NBER: “There Is a ‘School to Prison Pipeline’ ”
By: Rj Carr
Tags: Disadvantaged, Education, Prison, Racism, Parenting

There is growing understanding that schools which clearly benefit some, damage others.

A recent study from North Carolina found: “early censure of school misbehavior causes increases in adult crime — that there is, in fact, a ‘school to prison pipeline’ ”*.

According to the study, stricter schools and schools with zero tolerance policies had a greater negative impact that increased adult crime rates and incarceration rates, especially among minority students. What is worse is that disciplinary rates in schools which increased the school to prison pipeline population were subjective to the principal. Since, stricter school policies caused an increase in future adult crime among those same disciplined students, the principal’s actions were a contributor.

In fact, the study suggested: “principals and other school officials have considerable discretion over discipline policy, and when they lean toward harsher discipline it has negative long-run impacts on students, especially minority males.”

The new sheriff

Imagine this scenario which is fairly common in any situation in or out of school. The new principal — the academic equivalent of the new boss — arrives, he wants to impress he is in charge so he enforces disciplinary policies more strongly, especially the first year of his new tenure. This will have a negative effect on the lives of some students especially minority students in that school; this simple policy can have serious negative impacts on students, families and communities.

What makes it worse is the reason for the policy is simple, according to the study and accepted practice, the student who is disruptive prevents the rest of the class from learning. So, by default, removing the disruptive student by sending him or her down to the office and then to in or out of school suspensions will increase positively those who are in school to learn but will impact negatively over the long run that particular student. So, if there is a greater number of minority students who are sent to the office, while a greater number of white students who remain, the result is a minority based school to prison pipeline, by default. This does not mean it is an intended result but may be an unintended consequence. Regardless, the result is still the same.

Experience teaches that the student who is disruptive is the one who is blamed for the actions. The problem may actually be that such students may not be benefitting from the teaching methods in that class or classes in general. The problem may not be the student at all but the method may not be best for that student or even there may be a clash with the teacher.

Case in point: Why do I not speak French?

Let me explain. I am a polyglot. I speak English, Spanish and Portuguese. I took three years of high school Spanish and ended up with a C as a final grade. Today I am fluent because I can pick up languages quickly once I figured out how to learn a language. (Get the basics and then listen and read and speak in the language as much as possible.)

I, however, took five years of French in middle school and high school. I ended up with a D my final year. I vowed never to speak the language again and today I boast that the only thing I can say in French is: “I would like a Croissant at Au Bon Pain.”

I can pick up languages well, I should be speaking French fluently. Part of it is my problem, I vowed never to speak the language again and never needed the skill, but part of it is that school turned me off from the language. I can understand some Italian which I never studied, I picked up Portuguese without a class but used Babbel as a supplement and I am fluent in Spanish. I do not speak French. Somehow the last two years of French class did not match my way of learning either through my level of maturity or my style of learning or both. What would happen if I was also disruptive in class because it was such a turn-off for me or even that the teacher and I had a clash of personalities? It would prove disastrous and if I was a minority student even worse.

Some students do not fit the typical school

In the Navy, I met a fellow sailor who did not have a high school diploma. He dropped out of school. He was too smart and school bored him. It turns out there is a whole population like him, many currently work in Hollywood.

In your favorite search engine look up celebrities who did not graduate from high school, you may be surprised by the number and names. These are people who just do not fit in the school environment and reached a point where they could not remain. It is either their own choice or the school’s choice but either way they leave without the diploma. Many then teach themselves and quite successfully. Others, of course, do not.

My experience teaches me that schools educate well the average student and some who are well above or below average often do not do well. Some of them become troublemakers because they are bored and some of them like myself go through the motions.

Parents’ fear increases the problem

It would seem that strong parent involvement may help, however, I found throughout my adult life, parents, especially immigrant parents, were reticent to wage a complaint. They had fear their children would be marked for the rest of their time in school by the teachers and administration. They do not complain even though their children would be subject to personality conflicts with teachers and problems with the school administration. I found this fear among parents of students in both public and private school. I am sure in a limited amount of cases, the fear is based in reality, however, I would be surprised if it is common practice. Again, this may add to the issue of minority children suffering more from the effects of policies because students of children whose parents intercede consistently would at least receive some kind of results.

The school where I was on the citizen board had a high degree of immigrant children from an inner city environment and a high degree of middle class students from a suburban environment. The middle class students tended to be white and the inner city students tended to be Hispanic of immigrant parents from Central America.

During this corona virus shut down, it might be time to look at how schools operate normally and even organize a way of further study of the school to prison pipeline. Not only should parents be involved in forming policy but also other members of the community as well, especially business owners. Schools educate and form students to be productive members of society. So all have an interest in students succeeding.

* Billings, Stephen, Deming, David J., The School to Prison Pipeline: Long-Run Impacts of School Suspensions on Adult Crime, National Bureau of Economic Research. Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research)2019 https://www.nber.org/papers/w26257