Blacklisted: Racial Bias in Schools Today and What YOU Can Do About It

Presented by Dr. Diane Kern, School of Education, and a virtual appearance by the

Providence Student Union

U.S. Office of Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)Reported January 2014

• Although African-American students represent 15% of students in the CRDC, they make up 35% of the students suspended once, 44% of students suspended more than once, and 36% of students expelled.

• 50% of students involved in school-related arrests or referred to law enforcement are Hispanic or African-American.

School-to-Prison Pipeline

• Increasing number of students losing important instructional time due to exclusionary disciplinary practices, leading to…– School avoidance– Disillusioned, feeling lack of hope– Diminished education attainment– Decreased academic achievement– Increased drop-out rates– Substance abuse– Long-term economic and social problems

Blacklisted in Rhode Island~March 2014 ACLU Report

• African-American students suspended at an all-time high; White students at an all-time low

• Hispanic students remain severely over-suspended at some of the highest rates observed in 8 years

• New law lowered suspensions for absences, yet number of suspensions for low-risk behaviors increased by more than 400 youth.

Must be high school only? NOT!

• Nearly 1,400 RI elementary students were suspended 2012-2013; 147 in 1st grade

Turn, talk, vent, consider why or share experiences

Nine years of data have clearly indicated that Rhode Island’s schools use out of school suspensions too often to punish even the most minor infractions, with particular impact on students of color.

Despite ongoing discussions about how best to lessen these rates, school districts have been unable to accomplish meaningful change on their own.

ACLU has these suggestions…

• Law changes needed• Make data public annually—parents & citizens

need to know• Schools need to make policies and procedures

available and fairly/equitably implemented• U.S. Department of Education leadership• …I suggest there’s more we can and must do

at the grassroots level, here and now in our community for our youth!

Our local youth can’t wait for policymakers to do the right thing…

What YOU can do!Providence Student Union

PSC/EDC 306 Mentoring and Tutoring Internship (MTI @URI)

Fall and Spring semesters

Video Campaigns, Speaking Out and OpEds

• Poems for Public Education by Ryan MacGowan, URI film major, Fall 2013 honors colloquium course…soon to be a new general education course EDC 100 Zombie Ideas in Education!

• Work directly with young children in early childhood education programs around Rhode Island!

• 300 hours of service with partner children at a local RI Headstart or preschool center.

• Receive six credits in a URI CSV 302 online course, a $1,195 AmeriCorps Education Award upon successful completion or work study

Student organizations

• Alima International Dance Association

• Brothers on a New Direction (BOND)• National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

• Native American Student Association• Powerful Independent Notoriously

Knowledgeable (PINK) Women• Uhuru Sasa…and so many more

City Year, College Crusade and AmeriCorps

Community Action and Activism

References

• School to Prison Pipeline Infographichttp://safequalityschools.org/pages/mission-school-to-prison-

pipeline• U.S. DOE “Dear Colleague” letter on discriminatory discipline

practiceshttp://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-

201401-title-vi.html• Blacklisted: An Update…RI Schools & Racial Biashttp://riaclu.org/images/uploads/Blacklisted-

_Racial_Bias_in_School_Suspensions_in_Rhode_Island.pdf

Q & AContacts & Opportunities

• Dr. Diane Kern dkern@uri.edu, 708 Chafee– Mentor Tutoring Internship Course—PSC/EDC 306– Education major or minor

• Providence Student Union https://www.providencestudentunion.org

• JumpStart URI, 874-2090, Chafee Hall 178• City Year RI http://www.cityyear.org/rhodeisland• AmeriCorps

http://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps