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Nicole Simmons
Ms. Schnieder
Intro to English Comp 011
5th December 2014
Finger painting to fingerprinting
School is supposed to be a safe place to expand your education and grow. Teachers
should be a star role model in our childrens lifes, considering they do spend up to thirty hours a
week with them, but unfortunately there is a growing tendency to criminalize then to educate our
children this is why we need to put an end to what is now known as the school-to-prison
pipeline. Many times children are thought to be insubordinate and disrespectful when in fact
there may be an underline issue, such as attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity disorder, or
post-traumatic stress disorder. When these issues are not addressed policies such as the zero
tolerance act can leave these kids with charges like disorderly conduct and malicious
mischief (selection from CQ researcher).
In 2011 Obama required all teachers in the school system to be evaluated in part on
weather their students test scores improve and offer a sizeable pay increase, then in January or
2011 teachers were fired based on students academic progress and scores. Teachers were forced
to fight for their jobs and if this meant pushing out the problem child thats what took place.
The effects on the teachers employment was so great by March of 2011 there were reports of test
results being altered in May 178 teachers and principals in Atlanta were found guilty of changing
test scores to keep their jobs safe (selections from CQ researcher). I have personally seen this
first hand with my seven year old daughter Destinee who is in the first grade at Willowville
Elementary their mission statement is said to be as followed Our mission is to ensure all

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students achieve academic success in a safe environment supported by parents and the
community. With this said I had a conference with my daughters teacher and she admitted the
first time she scored a 4/16 on a part of the end of the quarter test, but then she let her redo it
with a little help and miraculously she scored 15/16. I know this was done to have a better
score for the teachers own evaluation, yet all this does is hinder childrens true progress (Nikki).
The way we punish and discipline our children in school is nowhere near what I use to
be. It is said that Cincinnati public schools expel students 645times more than any district in the
state and nearly four times the expulsion in Cleveland and Columbus, which are both much
larger districts. The public schools in Cincinnati are gaining a lot of attention when it comes to
discipline, of ten Ohio school districts holing the highest expulsion rates five of them where in
the greater Cincinnati areas. On average 220 kids are sent home every day in the Northern
Kentucky and Cincinnati areas alone. These are numbers and statistics are disturbing, but what is
even more unsettling is that 95% of these suspensions were non-violent offences such as
tardiness, dress codes, or being generally disruptive. Suspended students are less likely to
graduate on time, more likely to repeat a grade, dropout, and become involved in the juvenile
justice system (ASLTD). More often parents and educators say the disparity in discipline
contributes to the achievement gap between whites and blacks, which leads to greater
percentages of African American students dropping out of high school and receiving stronger
punishments. Student Princess Dobbs,14, an African American freshmen at Dater High School
says parents also play a role in student behavior Black students dont like to take a lot of stuff,
she says. Most black parents say, Stand up for yourself and dont let people put you down.
White parents say to turn the other cheek and walk away. (Selections from CQ researcher).

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In the 1960-70s there was a program put in place through the federal courts to help
minority families find better educational opportunities for their children. The programed moved
a portion of these families to white suburb areas, thus long term research showed that the
children that were moved advanced in school as to where the other children that stayed behind
did not. An astonishing 50% of the African American student that moved graduated from high
school compared to 26% of those who stayed in the low-income urban schools (Selections of CQ
researcher). Some argue that instead of being the path out of poverty, education may serve to
reinforce ones social class. This is due to unequal educational opportunity poor peoples
children tend to stay poor and rich peoples children tend to stay rich. Part of the reasoning for
this is typically inner-city public schools lack resources, books, and teachers they have larger
classes, fewer extracurricular activities, and lower educational achievement (Robert Hartmann
McNamara).
More than 1.2 million students will drop out of school this year one in ten of these drop
outs will face incarceration. A lack of education is one of the main reasons people become
criminally active. The cost of incarceration out ways the cost of education on average its 9,644
dollars per student verses 22,600 per prison inmate a year. Shrinking job market makes education
a necessity for surviving in this struggling economic world. Those who do not graduate have a
harder time finding employment and the jobs that are available are low-paying, so they turn to
crime to survive financially (Robert Hartmann McNamara).
If we do not reduce the dropout rates we create adults that will ultimately depend on the
government for financial support therefore we borne additional cost for youth and adults entering
and remain in the criminal justice system. School dropouts are the new crisis in education and we
clearly do not know how to handle this issue, to help these students succeed in school and society

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we must reach out and demand intervention from the federal government, advanced programs,
communication, funding, and more importantly we need to create a relevant education for the
21st century students. (Robert Hartmann McNamara).

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Work Cited
Area Schools Lead in Tough Discipline. Area Schools Lead in Tough
Discipline.N.p.,n.d.Web.05 Dec.2014.
McNamara, Robert Hartmann., and Keith J. Bell. Dimensions of Crime as a Social Problem.
Durham, NC: Carolina Academic, 2012. Print
Urban Issues: Selections from CQ Researcher.N.p.: n.p.,n.d.Print