ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Professors Michael Dumas (University of California-Berkeley);
Mica Pollock (University of California-San Diego), and Terrenda White (University
of Colorado-Boulder) offered support and advice during the genesis of this project.
INTRODUCTION and PURPOSE
This annotated reading list was produced in the aftermath of the incident of violence against a young female student at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina on October 26, 2015. She was asked to leave a classroom by a teacher after using her phone during a math class. She refused and was later confronted by Richland County Senior Deputy Ben Fields, who asked her to leave. When the student ignored him, the officer proceeded to grab her by the neck, slam her desk to the floor and then drag her out of the desk. The footage went viral, and the masses began to react on social media. Many of us were horrified by what we saw, knowing that the forces that undergird such harsh treatment are similar to the ones that fuel disproportionate suspensions and expulsions and the so-called school-to-prison pipeline.
In response, the faculty director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University, Professor Prudence Carter, with the assistance of Dr. Travis Bristol, a research and policy fellow at the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE), and doctoral student, Kia Darling-Hammond, spearheaded an effort to put together a list of research that addresses the marginalization and treatment of youth of color in our schools. The response was immediate. Educational researchers and other social scientists connected via social media to offer their suggestions for the following crowdsourced list of books and research-based articles. This is an offering in service of our youth, who are often subjected to discriminatory treatment, racism, gender and sexual violence, class bias, and other forms of dehumanization. While all of these works are in the public sphere, generally many are not as visible to the general public. Therefore, we aim to make them more widely known to educators, parents, students, activists, community-based organizations and many others, as they continue to eradicate social injustice in schools and education.
We hope that the works listed below will provide some strong bases to help seek fairness and justice on behalf of our youth, build interventions, change policies and practices, frame analyses, build curricula, and facilitate dialogue school boards, policy makers (local, state, and national), parent organizations, teachers unions, and others.
HOW TO USE THIS RESOURCE
Articles
This reading list contains several scholarly articles for which we do not have copyright privileges. For those, we have included a link to Google Scholar search results, some of which contain .pdf formats of the article.
You can request a copy of an article from its author. Most scholars are more than happy to share their work.
Wherever possible, we have also included contact information for the first or second author of the article. Clicking on their name will lead to their professional page or email.
Some hyperlinks in this list lead to a document or to a webpage where this does not conflict with copyright law.
Books
Most of the titles included in this list are available on Amazon.com. A small number may require purchase directly through the publishing house.
* For questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact Prudence Carter at plcarter@stanford.edu. *
CONTENT
THE BIG PICTURE/STRUCTURAL FORCES
Societal contexts (social, cultural, political, economic, the family) that create disparities for different students along racial, ethnic, class, and gender lines
RACE, ETHNICITY, CLASS, & GENDER: INSIDE SCHOOLS & CLASSROOMS
What have educational researchers and other social scientists learned about the social conflicts that youth of color experience with school authorities?
DISCIPLINE and POLICE PRESENCE IN SCHOOLS
Studies, and overviews of studies, of how boys and girls of color are disproportionately disciplined, suspended, and expelled in schools
How social identities of race, ethnicity, class, and gender interact with everyday school forces to influence and shape the educational well-being and outcomes of youth
SCHOOL-BASED INTERVENTIONS ON DISCIPLINE
Interventions to reduce negative disciplinary outcomes and to ensure positive behavior development in schools
TEACHER EDUCATION & TEACHING about RACE and CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Studies that focus on what teachers need to know about teaching youth of color and other students from non-privileged social backgrounds
Curricula that educators can use to teach about the sensitive topics of race, police violence, and mass incarceration in the United States
Ways to reduce the disproportionate suspension, expulsion, and gross mistreatment of marginalized youth in schools through policy and practice
THE BIG PICTURE: STRUCTURAL FORCES
Societal contexts that create disparities for different students along racial, ethnic, class, and gender lines
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander, 2008 (The New Press)
This well-researched book reveals how the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control by targeting black men through the War on Drugs and devastating communities of color, thus sinking millions of people to a permanent second-class status—even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness.
Faces At The Bottom Of The Well: The Permanence of Racism
Derrick Bell, 2003 (Basic Books)
A collection of essays about such controversial issues as: affirmative action, the disparity between civil rights law and reality, the “racist outbursts” of some black leaders, the temptation toward violent retaliation, and more. The author uses allegory and historical example to present a radical vision of the persistence of racism in America.
Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, 2006 (Rowman & Littlefield)
Beneath our current day conversation about race lies an arsenal of arguments, phrases, and stories that whites use to account for—and ultimately justify—racial inequalities. This provocative book explodes the belief that America is now a color-blind society.
Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness
Simone Browne, 2015 (Duke University Press)
Surveillance of blackness has long been, and continues to be, a social and political norm, informed by the long history of policing black life under slavery (i.e. branding, runaway slave notices, and lantern laws). Simone Browne draws from black feminist theory, sociology, and cultural studies to analyze diverse texts: from the design of the eighteenth-century slave ship, Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, and The Book of Negroes, to contemporary art, literature, biometrics, and post-9/11 airport security practices.
The Civil Rights Project [link]
University of California, Los Angeles
This project’s mission is to give rise to research in social science and law on the critical issues of civil rights and equal opportunity for racial and ethnic groups in the United States. It has commissioned more than 400 studies, published 14 books and issued numerous reports from authors at universities and research centers across the country. Visit the website to explore these resources.
Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2015 (Spiegel & Grau)
In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates, the 2015 National Book Award winner, grapples with the experiences of being black in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares the story of his awakening to his place in the world through a series of experiences that took him from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, and from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken.
The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, 1899 (University of Pennsylvania)
W.E.B DuBois’ seminal study in the late nineteenth century focuses on Philadelphia’s central Seventh Ward, site of the city’s oldest African-American community. Du Bois sought to demonstrate that blacks possessed their own internal class structure. The “Negro problem” imagined by larger society, he argued, was “not one problem, but rather an [intricate network] of social problems” having less to do with a black “social pathology” than with whites’ enforcement of racial discrimination and unequal opportunity.
Ensuring Inequality
Donna Franklin, 1997 (Oxford University Press)
Franklin traces the evolution of black families from slavery to the present, showing the cumulative effects of centuries of historical change (Emancipation, industrialization, New Deal policies, etc.) and finding that slavery not only caused extreme instability and suffering for families, but established a lasting pattern of poverty which made the economic advantages of marriage unattainable, even into the present day.
“Not yet human: Implicit knowledge, historical dehumanization, and contemporary consequences” [link]
Phillip A. Goff, Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Melissa J. Williams, Matthew Christian Jackson
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology [94(2), 2008]
Historical depictions of Blacks as apelike have largely disappeared in the United States, yet a mental association between Blacks and apes remains. These social psychologists reveal how this Black–ape association changes how and what people see and increases endorsement of violence against Black suspects. This suggests important directions for research on stereotyping and common forms of discrimination that have previously gone unrecognized.
American dreaming: Immigrant life on the margins
Sarah J. Mahler, 1995 (Princeton University Press)
American Dreaming chronicles the struggles of immigrants who have fled troubled homelands only to find discrimination in the society that they hoped would embrace them. The author argues that this fostered antagonism within ethnic groups while undermining the ethnic solidarity emphasized by many scholars of immigration.
“Racial stereotypes from the days of American slavery: A continuing legacy” [link]
Scott Plous and Tyrone Williams
Journal of Applied Social Psychology [25(9), 1995]
During the days of American slavery, many whites held stereotypes of blacks as inferior, unevolved, and apelike. The authors’ findings suggest that negative stereotypes concerning the physical and mental abilities of blacks are still common, and more than previously estimated. The consequences of racial stereotyping are discussed.
Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers and Their Children in the Other America
Valerie Polakow, 1994 (University of Chicago Press)
The “feminization” and "infantilization" of poverty have made the United States one of the most dangerous democracies for poor mothers and their children to inhabit. Lives on the Edge draws on social, historical, feminist, and public policy perspectives to develop an informed, wide-ranging critique of American educational and social policy.
Race and the Invisible Hand
Dee Royster, 2003 (University of California Press, Berkeley)
From the time of Booker T. Washington to today the advice dispensed to young black men has often been, "Get a trade." Deirdre Royster has put this folk wisdom to an empirical test and exposes the subtleties and discrepancies of a workplace that favors white job-seekers over those that are black. After seriously examining the educational performances, work ethics, and values of the black men for unique deficiencies, her study reveals the greatest difference between young black and white men: access to the kinds of contacts that really help in the job search and entry process.
Just Mercy
Bryan Stevenson, 2015 (Spiegel & Grau)
Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillian, a young man who was sentenced to die for a murder he insisted he didn’t commit. The case revealed a tangle of conspiracy, political machination, and legal brinksmanship—and transformed Stevenson’s understanding of mercy and justice forever.
Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation
Derald Wing Sue, 2010 (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)
This book looks at the various kinds of microaggressions and their psychological effects on both perpetrators and their targets. Thought provoking and timely, Dr. Sue suggests realistic and optimistic guidance for combating—and ending—microaggressions in our society.
Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society
Carola Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, and Irina Todorova, 2009 (Harvard University Press)
This book follows newly arrived immigrant children from the Caribbean, China, Central America, and Mexico over five years, describing their lives, dreams, and frustrations. When they arrive, most are full of optimism and a respect for education, but poor neighborhoods and dull--often dangerous--schools can corrode hopes. For some America promises to be a land of dreams. For others, the first five years are marked by disappointments, frustrations, and disenchantment.
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, 2016 (Haymarket Books)
Activist and scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor surveys the history and current realities of US racism. Taylor examines how institutional racism has created and shaped the structural problems that affect Black people, such as mass incarceration and unemployment, even as more Black people hold political office than ever before. She paints a vivid picture of the context for this new struggle against police violence—and shows the potential of the Black Lives Matter movement to reignite and broaden the struggle for liberation.
Race-ing moral formation: African American perspectives on care and justice
Vanessa Siddle Walker and John R. Snarey - eds., 2004 (Teachers College Press)
This collection presents essays by well-known African American scholars that examine historical developments from the days of slavery to the present. Taken together, they reveal a framework for interpreting the psychology of moral formation among African American children, adolescents, and adults, and the practical implications of this knowledge.
RACE, CLASS, & GENDER: INSIDE SCHOOLS & CLASSROOMS
What have educational researchers and other social scientists learned about the social conflicts that youth of color experience with school authorities?
“New Possibilities: (Re)Engaging Black Male Youth within Community-Based Educational Spaces” [link]
Race, Ethnicity, and Education [14(1), 2011]
Society imposes educational, economic, and social mobility limitations on young Black men through structures that push them to the margins in traditional school contexts. This study highlights the importance of alternative spaces for education and development that reframe young Black males as a valued segment of society, deserving of support and care. Successful programs include flexibility, applied educational and work experience, and positive healthy adult–youth relationships.
“Sidelines and separate spaces: Making education anti-racist for students of color” [link]
Race, Ethnicity, and Education [13(4), 2010]
Despite good intentions, anti‐racist education often puts white students and educators at the center, rendering students of color invisible on the sidelines. Blackwell identifies obstacles that perpetuate this trend, arguing that anti‐racist educators must reexamine their principles and practices from the standpoint of students of color. It also discusses the importance of racially separate spaces as a pedagogical intervention that can make education anti‐racist for students of color.
Invisible children in the society and its schools
Sue Books - ed., 2015 (Routledge)
These authors explore the lives of young people in North America whose complexities, strengths, and vulnerabilities are largely unnoticed by society and its schools. The authors detail oversights and assaults, visible and invisible, but also affirm the capacity of many of these young people to survive, flourish, and often educate others, despite the painful, even desperate circumstances of their lives.
“Teaching Boys: Towards a Theory of Gender Relevant Pedagogy” [link]
Gender and Education [27(1), 2015]
This article highlights the social and educational challenges facing boys and men around the world, particularly those of African descent in the Americas. Campaigns that see increasing the number of Black male teachers as an elixir for improving the crisis are critiqued and the conversation is shifted to exploring how educators' socialised views around gender influence the ways in which they teach boys, with attention to the ways that race and gender intersect. The article provides practical advice for designing a curriculum that is gender relevant.
“‘There’s a problem, and we’ve got to face it’: How staff members wrestled with race in an urban high school” [link]
Race, Ethnicity, and Education [16(5), 2012]
Educators initiating school reform often find their efforts derailed when staff members refuse to address issues of race. At the same time, staff who resist these discussions of racism and inequality may be actively involved in their own individual processes of ‘wrestling with race’. This article shows that when left unaddressed, educators' private struggles with race contribute to racial tension among staff members and students. On the other hand, when those private struggles are acknowledged, supported, and explored, they can lead to important forms of racial learning and progress on school reform.
“I don’t want to hear that!”: Legitimating whiteness through silence in schools” [link]
Anthropology & Education Quarterly [39(3), 2008]
Using data from two demographically different schools, this study reveals patterns of racially coded language, teacher silence, silencing students’ race talk, and the collapsing of culture with race, equality with equity, and difference with deficit. These perpetuate an educational culture in which inequities are ignored, the status quo is maintained, and whiteness is both protected and entrenched.
“Difference matters: Embodiment of and discourse on difference at an urban public high school” [link]
Anthropology & Education Quarterly [43(1), 2012]
This article examines how students and teachers at an urban public high school embodied and understood various social categories of difference. Although racial and gender identities varied, these identities were often viewed as biological in origin and unchanging in nature. The complexities and contradictions evident in the everyday conversations about difference at the school might serve as effective starting points for discussions about the social construction of difference.
“‘Losing an arm’: schooling as a site of black suffering" [link]
Race, Ethnicity, and Education [17(1), 2014]
The author explores suffering as a recurring theme in the narratives of four black leaders, educators and activists involved in the struggle for black educational opportunity during the post-Civil Rights Era. As they reflect on the history of racial desegregation, they connect racial melancholia (a deeply-felt awareness of the history and persistence of racial subjugation) and school malaise. The article concludes with recommendations for research at the intersection of race, education and social suffering.
Bad Boys - Public Schools and the Making of Black Masculinity.
Ann Ferguson, 2000 (University of Michigan Press)
Bad Boys examines the daily interactions between teachers and students at one school to understand why black males are disproportionately in trouble and being suspended nationwide. Ferguson reveals how a group of males are identified by school personnel as "bound for jail" and how the youth construct a sense of self under such adverse circumstances. Though the boys dispute the meaning and motivation behind the labels attached to them, the author constructs a disturbing picture of how educators' beliefs in a "natural difference" of black children and the "criminal inclination" of black males shapes decisions that disproportionately single them out as being "at risk" for failure and punishment.
“White Teachers in Urban Classrooms: Embracing Non-White Students' Cultural Capital For Better Teaching and Learning” [link]
Urban Education [49 (1), 2014]
This literature review provides examples of how white teachers can recognize non-white students’ actions and rhetoric in classroom settings as valuable cultural capital, while reflecting on their own whiteness within the dominant school structure to close the opportunity gap.
Why race and culture matter in schools: Closing the achievement gap in America’s classrooms
Tyrone C. Howard, 2010 (Teachers College Press)
Outlining the changing racial, ethnic, and cultural demographics in U.S. schools and examining three studies of schools that successfully closed achievement gaps, Tyrone Howard shows that adopting greater awareness and a thorough understanding of race and culture can improve educational outcomes.
Black male(d): Peril and promise in the education of African American males
Tyrone C. Howard, 2012 (Teachers College Press)
This book examines the chronic underperformance of African American males in U.S. schools, focusing on the historical, structural, educational, psychological, emotional, and cultural factors that influence the teaching and learning process for this student population. Howard calls for a paradigm shift in how we think about, teach, and study Black males, highlighting their voices to generate new insights, create new knowledge, and identify useful practices that can significantly improve their schooling experiences and life chances.
New visions of collective achievement: The cross-generational schooling experiences of African American males
Darrell Cleveland Hucks, 2014 (Springer)
This book presents the experiences and insights of three elementary aged African-American boys on their schooling experiences, as well as those of older males in their families. Hucks builds upon these to offer a framework for effecting meaningful educational change guided by voices that are frequently left unheard.
The Latinization of U.S. schools: Successful teaching and learning in shifting cultural contexts
Jason Irizarry, 2013 (Routledge)
Irizarry examines how a group of Latino students make meaning of policies and practices within schools, such as tracking and the exclusion of Latinos from the curriculum. These perspectives, though often suppressed within schools, expose an inequitable opportunity structure that depresses academic performance for many. Each chapter concludes with empirically based recommendations for educators seeking to improve their practice with Latino youth, stemming from a multi-year participatory action research project conducted by Irizarry and the text’s student contributors.
“Reciprocal Love: Mentoring Black and Latino Males through an Ethic of Care” [link]
Iesha Jackson, Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, and Wanda Watson
Journal of Urban Education [49(4), 2014]
This study highlights the voices of a mentor and 14 Black and Latino males who are part of the Umoja Network for Young Men (UMOJA) an all-male, in-school mentoring program at an alternative high school that serves over-age, under-credited students. The authors extend the concept of culturally responsive practice by examining notions of reciprocal love and an ethos of care that characterize the mentors’ and mentees’ discussions of their experiences.
A search past silence: The literacy of young Black men
David E. Kirkland, 2013 (Teachers College Press)
Kirkland's book argues that educators need to understand the social worlds and complex literacy practices of African-American males in order to pay the increasing educational debt we owe all youth and break the school-to-prison pipeline. Moving portraits from the lives of six friends bring to life the structural characteristics and qualities of meaning-making practices, particularly practices that reveal the political tensions of defining who gets to be literate and who does not.
Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities
Amanda Lewis, 2003 (Rutgers University Press)
This book examines how ideas about race and racial inequality take shape and are passed along from teacher to student and from student to student in the classroom and schoolyard. Lewis explains how curriculum (both expressed and hidden) and school personnel convey, affirm, and challenge attitudes about race, and how race influences interactions between members of school communities.
Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boys
Nancy Lopez, 2003 (Routledge)
This book is an ethnographic study of Caribbean youth in New York City to help explain how and why schools and cities are failing boys of color.
Made in America: Immigrant students in our public schools
Laurie Olsen, 1997 (The New Press)
This book describes Madison High, a typical public high school, where more than 20 percent of students were born in another country and more than a third speak limited English or come from homes in which English is not spoken. Through interviews with teachers, administrators, students, and parents, Olsen explores such issues as the complexities of bilingual education and the difficulties of dating for students already promised in marriage at birth.
Everyday Antiracism: Getting Real About Race in School
Mica Pollock, 2008 (The New Press)
Contributors who include Beverly Daniel Tatum, Sonia Nieto, and Pedro Noguera describe concrete ways to analyze classroom interactions that may or may not be "racial," deal with racial inequality and "diversity," and teach to high standards across racial lines. Topics range from using racial incidents as teachable moments and responding to the "n-word" to valuing students' home worlds, dealing daily with achievement gaps, and helping parents fight ethnic and racial misconceptions about their children.
Schooltalking: Communicating for Equity in Schools
Mica Pollock, forthcoming (The New Press)
Pollock’s research explores how diverse communities can come together to support students and develop their talents. Schooltalking: Communicating for Equity in Schools, compiles her 20 years of work on this issue.
“Teachers’ verbal and non-verbal communication patterns as a function of teacher race, student gender and student race” [link]
Adelaide W. Simpson and Marilyn T. Erickson
American Education Research Journal [20(2), 1983]
Teachers’ verbal and nonverbal behaviors were examined in the classroom to assess differences based on the sex and race of children, and the race of the teacher. The results indicated that white teachers directed more verbal praise and criticism, and nonverbal praise toward males and more nonverbal criticism toward black males.
“Closing the racial/ethnic gap between students of color and their teachers: An elusive goal” [link]
Ana Maria Villegas, Kathryn Strom, and Tamara Lucas
Equity & Excellence in Education [45(2), 2012]
This article examines minority teacher recruitment policies and programs of the past two decades and explores their influence on the racial/ethnic makeup of the teaching force in elementary and secondary public schools. The results show that while important progress has been made toward increasing the overall number and proportion of minority teachers in the public schools, those gains have been eclipsed by the rapid growth of the minority student population. As a result, the racial/ethnic gap between students of color and their teachers has actually increased over the years.
“Demystifying Whiteness In a Market of ‘No Excuses’ Corporate-Styled Charter Schools”
Terrenda White, 2014
(In What’s Race Got To Do With It: How Current School Reform Policy Maintains Racial and Economic Inequality, Picower & Mayorga, Peter Lang Publishing)
This chapter examines the dimensions of whiteness that shape charter school design, practice, and expansion with a specific focus on “no excuses” elements that are imposed upon students and their families. These elements “convey racialized cultural biases about right and wrong” behavior that fail to recognize the “diverse socio-linguistic and cultural practices” that contribute to the “cultural wealth in communities of Color.”
DISCIPLINE and POLICE PRESENCE IN SCHOOLS
Studies, and overviews of studies, of how boys and girls of color are disproportionately disciplined, suspended, and expelled in schools
“You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Look At: Acknowledging Race in Addressing Racial Discipline Disparities” [pdf]
Prudence Carter, Russell Skiba, Mariella Arredondo, and Mica Pollock, 2014
The Equity Project, Indiana University
In this final paper of the Discipline Disparities Series, the authors focus on how our nation’s history has left us with ideas about “race” that prompt exclusionary and disparate disciplinary practices. Racial disparities are not easy for Americans to confront, in large part because of a longstanding reluctance to talk about issues of race and ethnicity honestly and openly. The paper concludes with recommendations for a race-conscious approach to intervention, as a way of beginning to frankly discuss and directly address racial disparities, including those found in school discipline.
“‘Tuck in that shirt!’ Race, class, gender, and discipline in an urban school” [link]
Edward W. Morris
Sociological Perspectives [48(1), 2005]
This article explores how schools reproduce race, class, and gender inequality through the regulation of students' bodies. Adults’ assumptions about discipline in the focus school included viewing the behaviors of African American girls as not “ladylike” and attempted to discipline them into dress and manners considered more gender appropriate, viewing the behaviors of Latino boys as threatening and issuing disproportionately strict, punitive discipline, and viewing the behaviors of white and Asian American students as nonthreatening and gender appropriate.
Push Out: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools
Monique Morris, 2016 (The New Press)
Black girls represent 16 percent of female students but almost half of all girls with a school-related arrest. This book exposes a world of confined potential and supports the growing movement to address the policies, practices, and cultural illiteracy that push students out of school and into unhealthy, unstable, and often unsafe futures.
“Exploring the impact of school discipline on racial disproportion in the juvenile justice system” [link]
Sean Nicholson-Crotty, Zachary Birchmeier and David Valentine
Social Science Quarterly [90(4), 2009]
This study suggests that racial disproportion in out‐of‐school suspensions, which cannot be explained solely by differences in delinquent behavior, is strongly associated with similar levels of disproportion in juvenile court referrals. The implication is that school‐based programs that offer alternatives to suspension and expulsion and promote disciplinary equity may help alleviate racial disproportion in the juvenile justice system.
“Schools, prisons, and social implications of punishment: Rethinking disciplinary practices” [link]
Theory Into Practice [42(4), 2003]
An examination of which students are most likely to be suspended, expelled, or removed from the classroom for punishment, reveals that minorities (especially Blacks and Latinos), males, and low achievers are vastly overrepresented. The enactment of zero tolerance policies related to discipline in school districts has contributed to a significant increase in the number of children who are being suspended and expelled from school. This article explains why this has occurred and puts forward an alternative approach to discipline that is aligned with the educational mission of schools.
Police in the Hallways: Discipline in an Urban High School
Kathleen Nolan, 2011 (University of Minnesota Press)
Nolan offers a rich account of daily life at a Bronx high school where police patrol the hallways and security and discipline fall under the jurisdiction of the NYPD. She documents how small infractions often escalate into “police matters” that can lead to summonses to criminal court, arrest, and confinement in juvenile detention centers.
Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys
Victor Rios, 2011 (New York University Press)
Rios describes the problems facing black and Latino youth as they come of age in the midst of poverty, violence, and institutionalized racism. From elementary school on, teachers and law enforcement mark these boys as "dangerous" or "difficult," and harshly punish them for petty infractions. Rios examines how the culture of punishment pushes young men into the very criminality that the punishment is meant to deter, and makes a compelling argument that better financed social programs and positive reinforcement could make all the difference.
Unequal City
Carla Shedd, 2015 (Russell Sage Foundation)
Focusing on four Chicago public high schools with differing student bodies, Shedd reveals how the predominantly low-income African American students at one school encounter obstacles their more affluent, white counterparts on the other side of the city do not face. Teens often travel long distances to attend school which, due to Chicago’s segregated and unequal neighborhoods, can involve crossing class, race, and gang lines. Shedd explains that the disadvantaged teens who traverse these boundaries each day develop a keen “perception of injustice,” or the recognition that their economic and educational opportunities are restricted by their place in the social hierarchy.
“New and developing research on disparities in discipline” [pdf]
Russell J. Skiba, Mariella I. Arredondo, and M. Karega Rausch, 2014
The Equity Project, Indiana University
The Discipline Disparities Collaborative has begun to generate new research examining disciplinary disparities for African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities, as well as strategies, interventions, or programs to reduce or eliminate disparities in discipline. This briefing paper describes the results of that new research, and identifies remaining gaps in the literature that can guide researchers and funders of research.
“Race is not neutral: A national investigation of African American and Latino disproportionality in school discipline” [link]
Russell J. Skiba, Robert H. Horner, Choong-Geun Chung, M. Karega Rausch, Seth L. May, and Tary Tobin
School Psychological Review [40(1), 2011]
This study examines patterns of office discipline referrals in 364 elementary and middle schools during the 2005–2006 academic year, which indicate that students from African American families are two to three times as likely to be referred to the office for problem behavior as their White peers, and that students from African American and Latino families are more likely than their White peers to receive expulsion or out of school suspension as consequences for the same or similar problem behavior.
“The color of discipline: Sources of racial and gender disproportionality in school punishment” [link]
Russell J. Skiba, Robert S. Michael, Abra Carroll Nardo, and Reece L. Peterson
The Urban Review [34(4), 2002]
This study finds that differences in the discipline of African-American students emerge from a differential pattern of treatment, originating at the classroom level, where African-American students are referred to the office for infractions that are more subjective in interpretation. Other common theories for disproportionate discipline based on gender, race, and socioeconomic status are explored, as well.
“Disproportionate impact of K-12 school suspension and expulsion on Black students in southern states” [link]
Edward J. Smith and Shaun R. Harper, 2015
Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education, University of Pennsylvania
This report reveals the rates at which school discipline practices and policies impact Black students in every K-12 public school district in 13 Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.
“School resource officers and the criminalization of student behavior” [link]
Journal of Criminal Justice [37(3), 2009]
This study evaluated the impact of school resource officers (SROs) on school-based arrest rates by comparing arrests at thirteen schools with an SRO to fifteen schools without an SRO in the same district. Analysis showed that having an SRO did not predict more total arrests, but did predict more arrests for disorderly conduct. Conversely, having an SRO decreased the arrest rate for assault and weapons charges. Implications of these findings for understanding SROs and their role in criminalizing student behavior are discussed.
“Racial threat and punitive school discipline” [link]
Kelly Welch and Allison Payne
Social Problems [57(1), 2010]
This study finds that schools with a larger percentage of black students are not only more likely to use punitive disciplinary responses, but also more likely to use extremely punitive discipline and to implement zero tolerance policies. They also use fewer mild disciplinary practices and restorative techniques.
“Unaccounted Foundations: Black Girls, Anti-Black Racism, and Punishment in Schools” [link]
Critical Sociology [Dec 2014]
This paper examines how school discipline policies and informal practices affect the physical and emotional worlds of black girls. The study finds that black girls are made vulnerable to discipline and punishment at the hands of adults and peers in ways that exceed current racial formations theory. It also invites examination of the anti-black logic of discipline and punishment in schools and at large.
RACE, GENDER, and IDENTITY
How social identities of race, ethnicity, class, and gender interact with everyday school forces to influence and shape the educational well-being and outcomes of youth
Keepin’ It Real: School Success beyond Black and White
Prudence L. Carter, 2005 (Oxford University Press)
How can we help African American and Latino students perform better in the classroom and on exams? Carter argues that what is needed is a broader recognition of the unique cultural styles and practices that non-white students bring to the classroom. In this book she demonstrates that the most successful negotiators of our school systems are the multicultural navigators, culturally savvy teens who draw from multiple traditions, whether it be knowledge of hip hop or of classical music, to achieve their high ambitions.
“(Re)Imagining Black Boyhood: Toward a critical framework for educational research”
Michael Dumas and Joseph Nelson
Harvard Educational Review, forthcoming
This essay challenges educational researchers, school practitioners, and policymakers to creatively develop learning contexts where Black boys self-determine their own worldviews and identities, particularly during early and middle childhood.
“Reproduction, Resistance, and Hope: The promise of schooling for boys” [link]
Michael C. Reichert and Joseph Nelson
Journal of Boyhood Studies [6(1), 2012]
In this introduction to a double special issue on boys and schooling, the editors frame these special issues on boys' education by reviewing research on their experience of schooling. In particular, they seek to illuminate boys' agency and opportunities they can find in schools for resistance to restrictive masculine regimes.
“A place to be myself:” The Critical Role of Schools in Helping Boys Be Boys” [link]
Michael C. Reichert, Joseph Nelson, Janet Heed, Roland Yang, and Wyatt Benson
Journal of Boyhood Studies [6(1), 2012]
This study explores ways that boys can resist restrictive modes of masculinity such as being told not to express their emotions. Analysis of a peer counseling program at a Pennsylvania school revealed that (1) the school’s masculinity culture constrained boys’ emotional development, (2) having a “safe space” in which to connect, learn, and overcome this culture was valuable, (3) boys were ready to develop new skills and participate in emotional experiences when they were invited to do so, and (4) boys’ friendships were deepened and broadened as they participating in mutual peer support.
“‘It might be nice to be a girl... Then you wouldn't have to be emotionless:’ Boys' resistance to norms of masculinity during adolescence” [link]
Niobe Way, Jessica Cressen, Samuel Bodian, Justin Preston, Joseph Nelson, and Diane Hughes
Psychology of Men and Masculinity [15(3), 2014]
This article examines resistance to norms of masculinity (i.e. emotional stoicism, physical toughness, and autonomy). The study’s findings suggest that such resistance enhances psychological and social adjustment for boys during adolescence, and is deeply influenced by the context in which boys are embedded.
Girl Time: Literacy, Justice, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Maisha T. Winn, 2011 (Teachers College Press)
This book describes experiences of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated girls who participate in “Girl Time” theater workshop programs, as well as the teachers that work with them. The girls, primarily African American teens, write their own plays, learn ensemble-building techniques, explore societal themes, and engage in self analysis as they prepare for a final performance. The book also examines the implications of the school-to-prison pipeline, and offers ways for young girls to avoid incarceration.
SCHOOL-BASED INTERVENTIONS ON DISCIPLINE
Interventions to reduce negative disciplinary outcomes and to ensure positive behavior development in schools
“Schoolwide application of Positive Behavior Support in an urban high school: A case study” [link]
Hank Bohanon, Pamela Fenning, Kelly L. Carney, et al.
Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions [8(3), 2006]
This study examined implementation of a Positive Behavior Support (PBS) effort in an urban high school. As staff increasingly prioritized the program, the school saw a reduction in monthly discipline referrals and an increase in awareness of which students required additional supports.
“Altering school climate through school-wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports: Findings from a group randomized effectiveness trial” [link]
Catherine P. Bradshaw, Christine W. Koth, Leslie A. Thornton, and Philip J. Leaf
Prevention Science [10(2), 2009]
This study examines how schools’ implementation of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) programs reflected the overall organizational health of the schools. While schools that were already “healthy” were able to adopt PBIS more quickly, it was the schools that took more time to implement the programs that showed greatest improvements in organizational health. This may have implications for PBIS’ effect on student performance, as well.
“Examining the effects of School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports on student outcomes: Results from a randomized controlled effectiveness trial in elementary schools” [link]
Catherine P. Bradshaw, Mary M. Mitchell and Philip J. Leaf
Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions [12(3), 2010]
Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a schoolwide prevention strategy that aims to alter school environments by creating improved systems and procedures that promote positive change in student behavior by targeting staff behaviors. This large study found that those schools trained in SWPBIS that implemented the model with high fidelity experienced significant reductions in student suspensions and office discipline referrals.
“Assumptions and Strategies: A model for ‘saving’ boys of color”
Edward Fergus and Joseph Nelson, 2014
(In Schooling for Resilience: Improving the Life Trajectory of Black and Latino Boys, Fergus, Noguera & Martin, Harvard Education Press)
This book investigates how seven newly formed schools, created specifically to serve boys of color, set out to address the broad array of academic and social problems faced by Black and Latino boys. The authors investigate how these schools were developed, what practices they employed, and how their students responded academically and socially. In particular, they focus on the theory of action that informed each school’s approach to educating Black and Latino boys and explore how choices about school structure and culture shaped students’ development and achievement.
“Helping Boys Take Flight: A Peer-Mentoring Program for Boys of Color at the Riverdale Country School” [link]
Joseph Nelson and Dwight Vidale
Journal of Boyhood Studies. [6(2), 2012]
WINGS is a peer-mentoring program for boys of color at the Riverdale Country School in New York City, an elite independent school. This study of the program reveals that (1) boys appreciated meeting other boys of color through the program and felt they would not have forged these relationships without it, (2) a sense of belonging was exhibited through boys' commitment to each other's social/academic success, and (3) boys emphasized being true to self and valued their own perspectives as a result of the program.
“Interventions to Address Racial/Ethnic Disparities in School Discipline: Can Systems Reform Be Race-Neutral?” [link]
Russell J. Skiba, 2015
(In Race and Social Problems: Restructuring Inequality, Bangs & Davis, Springer)
This chapter reviews data on racial and ethnic disparities in school discipline in the U.S.. Analysis reveals that minority and poor students do not engage in more serious behaviors than other students. Instead, it suggests that race potently predicts disciplinary outcomes regardless of poverty level. The author calls for further research and intervention informed by this analysis.
“How educators can eradicate disparities in school discipline: A briefing paper on school-based interventions” [pdf]
Anne Gregory, James Bell, and Mica Pollock, 2014
The Equity Project, Indiana University
This brief presents research-based principles to support educators in moving toward a diverse community of highly engaged student and staff learners. The likelihood of conflict is reduced (prevention) when schools create diverse communities of motivated, invested, and engaged learners. As with all communities, some conflict is inevitable. When conflict happens, it can be addressed in a constructive and equitable manner (intervention). Such constructive responses to conflict reduce unnecessary discipline, teach students appropriate alternatives, and build a school climate that is ultimately stronger.
“A randomized, wait-list controlled effectiveness trial assessing School-wide Positive Behavior Support in elementary school” [link]
Robert H. Horner, Eugene George, Storrs Keith Smolkowski, Eugene Lucille Eber, Jean Nakasato, Anne W. Todd, and Jody Esperanza
Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions [11(3), 2009]
This study assesses the effects of school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) in elementary schools in Hawaii and Illinois where training and technical assistance in SWPBS was provided by state personnel over a 3-year period. Results document improved implementation of SWPBS practices, as well as improvements in the perceived safety of the school setting and the proportion of third graders meeting or exceeding state reading assessment standards.
“Cultural sensitivity in the application of behavioral principles in education”
James M. Kauffman, Maureen Conroy, et. al.
Education and Treatment of Children [31(2), 2008]
Cultural sensitivity is recommended in education, but it has not been operationally defined. This team’s examination of studies in the field found no research suggesting that interventions work differently with students differing in ethnicity, gender, or religion. Rather, they found that cultural sensitivity requires respect for the individual student and their family.
“Two Strikes: Race and the Disciplining of Young Students” [link]
Jason Okonofua and Jennifer Eberhardt
Psychological Science [26(5), 2015]
This study examines the psychological mechanisms that underlie racial disparities in school discipline in the United States. The researchers find that such disparities are driven, in part, by racial stereotypes that can lead teachers to escalate their negative responses to Black students over the course of multiple teacher-to-student encounters. Not only can race influence how teachers interpret a specific behavior, it can also enhance teachers’ detection of behavioral patterns across time.
“What If Everything You Knew About Disciplining Kids Was Wrong?” [link]
Katherine Reynolds-Lewis, 2015
Mother Jones online
This article highlights psychologist Ross Greene’s Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS) program, which suggests that systems of reward and punishment fail to address and resolve bad behavior, an idea that is widely supported by developmental literature. Instead, Greene outlines a process for getting to the root of a child’s behavior through such strategies as respectful conversation, and empowering the child to achieve greater success moving forward.
More Courageous Conversations About Race
Glenn E. Singleton, 2012 (Corwin)
In this companion to his best-selling book, Singleton presents specific examples of how racism impedes student success and illustrates how to have courageous conversations to ignite systemic transformation. Through first-person vignettes and a school district case study, this handbook focuses on what is possible when educators:
- Learn how other education leaders have addressed and improved race relations
- Explore urgent challenges in racial equity and courageous approaches to solving them
- Reflect on their personal role in the struggle to achieve racial equity
- Introduce culturally relevant curriculum, instruction, and assessment in their school or district
“The relationship between implementation of School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) and exclusion of students from various ethnic backgrounds with and without disabilities” [link]
Claudia G. Vincent and Tary J. Tobin
Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders [19(4), 2011]
In this study of school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) programs, the authors found that decreases in exclusion of specific students were found in classroom-based implementation in elementary schools, but in non-classroom based implementations in high schools. And, while overall exclusions decreased, white students appeared to benefit most from this decrease, whereas African American students remained overrepresented in exclusions, particularly those that were long-term.
Restorative Justice in Urban Schools: Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Anita Wadhwa, 2015 (Routledge)
This volume provides an ethnographic portrait of how educators can implement restorative justice to build positive school cultures and address disciplinary problems in a more corrective and less punitive manner. Looking at the school-to-prison pipeline in a historical context, it analyzes current issues facing schools and communities and ways that restorative justice can improve behavior and academic achievement. By practicing a critical restorative justice, educators can reduce the domino effect between suspension and incarceration and foster a more inclusive school climate.
TEACHER EDUCATION & TEACHING about RACE and CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Studies that focus on what teachers need to know about teaching youth of color and other students from non-privileged social backgrounds
Talking about race with K-5: Honoring teachable race moments in your classroom [link]
Border Crossers - Educator Guides, 2011
This guide offers hands-on strategies to help teachers create a culture of dialogue about race in their classrooms.
Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in teacher education
Marilyn Cochran-Smith, 2004 (Teachers College Press)
This volume examines the problem of teacher preparation and why it needs to be understood as both a learning and a political problem. Cochran-Smith calls on teacher educators to be public intellectuals willing to redress conservative images of the highly qualified teacher and what it means to leave no child behind. She summons teacher educators to “strengthen the research base” on social justice in teacher education and “map forward and backward” across teacher-education programs, classroom practice, and student learning.
“Authority in Cross-Racial Teaching and Learning (Re)considering the Transferability of Warm Demander Approaches” [link]
Amy Ford and Kelly Sassi
Urban Education [49(1), 2014]
This article compares a white teacher’s approach to authority with that of an African American “warm demander,” who grounded her authority with African American students in shared culture, history, and frame of reference. The analysis suggests that white teachers need to prioritize interpersonal relationships, communicate in culturally congruent ways, link care with justice, develop a critical race consciousness, ally with students, and critique curriculum in order to be effective with African American students.
Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice
Geneva Gay, 2010 (Teachers College Press)
Combining insights from multicultural education theory and research with real-life classroom stories, Gay demonstrates that all students will perform better on multiple measures of achievement when teaching is filtered through their own cultural experiences.
“Dancing with the monster: Teachers discuss racism, power, and white privilege in education” [link]
Rosemary Henze, Tamara Lucas, and Beverly Scott
The Urban Review [30(3), 1998]
This article explores why it is difficult for teachers to have an open dialog about power, white privilege, and racism by examining an attempt at such a discussion by 60 teachers at a professional-development institute. Implications for planning this type of discussion are discussed.
“Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity, and the miseducation of teachers” [link]
Journal of Negro Education [60(2), 1991]
This article analyzes the internalized ideologies of teacher education students’ that both justify the racial status quo and devalue cultural diversity. It also puts forth a teaching approach that the author uses to counteract this limited thinking or “dysconscious racism”.
“Fighting for our lives: Preparing teachers to teach African American students” [link]
Journal of Teacher Education [51(3), 2000]
Although some teacher preparation programs are designed for “urban” education, the significance of African American culture is rarely a feature of such programs. This article addresses the uniqueness of the African American cultural experience and details a variety of pedagogical and programmatic strategies that have been employed to assist teachers in better meeting the needs of African American students.
“Preservice teachers’ awareness of multiculturalism and diversity” [link]
H. Richard Milner, Lamont A. Flowers, Eddie Moore, Jr., James L. Moore III, Tiffany A. Flowers
The High School Journal [87(1), 2003]
This study suggests that preservice teachers' attitudes about cultural diversity have improved over the past decade. The article concludes with implications for preservice teachers and teacher education programs.
Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education
Sonia Nieto, 2000 (Longman)
This book examines how power relations in the broader society can operate to constrict educators’ visions of what we students can achieve and challenges educators to make choices in classrooms that will resist the perpetuation of coercive relations of power.
The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities
Sonia Nieto, 2010 (Teachers College Press)
This book focuses on teacher practices, attitudes, and values, as well as on the policies and practices of schools that can promote learning for all students. Instead of referring to students as “minority,” “at-risk,” “disadvantaged,” or “disempowered,” Nieto uses the term “bicultural,” to emphasize what these students have, rather than what they lack. The author advocates that teachers transform their practice on three levels - individual, collective, and institutional - in order to improve the educational potential of all students.
“Preparing teachers for culturally diverse schools: Research and the overwhelming presence of whiteness” [link]
Journal of Teacher Education [52(2), 2001]
This study finds that although there is a large quantity of research on teacher preparation for multicultural schools, very little of it actually examines which strategies prepare strong teachers. Most of the research focuses on addressing the attitudes and lack of knowledge of white preservice students. This review argues that although this is a very important problem that does need to be addressed, it is not the same as figuring out how to populate the teaching profession with excellent multicultural and culturally responsive teachers.
“Pre-service teachers’ expectations for schools with children of color and second-language learners” [link]
Marguerite M. Terrill and Dianne L. H. Mark
Journal of Teacher Education [51(2), 2000]
These authors investigated preservice teachers' expectations of racially and linguistically diverse students in different school settings. Most participants were white, with low comfort and safety levels for schools and communities with children of color. Most wanted to teach in white, suburban schools, had little experience teaching minority children, and held significantly different expectations for diverse students in different school settings.
“Toward a conception of culturally responsive classroom management” [link]
Carol S. Weinstein, Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke, and Mary Curran
Journal of Teacher Education [55(1), 2004]
The purpose of this article is to stimulate discussion about culturally responsive classroom management (CRCM). The authors put forth five essential components of CRCM: (a) recognition of one’s own ethnocentrism; (b) knowledge of students’ cultural backgrounds; (c) understanding of the broader social, economic, and political context; (d) ability and willingness to use culturally appropriate management strategies; and (e) commitment to building caring classrooms.
“Mathematics success of Black middle school students: Direct and indirect effects of teacher expectations and reform practices” [link]
Michael E. Woolley, Marilyn E. Strutchens, Melissa C. Gilbert, and W. Gary Martin
The Negro Educational Review [61(1-4), 2010]
This study examines the relationships among student perceptions of teachers’ expectations, teachers’ use of reform instructional practices, student motivation, and mathematics performance outcomes. Students who reported greater teacher use of reform practices and higher teacher expectations showed more desirable levels of motivation to learn mathematics and had better test performance.
CURRICULUM
Curricula that educators can use to teach about the sensitive topics of race, police violence, and mass incarceration in the United States
“Teachable Moments and Academic Rigor: A Mini-Unit” [link]
Travis J. Bristol and Claude Goldenberg, 2015
Edutopia online
This is a four-day mini-unit, aligned with the Common Core, in which students read primary documents, watch an eyewitness and first-person account, analyze the credibility of testimony, and then develop and present written and oral arguments on the Ferguson case. It is designed to facilitate high-cognitive-demand thinking as well as nurture students' critical consciousness.
“A teacher’s guide to rerouting the pipeline” [link]
Emily Chiariello, 2013
Teaching Tolerance online
Principals, school resource officers, probation officers and social workers are typically charged with responding to school discipline problems. In reality, classroom teachers spend the most time with students. Their daily decisions can help divert students from the school-to-prison pipeline. This article offers five responsive shifts that teachers can apply to their thinking to do just that.
#Ferguson Syllabus: Talking and Teaching about Police Violence [link]
This site can help people talk and think about police violence. Resources include readings, activities, art, and films, as well as first person accounts and narratives.
“On the Brilliance of Black Children in Mathematics: A Response to a Clarion Call” [link]
Maisie Gholson, Erika Bullock, and Nathan Alexander
Journal of Urban Mathematics Education [5(2), 2012]
This article invites readers to consider what they believe about Black children and their abilities, how their work reflects those beliefs, and how acknowledging Black children’s brilliance affects their research agendas. The authors seek to move beyond offensive or defensive positioning to locate and highlight unique characteristics of Black students, teachers, and classrooms.
“Teaching about Race in an Urban History Class: The Effects of Culturally Responsive Teaching” [link]
Terrie Epstein, Edwin Mayorga, and Joseph Nelson
Journal of Social Studies Research [35(1), 2011]
The authors examined the effects of a culturally responsive teacher’s pedagogy on urban low-income African American and Latino high school students’ ideas about racial diversity, racism, and individual and collective agency in U.S. history. The authors found that students were more responsive to instruction about the diversity and agency of people of color and the complexity of racism in U.S. history than to instruction about the diversity of white people’s historical experiences and their roles as an oppressed group or as members of anti-racist movements. Implications are discussed.
“Using narrative inquiry to understand persistently disciplined middle school students” [link]
Brianna L. Kennedy-Lewis, Amy S. Murphy, and Tanetha J. Grosland
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, [29(1), 2016]
This study presents the case narratives of three persistently disciplined students from one urban middle school in the southeast USA. Examining the central tensions of each case led to a richer and more comprehensive narrative of each student, reflecting his or her complex motivations and desires. Viewing students as whole people reflected in these narratives can shift educators’ practices to better support the learning of all students.
“Toward digital, critical, participatory action research: Lessons from the #BarrioEdProj” [pdf]
Edwin Mayorga
Journal of Interactive Technology & Pedagogy [5, 2014]
This article explores the ongoing development of The Education in our Barrios project (#BarrioEdProj), which couples digital media with the theories and practices of critical participatory action research. The project examines the interconnected remaking of public education and a New York City Latino core community in an era of capitalism with significant racial disparities.
Teaching The New ‘Jim Crow’ [link]
Southern Poverty Law Center
This curriculum provides a range of lesson plans, activities and audiovisual resources for teachers of language arts, social studies, and American history, anchored by manageable excerpts from The New Jim Crow. All of the lessons are fully aligned to the Common Core. The Teacher Preparation Guide that precedes the lessons provides strategies for teachers to help them engage productively and honestly with their students, recognizing that sometimes discussions of race, ethnicity, power and privilege can evoke strong reactions.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
Ways to reduce the disproportionate suspension, expulsion, and gross mistreatment of marginalized youth in schools through policy and practice
Closing the school discipline gap: Equitable remedies for excessive exclusion
Dan Losen - ed., 2015 (Teachers College Press)
Educators remove over 3.45 million students from school annually for disciplinary reasons, despite strong evidence that school suspension policies are harmful to students. This book examines disciplinary policies and practices in schools that result in disparities, and provides remedies that may be enacted at federal, state, and district levels.
“Eliminating excessive and unfair exclusionary discipline in schools: Policy recommendations for reducing disparities” [pdf]
Dan Losen, Damon Hewitt, and Ivory Toldson, 2014
The Equity Project, Indiana University
Disparities in the use of school discipline by race, gender, and sexual orientation have been well-documented and continue to place large numbers of students at risk for short- and long-term negative outcomes. This brief describes challenges that arise from discipline disparities, then presents promising alternatives and recommendations applicable at local, state, and federal levels.