Posted on 03/24/2014 6:02:10 AM PDT by YourAdHere
Even preschoolers are getting suspended from U.S. public schoolsand they're disproportionately Black, a trend that continues up through the later grades.
Data released March 21 by the Education Department's civil rights arm finds that Black children represent about 18 percent of children enrolled in preschool programs in schools, but almost half of the students were suspended more than once. Six percent of the nation's districts with preschools reported suspending at least one preschool child.
Advocates have long said that get-tough suspension and arrest policies in schools have contributed to a "school-to-prison" pipeline that snags minority students, but much of the emphasis has been on middle school and high school policies. This data shows the disparities starting in the youngest of children.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration issued guidance encouraging schools to abandon what it described as overly zealous discipline policies that send students to court instead of the principal's office. But, even before the announcement, school districts have been adjusting policies that disproportionately affect minority students.
Overall, the data shows that Black students of all ages are suspended and expelled at a rate that's three times higher than that of White children. Even as boys receive more than two-thirds of suspensions, Black girls are suspended at higher rates than girls of any other race or most boys.
The data doesn't explain why the disparities exist or why the students were suspended. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Attorney General Eric Holder were scheduled to appear at J.O. Wilson Elementary School on March 21 in Washington to discuss the data.
Nationally, one million children were served in public preschool programs, with about 60 percent of districts offering preschool during the 2011-2012 school year, according to the data. The data shows nearly 5,000 preschoolers suspended once. At least 2,500 were suspended more than once.
Daniel Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies for the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, said the findings are disturbing because the suspended preschoolers aren't likely presenting a danger, such as teenager bringing a gun to school.
"Almost none of these kids are kids that wouldn't be better off with some support from educators," Losen said. "Just kicking them out of school is denying them access to educational opportunity at such a young age. Then, as they come in for kindergarten, they are just that much less prepared."
Losen said it's appropriate to discipline a 4-year-old, but a more appropriate response might be moving them to a different educational setting with additional services.
"Most preschool kids want to be in school," Losen said. "Kids just don't understand why they can't go to school."
Judith Browne Dianis, co-director of the Advancement Project, a think tank that specializes in social issues affecting minority communities, has been advocating against the overly zealous use of suspensions against African American students. Unfortunately, she said it didn't surprise her to hear that even younger black students were being kicked out of school at a high rate.
"I think most people would be shocked that those numbers would be true in preschool, because we think of 4- and 5-years-olds as being innocent," she said. "But we do know that schools are using zero tolerance policies for our youngest also, that while we think our children need a head start, schools are kicking them out instead."
Go to Walmart and just observe for 1 hour.
Disproportionate numbers of black kids don’t know who their daddies are.
RELATIVEdisproportionateism = what ever they can make up or imagine what is wrong and evil with those “ other peoples “ and stick it to them.
Root of problem is that being a baby momma is a business.
More babies = more benefits.
At some point we will get to a point that parenthood will require a license and 2 parents, with a parenting plan.
So Black pre-schoolers are exempt from the rules of civilized behavior? That’s very racist. Just wait until the little White kids come home with bite marks or tell this moms they’ve been groped at nap time. Who you gonna call? The White Hut?
These kids have no home. Not to speak of.
They will and they do.
Disproportionate Numbers of Black Kids Show Severe Behavioral Problems Resulting in Their Being Suspended from Preschool Programs
Fixed it.
a trend that continues up through the later grades.
a trend that continues up through the later grades with criminal behavior manifesting disproportionately in black kids
Fixed that too.
Start ‘em young!
Any analysis or study that shows any sort of racial disparity is ... racist.
Consider that this past Saturday night the city of Louisville KY saw a moving riot of over 200 “youths” that rampaged through the downtown business district.
Local media is covering it, and the police are issuing statements asking for information on the thugs involved, but without mention of any discriptors beyond “youth.”
To add, the event in Louisville does not appear to have been March Madness related :-D
Hey parents, you don’t want your kids to get suspended, then teach em how to act. Problem solved. Quit blaming society for your problems.
A couple I know adopted a black child from foster care - at approx. the age of 4. I don’t know what was wrong with the mother, and of course, there was no father around. He literally had no home. The kid was wild and uncontrollable.
10+ years later, after growing up in this adopted home of suburban, professional, christian people - the boy is calm, polite, and even a bit of a nerd (I think he’s even in the chess club at high school).
Families and environments matter.
Thank LBJ for that.
If you examine the history of the change in labels the left uses for themselves and their mascots,
you’ll see that every new label they adopt is eventually rejected because it is deemed “offensive”.
“Offensive”, of course, to a liberal, because the understanding of what the label refers to is too close to the truth.
I assert that the word “teens” or “youth” will eventually be deemed “racist”, because everyone will come to understand that these euphemistic words really mean “uncivilized, unruly, and criminally inclined ethnic group”.
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