Academic achievement in juvenile corrections: Examining the impact of age, ethnicity and disability

Abstract The current study explores the relationship of disability and ethnicity to academic achievement among youth in juvenile corrections. The average reading level of the incarcerated boys in this study was at the eighth grade level, while their average math score was at the seventh grade level. Approximately 30% of the youth were identified as eligible for special education and 65% were ethnic minorities. The academic achievement of these youth indicated that they are indeed functioning below the mean on all measures of achievement. However, although these youth are behind academically, the majority are not more than one standard deviation below the mean. The information presented in this analysis provides information not only on the educational levels of youth in corrections, but whether their academic achievement is mediated by factors such as race and disability. ********** It has largely been assumed and understood that juveniles in secure care settings have poor academic achievement. Reviewing the available data, juveniles confined to long-term facilities also appear to have high rates of illiteracy. Some of the first aggregate data on achievement levels of incarcerated youth was provided by Project READ and was initially funded in 1976 by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (Brunner, 1977). The data they collected on detained and incarcerated youth suggested that the average reading level was around the third or fourth-grade level. This provided some of the first historical data showing that incarcerated youth are significantly behind their non-incarcerated peers in academic achievement. Not only is the literature regarding youth in secure care limited, but the literature is largely focused on male youth in secure care. Foley (2001) reviewed studies on the achievement levels of incarcerated youth from 1975 to 1999. Most of the studies reviewed, dating up to the mid-nineties, pegged the average reading level of incarcerated boys to be somewhere between the 4th and 7th grade level, while their math scores tended to be between the 5th and 6th grade level. A more recent study (Katsiyannis & Archwametry, 1999) used the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery Test of Achievement--Revised to determine the achievement levels of 549 delinquent boys. This study compared recidivists to non-recidivists and found that recidivists scored at the 7th grade level in reading and math and the non-recidivists scored between the 8th and 9th grade levels. This study lends support to the notion that academic achievement may serve as a protective factor in reducing recidivism. Socio-economic factors, disabilities, mental health diagnoses, and school histories characterized by suspensions, expulsions and dropping out, illuminate some of the possible reasons for the low academic achievement scores of youth incarcerated in the United States (Leone, Nelson, & Rutherford, 2004). Nearly sixty percent of youth that were incarcerated in 1997 were from ethnic minority groups. African-Americans alone comprised 40% of the youth aged 10 to 17 in correctional facilities, while Latinos accounted for 18.5% (Galigher, 1999). African-Americans were 5 times more likely to be incarcerated than whites. Latinos and Native Americans were 2.5 times more likely to be incarcerated as Caucasian youth (Sigmund, 2004; Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2000). Youth with disabilities are over-represented in long-term correctional facilities. The general school population outside of corrections has a disability rate of approximately 12.7%. In a national survey of juvenile correctional facilities, Quinn, Rutherford, Leone, Osher, and Poirier (2005) reported that 34% of youths in juvenile correctional facilities were identified as having disabilities. The survey also showed great variability in data with some states reporting disability rates approaching 70% and other states reporting very low rates. …