Commentaries
StopSchoolstoJails.org
Monday, June 8, 2009Commentary
We are launching StopSchoolsToJails.org, a new website devoted to assisting grassroots efforts to eliminate the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track. The website is meant to be a “one stop shop” to learn about on-the-ground efforts across the country to address this destructive trend. It aims to grow the movement to end the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Track by providing grassroots groups, parents, youth, and others with a variety of tools, resources, and successful practices and lessons learned from other communities.
Read more2009 Advancement Project Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Youth Arts Competition
Monday, June 8, 2009Commentary
We are pleased to announce the 2009 Advancement Project Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Youth Arts Competition where children and youth up to age 18 can submit films, poetry, or spoken word on their experience with the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse track. Please share this exciting opportunity with any young people you know that might be interested. Learn more about the competition here!
Read moreGraduating ASAP, if Not on State Timeline; Some Latino Students Fit School in as Life Allows
Tuesday, November 11, 2008Commentary
An hour and a half after his night shift ended at the grocery store, Jefferson Lara is sitting in art class, sketching warriors -- strong and armored. Lara's education has never been neatly laid out in class schedules that flow into extracurricular activities. A former gang member, he was expelled from ninth grade, spent time in Peru with his father and entered Arlington Mill High School Continuation program his junior year. He took the night job so his mother could quit one of hers.
Read moreTest Scores Show a Racial Divide: White students are the only subgroup that met federal standards this year
Thursday, September 4, 2008Commentary
As students head back to the classroom for a new school year this week, administrators are grappling with an age-old question: how to solve the achievement gap in Alexandria. School Board members campaigned on closing it, and a generation of city leadership has advocated its importance. Yet statistics released by the Virginia Department of Education last week show that the divide between those making the cut and those falling behind is increasingly drawn along racial lines.
Read moreVictory Towards Ending the School-to-Jail Track in Denver: Padres y Jovenes Unidos Win New Discipline Policy in the Denver Public Schools
Friday, August 29, 2008Commentary
After a five-year campaign to dramatically reduce the numbers of police citations and out-of-school suspensions issued by the Denver Public Schools to low-income students and students of color, Padres y Jóvenes Unidos (Parents and Youth United) claimed victory at a DPS Board meeting in August, where newly rewritten discipline policies were approved.
Read moreBoard approves new DPS discipline policy: Split vote marks apparent end to long, tangled fight
Friday, August 22, 2008Commentary
Denver Public Schools board members approved a new student discipline policy Thursday on a split vote, overriding concerns that it may put some teachers at risk and push some students into police custody. Board member Arturo Jimenez argued to delay a vote on the policy until Sept. 2 to determine whether a change proposed by the activist group Padres y Jovenes Unidos might resolve outstanding questions. But other board members said school is back in session and teachers need to know now how to respond to discipline problems.
Read moreDiscipline policy for DPS students frightens parents
Thursday, June 26, 2008Commentary
Denver Public Schools plans to launch a discipline policy that at least one civic group feels will be too broad and bring unnecessary police involvement. The plan, to be introduced tonight to the school board, includes rules that require authorities to be called for specific student-on-student incidents, including those involving sexual behaviors and witness intimidation.
Read moreChildren Need More Than Zero Tolerance
Monday, April 28, 2008Commentary
School discipline throughout the country can be summed up in two words: “zero tolerance.” Zero tolerance school discipline policies, intended to send a strong message that certain behaviors will not be tolerated by punishing all offenses severely, are causing mass exclusion of youth from school. School officials, under public pressure to do something about a perceived threat of violence in schools, apply zero tolerance as an expedient response to student misbehavior or, in many cases, typical student behavior unreasonably construed as dangerous.
Read moreGRADUATION TESTS WILL HARM STUDENTS
Tuesday, March 25, 2008Commentary
Beginning next year, Maryland students will face an additional hurdle to graduate from high school - passing four state tests. Students will be unable to receive diplomas if they fail the Maryland High School Assessments (HSA), even if they pass all of their classes during the year. Fortunately, the General Assembly is considering legislation that would eliminate this one-size-fits-all graduation requirement. If we want to fix our schools, punishing students is not the answer. Instead, we must provide students with the resources they need, and rely upon other measures to assess them.
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