‘Just Learning’? In most juvenile prisons, students languish
Screen shot from “Just Learning.” Data source: Consolidated State Performance Report, US Department of Education.
In every arena of education, Americans have become relentless in their search for evidence of results. That goes for preschools, colleges, anti-dropout programs — you name it. Except for one long-lingering category: juvenile detention.
The purpose of locking kids up has always been rehabilitation over punishment. Yet no central office in Washington — or nationally — tracks educational outcomes for this group of students, which needs help perhaps more than that any other to get on track. (Only 37 percent of youth in juvenile prisons are there for violent crimes; the rest have drug, property or public-order offenses.)
Last week, the Southern Education Foundation, a nonprofit based in Georgia, released findings from “Just Learning,” its national look at academic outcomes for the 70,000 young peopleincarcerated on any given day in the United States. The results were damning.
Fewer than half of youths earned a single course credit while locked up. Only 9 percent got a GED certificate or high school diploma. As a group, western states showed slightly better results — with 53 percent of incarcerated kids earning a course credit, though only 7 percent completed school.
“By every indicator that we can find — data from federal and state governments, results of scholarly research – these children are being given an education that is far below what is provided to other students who have less needs,” said Steve Suitts, vice-president of the foundation and author of ‘Just Learning'? In most juvenile prisons, students languish | Education Lab Blog | Seattle Times: