Making the School to Prison Pipeline Visible: A Call for Rigorous Investigation

• In Event: Empirical Examinations of Punitive Disciplinary Practices and Their Consequences

Abstract

This paper is a critical assessment of the literature on the “school to prison pipeline” and a meta-analysis of quantitative studies on the phenomenon. The ideal knowledge base on this topic would include a mix of scholarly investigations based on multiple methods. At this point in the discipline, we should have the benefit of a host quantitative studies based on comprehensive data featuring explicit measures of student characteristics, school discipline, individual level measures of criminal justice involvement, including arrest, bail and trial information, through the final disposition of cases. However, our systematic review yielded few truly separate quantitative investigations. Most of the studies in peer reviewed journals, university and non-profit center publications, and government reports tend to use the same three-to-four data sources, investigate the same hypotheses, and arrive at the same conclusions. Meta-analysis of these few studies suggests a general lack of rigor in analysis due in part to three main issues in the sub-discipline of educational and juvenile justice research: unavailability of data, heavy policy and activist focus of much of the research, and problems of definition and operationalization. A research agenda is suggested for moving the discipline forward in advancing knowledge on this topic.

Author

• Deinya Phenix, St. Francis College