Académique Documents
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Andrew Grande
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McKeon, D. Research Talking Points on Dropout Statistics High School
Attendance,
Graduation, Completion, and Dropout Statistics. National Education
Association. February 2006. Web. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
http://www.nea.org/home/13579.htm.
The National Center for Education Statistics reported that nearly
80 percent of the individuals in prison do not have a high school
diploma. The main predictors that make a student more prone to
dropout of school include: family structure, socioeconomic structure,
family issues (divorce, death, family constantly moving), and mothers
age. If the student is not engaged in school and does not have a strong
or positive rapport with anyone at the school, their school experience
may be a contributing factor to them disliking school and dropping out.
Students who drop out attempt to take the GED test, however few
actually pass it. The number of students who make an effort to obtain a
GED dropped from 1,069,899 in 2001 to 603,019 in 2002, only about 1
percent of adults in the United States passed the GED test.
Holloway, J. Research Link/The Dilemma of Zero Tolerance. ASCD.
December
2001/January 2002. Volume 59:Pages 84-85. Print.
The article written by Holloway, it states that the zero tolerance
is a school policy that mandate predetermined consequences or
punishments for specific offenses. The National School Safety Center
(2001) indicates that 9 of 10 principals who took part of a survey
mentioned that tough discipline policies such as zero tolerance were
essential for keeping schools safe, regardless of the increase in student
suspensions. According to research, it is believed that the zero
tolerance policy holds students to high standards of behavior therefore
improving their conduct overall. These findings suggest that that zero
tolerance policies are good for both students because it holds them
accountable and schools because they set high expectations from their
students. Evidence of the success of the zero tolerance policy is
exhibited in the research conducted by Morris and Wells (2000). They
reported that after the Baltimore (Maryland) school board adopted a
zero tolerance policy, school-related arrests dropped 67 percent and
school crime decreased 31 percent. Barton, Coley, and Wenglinsky
(1998) also found that schools with less strict discipline policies
experienced higher levels of serious offenses.
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The zero tolerance policy assigns predetermined punishments for specific school
rule violations and in many severe cases lead to suspension or expulsion. This is an
important issue because as we begin to investigate the problem of mass incarceration and
dig into the underlying problem, it all seems to point to our schools systems that could
have taken alternative options for disciplinary actions and provide resources as a
preventative measure to assist our students and their families. The National Center for
Education Statistics reported that nearly 80 percent of the individuals in prison do not
have a high school diploma which leads to question if in fact the zero tolerance policy has
been effective in our school systems throughout its existence or if it feeding into mass
incarceration. The main predictors that make a student more prone to
dropout of school include: family structure, socioeconomic structure,
family issues (divorce, death, family constantly moving), and mothers
age. If the student is not engaged in school and does not have a strong
or positive rapport with anyone at the school, their school experience
may be a contributing factor to them disliking school and dropping out.
Students who drop out attempt to take the GED test, however few
actually pass it. The number of students who make an effort to obtain a
GED dropped from 1,069,899 in 2001 to 603,019 in 2002; only about
one percent of adults in the United States passed the GED test. This
extreme percentage of one percent passing the GED is an outrage and
a disadvantage to suspended or expelled students.
In the article written by Holloway, it states that the zero
tolerance is the school policy that mandate predetermined
consequences or punishments for specific offenses. The National
School Safety Center (2001) indicates that 9 of 10 principals who took
part of a survey mentioned that tough discipline policies such as zero
tolerance were essential for keeping schools safe regardless of the
increase in student suspensions. According to research, it is believed
that the zero tolerance policy holds students to high standards of
behavior therefore improving their conduct overall. These findings
suggest that zero tolerance policies are good for both students
because it holds them accountable and schools because they set high
expectations from their students. Evidence of the success of the zero
tolerance policy is exhibited in the research conducted by Morris and
Wells (2000). They report that after the Baltimore (Maryland) school
board adopted a zero tolerance policy, school-related arrests dropped
67 percent and school crime decreased 31 percent.
The article discusses the fact that suspensions and expulsion are
methods used by school administrators as consequences for
unacceptable behaviors including violence, drug use/distribution,
carrying weapons, truancy, among other serious offences. The idea
was to decrease the number of students to get involved in these types
of acts and be an intervention. According to the article, between 79%
and 94% of schools follow the zero tolerance policy, which
predetermines consequences for various student offenses. This policy
monitoring teenage peer groups through social networks that facilitate adult and youth
interaction.
A Generation Later: What Weve Learned about Zero Tolerance in
Schools by Jacob Kang-Brown was an amazing journal that describes
the timeline of why we had to begin using zero tolerance policies, as
well as when it started being abused and used incorrectly by our school
system. In the late 1980s and early 90s there was a raise in juvenile
arrests for violent crimes, feeling pressure to act on the matter
congress passed a Gun-Free Schools Act in 1994. It stated that in order
for a school to receive federal education funds, they must expel a
student for at least a period of a year if they brought a gun to school.
As early as 1996, two years after congress passed the Gun-Free School
Act; about 79% of schools had adopted a zero tolerance policies for
violence, which went beyond federal mandates. Schools began to
receive extra funding for security guards, school based law
enforcement officers, and later the installation of metal detectors. By
2008 the numbers of public schools with full-time law enforcement and
security guards had tripled. Brown states that this shift in school
disciplinary policy and practice had duplicated changes that made it
closely to resemble the adult justice system, even though juvenile
crime rate was on the decline.
The Council of State Governments and the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas
A&M University had a study where researchers tracked every student who entered
seventh grade in 2000, 2001, and 2002 for six years. They found that more than half (60
percent) were suspended or expelled at some point in middle or high school for offenses
that did not follow the parameters of the zero tolerance policy. A great proportion of
students who were suspended or expelled from school were for simple violations of
school conduct, such as using tobacco or acting out in ways that teachers find to be
disruptive and disrespectful. School administrators were abusing zero tolerance policy
and choose to use harsh unjust punishments, even when they had the judgment to choose
other forms of discipline. Research shows that over the past two decades, youth crime has
become less serious and less violent to a point where they are now the lowest theyve
been in decades. The situation in California among juveniles committing crime has
decreased 61 percent lower than it was in 1991 and the overall number of youth arrested
is at an all-time low.
One of the solutions I read about was the turning off the School-to-Prison Pipeline
by Harry Wilson, it talked about the byproduct of zero tolerance at schools. How
school failure are outcomes of mass incarceration for boys and young men of color.
School policies that are being used as consequences are a significant contributor to the
current prison crisis with more than half of incarcerated individuals entering prison
without a high school diploma. In 1994, congress passed a Gun Free School Act, which
required schools to enforce zero tolerance on guns and weapons. This Gun Free School
Act, eventually developed into schools suspension and expulsion for students who
violated policies about alcohol, tobacco, drugs, fighting, insubordination, dress code, and
"disruptive behavior." Schools had adopted a strategy to remove students who had
problematic behavior in order to avoid them from getting in the way of other students
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