The school-to-prison pipeline is a national trend in which students are pushed out of school and into the juvenile justice system. Research indicates that the pipeline is an unintended consequence of increasingly harsh school discipline policies such as “zero tolerance.” Additionally, schools increasingly rely on law enforcement to handle minor disciplinary issues previously administered internally. This creates the initial link between the classroom and the criminal justice system. Harsh discipline policies often disproportionally affect minority students and students with disabilities.
Did you know that 2,993,120 students graduated high school in 2011? These and other demographic and achievement statistics about high schools in the United States can be found in the National High School Center’s recently released Quick Stats Fact Sheet: High Schools in the United States.
Looking for new high school-related resources? Here are some pieces that other organizations have recently released:*
On Tuesday, February 28, Dr. Laura C. Brown, Director of Georgia Learning Resources System (GLRS), presented a Webinar titled, “GraduateFIRST: The Dropout Prevention Destination.” During this event, Dr. Brown described Georgia’s GraduateFIRST program, identified ways schools can make improvements, shared tools and resources available to schools, and highlighted the successes of specific schools using the program.
We have some good news and some bad news.
The good news: The recently released U.S. Department of Education NAEP high school transcript study noted that the number of advanced courses (Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate, etc.) students take in high school has tripled over the past two decades.
In our most recent posts, we have examined indicators that can identify students with disabilities who are at risk of dropout. In order to increase the graduation rate of students with disabilities, the National High School Center suggests the following recommendations:
Graduation rates for students with disabilities fall significantly below the national graduation rate for all students. In 2005–06, 57 percent of students with disabilities earned a regular school diploma.