bias analysis, please see Appendix B: Methodology and Technical Notes in this report. Because the purpose of this report is to introduce new NCES data through the presentation of tables containing descriptive information, only selected findings are presented below. These findings have been chosen to demonstrate the range of information available when using SSOCS:2016 data rather than to discuss all of the observed differences. For a more detailed description of the variables presented in the tables, please see Appendix C: Description of Variables in this report. The tables in this report contain totals and percentages generated from bivariate crosstabulation procedures. All of the results are weighted to represent the population of U.S. public schools. The comparisons drawn in the bulleted items below have been tested for statistical significance at the .05 level using Student's t statistic to ensure that the differences are larger than those that might be expected due to sampling variation. Adjustments for multiple comparisons were not included. Many of the variables examined are related to one another, and complex interactions and relationships have not been explored. Due to the large sample size, many differences (no matter how substantively minor) are statistically significant; thus, only differences of 5 percentage points or more between groups are mentioned in the findings. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2017. 83p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 8, 2018 at: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017122.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017122.pdf Shelf Number: 149323 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Violence |
Author: Wood, J. Luke Title: Get Out! Black Male Suspensions in California Public Schools Summary: This report is a joint publication of the Black Minds Project (an initiative of the Community College Equity Assessment Lab (CCEAL) at San Diego State University (SDSU) and the Black Male Institute at the University of California, Los-Angeles (UCLA). In this report, we present analyses of publicly available statewide data on the suspension of Black males in California's public schools. Some of the key results highlighted in this report include the following: - The statewide suspension rate for Black males is 3.6 times greater than that of the statewide rate for all students. Specifi cally, while 3.6% of all students were suspended in 2016-2017, the suspension rate for Black boys and young men was 12.8%. - Since 2011-2012, the suspension rates of Black males in California has declined from 17.8% to 12.8%. - The highest suspension disparity by grade level occurs in early childhood education (Grades K through 3) where Black boys are 5.6 times more likely to be suspended than the state average. - Black male students who are classified as "foster youth" are suspended at noticeably high rates, at 27.4%. Across all analyses, Black males who were foster youth in seventh and eighth grade represented the subgroup that had the highest percentage of Black male suspensions, at 41.0%. - The highest total suspensions occurred in large urban counties, such as Los Angeles County, Sacramento County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County, and Contra Costa County. In fact, these five counties alone account for 61% of Black male suspensions. - The highest suspension rates for Black males occur in rural counties that have smaller Black male enrollments. In 2016-2017, Glenn County led the state in Black male suspensions at 42.9%. - Other Counties with high suspension rates included Amador County, Colusa County, Del Norte County, and Tehama County. San Joaquin county has especially high suspension patterns. In the past 5 years, they have reported suspension rates at 20% or above. Four counties have reported similarly high suspension patterns across the past 4 of 5 years, they include: Modoc County, Butte County, Merced County, and Yuba County. - A number of districts have large numbers of Black boys and young men who were suspended at least once. Some of these districts included Sacramento City Unified (n = 887), Los Angeles Unified (n = 849), Elk Grove Unified (n = 745), Fresno Unified (n = 729) and Oakland Unified (n = 711). - There are 10 school districts in the state with suspension rates above 30%. Of these, the highest suspension rates are reported at Bayshore Elementary (San Mateo County, at 50%), Oroville Union High (Butte County, at 45.2%), and the California School for the Deaf-Fremont (Alameda County, at 43.8%). - There are 88 school districts in the state of California that have suspension rates for Black males that are below the state average. These schools vary in size, urbanicity, and region. Details: San Diego, CA: Community College Equity Assessment Lab and the UCLA Black Male Institute, 2018. 44p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 5, 2018 at: http://blackmaleinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/GET-OUT-Black-Male-Suspensions-in-California-Public-Schools_lo.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: http://blackmaleinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/GET-OUT-Black-Male-Suspensions-in-California-Public-Schools_lo.pdf Shelf Number: 149695 Keywords: African AmericansMalesRacial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool Suspensions |
Author: Payne, Allison Ann Title: Creating and Sustaining a Positive and Communal School Climate: Contemporary Research, Present Obstacles, and Future Directions Summary: Although school-related deaths, violent victimizations, and overall school crime have declined over the past two decades, crime and victimization in schools are still a cause for concern (Robers et al., 2015). As attention to school safety has increased over the past two decades, research has highlighted a variety of school-related factors shown to influence school disorder. Among these is school climate, the importance of which has been recognized for over a century (Perry, 1908; Dewey, 1916). Interest in school climate continues to grow, particularly as recent federal initiatives reflect increased recognition of the importance of school climate for positive youth development (U.S. Department of Education, 2010, 2014). School climate has a clear impact on all members of the school community. Students in schools with a positive and communal climate demonstrate stronger academic achievement and engagement, better socio-emotional health, and lower levels of absenteeism, truancy, dropping out, and victimization (Cohen and Geier, 2010; Payne et al., 2003). They also display lower levels of substance use and aggression, are subjected to fewer suspensions and expulsions, and engage in fewer deviant and criminal acts (Payne, 2008; Thapa et al., 2013). Additionally, teachers in a school with a positive and communal climate experience higher levels of efficacy, morale, and satisfaction, and lower levels of absenteeism, turnover, and victimization (Cohen and Geier, 2010; Gottfredson et al., 2005; NSCC, 2007; Payne et al. 2003). It is clear that this type of school climate has great influence on the safety and success of a school and the behavioral and academic outcomes of its students. Unfortunately, the benefits resulting from a positive and communal school climate have not been translated into effective educational practices. This "translation gap" - the gap between school climate research and policy - stems from several problems. One is the lack of an agreed-upon definition of school climate (NSCC, 2007). Researchers define school climate in countless ways and continue to debate the key components of a positive and communal school climate. While many focus on the relationships among school community members and the commonality of the school's goals, norms, and values, there is no consensus on a universal definition. Without a clear definition that fully articulates exactly what constitutes school climate, school leaders are left without a roadmap for school climate improvement, and the translation gap continues to widen. A second matter that contributes to the gap between research and policy stems from this lack of a universal definition. Because there is disagreement on what constitutes school climate, there is also disagreement on how it can best be assessed. This has led states, districts, and schools to use tools that have not been tested for reliability and validity or have come up short in this area, and that do not capture the comprehensive nature of school climate, either in terms of components or in terms of school community members (Cohen, 2013). It is imperative that school climate is assessed using reliable and valid instruments that capture all elements of school climate and recognize the voices of all school members. Results from such an assessment can provide useful and accurate data to inform the school improvement process. Another area that has not been fully explored is the process that links school climate to its beneficial outcomes. Some have proposed that a positive and communal school climate leads to a greater sense of belonging, which, in turn, leads to more prosocial behaviors: Schools with such climates meet the needs of both teachers and students, who therefore become more attached to other school community members, more committed to the school's mission and goals, and more likely to internalize school norms and rules (Payne, 2008). This process is key for schools because students who are well integrated are not only more likely to have a positive learning experience but are also less likely to engage in deviance and crime. Although research has begun to document the relationship between positive and communal school climates and school bonding, more work is needed. Understanding the mechanisms that underlie this relationship is vital as school leaders work to develop successful school improvement plans. A lack of school climate leadership also plays a role in the gap between school climate research and policy. Having strong and defined leadership roles at the state, district, and school levels is integral for school climate policies and practices to be effectively developed and implemented (NSCC, 2007). In addition, many school climate improvement efforts are generally isolated within a narrower focus, such as student health or school safety, rather than holistically implemented into larger school-wide changes that include a focus on accountability, school community norms and beliefs, and other dimensions of school climate (NSCC, 2007). It is abundantly clear that creating and sustaining a positive and communal school climate would lead to beneficial improvements in students' academic and behavioral success. By engaging in a school climate improvement process, education leaders at the state, district, and school levels can increase the safety and success of all members of the school community. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2018. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 10, 2018 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/250209.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/250209.pdf Shelf Number: 149755 Keywords: School CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool SecuritySchool ShootingsSchool Violence |
Author: Citizen Action of New York Title: Restoring Justice in Buffalo Public Schools: Safe and Supportive Quality Education for All Summary: In June 2010, Jawaan Daniels, a freshman at Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New York, was shot and killed at a bus stop near his school, after having been suspended from school for insubordination while roaming the halls. Jawaan's untimely passing brought attention to the zero tolerance, punitive nature of Buffalo Public School's (BPS) discipline policies, which for many years exacerbated the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Buffalo. Under these policies, many students, especially students of color, were suspended and expelled out of school for minor, non-violent infractions. The Buffalo community deserved and demanded better. Outraged by this situation, Citizen Action of Western New York and Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) launched a Solutions, Not Suspensions campaign, and have led the fight to improve BPS ever since. Over the next five years, Citizen Action and AQE, in partnership with Advancement Project, galvanized a community to action through organizing, door knocking, rallies, protests, policy drafting, and community education. In April 2013, these efforts resulted in BPS adopting a new Code of Conduct, one of the most progressive in the country, replacing punitive zero tolerance with positive interventions and responses. And while BPS still has a long way to go, the data shows these policies have helped BPS achieve significant progress in just the last two years. In the 2014-2015 school year, improvements in the discipline rates continue, showing the commitment of BPS and the continued success of the Citizen Action and AQE accountability model. Restoring Justice captures Citizen Action's, AQE's, and Advancement Project's efforts so that our story can serve as an example for others. In this report, we share background regarding the city of Buffalo and its schools, and then provide a brief national overview of the School-to-Prison Pipeline. We follow with a timeline of the Solutions, Not Suspensions campaign, and an overview of the changes that made Buffalo's Code of Conduct one of the best in the country. We end by looking at the data, showing how far we have come, how far we have left to go, and our plan to make the situation even better. We hope our story motivates, inspires, and challenges others who are working to end the School-to-Prison Pipeline, by showing how a local grassroots group can lead the way to change and create a more just democracy for all. Details: Albany: Citizen Action of New York, 2015. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 20, 2018 at: http://www.aqeny.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Buffalo-Report-Restoring-Justice-FINAL-WEB.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: http://www.aqeny.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Buffalo-Report-Restoring-Justice-FINAL-WEB.pdf Shelf Number: 1498967 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Anyon, Yolanda Title: Taking Restorative Practices School-wide: Insights from Three Schools in Denver Summary: Through interviews and focus groups with staff members at three Denver schools that have successfully implemented restorative practices (RP), four essential strategies for taking this approach school-wide were identified: strong principal vision and commitment to RP; explicit efforts to generate staff buy-in to this conflict resolution approach; continuous and intensive professional development opportunities; and, the allocation of school funds for a full-time coordinator of RP at the site. Additional approaches that supported school-wide implementation of RP are described in the full report. Principal Vision & Commitment Taking restorative practices school-wide was possible because administrators held the following beliefs: - Exclusionary discipline practices, such as expulsion and suspension, generally fail to change student behavior. - Students' time in class is a key factor in determining their educational success. - Proactively teaching students social, emotional, and conflict resolution skills improves their behavior and promotes their academic achievement. - Standing by the philosophy of restorative practices when faced with resistance to change is worth the effort. Staff Buy-In Widespread buy-in to restorative practices among stakeholders was generated using the following strategies: - Involving teachers, service providers, and community members in development of policies and protocols that guide the delivery of restorative practices and their integration into discipline processes. - Soliciting regular feedback from staff throughout the implementation process. - When hiring new staff, including teachers, assess their support for the restorative practices philosophy. Professional Development Capacity to implement restorative practices throughout the school was supported by: - Initial commitment of substantial professional development time to new discipline policies and protocols, restorative practices, and allied relationship-building approaches. - Availability of "booster sessions" for revisiting discipline processes and restorative practices. - Allocation of additional resources for individualized coaching among staff members who have difficulty aligning their practices with a restorative philosophy. Full-Time RP Coordinator To sustain all the other essential strategies for success, schools had to dedicate funding for a person with the following responsibilities: - Develop positive relationships with students, teachers and families. - Facilitate formal conferences and mediations. - Monitor student agreements to repair harm caused. - Provide coaching and training to other staff members Details: Denver, CO: Denver School-Based Restorative Practices Partnership, 2016. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 20, 2018 at: https://www.du.edu/socialwork/media/documents/taking_restorative_practices_school-wide.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.du.edu/socialwork/media/documents/taking_restorative_practices_school-wide.pdf Shelf Number: 149869 Keywords: Restorative JusticeSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Suspensions |
Author: Losen, Daniel J. Title: Suspended Education in Massachusetts: Using Days of Lost Instruction Summary: Missed instruction can have a devastating impact on educational outcomes. Scholars have found that missing three or more days of school in the fourth grade predicts a reduction in reading achievement by one full grade level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Ginsburg, Jordan, & Chang, 2014). Of course, some reasons for missed instruction are beyond the control of schools and districts: some students miss school due to mental or physical illness or injury, and transportation problems sometimes are to blame. These external reasons for missed instruction contribute a great deal to chronic absenteeism, but they are difficult for schools to address because they are not caused directly by a school policy or practice. One major reason for missed instruction that schools can directly influence is the decision school administrators make to suspend students, as well as the length of suspensions. In 2015-16, students in Massachusetts missed an estimated 156,793 days of school, or approximately 16 days per every 100 enrolled students, all due to suspension. School policy and practice varies widely in Massachusetts, but because the majority of schools use suspension as a measure of last resort, most parents don't realize the massive amount of instruction time children lose due to disciplinary removal in some schools and districts. Discipline reform efforts have been built around extensive research that has tracked individual students over many years, which shows that suspensions are among the leading predictor of failing to graduate high school and involvement in the juvenile justice system. (Fabelo et al., 2011). In fact, leading scholars estimate that suspensions can lower graduation rates by six to 14 percentage points, depending on the state (Balfanz, Byrnes, & Fox, 2015; Marchbanks et al., 2015; Rumberger & Losen, 2016). This is critically important given that after controlling for race, poverty, students' prior behavior, and 80 other variables, the factors schools control are powerful predictors of whether suspensions are used frequently or rarely (Fabelo et al., 2011). Another leading predictor of disparities in suspension rates was found to be the school principals' attitudes toward school discipline. (Skiba et al., 2014). Specifically, after controlling for demographic differences in enrollment, in response to a statewide survey, principals of schools that embraced harsh discipline as a needed punitive response and blamed parents and children for problematic behavior had higher suspension rates and lower achievement scores than those principals that framed their discipline approach as part of their school's educational mission, to help ensure that students learned appropriate behavior, rather than a punitive response. As this report will demonstrate, numerous schools in the Commonwealth regularly remove a high number of students, culminating in large amount of lost instruction time. Furthermore, the impact of discipline has more to do with the conditions of learning than of safety, as most missed instruction is the result of suspensions for minor behaviors that do not involve violence, drugs, or criminal activity. Details: Los Angeles, Center for Civil Rights Remedies, 2017. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 7, 2018 at: http://schottfoundation.org/report/suspended-education-massachusetts Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://schottfoundation.org/report/suspended-education-massachusetts Shelf Number: 150078 Keywords: School AttendanceSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Suspension |
Author: Liu, John C. Title: The Suspension Spike: Changing the Discipline Culture in NYC's Middle Schools Summary: Research findings have established that a middle school pattern of even mild behavioral issues, either alone, or in conjunction with several other factors including absenteeism and academic performance in English and Mathematics, is an early warning that a student may be on the path to potentially dropping out of school. The Department of Education's current disciplinary approach, rooted in "zero-tolerance" philosophy, relies heavily on punitive measures, including suspensions, as a response to a wide array of behaviors. In the 2011- 2012 school year, more than 18,000 suspensions were meted out to students in grades 6 through 8 attending standalone middle schools. Yet, lengthy and repeated suspensions for disruptive behavior such as speaking disrespectfully to a teacher or fellow student result in lost learning days, contribute to students' feelings of alienation from school, and perhaps most importantly, do little or nothing to address the root causes of the behavior. Moreover, there are significant racial, ethnic, and other disparities in suspension rates. Maintaining a calm, respectful, and secure school climate is critical to the success of New York City's approximately 210,000 middle school students. Middle school is the last chance to "catch up" on both the academic and social-emotional skills needed to be successful in high school. Accordingly, concerns about improving New York City's middle school grades are well-deserved. Despite the myriad studies and good intentions, however, the middle school years have not received the same sustained focus and resources as educational reforms targeted at younger children. In particular, the interplay between school climate and behavioral issues and its relationship to academic achievement merits greater attention at a time when graduating from high school and pursuing post-secondary educational attainment is more important than ever. Violent, disruptive behavior that compromises the safe and supportive learning environment that all students deserve is not acceptable. The proposals in this report identify a range of positive approaches to promoting a safe and considerate learning environment for middle school students, teachers, and administrators that recognize the social-emotional and behavioral issues of this age group, particularly for students most at risk of eventually dropping out. A pilot program to introduce a whole-school climate change program based on the principles of restorative justice offers new tools for addressing and repairing the harm created by behavioral issues. Increasing the availability of school counselors and social workers would provide critical front-line support for struggling students. To advance these recommendations, system-wide changes should be made to the Department of Education's Discipline Code, the oversight of School Safety Agents, and the collection of data on suspensions and arrests. Details: New York: New York City Comptroller, 2013. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 7, 2018 at: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/NYC_MiddleSchools_Report.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/NYC_MiddleSchools_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 150080 Keywords: Restorative JusticeSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool SuspensionsZero Tolerance Policies |
Author: Laliberte, D. Title: Evaluation of the Alternative Suspension Program Summary: The Alternative Suspension (AS) program, which aims to reduce criminal activity by increasing youth attachment to school, was evaluated. The evaluation sites were in Chilliwack (British Columbia), North/West Edmonton (Alberta), and Moncton (New Brunswick). The target group consisted of students 12 to 17 years old, who were experiencing difficulties in their academic and social life, and had been suspended or at risk of being suspended. A pre-post design with a nonequivalent control group was used. The evaluators collected data and also used school data and data collected by the implementation agency. Youth who were more likely to experience better behavioural outcomes had been referred to AS for substance use (29 times more likely), criminal behaviour (14 times more), or physical or verbal violence (12 times more). At the end of the school year, 75.2% of completers and 56.3% of the control group had at least one positive outcome. Overall 45.0% of AS completers successfully finished all their courses; 44.1% of these youth, and 28.8% of the control group "met or exceeded school academic expectations". Overall, 59.0% of program completers and 38.1% of the control group improved their school behaviour. There was a decrease in disciplinary actions for 61.5% of completers and 39.6% of the control group. Around 3.8% of program completers and 14.3% of the control group had dropped out of school at the end of the school year. The average cost per completer was $1,340 in Moncton, $2,107 in Edmonton, and $1,693 in Chilliwack. Net average costs per positive outcome varied from $8,852 to $10,818, and marginal costs from $5,002 to $7,238. Details: Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, 2017. 13p. Source: Internet Resource: Research Report: 2017-R008: Accessed May 18, 2018 at: https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/2017-r008/2017-r008-en.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Canada URL: https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/2017-r008/2017-r008-en.pdf Shelf Number: 150258 Keywords: Cost-Benefit AnalysisSchool DisciplineSchool Suspensions |
Author: Sartain, Lauren Title: Suspending Chicago's Students Differences in Discipline Practices across Schools Summary: School districts across the country, including the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), are implementing policies aimed at reducing suspensions. The district has initiated a number of reforms over the past six years to bring about changes in schools' disciplinary practices with the goal of reducing the use of suspensions, as well as disparities in suspension rates by students' race, gender, and disability status. This report shows that a subset of schools drive high suspension rates, and these schools serve concentrations of extremely disadvantaged students. The first report in this series showed that out-of-school suspension (OSS) and arrest rates have been going down since 2009-10 in Chicago's schools, but that racial and gender disparities remain large. African American students are about three times more likely to be suspended than Latino students, and more than four times more likely to be suspended than white or Asian students. Boys are much more likely to be suspended than girls of the same race/ ethnicity. This report looks more closely at differences in the suspension and arrests rates based on students' background characteristics. It also shows differences in the use of suspensions across schools in Chicago and the degree to which schools' use of suspensions is related to the learning climate of the school and student achievement. Identifying the schools that use exclusionary discipline practices at extremely high rates can help districts target supports and interventions to the schools that need them the most, rather than relying on a district-wide, one-size-fits-all approach. Key Findings Students with the most vulnerable backgrounds are much more likely to be suspended than students without those risk factors. Almost a third of the high school students who were at some point victims of abuse or neglect were suspended in the 2013-14 school year. Over a quarter of the high school students from the poorest neighborhoods and over a quarter of students with the lowest incoming achievement were suspended during the year. The students that come to school the furthest behind also are the most likely to miss instructional time due to a suspension. At the same time, differences in the suspension rates for students with different risk factors, such as poverty and low achievement, do not explain most of the large racial and gender disparities in suspension rates. While African American students are more likely to face these problems, these background factors do not explain most of the differences in suspension rates by race. There are large disparities in suspension rates by race and by gender, even among students who have none of these risk factors. The biggest driver of racial disparities in suspension rates comes from differences in which schools students of different races/ethnicities attend. Racial disparities in suspensions could exist for multiple reasons. There could be differences in suspension rates among students who attend the same school, or students of different races could attend schools with very different suspension rates. We see evidence for both of these in Chicago's schools, although it is school differences in suspension rates that drive most of the racial disparities. Suspension rates are twice as high, on average, at the schools attended by African American students than the schools attended by Latino students, and the average suspension rates at the schools attended by Latino students are more than twice as high as the average suspension rates at the schools that white and Asian students attend. Because residential segregation leads schools in Chicago to be very segregated by race, differences in suspension rates across schools lead to differences in suspension rates by race. Differences in suspension rates among subgroups of students within schools also exist, although they are modest relative to the differences in average suspension rates across schools. The largest difference occurs for African American boys, who are suspended at much higher rates than other students in the same school. At schools that are racially/ethnically diverse, suspension rates of African American boys are 11-12 percentage points higher than their school average. At the same time, Latina, white, and Asian girls are suspended at lower rates than their school classmates, with average suspension rates that are 3-5 percentage points below other students at their schools. Details: Chicago: The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (UChicago CCSR), 2015. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 21, 2018 at: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Suspending%20Chicagos%20Students.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Suspending%20Chicagos%20Students.pdf Shelf Number: 150317 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsStudent Misconduct |
Author: Stevens, W. David Title: Discipline Practices in Chicago Schools: Trends in the Use of Suspensions and Arrests Summary: The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have initiated a number of reforms to reduce the use of exclusionary practices that remove students from the classroom, like suspensions. This report, the first in a series on discipline practices in CPS, provides an overview of the use of suspensions and arrests in Chicago schools and the degree to which practices have changed from 2008-09 to 2013-14. Districts and policymakers across the United States are in the midst of a fundamental shift in how they approach school discipline. During the 1980s and 1990s, schools increasingly enacted discipline policies that mandated the use of suspensions, expulsions, and police arrests for student misconduct. In recent years, the general public, policymakers, and school administrators, from the federal level down, have strongly questioned this approach. Critics highlight the growing number of schools with very high suspension rates, as well as inequities in suspension rates by race, gender, family income, special education status, and sexual orientation. They point out that students who are suspended or expelled are more likely to struggle academically and drop out of school. There is evidence that students who attend schools with zero-tolerance approaches to discipline are also likely to experience negative school environments. As a result, national and local policymakers have called on schools to reduce the use of exclusionary disciplinary practices-those that remove students from the classroom (see box Definitions of Key Terms on p.8 for a description of various discipline practices we highlight in this report). Key Findings Out-of-school suspensions have been declining in CPS, but are still given frequently, especially at the (ISS). In-school suspensions are given more frequently to African American students than students of other racial/ethnic groups and the use of in-school suspensions have been increasing over time. ISS rates nearly doubled for African American high schools students between 2008-09 and 2013-14, but remained the same for other student groups. In-school suspensions are rare outside of the high schools; 4 percent of middle grades students received an ISS in the 2013-14 school year. Some schools may be using in-school suspensions in instances where they previously used out-of-school suspensions, or shortening the length of out-of-school suspensions while also giving students a day or two of ISS. In-school suspensions tend to be shorter than out-of-school suspensions and they allow for the possibility that students could receive an intervention or support while serving the suspension. Yet, they still result in a loss of instructional time for students. Suspension rates are strongly related to students' prior test scores, their race, and their gender. African American students are much more likely to be suspended than students of other races/ethnicities. Suspension rates are particularly high for African American boys in high school. About a third of African American boys in high school (33 percent) received an OSS in 2013-14. In comparison, 13 percent of Latino boys in high school and 6 percent of white/Asian high school boys received an OSS in 2013-14. African American girls also have high OSS rates in high school, at 23 percent in 2013-14. This compares to high school OSS rates of 6 percent for Latina girls and 2 percent for white /Asian girls. ISS rates are also much higher for African American students than for Latino or white/Asian students. Suspension rates are also high for students with disabilities and for students who begin the school year with test scores that are below average. OSS rates for students with identified disabilities were 24 percent at the high school level and 16 percent in middle grades in the 2013-14 school year. Among students with low test scores (scores in the bottom quartile in the prior school year), suspension rates are also very high: 27 percent received an OSS at the high school level and 17 percent received an OSS at the middle school level in the 2013-14 year. Thus, students who start the year with the weakest academic skills are more likely than other students to receive a suspension that removes them from classroom instruction. Most suspensions in high schools result from acts of student defiance-where students refuse to comply with adults' demands. At the high school level, about 60 percent of out-of-school suspensions and almost all in-school suspensions result from defiance of school staff, disruptive behaviors, and school rule violations. While administrators we interviewed recognized fights as a primary concern in their schools, 27 percent of out-of-school and 7 percent of in-school suspensions in high school are for physical conflict or threats to safety, meaning most suspensions result from conflicts that involve no physical harm. In the middle grades, conflicts between students and acts of defiance toward teachers account for most out-of-school suspensions, at about equal rates. Arrests for incidents at school are uncommon, though African American high school boys are more likely to be arrested than other students. In the 2011-12 school year (the most recent year for which we have Chicago Police Department data), 1.8 percent of high school students and 1.1 percent of middle grades students were arrested for incidents occurring at school. Arrest rates were twice as high among African American boys as for the district as a whole-3.6 percent of African American high school boys enrolled in CPS were arrested for at-school incidents in the 2011-12 school year, which is about 1-in-28 students. In comparison, 1.6 percent of Latino boys and 2 percent of African American girls and fewer than 1 percent of white/Asian students or Latina girls in high school were arrested for at-school events. Students are arrested more often for incidents that occur outside of school than for incidents at school. Over 4 percent of CPS high school students were arrested in the 2011-12 school year for incidents occurring outside of school. Combining arrests inside of school and outside of school, 6 percent of CPS students were arrested in the 2011-12 school year. Schools tend only to involve police in incidents for which the SCC requires police notification. Incidents for which police notification is optional but not required high school level. In 2013-14, about 1-in-7 high school students (16 percent) received an out-of-school suspension (OSS). This number is down from the highest point in the 2009-10 school year when about 1-in-4 high school students (24 percent) received an OSS. Since 2009-10, OSS rates in high schools have declined each year. At the middle grades level (grades 6-8), OSS rates were unchanged, at around 13-14 percent from 2008-09 to 2012-13, but they dropped in the 2013-14 school year to 10 percent. The average length of suspensions has also been declining over time, with the largest drop occurring in the 2012-13 school year. This drop coincided with changes to the CPS Student Code of Conduct (SCC) which explicitly constrained the use of long suspensions. The decline in high school OSS rates has been accompanied by a doubling of in-school suspension rates among African American high school students. In the 2013-14 school year, 15 percent of high school students received at least one in-school suspension solicit police notification only 22 percent of the time. Even when an infraction is serious enough to require police notification, schools only notify police 43 percent of the time. When they occur, infractions that involve drugs or weapons are most likely to result in a police notification. That is, about one out of every three incidents that involve drugs or weapons at a school result in police involvement. However, drug and weapons infractions represent a small portion of the discipline infractions at schools, so they are not the source of most arrests. Physical altercations, or physical fights among students, are the source of most police involvement at schools. Arrest rates for both in-school and out-of-school incidents have declined over time for CPS students. The declines in arrest rates have been driven by declining arrest rates for African American boys, who have consistently been much more likely to be arrested than other students. Both out-of-school arrests and in-school arrests of CPS students declined after 2009-10, up until 2011-12. At the same time that OSS rates and arrests have declined, students and teachers are reporting that they feel safer at school. At the high school level, student perceptions of safety and teacher perceptions of order have been improving since the 2008-09 school year; this is also the period during which OSS rates declined in high schools. At the middle grades level, there have been only marginal improvements in students' feelings of safety at school. However, there was a more marked improvement in the 2013-14 school year, which was the first year that OSS rates declined in the middle grades. This research suggests three major areas of focus if the district is to reduce the use of exclusionary disciplinary practices in Chicago schools: 1. High schools. Students are suspended at all grade levels, but very high suspension rates in high schools account for 56 percent of out-of-school suspensions districtwide. If the district is to reduce the use of suspensions and disciplinary disparities substantially, it will require changes in high school practices. Efforts aimed at lower grades will do little to reduce the overall use of exclusionary practices in CPS, unless there are concurrent changes in high schools. 2. Disparities in suspensions for African American students, especially for African American boys, and for students with low incoming achievement. While students of all races are occasionally suspended, suspension rates are much higher for African American students, and especially high for boys. Students with low incoming test scores are also at high risk for being suspended. The fact that high suspension rates persist for certain groups of students, despite policy efforts aimed at reducing the use of exclusionary practices, suggests a need for better support around reducing exclusionary practices in schools and classrooms that serve student groups with a higher likelihood of being suspended. 3. Prevention and de-escalation of conflict, especially between students and teachers. Most suspensions and arrests at school are a result of conflict between students and teachers-such as disobedience and defiance-or conflicts among students, especially in high schools. This suggests a need for increased training for teachers and school staff to prevent and de-escalate conflict, as well as to develop students' social-emotional skills, particularly at schools with high suspension rates. Details: Chicago: The University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (UChicago CCSR). 2015. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 21, 2018 at: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Discipline%20Report.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://consortium.uchicago.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Discipline%20Report.pdf Shelf Number: 150318 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool MisconductSchool Suspensions |
Author: Gray, Abigail Title: Discipline in Context: Suspension, Climate, and PBIS in the School District of Philadelphia Summary: The report details a two-year exploratory, mixed-methods research study on the disciplinary practices and climate of schools serving K-8 students in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). Findings reveal that SDP schools are making efforts to reduce suspensions and improve climate, but critical barriers to these efforts include resource limitations and philosophical misalignments between teachers and school leaders. The study identified three profiles among SDP schools serving K-8 students based on information about disciplinary practices and climate, and found that these profiles are predictive of suspension and academic outcomes. Students attending schools with collaborative climates and less punitive approaches to discipline have lower risk of being suspended and better academic outcomes. The report offers a series of recommendations for strengthening the implementation of climate initiatives, including Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), in challenging urban settings. Details: Philadelphia: Consortium for Policy Research in Education, University of Pennsylvania, 2017. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: CPRE Research Reports: Accessed May 31, 2018 at: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1107&context=cpre_researchreports Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1107&context=cpre_researchreports Shelf Number: 150418 Keywords: Behavioral InterventionsSchool DisciplineSchool Suspensions |
Author: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Indiana Advisory Committee Title: Civil Rights and the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Indiana Summary: The Indiana Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights submits this report regarding the civil rights impact of school discipline and juvenile justice policies in the state, which may lead to high rates of juvenile incarceration in what has become known as the "school to prison pipeline." The committee submits this report as part of its responsibility to study and report on civil rights issues in the state of Indiana. The contents of this report are primarily based on testimony the Committee heard during a web-based hearing on January 20, 2016 and an in-person hearing on February 17, 2015 in Indianapolis, IN. This report details civil rights concerns raised by panelists with respect to school discipline disparities, particularly for students of color, throughout the state of Indiana. It discusses the roles of implicit biases, economic disparities, and exclusionary school discipline policies in funneling students of color into the school-to-prison pipeline. From these findings, the Committee offers to the Commission recommendations for addressing this problem of national importance. Details: Washington, DC: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2016. 100p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 1, 2018 at: http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/Civil-Rights%20and-the-School-to-Prison-Pipeline-in%20Indiana.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/Civil-Rights%20and-the-School-to-Prison-Pipeline-in%20Indiana.pdf Shelf Number: 150431 Keywords: Civil Rights AbusesRacial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Anyon, Yolanda Title: Spotlight on Success: Changing the Culture of Discipline in Denver Public Schools Summary: This mixed methods study draws on district discipline data, interviews, and focus groups to identify characteristics of DPS schools who met the district's discipline goals of a 0-3% suspension rate for their student population overall and for Black students in particular during the 2014-2015 school year. Quantitative Findings Statistical analyses comparing schools who met the district's discipline goals to those who did not revealed that low-suspending schools had the following features: - More racially and economically integrated - Fewer serious discipline incidents (type 2-6) reported by school staff - Greater use of Restorative Practices in response to discipline incidents - Less frequent use of in- and out-of-school suspension among disciplined students Qualitative Findings Principals and school staff from a subset of low-suspending schools reported the following common strategies, conditions, and district resources were used to meet the district's discipline goals: Positive Behavior and School Culture Systems - Relationship Building - Behavioral Recognitions and Rewards - Social-Emotional Skill Building - Restorative Practices Inclusive Policies and Protocols for Responding to Misbehavior - Start with Classroom-Based Interventions - Connect Misbehaving Students to Support Services - Use Punitive and Exclusionary Discipline Practices as a Last Resort Supportive Implementation Conditions - Robust School-Based Student and Family Services - Professional Learning, Training and Coaching - Strategic Hiring for Culture Fit Awareness of Racial Inequalities and Bias - Strengthen Staff Members Knowledge about Racial Disparities - Prioritize Relationship Building with Black Families and Students District Supports - Policy & Intervention Consultations with Discipline Coordinators - Professional Development Units on Restorative Practices and Equity Details: Denver: University of Denver (DU) Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW) and the Office of Social-Emotional Learning at Denver Public Schools (DPS), 2016. 39p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 21, 2018 at: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3022172/Spotlight-on-Success-Changing-the-Culture-of.pdf Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3022172-Spotlight-on-Success-Changing-the-Culture-of.html Shelf Number: 150622 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesRestorative JusticeSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool Suspensions |
Author: Anderson, Kaitlin P. Title: Do School Discipline Policies Treat Students Fairly? A Second Look at School Discipline Rate Disparities Summary: Since the early 1990s, many schools have adopted zero tolerance policies in response to fears of violence. This approach removes students from school for violations ranging from serious offenses like violent behavior to less serious offenses such as dress code violations or truancy (Losen & Skiba, 2010; Skiba, 2014; Skiba & Peterson, 1999;). While it may be necessary, in extreme cases, to remove a student from campus, many fear this movement has gone too far. Zero tolerance policies and exclusionary discipline such as expulsions and suspensions are associated with lower academic achievement (Beck & Muschkin, 2012; Raffaele-Mendez, 2003; Raffaele-Mendez, Knoff, & Ferror, 2002; Skiba & Rausch, 2004), school dropout (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013; American Psychological Association, 2008; Ekstrom, Goertz, Pollack, & Rock, 1986), and involvement in the juvenile justice system (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2013; Balfanz, Spiridakis, Neild, & Legters, 2003; Fabelo et al., 2011; Nicholson-Crotty, Birchmeier, & Valentine, 2009). One particularly troubling by-product of the increased use of exclusionary discipline is the growing evidence that such disciplinary practices are employed disproportionately for students from marginalized groups. Numerous researchers have documented differences in suspension rates between White students and students of color (Anyon et al., 2014; Losen, Hodson, Keith, Morrison, & Belway, 2015; Losen & Skiba, 2010; Sartain et al., 2015; Skiba et al., 2014; Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002; Skiba et al., 2011; Welch & Payne, 2010). In this study, we contribute to this growing base of evidence by assessing the extent to which Black students in Arkansas, over the past several years, have received more severe consequences than White students - despite being cited for similar infractions. This analysis makes a unique contribution both by controlling for the specific infractions leading to the disciplinary consequences (relatively few studies in the existing literature connect infractions to consequences) and by using days of suspension as the consequence measure rather than simply the likelihood of being suspended. While it is certainly helpful to know if Black students are more likely - all else equal - to receive exclusionary discipline, it is also important that we are aware of any disparities in the severity of the consequences given. In the next section, we set the context for our study by presenting the evidence from the literature on racial disparities in student discipline in two categories of studies. First, we discuss national studies that have generally relied on school-level data and provided only an overview of the consequences levied on students of different races. Because these studies are unable to connect consequences with the associated infraction referral, many questions are left unanswered. We then consider a second set of studies that have investigated the student and school characteristics associated with racial disparities in discipline within particular states or districts. Details: Little Rock: University of Arkansas, Department of Education Reform (EDRE), 2017. 36p. Source: Internet Resource: EDRE Working Paper 2015-11 : Accessed June 21, 2018 at: http://www.uaedreform.org/downloads/2017/04/do-school-discipline-policies-treat-students-fairly-a-second-look-at-school-discipline-rate-disparities.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://www.uaedreform.org/downloads/2017/04/do-school-discipline-policies-treat-students-fairly-a-second-look-at-school-discipline-rate-disparities.pdf Shelf Number: 150625 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool DisciplineSchool SuspensionsZero Tolerance Policies |
Author: Great Britain. Department for Education Title: Approaches to preventing and tackling bullying Case studies Summary: All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy with measures to tackle bullying among pupils. The government does not set out a particular approach to bullying that schools should follow. The underlying principle is that schools are best placed to drive their own improvements and they are held to account for their effectiveness through Ofsted. Ofsted's 2012 report 'No place for bullying' lays out its view on good practice. There is, and never has been, any legal requirement on schools to record and report incidents of bullying. The Department for Education (DfE) advice is that schools should develop their own approaches for monitoring bullying and exercise their own judgement as to what will work best for their pupils. More broadly the department's advice on behaviour and discipline makes clear that having a whole school policy, consistently applied, with clear systems of rewards and sanctions is key to securing good behaviour. A recent independent review of behaviour in schools, found that good behaviour policy often involved a combination of strict rules combined with strong pastoral support and activities. There is some evidence to suggest that bullying as an issue has improved for specific age groups. For example, Wave 2 of the Department's Longitudinal Study of Young People in England shows that overall, a significantly smaller proportion of year 10 students in 2014 said that they had been bullied in the last 12 months when compared with the equivalent age group in 2005. 5 At the same time, research shows that bullying does remains a problem for some pupils. For example, the 'Pupils and their parents and carers omnibus survey' published by the Department in 2017 showed that out of 1,847 year 7 to 13 pupils, nearly half (45%) felt they had been bullied in the previous 12 months. In the same study, just under two thirds of pupils (63%) said they had seen someone else being bullied at school in the past 12 months. One way to help tackle this is by identifying and sharing some promising practice among schools. The DfE therefore, commissioned CooperGibson Research (CGR) to conduct in-depth qualitative interviews with senior leaders in schools, identified by several high profile anti-bullying the organisations that the department works closely with, as exhibiting some examples of promising practice to combat bullying. This report outlines the approach taken and the case studies which have been developed, along with common themes found across the schools interviewed. The DfE is considering building on this research, to develop a series of case study reports looking specifically at promising practice in the fight against bullying related to protected characteristics such as race, ethnicity or faith. We hope that this report will be a helpful resource for schools and other stakeholders looking to improve anti-bullying practices in schools. Details: London: Department for Education, 2018. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 4, 2018 at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/715359/Approaches_to_preventing_and_tackling_bullying_-_case_studies.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/715359/Approaches_to_preventing_and_tackling_bullying_-_case_studies.pdf Shelf Number: 151823 Keywords: Bullying School Bullying School Discipline |
Author: Marchbanks, Miner P., III Title: Assessing the Role of School Discipline in Disproportionate Minority Contact with the Juvenile Justice System: Final Technical Report Summary: The purpose of this project was to assess the predictors of school discipline contact and the consequences of this contact on educational and juvenile justice outcomes of racially and ethnically diverse students. Further, this project examines the predictors of moving through the various stages of juvenile justice system. Last, the analyses look at the relationship between school strictness and various outcomes of great importance including school achievement and juvenile justice contact. Across analyses, the impact of race was considered. The research conducted here is a more complex and in-depth continuation of an investigation began by the Public Policy Research Institute (PPRI) at Texas A&M University (TAMU). PPRI subsequently received funding under the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP) 2012 Field Initiated Research and Evaluation Program to more closely examine the school discipline policies and the juvenile justice process across ethnic minority groups. A series of studies using a variety of advance statistical methods establish strong evidence of racial bias in school discipline contact, severity of punishment, poor educational outcomes, and justice system referrals across various types of schools and communities. We utilize quantitative methods ranging from structural equation models, an ordered probit with Heckman selection, clustered standard errors, to generalized linear models to highlight findings consistent with the "school-to-prison pipeline" model. The key measures of racial composition of school, teacher diversity, student-teacher racial/ethnic incongruence, and proportion of students receiving free or reduced lunch, were used as controls to investigate the prevalence of harsh discipline, poor educational outcomes, and justice system referrals across harsh/lenient schools and rural-urban communities. This report summarizes key findings from 14 manuscripts, including articles/book chapters. Many are published or in the process of being published in refereed journals. Dependent variables are at the case, student and school level. At the student level, these include encountering the school disciplinary system, juvenile justice referrals, standardized test failure and severity of punishment. At the school/campus level, outcomes include grade retention rate, dropout rate, and juvenile justice referral rate. In measuring cases where students enter the juvenile justice system, we use three dependent variables including referral to prosecutor, prosecutorial action, and case outcome. The results of this study will help advance the field on a theoretically grounded and statistically rigorous model for understanding school the racial lines of the "school-to-prison pipeline". Details: College Station, TX: Public Policy Research Institute, Texas A&M University, 2017. 72p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 15, 2018 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/grants/252059.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/grants/252059.pdf Shelf Number: 152937 Keywords: Racial DisparitiesSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SecuritySchool-to-Prison Pipeline |
Author: Stringer, Scott M. Title: Safe and Supportive Schools: A Plan to Improve School Climate and Safety in NYC Summary: At a time when the nation is deeply embroiled in concerns around school safety, it is not surprising that many strategies for creating safe school environments are under renewed consideration - everything from providing more mental health services to students, to expanded school lockdown drills, to extreme responses calling for arming teachers with guns. The horrific school shooting in Parkland, Florida served as a catalyst to this debate, forcing communities across the country to consider how best to safeguard their students. It is an important and overdue conversation - and one that New York City should seize as an opportunity to re-evaluate its own approach to creating safe and supportive school environments. To help guide the discussion, this report by the Office of the Comptroller Scott M. Stringer presents a review of current data related to school safety in New York City, and from that data draws a series of holistic recommendations on how to make City schools healthier and more secure.[i] It is based on the premise that "school safety," as a goal, extends beyond protecting children from external threats, and must include universal school-based mental health services, anti-bullying programs, and school disciplinary systems that students and teachers alike perceive as fair, not only in the rules they establish, but also in how equitably those rules are applied to different students and situations. Unfortunately, progress in improving the climate of New York City schools has been uneven. When surveyed, students disclose the fact that bullying remains common in schools, and has climbed in recent years. Additionally, despite the significant long-term impacts on students' academic outcomes, suspensions, issuing summonses, and even arrests continue to be used frequently in schools. These punishments continue to fall disproportionately on students of color. At the same time, while some schools are adopting less punitive, more restorative approaches to conflict resolution and behavioral challenges, without a system-wide, strategic implementation plan to support student mental health in schools and professional development of all school staff in trauma-informed crisis prevention and de-escalation, many schools are poorly equipped to significantly improve school climate. Research indicates that arrest or court involvement involving students doubles the likelihood that a student will not complete high school. Similarly, suspension from school increases the likelihood that a student will drop out by more than 12 percent. The higher risk of drop out due to arrests and suspensions translates to significant costs, including lost tax revenues and additional social spending to taxpayers. And yet, despite recent improvements, such extreme responses are still common for students in New York City. Specific findings of this report include: In the 2017 student survey, 82 percent of students in grades 6-12 said that their peers harass, bully, or intimidate others in school, compared with 65 percent of students in 2012. In 2017, over 17 percent of students in grades 6-12, disagreed or strongly disagreed that they felt safe in hallways, bathrooms, locker rooms, or the cafeteria of the school. Likewise, 23 percent of students in the same age groups disagreed or strongly disagreed that they felt safe in the vicinity of the school. In 2017, 17 percent of students surveyed feel that there is no adult in the school in whom they can confide. Despite supporting policies to reduce suspensions, the most recent data shows that suspensions increased in City schools by more than 20 percent in the first half of the 2017-18 school year compared with the same time period the year before. Black students are suspended at more than three times the rate of white students. Of the 612 schools reporting the most violent incidents in the 2016-17 school year, 218 (36 percent) have no full-time social worker on staff. Of those that do have a social worker on staff, caseloads average over 700 students - well above the minimum recommended level of one social worker for every 250 general education students. School Safety Agents and NYPD officers issued over 2,000 arrests or summonses in schools in the 2016-17 school year for charges including marijuana possession and disorderly conduct. In newly released data on law enforcement activity in the City's schools, during the first quarter of 2018, there were 606 summonses and arrests, down from 689 in the same time period in 2017. In the 2016-17 school year, students were handcuffed in over 1,800 incidents, including children as young as five years old. More than 90 percent of students handcuffed were Black or Latinx. Similarly, 90 percent of all arrests or summonses involved Black or Latinx students. These trends underscore the urgency to apply new strategies to the long-running challenge of system-wide school safety and discipline reform. Without investments in school-based mental health, fostering student social and emotional growth, and clear accountability measures for school climate improvement, too many students will be left to feel that schools are not doing enough to keep them safe and to provide the healthy environment necessary for building strong communities and advancing academic progress. To address these issues, the Comptroller's Office recommends that the City and the Department of Education: Expand small social emotional learning advisories in all schools. Students who have a trusted group of peers and at least one adult to confide in have greater academic outcomes as well as more positive social attitudes and behaviors. Offering a daily or weekly advisory period within the school-day schedule, complete with a structured curriculum and teachers who are supported in implementing it, provides a framework to support and encourage students as they navigate social challenges. Many smaller schools already offer an advisory program and understand the benefits of a small group dynamic. To scale the advisory program to all schools, the DOE should begin by surveying schools to learn how many offer an advisory program within the school day. Additionally, the DOE should mandate that all middle and high schools have advisories in place and ensure schools have access to adequate curriculum supports and professional development. Expand the Ranks of Social Workers and Guidance Counselors in Our Schools. In most cases, in-school behavior incidents are best dealt with by professionals who are trained in the appropriate responses to emotional or behavioral crises. Yet many schools do not have even a single social worker on staff to respond to school incidents in a trauma-informed way. The City should invest in social workers, ensure they have dedicated time and space in schools to work with students, and ensure school management has the capacity to help them succeed. Add More Clarity to the Role of School Safety Agents. School Safety Agents (SSAs) are well-equipped to protect students from threats that may exist outside a school building, and to maintain secure school buildings and property. However, their training cannot prepare them - and they should not be expected - to police student behavior or manage mental health crises. In some cases, school administrations rely on Safety Agents or NYPD officers to respond to in-school incidents. In other cases, SSAs may interact with students in a way that is at cross purposes to a school culture based on trust and mutual respect. When Safety Agents interactions with students hinder a supportive school climate, other efforts to build trust within a school are minimized. This misalignment of resources has high economic costs to the City, as well as long-term social costs for children who end up diverted into the criminal justice system as a result of policing in schools. The City should update the Memorandum of Understanding that governs DOE's relationship with NYPD to clearly outline the appropriate SSA interventions for specific student misconduct scenarios. Fund a Comprehensive Mental Health Support Continuum. Nationwide, approximately two-thirds of youth with a mental health disorder go untreated. In New York City, with the launch of the ThriveNYC mental health initiative, more supports have become available in schools. However, to address mental health challenges for students - especially in schools with the highest incidents of suspensions and arrests - more targeted interventions and direct services for students are needed. The City should fund a continuum of mental health supports for the highest-need schools including hospital-based mental health partnerships, mobile response teams, and school-based mental health care. Establish and Oversee System-Wide Trauma-Informed Schools. Students impacted by trauma are present in every school in the City, particularly when that trauma is linked to the chronic stresses of poverty. Because trauma can severely disrupt a student's academic potential, schools need to support educators in taking a trauma-informed approach to students, through recognizing the signs in children and understanding how to positively respond to their academic and social-emotional behaviors. Classroom discipline that is trauma-informed is consistent, non-violent, and respectful. The Positive Learning Collaborative, an innovative pilot launched in 20 New York City Schools in partnership with the United Federation of Teachers, provides in-depth training to teachers in therapeutic crisis intervention, and supports school-wide bullying prevention and gender-inclusive schools. The City should create a system-wide trauma-informed approach at all City schools. Expand Baseline Funding for Restorative Practices. Restorative practices, an alternative to exclusionary discipline, emphasize empathy, personal responsibility, and restoring community in the conflict resolution process. Examples from around the nation show that the approach has been highly effective in improving school climate and reducing suspensions. But transitioning to restorative practices requires investment in school-based consulting on implementation and capacity-building, and centralized program supports and evaluation. The City should adopt and sustain funding for restorative justice initiatives for a minimum three-year implementation period, and expand the initiative's reach to more schools. School climate is a bedrock education issue. Without cultivating safe and supportive schools for students and teachers alike, other initiatives aimed at improving academic outcomes will not be maximized. Details: New York: New York City Comptroller, 2018. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 6, 2018 at: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/School-Climate.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United States URL: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/documents/School-Climate.pdf Shelf Number: 153288 Keywords: School BullyingSchool ClimateSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Security |
Author: American Civil Liberties Union of Washington Title: Students Not Suspects: The Need to Reform School Policing in Washington State Summary: Introduction In December of 2015, Tucker, a 13-year-old Black student in Washington state, was arrested as a result of an incident that started when he mumbled a curse word to himself. Tucker's teacher ordered him to go sit outside on a bench; when Tucker refused to go outside unprotected in the cold, his teacher called the school police officer. The officer grabbed Tucker, slammed him to the ground, and as Tucker flailed, put his knee of the back of Tucker's head. Tucker was then arrested and booked into juvenile detention. He was charged with the crimes of "disturbing school" and "disrupting a law enforcement officer." Thirty years ago, few schools would routinely use police to respond to such student discipline incidents. Fewer than 100 police officers patrolled public schools in the late 1970s. Today, the lines between the education system and the criminal justice system are increasingly blurred. More than 24 percent of elementary schools and 42 percent of high schools nationwide have school police officers embedded in school campuses. These numbers are even higher for predominantly Black or Latinx schools, 51 percent of which have regularly stationed school police. As the numbers of police officers regularly stationed in schools has risen, so too have arrests in school. In districts around the country, police are regularly assigned or called to schools and have the full power of the criminal law to control students and their behaviors. In Washington, this includes the power to refer children for prosecution for the crime of "disturbing school." In the 2013-2014 school year, the 100 Washington schools with the largest student enrollments reported referring over 3,400 students to law enforcement. Regular police presence increases the likelihood that students will be arrested or prosecuted for misbehavior. Arrest is an inappropriate and ineffective way to address the causes of juvenile misbehavior. In-school use of traditional law enforcement tools (including arrest) helps create a "school to prison pipeline" where students are funneled directly from their schools into the criminal justice system. The school to prison pipeline not only harms students, it harms communities. Students who are arrested are more likely to drop out of school, less likely to graduate and more likely to be further involved in the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems. School policing in Washington is largely unregulated; no state law or policy directly addresses the use of police in schools. No state agency systematically tracks police placement, program structure, or the impact on students. To investigate school policing in Washington, the ACLU reviewed public records from over 100 school districts, and spoke with parents, juvenile attorneys, police officers, educators, and community leaders. We found: - School policing is widespread. Eighty-four of Washington's 100 largest school districts have police officers assigned to schools on a daily basis. In addition, even schools without police officers assigned to campus may call police to respond to incidents of routine student misconduct. School policing is costly. Schools pay on average $62,000 (and as much as $125,000) per full-time equivalent officer per year. This money that could be more effectively spent on counselors, teachers, and other student support services. Police officers have broad discretion in almost all Washington school districts to arrest students for minor misbehavior. Having police in schools makes it more likely that students will be arrested. Washington's school police programs often lack written guidelines distinguishing between student discipline matters and crimes. This is particularly troubling because Washington law makes it a crime to disturb school, exposing students to criminal prosecution for routine misbehavior. Few of the police officers assigned to schools are required to undergo training on how to work in schools. Only 25 of the school/police contracts surveyed require police officers in schools to participate in any form of specialized training. This fails to account for the fact that schools are educational environments that should not be policed like a normal beat. Few schools collect any data on officer activities, including arrests. Only 14 school/police contracts require any form of data collection on officer activities. This makes it hard for districts to assess the impact of police in school, including the effects on students' constitutional rights and any discriminatory impact on students of color or students with disabilities. School police are rarely accountable to students, parents, and teachers. Only one school district has a clear civilian complaint process to address officer conduct in schools. In over 70 school districts, school officials have no clear role in supervising or evaluating police officers stationed in schools. In 55 districts, school officials have no input in the hiring or selection of an officer to be assigned to schools. The ACLU of Washington believes that police officers should not be a regular part of the school environment. Students, teachers, and school staff deserve safe, quality schools - but this cannot be accomplished by reliance on school policing. On the contrary, school policing as currently practiced in Washington - with few guidelines and scant oversight - may even make schools less safe by alienating students from school and contributing to the school to prison pipeline. Rather than investing in police, schools should prioritize counselors, mental health professionals, social workers, teacher training and evidence-based programs to improve the school climate, schools can help students reduce routine adolescent misbehavior and address the underlying social causes that may be contributing to it. This report documents and evaluates Washington's school policing and recommends policies that schools, law enforcement, and the legislature should adopt to protect students and ensure safe schools. Details: Seattle, Washington: ACLU of Washington, 2017. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 21, 2019 at: https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/students-not-suspects-need-reform-school-policing-washington-state Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://www.aclu-wa.org/docs/students-not-suspects-need-reform-school-policing-washington-state# Shelf Number: 155146 Keywords: Arrests in SchoolLaw EnforcementPolice in SchoolsPolicing in SchoolsSchool DisciplineSchool PolicingSchool SuspensionsSchool to Prison PipelineSchool Violence |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: "I Don't Want my Child to be Beaten": Corporal Punishment in Lebanon's Schools Summary: Lebanon's Education Ministry has banned corporal punishment in schools since the 1970s, and the penal code allows no defense for the crime of assault by school staff against students. Yet because of a lack of accountability, the ban on violent discipline is often disregarded. Based on the cases of 51 children, and interviews with NGO staff, teachers, and government officials, "I Dont Want My Child to Be Beaten": Corporal Punishment in Lebanon's Schools finds that students at both public and private schools suffer humiliating insults, hair-pulling, and beatings with rulers and other objects. Parents said that their complaints about violent abuse were rebuffed or that they received little or no information as to how they were handled. Syrian refugee children may be particularly vulnerable to abuse and afraid to complain, as the majority lack legal residency in Lebanon. The report urges the Education Ministry, which launched a comprehensive child protection policy in 2018, to take concrete steps to enforce the ban on corporal punishment and ensure all teachers are trained in positive discipline. Details: New York: Human Rights Watch, 2019. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 4, 2019 at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/05/13/i-dont-want-my-child-be-beaten/corporal-punishment-lebanons-schools Year: 2019 Country: Lebanon URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/lebanon0519_web2.pdf Shelf Number: 156161 Keywords: Child MaltreatmentChildren and ViolenceCorporal PunishmentSchool DisciplineViolence Against ChildrenViolence in Schools |