Broken Windows Schooling
Suspending huge numbers of minority students is bad—unless it’s done in the name *college prep*
Suspending huge numbers of minority students is bad, bad, bad, as we learned this week from Obama administration officials. Which brings us to today’s high-stakes question: when is it fine, fine, fine for schools to have sky-high suspension rates?Answer: when said schools are academies of excellence and innovation that are *preparing students for college.* Ready the carabiner, reader—we’re about to scale the walls of Double Standards gulch.The College XL Pipeline
Thanks to new federal standards, our failed and failing public schools must now seek out alternatives to out-of-school suspensions, which fall disproportionately on minority students, and are but the first section of pipe in the school-to-prison pipeline. Meanwhile at the *No Excuses* academies that a growing number of minority students have no choice but to attend, suspensions are seen as key to instilling self discipline. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s pay a call upon New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, soon to become the nation’s first all charter school district and, judging from recent news reports, home to
Thanks to new federal standards, our failed and failing public schools must now seek out alternatives to out-of-school suspensions, which fall disproportionately on minority students, and are but the first section of pipe in the school-to-prison pipeline. Meanwhile at the *No Excuses* academies that a growing number of minority students have no choice but to attend, suspensions are seen as key to instilling self discipline. But don’t take my word for it. Let’s pay a call upon New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, soon to become the nation’s first all charter school district and, judging from recent news reports, home to