The Pathway Away From College Readiness: A Focus on Latino Male Middle School Students and Discipline

• In Event: Uncovering Carcerality in the Educational Pipeline

Abstract

Objective: This qualitative study explores the disciplinary practices perpetrated on seven Latino middle school boys throughout their transition from traditional to continuation schools using a Critical Race Theory (CRT) lens. Often, Latino boys are not included in conversations about the overuse of school discipline practices (Musto, 2019; Rios, 2017) and the detrimental impact of the school-to-prison pipeline on their educational trajectories (Huerta & Rios-Aguilar, 2018; Noguera, 2003; Rios, 2011). Musto (2019) found that teachers and administrators reserve their harshest forms of punishment for Latino boys and thus it is important to understand what moments in schools leads to their removal and transfer to continuation schools.

Theoretical Framework: CRT acknowledges the presence and persistence of racism in schools, discrimination, and hegemony, and enables various racial frames of reference to guide research questions, influences the methods of collecting and analyzing data, and challenge the dominant discourse about students of color (Howard, 2008; Madrigal-Garcia & Acevedo-Gil, 2016). Solórzano (1998) defines CRT into five basic tenets; 1) the centrality and intersectionality of race and racism, 2) the challenge to dominant ideology, 3) the commitment to social justice, 4) the centrality of experiential knowledge, and 5) the interdisciplinary perspective. We focus our analysis on the systemic practices in traditional schools that target and systematically removes Latino middle school boys from traditional school settings and transfers them to continuation schools. We also examine how the lack of clear policies and practices often delay transfer to the school for students.

Data Sources: Drawing from in-depth semi-structured individuals with seven Latino seventh and eighth grade students attending continuation schools in the Southwest region of the US. This paper helps understand what happens to Latino boys who have been removed from traditional schools and then sent to continuation schools due to suspensions and expulsions. Interviews ranged from 25 to 60 minutes.

Preliminary Analysis: Teachers often use the label “deviant” and “troublemakers” to frame how they view Latino boys’ behaviors in school and this attitude guides decisions to prohibit opportunities for students to seek redemption. Furthermore, these labels influence how students are disciplined for minor infractions that leads to increase chances for suspension and expulsion. For continuation schools there is a heightened emphasis on zero-tolerance policies that leads to uneven implementation. Latino boys fall victim to hyper-surveillance and policing, creating multiple barriers towards college readiness and potential transfers to traditional high schools. Potential relationships with school staff are also bridged when students feel like they are being criminalized.

Significance: We provide recommendations for teacher education programs and suggest building in equity and inequity indicators as a mechanism for understanding which student populations are being removed. Additionally, we suggest the implementation of discussions on race and implicit bias for teacher education and administrative credential programs. The uneasiness towards talking about racism and race leads to the unfair policy implementations related to school discipline. Practitioners and educators must invest in the well-being of Latino boys by making an effort to understand students beyond their preconceived labels of “troublemaker” and “deviant.”

Authors

• Adrian H. Huerta, University of Southern California

• Eligio Martinez, California State Polytechnic University - Pomona

• Maritza Elizabeth Salazar, University of Southern California