Ensuring Racial Equity or Racial Subjugation: Examining State Takeover Districts and the School-to-Prison Pipeline

• In Event: 58.053 - Discipline Policies and the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Civil Rights, Disproportionality, and Educational Equity

Abstract

Recent federal legislation aimed at educational equity encourages states to reconstitute school districts. The vast majority of districts taken over by states have been predominately minority. This paper assesses the role of state takeover districts in pursuing the reduction of the occurrence of harsh disciplinary practices used against Black students. The key finding of this paper is that state takeover districts in Detroit, Memphis, and New Orleans increase, rather than decrease, the occurrence of harsh disciplinary practices as evaluated against the prevalence of harsh disciplinary practices used in the extant locally governed public schools.

Author

• Steven Leonice Nelson, The University of Memphis