jcooks1999 African Americans, School Discipline

California NAACP resolves to address systematic oppression machine

The School-to-Prison Pipeline (STPP) is a systematic oppression machine, particularly for black and brown people. By definition, “the increasing patterns of contact students have with the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems as a result of the recent practices implemented by educational institutions specifically zero tolerance policies and the use of police in schools” (American Psychological Association Task Force on Zero Tolerance, 2008; Fenning, 2012). This “pipeline” is resultant of neglect by public institutions to properly address students who might need extra educational or social assistance, or cannot do so because of staffing shortages or statutory mandates. Consequently, many black adolescents, primarily young men, who are expelled from public schools, end up incarcerated by the juvenile justice system (Alexander, 2011) because they have limited options.

Research suggests that there are three primary reasons for this trend in disproportionality: institutional bias, teacher bias, and cultural mismatch (Skiba, 2002, Fenning 2007, Noguera 2010, Monroe, 2005). The population of system-involved youth has been a long-standing social justice issue at the federal and state level (Annamma, 2014; Snapp, Hoenig, Fields, & Russell,
2015). Students of color are especially impacted by the punitive discipline policies, procedures, and practices that contribute to the disproportionate “pushing out” from schools and increasing the likelihood of contact with the criminal justice system.

The STPP is a social problem and a civil rights issue. As a result, the California NAACP at its 2017 state convention passed a resolution that I authored and was supported by Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig, Education Chair. This resolution acknowledges these issues and problems while providing recommendations to benefit the incarcerated, young people to leave the system, reduce recidivism, and become productive citizens.​ Please share it widely.

RESOLUTION: THE JUVENILLE JUSTICE SYSTEM

WHERE AS the juvenile justice system as designed to “fix” the delinquent youth in society; and

WHERE AS the juvenile justice system is overly concerned with meeting state guidelines to secure funding; and

WHERE AS the juvenile justice system maintains a disproportionate amount of dollars for upper and mid management instead of reallocating those funds for services needed by the incarcerated youth; and

WHERE AS, the NAACP recognizes that the emphasis in the juvenile justice system must be focused on providing resources and opportunities for incarcerated youth; and

WHERE AS, the NAACP understands the urgency of effectively and efficiently rehabilitating incarcerated youth; and

WHERE AS, the NAACP is committed to finding a productive means to give all children equity in education and life by providing them with what they need to succeed rather than simply getting the same thing as everyone.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the NAACP will strongly advocate for immediate and overarching improvements to the existing juvenile justice system

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NAACP believes that the purpose of the juvenile justice system is to provide support and resources to rehabilitate incarcerated youth to become critical thinking, democratic citizens of American society that are motived to never return to that hall.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NAACP recognizes the need for mentoring programs that focus on effective communication skills, manhood/womanhood training, and positive decision making skills.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NAACP challenges the current juvenile justice system to mandate the successful completion of high school equivalency or General Education Degree (GED) while in incarcerated in the juvenile justice system.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NAACP strongly advocates for the development of online college education programs in all juvenile facilities. In conjunction with neighboring, local universities, the juvenile justice system will provide programs designed for incarnated youth to earn their Associate degrees while in the juvenile justice system.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the NAACP recommends the need for each incarcerated youth to have access to learn a trade in the juvenile facility. This experience will allow them the opportunity to gain employment once they return to mainstream society.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the NAACP will urge all of its Units to work to support all students in the juvenile justice system throughout the nation to educate them to their highest potential.

Dr. Jamal Cooks

Contact: jamalc@sfsu.edu
Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig African Americans, Latina/os, School Discipline, Wisdom

The latest on the School to Prison Pipeline

The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the policies and practices that push school children, particularly low-socioeconomic and racial/ethnic minority youth, out of classrooms into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Critically, school failure for these youth appears to be driven by inadequate and persistently low-performing schools, disproportionate disciplinary and school suspension practices, and the combination of zero-tolerance discipline policies and the increased prioritization of test scores as the measure of success in educational contexts.

The Society for Prevention Research symposium held in San Francisco on June 1, 2016 highlighted policy, practice, and programmatic efforts aimed at dismantling the link between schools and justice systems. Specifically, Nayna Gupta (ACLU, Northern California), Daniel Losen (UCLA Civil Rights Project) and Julian Vasquez Heilig (California State University Sacramento) outlined 1) the extent to which disproportionate school discipline policies have initiatives have led to exclusionary practices thus affecting youth of color in terms of denying access to an equitable education; 2) the impact of state and federal policy initiatives addressing this issue, 3) the extent to which police presence in urban schools (e.g., Oakland, Stockton) affect the school-to-prison pipeline, given the community context, and how the community has responded to this phenomenon; and 4) a discussion about a set of community-based solutions to address the school to prison pipeline.

I discussed a set of community-based solutions including school-based Youth Courts, better data and restorative justice practices in local accountability plans. (Also hear about my 8th teacher and my willful defiance) Video cued below.

Daniel Losen discussed the extent to which disproportionate school discipline policies have initiatives have led to exclusionary practices thus affecting youth of color in terms of denying access to an equitable education and the impact of state and federal policy initiatives addressing this issue. Video cued below.

Nayna Gupta talked about the extent to which police presence in urban schools affect the school-to-prison pipeline, given the community context, and how the community has responded to this phenomenon. Video cued below.

See the entire discussion here:

Also, check out a new report that was released today entitled The High Cost of Harsh Discipline and Its Disparate Impact. The report was released by the UCLA Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA’s Civil Rights Project and is the “first to quantify the economic cost of suspending students from school. It builds on a large body of research demonstrating that excessive school suspensions fail to improve school learning environments or enhance academic achievement.”Screen Shot 2016-06-02 at 5.33.43 PM.png

Using different data sources, the study also estimated the costs and effects of school suspensions in California and Florida, reaching remarkably consistent conclusions. According to the study, California 10th grade suspensions resulted in more than 10,000 additional high school dropouts. In Florida 9th grade suspensions increased the number of dropouts by nearly 3,500.

The study uses estimates of the economic losses from high school dropouts from Clive Belfield of Queens College.  These estimates show that over the course of a lifetime, each additional dropout is responsible for $163,000 in lost tax revenue and $364,000 in other social costs, such as health care and criminal justice expenses. Cumulatively, the total cost of the 67,000 additional dropouts caused by school suspensions nationally exceeds $35 billion.

Stay tuned for more multimedia in the coming days here at Cloaking Inequity. I will also post from my upcoming trip to China.

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See also Colonizing the Black Natives: Reflections from a former NOLA Charter School Dean of Students

p.s. Binge listen to the entire Truth For America podcast series on YouTube here  or iTunes here.

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Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig African Americans, Latina/os, School Discipline

Justice in action: How we can address the school-to-prison pipeline

Why are we sending droves of young Black and Brown students into the school-to-prison pipeline via our harsh discipline policies when there are better alternatives?

In this newly published chapter in the Handbook of Urban Educational Leadership, we examine a unique peer run youth court at an urban middle school to contextualize social justice in action. The youth court was developed through a collaborative partnership with the local university’s law school and the administrators and teachers of a high poverty, high minority inner city middle school in Texas. Social justice leaders from both institutions identified a troubling trend: students from the middle school were being increasingly tracked into the juvenile justice system. Relying on the theoretical principles of social justice leadership, we explore the principal and school leaders’ implementation of the youth court and their decisions and challenges over three years of the program’s operation. In addition, we delved into the design of the program’s core curriculum based on a restorative justice model that is built upon the foundations of social justice: inclusion and respect. With the backdrop of punitive disciplinary policies, we highlight the courage and commitment of school leaders to go against the grain and fashion an alternative disciplinary program that is significantly changing the trajectories of at-risk youth.

2015-03-10 17.05.49What is a Youth Court?

The youth court model in many ways mirrors traditional adult courts. Teachers, school officials or police can offer juveniles the option of youth court following their arrest, or after referrals. To qualify for the youth court, juveniles must admit guilt. The youth court is responsible for determining the consequences of the action, taking into account any material put before it by the juvenile or other parties. The entire court, including judge, attorneys, jurors, bailiff and clerk are student peers. If a juvenile declines to go to youth court, he or she may be subject to a referral to juvenile court, a criminal record and the penalties that may be imposed including fines and possible confinement to a juvenile detention center (Poch, 2000).

According to the research, the main goal of youth court and what distinguishes it from traditional courts is its attempt to prevent the criminalization of students by directing them away from the formal intake of the juvenile justice system. With youth court, they will not have a criminal record nor be subjected to the more constraining conditions imposed by a real court of justice. Youth courts create a different pathway for addressing student misconduct. In a sense, they reject traditionally held views about the management of student behavior and more importantly, the superiority of the teacher and administrator to determine appropriate consequences for students.

The youth court model is based on a restorative justice underpinning (Godwin, 2001). Restorative justice in turn, is supported by core restoration values. These values reflect the underlying beliefs that: 1) children are rich resources that can benefit communities; 2) young people are educators’ social equals; 3) children can develop problem-solving skills, pro-social character traits, and healthy self-concepts; 4) children’s physical, educational, social, spiritual, and emotional needs must be met; 5) families are the best environments for healthy development of children, but everyone can help; and 6) every child succeeds; no child fails (Brendtro, Ness, & Mitchell, 2001, pp. 156-158).

11053866_10206666840209564_5156295940493288691_oThe supporters of the peer run youth court believe that a discipline model run by youth will be more effective in addressing problem behavior and deterring future misconduct. The architects of youth courts strongly design their programs in an effort to decrease referrals to the juvenile courts and ultimately decrease problem behavior as students take responsibility not only for their own actions, but also for those of their fellow students through their participation in a student run system (Ashworth et al., 2008). As youth courts continue to take shape around the country, the assumptions of its advocates seem to be true. They are indeed, an alternative to the proverbial school to prison pipeline (Authors, 2011).

A youth court was firmly established at Wilson Middle School (pseudonym) as an alternative to the school to prison pipeline. Most of the literature on this phenomenon has been largely descriptive, documenting the problems with the system but offering little by way of solutions. For the leaders of the Wilson youth court, action was the only solution. They developed youth court specifically as a tool to combat the school to prison pipeline and every leader interviewed articulated a clear connection between the program and the school to prison pipeline.

A number of the school administrators indicated how important youth court was as an alternative to traditional punitive options that are commonplace in the Lone Star State and elsewhere. The Wilson youth court truly is a solution for those struggling to find positive ways of dealing with problematic student behavior. As one vice principal honestly proffered, “I don’t know what we would do without youth court. It gives us an option.” The leaders that rely on youth court rely on it as a real mechanism for change. It is not just another program or silver bullet flying by— it is a restorative justice solution for so many students whose traditional options are far less than ideal.

Conclusion      

When social justice is placed at the core of how school leaders operate and function, a paradigm shift must occur. The cultural and organizational aspects of schools and communities must also fundamentally change. This requires a strong sense of will and purpose. Paradigm shifts, such as limiting punitive disciplinary approaches, are not easy in the current “no excuses” educational policy environment. To facilitate notion of restorative justice in disciplinary policy, school leaders need to identify not just their goals but the foundations of those goals. A surface understanding will not suffice. Change in school disciplinary policy requires a fully informed consciousness, a true equity consciousness. School leaders must serve as change agents, helping others to recognize, access and buttress the abilities of each student and providing each one with the opportunity to succeed via school disciplinary policy.

Instigating a paradigm shift from punitive to restorative school disciplinary policy can be a slow and painful process but important improvements can and do take place (Author, 2011). At the Wilson youth court, change is happening as the program evolves and expands. The positive school response from the teachers and students taking part in the program is paving the way for the court to be scaled up and operationalized at another school. This will provide important comparative data for the program and help substantiate what is already observed by school leaders at Wilson Middle School— students are staying in class and learning not being excluded from instruction and set on the path to dropping out, or worse, sitting in a county jail cell. Students are also learning about what it means to build relationships and how to foster trust and respect in the classroom— in their school and beyond.

The vision of Wilson principal is having a ripple effect. Seeing the strengths of his students, rather than their deficits, he was determined to provide them with the tools they needed to succeed, to stay in school and to never head down the destructive path to prison. Thus, the youth court is not just an alternative discipline program— it is something much greater— a reflection, an inspiration to greater ideals of social justice in majority minority urban middle schools. The youth court is school reform in action and exemplifies how the tireless dedication school and community leaders working together can lead to social justice in action and stem the school-to-prison pipeline.

Read the full chapter here: Cole, H., Vasquez Heilig, J., Fernandez, T., Clifford, M., & Garcia, R. (2015). Social Justice in action: Urban school leaders address the school to prison pipeline via a youth court. In M. Khalifa, C. Grant, N.W. Arnold and A. Osanloo (Eds.), Handbook of Urban Educational Leadership. (pp. 320-328) New York: Rowman and Littlefield.

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