Fair and Just School Climate

The African American Policy Forum, Advancement Project, Dream Defenders, and others released a new video that powerfully reaffirms the multitude of reasons why #BlackGirlsMatter. In the wake of high-profile police violence against black men and boys, and thanks to initiatives like President Obama's My Brother's Keeper initiative, national attention has begun to focus on the myriad problems black boys face. However, these efforts often ignore black girls, who face not only the same systemic racism, but also sexism.

Thena Robinson-Mock, project director for the Advancement Project, provides an important update to the school discipline crisis in Mississippi in her recent op-ed for The Clarion-Ledger. Two years ago the Advancement Project, the ACLU, and the Mississippi NAACP jointly released a report exposing the state's extreme school-to-prison pipeline, and the discriminatory impact it had in particular on students of color. Unfortunately, Robinson-Mock writes that although some progress has been made, much still needs to be done to solve this problem.

Voice of Youth in Chicago Education deserves tremendous praise for their latest victory—passing a groundbreaking school discipline reform bill through the Illinois Legislature. By ending the use of "zero tolerance" policies and restricting administrators' use of suspensions and expulsions, VOYCE's bill will help make Illinois schools more welcoming environments for students.

A recent editorial in the New York Times highlights the long-term consequences of "zero-tolerance" school discipline and how they can extend beyond the K-12 system and hurt students' chances of being accepted into college.

The Boston Student Advisory Council released a first-of-its-kind website and phone app this week that is a great tool for empowering the city's students and ensuring the district respects their rights, particularly as they relate to school discipline.

In a letter to the editor for The Wall Street Journal, Lori Bezahler of the Hazen Foundation takes NYC charter school advocate Eva Moscowitz to task for her recent op-ed ridiculing restorative justice practices. Schools across the country are adopting restorative justice in lieu of harsh discipline for one simple reason: it works. It keeps more students in school, creates safer, more supportive learning environments, and raises test scores and graduation rates.

OTL allies held a Twitter rally last week after Eva Moskowitz, founder of Success Academy Charter Schools in New York City, penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which she tried to justify the use of harsh discipline policies in schools.

While debate around the reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act has focused mainly on issues like standardized testing, school accountability and funding, an op-ed by Louisiana education organizer Gina Womack raises another important issue for federal policymakers: addressing the discriminatory impact of harsh school disciplinary policies.

A new study from the University of Chicago found that while the overall number of out-of-school suspensions has decreased, suspension rates for African American male students remain especially high. This study illustrates the importance of organizing groups like Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE), which just last week celebrated as a bill to end harsh school discipline advanced out of the Illinois Senate Education Committee.