Social Justice: Disrupting the Pipeline

By Roshunda Harris-Allen

Children at an early age have a predisposition regarding gender and race. Biases are projected early in life and based on social-cultural interactions. We must start early in creating spaces for children to develop self-identity, self-awareness, and respect for themselves and other ethnic groups- to build

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: Jan 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9798885044783

Book preview

SOCIAL JUSTICE: DISRUPTING THE PIPELINE

The Efforts of PreK–16 Child Development and Teacher Education Program Student’s Attempt to Reduce the Cradle-School-to-Slavery Pipeline

Roshunda Harris-Allen, Ed.D.

new degree press

copyright © 2023 Roshunda Harris-Allen, Ed.D.

All rights reserved.

SOCIAL JUSTICE: DISRUPTING THE PIPELINE

The Efforts of PreK–16 Child Development and Teacher Education Program Student’s Attempt to Reduce the Cradle-School-to-Slavery Pipeline

ISBN

979-8-88504-454-7 Paperback

979-8-88504-478-3 eBook

This book is dedicated to all the children who have experienced a social injustice. I advocate for you.

Contents

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PART 1

INTRODUCTION

How I Got Held Back and Why I Pay It Forward

PART 2

Overview

CHAPTER 1

Overview

CHAPTER 2

Social and Restorative Practices in the School Setting

PART 3

Incorporating Activism in Education

CHAPTER 3

Historically Black Colleges and Universities Prepare Students to Advocate for a Socially Just Society

CHAPTER 4

The Incorporation of Civic Engagement and Social Justice at an HBCU

CHAPTER 5

Working Together for Social Justice Using the Bioecological Model: Social Justice Education within the Community

PART 4

Cradle-School-to-Slavery Pipeline

CHAPTER 6

Developing a Plan

CHAPTER 7

Child Development and Teacher Education Candidates Prepare and Implement Social Justice and Restorative Practices through Civic Engagement Opportunities

CHAPTER 8

Outcomes of Recent College Graduates

CHAPTER 9

Conclusion

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Appendix

Our children are crying. Can you hear them? Our students are crying. Can you hear them? I hear them. I hear them every day, every hour, every minute, and every second. That is why I advocate for social justice. That is why I advocate for equity and equality. Let us advocate together to decrease the cradle-school-to-slavery pipeline.

—Roshunda Harris-Allen, Ed.D.

PART I

INTRODUCTION

Introduction

How I Got Held Back and Why I Pay It Forward

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In a state that is known for its high obesity rate, poor school systems, high poverty, segregation, and racism, leaving Michigan to attend college in Mississippi was an emotional rollercoaster. It was one of the scariest, loneliest, anxiety-filled yet one of the most exciting, fantastic, and memorable experiences in my life. It was the year 1998 when this little girl, originally from Detroit, graduated high school and left home to attend Jackson State University. I did not know then at forty-two years old, I would still be living in the Magnolia State. For the past twenty-five (plus) years, I have learned what it means to attend a historically Black university, I know what it means to work for an inner-city school district, I know what it means to work for a government-funded agency, and I know what it means to work at a public and private historical Black college and university (HBCU). But my story does not start in 1998; my story starts in 1980.

Born to Roger and Ernestine Harris, I had a pretty good life growing up in Michigan. The only injustice incident I can remember as a child was when my family moved from Detroit to the suburbs and the new neighborhood school district placed me in a lower grade because of the prior academic school district I attended. At least that is what I thought happened after hearing rumors from other students, but we all know most gossip and rumors have some truth. I never remembered receiving an explanation for being held back a grade, just going to school one day and being removed from my homeroom class and placed in another room. When I finally told my mother, two weeks later (after being placed in a self-contained classroom for reading and language arts), she had no idea of this happening either. No communication was sent home. The counselor nor the administrator made a phone call home; there was nothing except my word. My mother was an educator and by no means did she tolerate this injustice incident. It only took a few days and talking to a few key people in the suburban school district. Then I was rightfully put back in the correct grade in another school.

I didn’t have the opportunity to attend school with the neighborhood children until I transitioned to middle school at the age of ten. So many faces were familiar but I couldn’t remember their names. Many of them were asking Do I remember you? Where are you from? Where do you live? What’s your name? So, I did the only thing I could do; I made new/old friendships.

It was not until I was older (a college graduate) I realized that being held back without any valid explanation was an injustice. According to Brittney Davis (2021), Black, Latino, Natives, and English language learners are unjustifiably retained in school. Students of color are more likely to repeat a grade than their White peers, are more likely to be punished, and less likely to graduate and attend post-secondary school. When young children are held back in the lower grades, they are traditionally less engaged in academics, receive less academic support, and oftentimes have lower than grade-level literacy skills.

Now, let us fast forward to 2014. I was blessed with a new job at a private HBCU as an assistant professor of education and coordinator of child development programs. A year later, I became the student advisor for the Mississippi Association of Educators at the college. Three years after that, I became a grantee for the Institute for the Study of Modern Day Slavery and Student Mentor for the Harriet Tubman Project. While holding these various positions, for the past eight (plus) years, I have had the opportunity to be involved in research opportunities, visit many school districts inside and outside the state of Mississippi, attend conferences and forums, and develop curricula. This helped me to open my eyes and see the injustices going on in and outside the state of Mississippi and especially in the educational system.

Remember what happened to me when I moved from one school district to another? I have learned that a lot of the social injustices come from people not being educated on how to handle certain issues that arise in the classroom setting. For example, when students are sent to an alternative school for either sharing or receiving a text message about a fight or when a senior is expelled from school for having excessive tardiness but is his mother’s primary caregiver. Some of those students were honor roll students and had never been in trouble. And let us not forget about when a student is wrongfully held back a grade because of their prior zip code or the school attended.

There is evidence that students of color behaviors are perceived as more difficult and are disciplined more severely when compared to White students. For example, if educators and administrators are biased, they may be more likely to make choices that are unfavorable to Black students, such as determining that certain misbehaviors are worthy of punitive actions (Riddle and Sinclair 2019). The preponderance of literature conclusively shows that social justice issues such as strict school guidelines (getting suspended for writing on a desk or sent to in-school suspension for falling asleep in class) have pushed our students into detention centers, jails, and prisons. Other punitive consequences are also damaging to students; for example, school arrests have been linked to school dropout. Annually, nine of every one hundred youth males ages ten to seventeen get arrested in the United States. In many urban cities, the rate is considerably higher, with fifteen of every one hundred youth males. One quarter of these arrests occur in school (Kirk and Sampson 2013). This is more than an educational and schooling crisis; it is a racial justice crisis that excessively impacts minority communities.

The March 2014 report from the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights included alarming findings on the unfairness of and excessively harsh school discipline policies implemented as early as preschool. Eighteen percent of preschool children enrolled in the United States are Black. However, 48 percent of Black preschool children receive more than one out-of-school suspension. White students constitute 43 percent of preschool children enrolled. Only 26 percent of White preschool children receive more than one out-of-school suspension (United States Department of Education 2014).

Students affected by harsh discipline policies are disproportionately children of color (Riddle and Sinclair 2019). Racially discriminatory school discipline policies contribute to the Pipeline crisis with a Black boy born in 2001 having a one in three chance of getting incarcerated in his lifetime and a Latino boy a one in six chance of equal fate. Every second and a half, at least one student is suspended. Every eight seconds, a student drops