Poverty & Race POVERTY & RACE RESEARCH ACTION COUNCIL PRRAC July/August 2005 Volume 14: Number 4 The “School to Prison Pipeline” The growing awareness of disproportionate rates of incarceration among young African-American men—and the severe consequences of even short-term incarceration for education, employment, housing and access to opportunity—have prompted a new search for answers and solutions among civil rights and anti-poverty organizations. This inquiry began (and continues today) with a range of research and advocacy to address the racial bias inherent in the criminal justice system—in the interaction of racial profiling, jury bias, inadequate and unequal indigent defense systems, and racially skewed sentencing laws. More recently, the focus has turned to the causes of racialized outcomes operating within juvenile justice systems. In this issue of Poverty & Race, we profile a new generation of research and advocacy that looks at how schools and other government-based systems operate to increase the likelihood that children of color will eventually become involved with the juvenile justice system, often with lifelong harmful consequences. We have asked experts from four organizations that are doing complementary work in this area to share their insights and approaches: Daniel Losen from the Harvard Civil Rights Project discusses the important scholarly work the Project has sponsored, particularly on the issue of disproportion- ate drop-out rates, and its implication for advocates; Michael Wenger of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies profiles the work of the Dellums Commission, which, like the Children’s Defense Fund, is looking for answers not just in schools, but in all of the systems that affect children and their families; Judith Browne and Monique Dixon from the Advancement Project describe their work in aggressively confronting the role played by school discipline policies in contrib- uting to disparate rates of minority incarceration; and Morna Murray from the Children’s Defense Fund summarizes the key conclusions of CDF’s new “Cradle to Prison Pipeline” project. We expect that many of these mechanisms will turn out to have a geographic component: There are few systems more effective than residential segregation in permitting structural inequality of this kind to thrive— but at the same time, we know that many of the racially disparate outcomes will be not be easily explained by place. The structural roots of inequality can follow lower-income children even into high-opportunity settings, and these reports suggest that we must continue to be vigilant in our efforts to keep the next generation of at-risk children out of jail, and out of our juvenile justice systems. Re-Directing the School CONTENTS: to Prison Pipeline School to Prison by Daniel J. Losen Pipeline ..................... 1 The O’Connor Project. 3 In 1999, Christopher Edley, Co- parities in school discipline for pos- Harvard Projects ........ 5 Director of The Civil Rights Project sible use during that meeting. CRP re- Witt Internship Award 7 at Harvard University (CRP), follow- viewed the literature and crunched Transformation (poem) 7 ing Jesse Jackson’s bold defense of sus- some of the discipline data compiled PRRAC Update ........... 9 pended students in Decatur, Illinois, by the Office For Civil Rights of the New DC Bookstore ... 13 told his staff that he had scheduled a US Department of Education, along Resources ................. 15 meeting with Education Secretary Ri- with data from the the US Department chard Riley and requested CRP to cre- of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice ate a briefing document on racial dis- (Please turn to page 2) Poverty & Race Research Action Council • 1015 15th Street NW • Suite 400 • Washington, DC 20005 202/906-8023 • FAX: 202/842-2885 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.prrac.org Recycled Paper (PIPELINE: Continued from page 1) School to Prison Pipeline Conference. sachusetts. In addition to this work, CRP’s work commissioning new re- in 2004 we conducted and dissemi- and Delinquency Prevention, as well search for this conference typifies our nated new research revealing the des- as numerous other sources. We were role working to serve as a catalyst for perately low graduation rates of Black, able to use the empirical evidence we producing the best research on a given Latino and Native American students, found to frame the issue that had come topic and raising awareness of it, so especially males. up in Decatur as a part of an egregious that civil rights advocates and educa- Our parallel research and advocacy national trend toward increasingly tional policymakers will have the best efforts to highlight the drop-out crisis harsh use of suspension, intensifying evidence at their disposal in formulat- emphasize the need to report more ac- the disproportionate suspension of ing arguments and seeking remedies. curate figures on graduation and drop- Black and Latino children from school. In this case, research presented at out rates, disaggregated by race, as Having worked very closely with the conference combined prior research well as the abject failure of states and Penda Hair and Judith Browne of the on high-stakes testing, special educa- the federal government to implement Advancement Project on a number of tion and drop-outs with new informa- the accountability for improving issues, we joined forces once more and tion on issues ranging from racial dis- graduation rates delineated in the No in June of 2000 put together a Sum- parities in alternative disciplinary Child Left Behind Act. In drawing at- mit on Zero Tolerance that was co- schools and programs serving public tention to this crisis we have increas- sponsored with the Rainbow/PUSH school students removed from regular ingly emphasized the connection be- Coalition, the League of United Latin tween the disproportionate number of American Citizens and the National That racial disparity in students of color who attend “drop- Coalition of Advocates for Students. school discipline and out factories” (high schools where The Summit keynote was delivered by fewer than 60% of the entering fresh- Rev. Jackson, with participation by achievement mirrors men graduate with a diploma) and the Jonathan Kozol and numerous civil racially disproportionate increased risk that drop-outs face of rights leaders, together with parents, minority confinement winding up in prison. For our 2004 students, researchers and national edu- was readily apparent. national report, “Losing Our Future” cation leaders and policymakers. (jointly released with The Urban In- Together, the Summit participants classrooms for school code violations, stitute and Advocates for Children of resolved to keep the issue in the lime- to the economic benefits of a host of New York), and subsequent reports on light and to continue the collaboration intervention programs. That racial dis- California (March 2005) and the while bringing what strengths we each parity in school discipline and achieve- South (April 2005), we teamed up had to the issue. One immediate out- ment mirrors racially disproportionate with national scholars, including Rob- growth from the Summit was a joint minority confinement was readily ap- ert Balfanz, Chris Swanson and Russell “Action Kit” we produced with the parent. Our work in this area has con- Rumberger. After detailing the deep Advancement Project, consisting of tinued to evolve, with a focus on us- racial dimensions of the crisis down advocacy guidance to combat discrimi- ing research to inform our collabora- to the district level, the report provides nation in school discipline. tion with leading advocates toward estimates of the millions upon millions In May 2003, CRP convened re- stimulating meaningful school and ju- of dollars in related lost wages and searchers and advocates in a two-day venile justice reforms. higher prison costs associated with In the fall of 2003, we published dropping out of school. Many national Poverty and Race (ISSN 1075-3591) Deconstructing the School to Prison and state news media, some in front- is published six times a year by the Pipeline. The book introduction pro- page stories, have used the data pro- Poverty & Race Research Action vides empirical evidence supporting a vided in our reports, disaggregated by Council, 1015 15th Street NW, Suite conceptual overview of the pipeline, race and gender. 400, Washington, DC 20005, 202/ 906-8023, fax: 202/842-2885, E-mail: and the chapters that follow offer de- Our current pipeline-focused initia- [email protected]. Chester Hartman, tailed analyses of selected aspects of tive has two components. The first Editor. Subscriptions are $25/year, the pipeline, including research out- entails a collaborative effort with LDF, $45/two years. Foreign postage ex- lining the economic benefits of prom- the American Civil Liberties Union, tra. Articles, article suggestions, let- ising interventions. the Center for Law & Social Policy, ters and general comments are wel- In October 2004, CRP convened a the Mental Health Legal Advisors come, as are notices of publications, roundtable, co-sponsored by NAACP Committee and many others, finish- conferences, job openings, etc. for our Resources Section. Articles generally Legal Defense & Educational Fund ing written guidance requested by may be reprinted, providing PRRAC (LDF), with advocates, researchers roundtable attendees. This advice- and gives advance permission. and policymakers from across the na- resource-filled document is to be re- © Copyright 2005 by the Poverty tion, concentrating on the pipeline is- leased by December, and will contain & Race Research Action Council. All sues as they arose in four states: Texas, legal background information on rights reserved. California, North Carolina and Mas- (Please turn to page 8) 2 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 14, No. 4 • July/August 2005 The O’Connor Project: Intervening Early to Eliminate the Need for Racial Preferences in Higher Education by Lisbeth B. Schorr The following article first appeared will no longer be necessary in 25 in which a legacy of slavery and Jim in Judicature, 88:2, Sept.-Oct.