"We still have a long way to go in improving the race relations in this country," said Rosa Parks. Yes, Rosa Parks knew that, years after the desegregation rulings were passed, race still mattered in America. "Defining and Redirecting a School-to-Prison Pipeline," by Johanna Wald and Daniel Losen, tells this sorrowful tale of woe. If we look carefully, we can better understand what is happening in the inner city schools of America: "Students in high-poverty, high-minority schools are routinely provided fewer resources," they write.
The research states that these students have less access to credentialed, experienced teachers, to high-quality curriculum and to advanced-level courses than their more affluent, white peers.
Not surprisingly, they experience lower rates of high school graduation, academic achievement and college attendance levels.
Thus, we cannot be surprised to note that the New York City school system is not producing minority teachers en masse.
Furthermore, the research shows, "with a zero-tolerance approach to wrongdoing, an increase in the presence of police in schools, the use of metal detectors and search-and-seizure procedures in schools, and the enactment of new state laws mandating referral of children to law enforcement authorities for a variety of school code violations," it is evident that the school-to-prison pipeline will become the norm as the prisons, and not colleges, are filled with inner-city kids.
Hence, the New York City Board of Education will continue to recruit teachers from cities and towns well beyond the perimeters of the five boroughs.
Manhattan businesses will also recruit from beyond the island's borders for a viable work force.
If parents view the public school system as a pipeline to prison, if "new statutes mandating referral to law enforcement for school code violations are disproportionately affecting minority children and may be unnecessarily pushing them into the criminal justice system," according to Wald and Losen, parents will continue to seek admission to private or parochial schools.
Many families have already moved out of the city in a search for some relief. Some families are returning to their ancestral homes.
Race has always mattered in America. Our history tells us of the early enslavement of all people of color, even in New York State. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to us about the role of education as a road to equality and citizenship.
That is the road our students need to be traveling. Yet that road will become more and more elusive if early intervention is not provided for students at risk. An Individualized Education Program needs to be mapped out for all students to break the school-to-prison dynamic.
There should be a "school-to-college" IEP in sight, from Pre-K to B.A. i.e "a series of educational programs and options designed to embrace and hold on to all students, including those most troubled, most vulnerable and most at-risk," Wald and Losen assert.
Yes, we still have a long way to go, Rosa Parks. But we are making strides, one student at a time.
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