Transforming the School-to-Prison Pipeline

Dreaming of a Place Called Home

“…What are the social costs and consequences of having the largest prison population in the world, where the 3rd grade reading scores of students are highly correlated with future incarceration? So much so, that in the Prison Industrial Complex corporations like Corrections Corporation of America purchase third grade datasets as part of their determination of how many new prison cells to build (Children's Defense Fund, 2007;Pane & Tonette, 2014;Rury, 2013;Tuck, 2012). This is a company that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.…”

Models of Success, Teacher Quality and Student Disciplinary Infraction: A Critical Analysis of Chicago’s Urban Preparatory Academies and Harlem Children’s Zone

“…Public K-12 institutions in the U.S. report that African Americans are suspended at three-times the rate of White students (23% for African Americans as compared to 7% for Whites). Furthermore, the most recent Civil Rights Discipline Collection report (Office of Civil Rights, 2014) indicates that students who receive one suspension have a much greater chance of being suspended multiple times, ultimately leading to expulsion and or involvement in the juvenile justice system (Allen & White-Smith, 2014;Gregory, 1995; Office of Civil Rights, 2014;Pane & Rocco, 2014). A significant amount of research focuses on public education institutions' dismal outcomes in this area (Skiba et al, 2002; Office of Civil Rights, 2014;Wilson, 2014), without examining charter schools to determine if discipline disparities are endemic in them as well.…”

“…Furthermore, the labels place students at greater risk of becoming truant and or delinquent, which then slips them into the crosshairs of the juvenile justice system (Skiba et al, 2002;Wilson, 2014). Generally, juveniles who have any type of negative interaction with the juvenile justice system are at greater risk of entering the adult penal system when they come of age (Pane & Rocco, 2014). As a historical and current trend, the percentage of African Americans who are suspended from school mirrors the percentage who are incarcerated (42% of African American students were suspended out-of-school, and 35% were incarcerated in 2012) (Pane & Rocco, 2014), solidifying the phrase that for African Americans, school is a pipeline to the U.S. prison industrial complex (Pane & Rocco, 2014;Raible & Irizarry, 2010).…”

“…Generally, juveniles who have any type of negative interaction with the juvenile justice system are at greater risk of entering the adult penal system when they come of age (Pane & Rocco, 2014). As a historical and current trend, the percentage of African Americans who are suspended from school mirrors the percentage who are incarcerated (42% of African American students were suspended out-of-school, and 35% were incarcerated in 2012) (Pane & Rocco, 2014), solidifying the phrase that for African Americans, school is a pipeline to the U.S. prison industrial complex (Pane & Rocco, 2014;Raible & Irizarry, 2010). (Harlow, 2003;Kupchick, 2012;Office of Civil Rights, 2014;Raible & Irizarry, 2010;Skiba, Peterson, & Williams, 1997).…”

The Story of Drama Club: A Contemporary Counternarrative of a Transformative Culture of Teaching and Learning for Disenfranchised Black Youth in the School-to-Prison Pipeline

“…These narratives are central to the identity formation of African Americans as intellectual capable people but are not reflected in the traditional theory of education master narrative of schooling for African American students, especially those who are systematically funneled out of classrooms and into prison-the school-to-prison pipeline (Alexander, 2010;Pane & Rocco, 2014).…”