Keeping Kids In School and Out of Court

Children and Youth, Education and Literacy, Prison and Judicial Reform

Keeping Kids In School and Out of Court

As the education of our children -- our nation's future -- and the school-justice connection has increasingly captured public attention, the sunshine of increased graduation rates has brought into sharp focus the shadow of the so-called school-to-prison pipeline -- the thousands of students who are suspended, arrested, put at greater risk for dropping out, court involvement and incarceration. They are the subject of this Report.

In school year 2011-2012 (SY2012), the number of suspensions in New York City public schools was 40 percent greater than during SY2006 (69,643 vs. 49,588, respectively), despite a five percent decrease in suspensions since SY2011. In addition, there were 882 school-related arrests (more than four per school day on average) and another 1,666 summonses issued during the SY2012 (more than seven per school day on average), also demonstrating an over-representation of students of color. These numbers might suggest New York City has a growing problem with violence and disruption in school but the opposite is true. Over the last several years, as reported by the Department of Education in November 2012, violence in schools has dropped dramatically, down 37 percent between 2001 and 2012. Indeed, violence Citywide has dropped dramatically.

Emerging facts suggest that the surge in suspensions is not a function of serious misbehavior. New York City has the advantage of newly available public data that makes it possible for the first time to see patterns and trends with respect to suspensions by school and to see aggregate data on school-related summonses and arrests. The data shows that the overwhelming majority of school-related suspensions, summonses and arrests are for minor misbehavior, behavior that occurs on a daily basis in most schools. An important finding is that most schools in New York City handle that misbehavior without resorting to suspensions, summonses or arrests much if at all. Instead, it is a small percentage of schools that are struggling, generating the largest number of suspensions, summonses and arrests, impacting the lives of thousands of students. This newly available data echoes findings from other jurisdictions indicating that suspension and school arrest patterns are less a function of student misbehavior than a function of the adult response. Given the same behavior, some choose to utilize guidance and positive discipline options such as peer mediation; others utilize more punitive alternatives.

The choice is not inconsequential. Recent research, including groundbreaking studies in Texas, Cincinnati and Chicago, underscore the important connections between academic outcomes and suspensions. Students who are suspended are more likely to be retained a grade, more likely to drop out, less likely to graduate and more likely to face involvement in the juvenile or criminal justice systems, thereby placing them at higher risk for poor life outcomes. Suspensions and school-related court involvement also generate significant and lifetime costs -- for extra years of schooling, for justice system involvement, and for families and all society. Notably, high rates of suspension do not yield correspondingly significant benefits, as research shows that high rates of suspensions in a school make students and teachers feel less, not more, safe.

Most worrisome are patterns of suspensions for students with disabilities and students of color in New York City and across the nation. In New York City alone during SY2012, students receiving special education services were almost four times more likely to be suspended compared to their peers not receiving special education services; Black students were four times more likely and Hispanic students were almost twice as likely to be suspended compared to White students. New York City Black students were also 14 times more likely, and Hispanic students were five times more likely, to be arrested for school-based incidents compared to White students.

Studies have shown that it is not the violent and egregious misbehavior that drives the disparities. For example, the Texas study showed that Black students had a lower rate of mandatory suspensions (suspensions for violence, weapons and other equally serious offenses) than White students. Black students exceeded White students only in the rates of suspensions for discretionary offenses.

Innovative school districts throughout the country, encouraged by the federal government, are increasingly moving away from suspensions, summonses and arrests in favor of positive approaches to discipline that work. In New York City, a range of schools similarly have adopted constructive discipline with good results. In short, we have examples of what to do. The challenge is to take that learning system-wide and transform the small group of schools that over-rely on suspensions, summonses and arrests. Change in these schools could have a significant impact on student outcomes, re-engaging thousands of students so that they stay in school and out of courts. But research and experience tell us these schools cannot make this change by themselves. They need help and support. Change will require strong leadership and committed partnerships.

New York City has a proud tradition of turning conventional wisdom on its head and achieving remarkable results. A recent example underscores this point. In the United States, conventional wisdom is and has been that mass incarceration is the cost of keeping communities safe. But New York City has proved otherwise. Even as the incarceration rate in New York City declined significantly, with a drop in the prison population of 17 percent between 2001 and 2009 and in the jail population by 40 percent from 1991 to 2009, the number of felonies reported by New York City to the Federal Bureau of Investigation also declined, down 72 percent. New York City proved conventional wisdom wrong with the result that thousands fewer people have been incarcerated -- saving the City and State taxpayers two billion dollars a year.

Similarly, New York City can refute the conventional wisdom of critics who think that sacrificing a few students -- although the thousands of students who were suspended, arrested or issued summonses each year is not a "few" -- can be justified on the theory it protects the many by improving safety and academic outcomes. There is no research that supports this belief and a growing body of research that suggests the opposite. Students in schools with lower suspension rates have better academic outcomes than students in schools with high suspension rates, irrespective of student characteristics. Students and teachers in schools with lower rates of suspension and arrest also feel safer than students and teachers at schools with high rates. Students who feel safe can learn, and teachers who feel safe can teach.

The students interviewed by Task Force members during their school visits echoed what the research also says: the best approach to keeping schools safe and improving academic outcomes is to support a positive school climate where students and teachers feel respected and valued. Evidence-based interventions like restorative justice, positive behavioral supports, and social-emotional learning are giving teachers and school leadership the tools they need to deal with school misbehavior and help build that positive school climate while keeping students safe and learning.

In 2011, Judge Judith Kaye, with the support of The Atlantic Philanthropies, convened the New York City School-Justice Partnership Task Force to bring together City leaders to address the question of how best to keep more students in school and out of courts. She invited a group of stakeholders who do not often come together -- judges and educators, researchers and advocates, prosecutors and defense counsel -- to learn more about how the systems they serve impact each other and how they might partner together to achieve better outcomes. The Task Force heard from experts from around the City and country on promising practices. It examined data to improve understanding of the challenges and look for bright spots, schools that were succeeding even in the face of a wide array of challenges. Task Force members visited local schools and heard from principals and students about what they need. Members learned from each other and debated what avenues would be best.

The work of the Task Force leads us to conclude that New York City can safely reduce the number of school-related incidents that can ultimately lead to court involvement. Indeed, the City already has models of promising practice -- schools that have high needs populations with low rates of suspensions and arrests. Learning from these schools and other reform-minded districts across the nation can guide leadership across systems to further safely reduce court involvement, arrests and suspensions while improving academic outcomes.

We recognize that progress toward this objective will require a laser-like focus on shared outcomes and an unprecedented level of partnership among city agencies, and collaboration with the courts, and it must include parents, students, teachers, principals, researchers and advocates. Leadership and partnership at the top is the key. It will make possible the adoption of shared goals to improve outcomes for New York City's children across agencies so that schools do not have to go it alone. It will make possible the ability to divert summonses and arrests unnecessarily referred to the courts. It will make possible the ability to direct services where those services are needed and stop the flow of students with disabilities and youth of color into the suspension system and the courts. It will make possible the ability to raise up our support, expectations and standards for educational achievement and outcomes for students who do become court involved.

In 2014, a new Mayor will assume office. It is already clear that school reform will be a high priority, as it has been for the Bloomberg administration. Over the past decade and more, we have learned a great deal about what works and what does not work, even as we recognize there is more to be learned. Now we have an opportunity to build on what has worked well.

Reducing unnecessary suspensions, summonses and arrests is a challenge we can tackle and we must if our students are to succeed. In the end, many more young people can grow into successful and productive adults -- and it is our duty as adults to find the supports necessary to make that happen. Frederick Douglass was right on target in his observation that it is better to build strong children than repair broken men and women. This Report summarizes almost two years of learning, and it advances recommendations to make that happen.

As the next New York City Mayor sets the course for education reform, these recommendations offer a roadmap of next steps for a Citywide effort to take advantage of emerging approaches to school and justice system leadership that are effective and fair as a means to improve outcomes for all of our children -- to keep our students in school and out of court.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America-United States (New York Metropolitan Area)

The Global Gender Gap Report 2013

Civil Society, Education and Literacy, Women

The Global Gender Gap Report 2013

Countries and companies can be competitive only if they develop, attract, and retain the best talent, both male and female. While governments have an important role to play in creating the right policy framework for improving women's access and opportunities, it is also the imperative of companies to create workplaces where the best best talent can flourish. Civil society, educators, and media also have an important role to play in both empowering women and engaging men in the process.

To mobilize various stakeholders and to keep track of progress, it is important that there are quantitative benchmarks widely available. Since 2006, through the "Global Gender Gap Report" series, the World Economic Forum has been quantifying them agnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress over time. By providing a comprehensive framework for benchmarking global gender gaps, this report identifies countries that are role models in dividing their resources equitable between women and men, regardless of the overall resource level.

No single measure can capture the complete situation of half of the world's population. The Global Gender Gap Index seeks to measure one important aspect of gender equality: the relative gaps between women and men, across a large set of countries, and across four key areas: health, education, economics, and politics. To complement this information, the Country Profiles contain a comprehensive set of supporting information that provides the broader context on gender parity laws, social norms, policies, and outcomes within a country.

August 1970

Geographic Focus:

Standing Up for Equality in Germany's Schools

Education and Literacy, Race and Ethnicity

Standing Up for Equality in Germany's Schools

Why do children of "migration background" -- whose families may have arrived in Germany as many as two generations ago but are still perceived as "foreigners" -- often perform significantly worse at school than their native German counterparts? The problem is discrimination. This report gives a face and a voice to the discrimination that many children of migration background experience in Berlin. Its purpose is to show, through concrete stories, that discrimination in schools against migrant children is widespread -- and to call on all Berliners to condemn and end it.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: Europe (Western)-Germany-Berlin

The McKnight Foundation Education and Learning Program PreK-Third Grade Literacy and Alignment: Formative Evaluation Findings

Education and Literacy

The McKnight Foundation Education and Learning Program PreK-Third Grade Literacy and Alignment: Formative Evaluation Findings

The goals of The McKnight Foundation's Education and Learning (E&L) Program are "to increase the percentage of students reading at grade level by the end of third grade and to increase access to high quality learning beyond the classroom so that all Minnesota's youth thrive."

For this work, McKnight formed strategic partnerships with seven grantee schools in the Twin Cities:

* Andersen United Community School, Minneapolis Public Schools

* Jefferson Community School , Minneapolis Public Schools

* Saint Paul Music Academy, Saint Paul Public Schools

* Wellstone Elementary School, Saint Paul Public Schools

* Earle Brown Elementary School, Brooklyn Center Community Schools

* Academia Cesar Chavez, independent charter school

* Community of Peace Academy, independent charter school

Each school is focused on dramatically improving results for readers across the PreK-3 continuum. The schools first received a one-year planning grant before submitting a three-year proposal to implement their plans to improve PreK -- 3 literacy outcomes. All seven schools are now in the implementation phase.

The McKnight Foundation hired SRI International (SRI) and the Center for Applied Research and Education Improvement (CAREI) at the University of Minnesota to evaluate the E&L Program in the grantee schools. The evaluation included only the grantee schools from Minneapolis Public Schools, Saint Paul Public Schools, and Brooklyn Center Community Schools. The charter school grantees are not included in the evaluation.

The key purposes of the evaluation are (1) to inform internal stakeholders of the successes and challenges of the work as it is under way so that adjustments can be made and (2) to share lessons learned from implementation with others working to improve the PreK -- 3 continuum and literacy outcomes for students. The evaluation team is collecting and analyzing data on teacher practice and on children's early literacy skills and third-grade reading achievement to assess improvements associated with the initiative.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Midwestern) / Minnesota (Twin Cities)

Tracking the Trends 2013: 12th Edition

Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor, Housing and Homelessness

Tracking the Trends 2013: 12th Edition

This report contains current and historical demographic and socio-economic data from the Edmonton region. Areas of focus in this report include statistics on education and employment, the cost of living and housing, wages and incomes, poverty, government income supports, social wellbeing, and the demographics of Edmonton.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America-Canada (Western)-Alberta-Edmonton

Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education and School Discipline

Children and Youth, Education and Literacy, Substance Abuse and Recovery

Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education and School Discipline

Beyond Zero Tolerance is a comprehensive, cost-effective approach to secondary school drug education and school discipline that is all about helping teenagers by bolstering the student community and educational environment.

This innovative model combines honest, reality-based information with interactive learning, compassionate assistance, and restorative practices in lieu of exclusionary punishment.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America-United States

Report of the Commission on the Future of the UC Berkeley Library

Education and Literacy

Report of the Commission on the Future of the UC Berkeley Library

The UC Berkeley Library was founded with the University in 1868. From an initial collection of 1,000 volumes it has grown to include over 11 million volumes. Housed in several dozen physical libraries throughout the campus, the Library provided patrons 2.7 million physical items and 33 million article downloads in 2012. Globally, the Library has millions of exchanges with users through in-person visits, circulation requests, and online or phone conversations about research questions. Second only to the University's homepage, the Library website is perhaps the most visible face of our University to the world and the most tangible demonstration of its core values: excellence and access.

The University and the Library cannot exist without each other. Because the Library -- in both its physical and virtual forms -- is ubiquitous in the everyday lives of faculty, students, administrative staff, scholarly researchers, and the general public worldwide, it is difficult to make a case for its role in sustaining the academic preeminence of the University except by imagining our University and our world without it. There is simply no great University without a great Library. The Library is the heart and circulatory system of our research and instructional mission; it is the essential pump that takes in the life-blood of learning and circulates it throughout the campus community and beyond our walls to our furthest public extremities; it makes research happen; it makes learning possible; it draws new learning back into the system only to generate more learning and send it out to circulate again.

The Commission has concluded that the centrality of the Library to the range of learning and research at Berkeley warrants a serious strategy of major reinvestment. The Library, aided by the campus administration and the Academic Senate, should devise a detailed execution plan for this reinvestment, along the lines of the Commission's recommendations, coupled with a plan of both cost-saving and revenue-generating measures. To face the challenges of the next twenty years the Library should align its organizational structure and its institutional culture with the rapidly changing needs of faculty research and student learning. The campus community as a whole should assume the financial and intellectual responsibility of active partnership in this important endeavor. Because the health of the entire academic enterprise depends upon the Library, there should be no higher priority for campus investment and no greater responsibility for the Campus Administration and the Academic Senate than the effective stewardship of the Library.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Western) / California / Alameda County / Berkeley

Uneven Ground: Examining Systemic Inequities that Block College Preparation for African American Boys

Education and Literacy;Men;Race and Ethnicity

Uneven Ground: Examining Systemic Inequities that Block College Preparation for African American Boys

The nation's education system currently does an uneven job of preparing students for college and careers. High-poverty and high-minority high schools in particular lack the rigorous education and support elements necessary to prepare their students. This report examines the inequities faced by African-American male students and makes policy recommendations that address these inequities.

August 1970

Geographic Focus: North America / United States

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