School to

Prison
Pipeline
Mel Leavens, Carlyn Morones,
Blair Nelson, Genoveva Paz,
Raquel Rohm
 “ Jails and prisons are the
complement of schools;
so many less as you
have of the latter, so
many more must you
have of the former."

2 (Chase, 2012)
3 (Al Jazeera, 2015)
 Suspensions
● Black: 13.68 % ● F: 3.20%
● White: 3.43% ● M: 7.25%
● Hispanic: 4.54%

Expulsions
● African American students
constitute 18% of students but
represent 39% of expulsions

(Mallett, 2017; National Center for Education Statistics,

4 2014)
 Special Drop Out
Education Rates
● Black students are 3 ● Dropouts are 3.5
as likely to be placed times more likely
in special education to be arrested
as white students than HS
● African American graduates
students identified ● 68 % of males in
with disabilities prison do not
dropped out of U.S. have a HS
high schools at a rate diploma
of 33.7%

5 (Hanson & Stipek, 2014; Kreskow,

2013)
 Though African Americans and
Hispanics make up approximately
32% of the US
population, they comprised 56% of
all incarcerated people in 2015.
6 (National Association for the Advancement of Colored
 The Cost of
Incarceration
In the last 30 years,
America has spent three
times more on its prisons
and jails than on its PK-12
public education.

7 (National Association for the Advancement of Colored

Bronfenbren
ner’s
Ecological
System
Individual; Microsystem;
Mesosystem; Exosystem;
Macrosystem;
Chronosystem
 Individual
⊷ Race/Ethnicity
⊶ African American students constitute 18%
of students but represent 39% of
expulsions and 42% of referrals to law
enforcement while in school
⊷ Gender
⊶ African American students, particularly
males, are 3.5 times more likely to be
suspended or expelled than their peers,
with one in five African American male
students being suspended out of school
for at least 1 day during the 2012 school
year
⊷ Socioeconomic Status
9 ⊶ Students who are most affected by (Mallett,
 Microsystem
⊷ Neighborhood Factors
⊶ Urban vs. Rural: minority students are
treated more harshly in under-resourced
urban schools
⊶ High crime
⊷ Family Factors
⊶ Single-parent families
⊶ Parental supervision
⊷ School Factors
⊶ Special Education
⊶ Teacher Biases

10 (Barnert et al., 2015; Chase, 2012; Mallett,

 Mesosystem
⊷ Relationships between
⊶ Students
⊶ Teachers
⊸ parent/teacher communication
patterns
⊶ Administrators
⊷ Parental involvement
⊶ Friend selection
⊷ Teacher performance
⊶ Poor preparation

11 (Chase, 2012; Darensbourg, Perez, & Blake, 2010;

 Exosystem
⊷ School Policies
⊶ Discipline focusing on punitive measures
⊶ Discretionary discipline
⊶ School climate
⊷ District Policies
⊶ Outsourcing discipline to juvie
⊶ Zero tolerance policy
⊶ Larry P. v. Riles (Special education)
⊷ Local Policies (Neighborhood)
⊶ Crime prevention and community integration

12 (Barnert et al., 2015; Nelson & Lind,

 Macrosystem
⊷ Labeling Theory
⊶ “Good kids” vs. “bad kids”
⊷ Hypermasculinity
⊶ Exaggeration of male stereotypical
behavior, such as an emphasis on physical
strength, aggression, and sexuality
⊷ Institutionalized Racism
⊶ “The systematic distribution of resources,
power and opportunity in our society to the
benefit of people who are white and the
exclusion of people of color.”

13 (Chase, 2012)
 Chronosystem
⊷ Parent incarceration
⊷ Divorce/single-family home
⊷ Constantly moving
⊷ Exposure to violence (home, school,
community)
⊷ Parent losing a job

14 (Espelage, 2014)
Action Plan
In the School System;
Outside the School
System
 In the School
System
⊷ Trauma-Informed Education
⊶ Teacher/SRO Training, Positive School Climate &
Connectedness
⊷ Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports
(PBIS)
⊶ Reinforcing positive behavior, Monthly Team
Meetings
⊶ Minor Infractions (Counseling, Mentorship, Loss of
Privilege)
⊶ Major Infractions (Individualized Action Plans Aimed
at the Root)
⊷ Restorative Justice
⊶ Repairing the harm
⊶ Equips student w/skills and opportunities to foster
and repair relationships
⊶ Skills Training (social skills/anger management)
16
⊷ Misc. (Darensbourg, Perez, & Blake, 2010; Scully,
 Outside the School
System
⊷ Legislation Change
⊶ Changing laws where children are more
protected from criminal prosecution
⊶ Wavers with federal legislation and
administration
⊷ Community Organizing
⊶ Working with grassroots organizations (Padres
Y Jovenes Unidos & Advancement Project)
⊷ Parent-Student Education/Empowerment
⊶ Uniting parents of different backgrounds
impacted by the pipeline
⊶ Petition Signing

17 (Scully,
 “ Let us reform our
schools, and we
shall find little
reform needed in
our prisons.
- John Ruskin

18 (EdChange,
Thank
you!
Question
s?
 Al Jazeera. [Al Jazeera]. (2015, May 18). American kids & the school-to-prison pipeline [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04pcSyzwoTg
Barnert, E. S., Perry, R., Azzi, V. F., Shetgiri, R., Ryan, G., Dudovitz, R., ... & Chung, P. J. (2015).
Incarcerated youths’ perspectives on protective factors and risk factors for juvenile offending:
A qualitative analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 105 (7), 1365-1371.
Chase, L. M. (2012). From recess to lockdown: Targeting adult and child school-based practices and
behaviors that impact
Referenc black male entry into the school to prison pipeline. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation).
es University of Pennsylvania.
Darensbourg, A., Perez, E., Blake, J. J. (2010). Overrepresentation of African American males in
exclusionary discipline: The
role of school-based mental health professionals in dismantling the school to prison pipeline.
Journal of African
American Males in Education, 1 (3), 196-211.
EdChange. (n.d.). Quotations on education, equity, and multiculturalism. Retrieved from
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/resources/edquotes.html
Espelage, D. L., (2014). Ecological theory: Preventing youth bullying, aggression, and victimization.
Theory Into Practice, 53,
257-264.
Hanson, K., & Stipek, D. (2014). Schools v. prisons: Education’s the way to cut prison population (op-
ed by Deborah Stipek). Stanford Graduate School of Education. Retrieved from
https://ed.stanford.edu/in-the-media/schools-v-prisons-educations-way-cut-prison-population-
op-ed-deborah-stip
ek
Kreskow, K. (2013). Overrepresentation of minorities in special education. (Unpublished masters
dissertation). St. John Fisher
College.
Mallett, C. A. (2017). The school-to-prison pipeline: Disproportionate impact on vulnerable children
and adolescents.
Education and Urban Society, 49 (6), 563-592.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. (n.d.). Criminal justice fact sheet.
Retrieved from
20 https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/