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May 16-17, 2003
Sponsored by
The Civil Rights Project and The Institute on Race and Justice at
Northeastern University
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Over the past decade, trends in both school discipline
and law enforcement have grown steadily more punitive. According
to the most recent research, these trends disproportionately impact
youths of color. On the criminal justice side, many states are dismantling
their juvenile justice system, have legislated laws that make it
easier to try juveniles as adults, and have increased sanctions
against juveniles for a wide array of offenses. On the education
side, a “zero tolerance” approach to discipline has resulted
in a doubling of the number of students suspended from school each
year since 1974, and an increase in racial disparities in the application
of school discipline. Many schools have also increased the deployment
of police, use of metal detectors and search and seizure procedures
in schools, and the sharing of information between law enforcement
and school officials. While many argue that these are necessary
to maintain safe learning environments, others maintain that they
disproportionately target minority students, are ineffective in
reducing violence or disruption, and criminalize misbehaviors that
could be handled exclusively by school officials.
Other school-related practices and policies-including
the increasing emphasis on test performance and on retention in
grade, growing racial segregation of public schools, the failure
of schools serving large minority populations to retain qualified
teachers or offer adequate counseling services, and the disproportionate
labeling, restrictive placement, and low quality of support for
children of color in special education-- -may be accelerating the
paths movement of certain students into the criminal justice system.
We know, for instance, that as many as 70% of incarcerated youths
suffer from disabling behavioral disorders or learning disabilities
that interfere with their capacity to learn, and that most court-involved
youths have experienced some form of school failure (defined as
having been suspended, expelled, or retained in grade). However,
there has been very little documentation of the specific educational
educational paths that court-involved youths take, differences that
may exist in the paths taken by students of different racial and
ethnic groups, or discussions of the ways in which educational and
juvenile justice policies and practices could be reconstructed to
interrupt and redirect this pipeline.
We believe that more attention needs to be focused
on the relationship between certain educational policies and practices
and the disproportionate numbers of minority youths being funneled
into an increasingly punitive the criminal justice system. In an
effort to move this discussion beyond the anecdotal, and to begin
to quantify some of the effects of these policies, The Civil Rights
Project at Harvard University (CRP) and Northeastern University's
Institute on Race and Justice, are co-sponsoring a research conference
entitled: Reconstructing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Charting
Intervention Strategies of Prevention and Support for Minority
Children. Our goal is to commission research that both explores
the problems in depth and makes constructive policy recommendations.
Earlier this summer we invited all interested persons
researchers, practitioners, lawyers and policy analysts from a
variety of disciplines (education, social sciences, law, government
policy) to submit 2-page proposals for papers to be presented at
a Conference on the School-to-Prison Pipeline. If accepted, these
papers will also be considered for publication or reference in
materials and products edited and distributed by The Civil Rights
Project, and for presentation at legislative and media briefings.
For more information on topics of discussion, see the Agenda.
Our
goal is to commission research that will explore how school policies
and practices may be affecting the flow of certain students
into the criminal justice system. We also seek to better understand
how educational institutions can work in concert with community
and public agencies to implement programs of intervention and prevention.
For further information, contact Dan Losen
(dlosen@law.harvard.edu)
The conference will be held at the Graduate School
of Education, Longfellow Hall, 13 Appian Way, Askwith Forum. For
directions, see Logistics.
# # #
| 9:00 am -9:15 a.m |
Welcome, Introductions
Christopher Edley, Jr. and Deborah Ramirez
Part A - Describing the Pipeline Plenaries I, II, and III |
| 9:15 am -10:30 a.m |
I. School Policies and Practices That Indirectly
Contribute
Commentator: Pedro Noguera
Multiple factors: The School to Prison Pipeline: Urban
Pedagogies and the Construction of Superfluous Population
Garret Duncan,
Department of Education,Washington University in St. Louis
Testing, retention and dropouts: The Grade 9 Valve in
the Educational Pipeline
Walt Haney, Center for the Study of Testing,
Evaluation and Educational Policy
Teacher Quality and Correlations with Suspensions/Expulsions
Dan Losen, The Civil Right Project
Russell Skiba, Counseling
and Educational Psychology, Indiana University
Gender with Race – The School to Prison Pipeline
for Minority Girls: The Role of Physical and Sexual Abuse
Amy
Hirsch, Sandra B. Simkins, and Erin McNamara Horvat, Community
Legal Services, Law Center North Central |
| 10:30 -11:45 a.m |
II. School Discipline Mechanisms Directly Contributing
to the Flow Into the JJ System
Commentator: Judith Browne
Predictors of suspension and suspension as a predictor
of negative school outcomes: The Educational Histories of
a cohort of students from the entire Pinella County school
district
Octavio Salcedo, Research Analyst for Linda Raffaele-Mendez,
Author, University of South Florida
School's increasing use of the criminal justice system:
From Disruptive Student to Juvenile Delinquent: Changing Patterns
in School Discipline
Jennifer Obidah, Graduate School of Education, University
of Califonia, LA
Harsh discipline and other exclusionary practices (including
special education): Consistent Removal: Contributions of School
Discipline to the School Prison Pipeline
Russell Skiba, Counseling and Educational Psychology, Indiana
University
Toledo – Zero Tolerance and police referrals
Victor Goode and Jennifer D. Goode, Advocates for Basic Legal
Equity Inc
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| 11:45-12:30 p.m |
LUNCH |
| 12:30-1:45
p.m |
III. Societal and Juvenile Justice Factors Contributing
to the Pipeline
Commentator: Deborah Ramirez
The low quality of post exclusion assignments: Race Differences
in Post-Exclusion Assignments for Students in Massachusetts
Gordana Rabrenovic and Jack Levin, Brudnick Center on Violence
and Conflict
Preventive detention measures may contribute: Punishing
Dangerousness Through Detention: How a School to Prison Connection
is Created and What Can Be Done to Change Practices
Ronnie Casella, Dept. of Teacher Education, Central Connecticut
State University
How political climate and other influences on education
and juvenile justice “gate-keepers” contribute
to racial disproportionality: Least We Forget Thee…
The Under – and Over-Representation of Youth of Color
in California Educational and JJ Institutions
Alexes Harris, Dept. of Sociology, University
of Washington
Walter Allen,
University of California, Los Angeles
Race, Disability, and School-filed Delinquency Petitions
Peter Leone, Elisa Hyman, & Sheri M. Meisel, National
Center on Education, Disability &
Juvenile Justice
Alternative Education: Analysis of student enrollment
in Texas’ alternative schools
Augustina Reyes, University of Houston
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| 1:45-3:00 p.m |
IV. Promising Practices
Commentator: Gil Noam
Prevention Strategies that Reduce Minority Youth Involvement
in the Juvenile Justice System
David Osher, American Institutes for Research
Creating Effective Learning Environments for the Most
Vulnerable Youth
Lili Allen, Cheryl Almeida, and Adria Steinberg, Jobs for
the Future
High Poverty High Schools and the Juvenile Justice System:
How Neither Is Helping the Other and How that Could Change
Robert Balfanz, Kurt Spiridakis, Ruth Neild, and Nettie Legters,
Center for Social Organization of Schools
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| 3:00-3:15 p.m |
BREAK |
| 3:15-4:30 p.m |
V. Implications for Policy and Advocacy
Commentator: Christopher Edley, Jr.
Activist Interventions for Policy Change: Case Studies
in Effective Community Organizing against Zero Tolerance
Robin Templeton, Executive Director, National Campaign to
Restore Voting Rights
Bernardine Dohrn, Children and Family Justice Center
Unintended Consequences: Using Multiples Strategies to
Reduce Racial Disparities in School Discipline
Mark Soler, Youth Law Center
Federal Policy Recommendations
Theresa Glennon, James E. Beasley School of Law
Student Voices
David Lemmel, Administration, Planning, and Social Policy,
Harvard University
New legal challenges where special education is an issue
Bob Schwartz
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| 4:30-5:00 p.m |
Wrap-Up
Christopher Edley, Jr. and Deborah Ramirez
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| 5:00-6:30 p.m |
Open: Dinner on your own |
| 6:30-8:30 p.m. |
Movie: “The Intolerable Burden”
(optional) |
# # #
| 9:00-9:15 a.m |
Introduction
Dan Losen and Johanna Wald |
| 9:15-10:30 a.m |
Breakout Sessions Part A
Participants will choose to go to one of three concurrent
sessions along the lines of the plenary where each researcher
will have 10 minutes to present their paper, leaving 20-30
minutes for Q&A.
Plenary I – Schools Policies and Pratices
Facilitator: Nan Stein
Plenary II – School Discipline
Facilitator: Ann Arnet Ferguson
Plenary III – Societal and Juvenile Justice Factors
Facilitator: Lizbet Simmons
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| 10:30– 11:45
a.m. |
Breakout Sessions Part B
Plenary IV- Promising Practices
Facilitator: Vincent Schiraldi
Plenary V – Implications of Policy and Advocacy
Facilitator: Dan Losen
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| 11:45– 12:30
p.m |
Wrap up and Next Steps
Christopher Edley, Jr. and Deborah Ramirez |
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