The "No Excuses" Model of Urban School Reform: Wrenching Truths, Critical Perspectives, and Dissent

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this symposium, scholars of race, education policy, and the school-prison nexus present research on the effects of the "No Excuses" model of urban school reform—that is, a zero-tolerance school climate—on youth of color and their teachers. Specifically, they provide thick description of student and teacher experience and examine the micro-level effects, concerns, and abuses that follow from harsh discipline policies. Additionally, they connect micro-level, experiential, school-based data to macro-level data on patterns of disproportionality in discipline as well as wider practices and policies, including policing and racial profiling, that affect such communities. In addition to a critical race analysis of these dynamics, they consider what can be done to change the resulting injustices and highlight equitable alternatives.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Educators for Social Justice

Chair

• Kristen L. Buras, Georgia State University

Papers

• Race and Discipline in "No Excuses" Charter Schools: Cultural Dimensions of Inequality in Market-Driven Contexts - Terrenda Corisa White, University of Colorado - Boulder

• There Is No Excuse: Charter Schools and the Assault on Students' Educational, Civil, and Human Rights - Kristen L. Buras, Georgia State University

• The Culture of Consent and Compliance Among Teachers at "No Excuses" Charters - Beth Leah Sondel, University of Pittsburgh; Kerry Kretchmar, Carroll University

• Law and Order in School and Society: How Discipline and Policing Policies Harm Students of Color - Janelle T. Scott, University of California - Berkeley; Michele S. Moses, University of Colorado - Boulder; Kara S. Finnigan, University of Rochester; Tina M. Trujillo, University of California - Berkeley; Darrell D. Jackson, University of Wyoming

Discussant

• Russell J. Skiba, Indiana University