Illinois Requires Public Reporting of School Discipline Data | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity

Illinois Requires Public Reporting of School Discipline Data | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity:

Building Consensus to Reform School Discipline

The newly released School Discipline Consensus Report is a powerful catalog of promising strategies for reforming school discipline. The report draws on hundreds of experts from the fields of education, health, law enforcement and juvenile justice and offers a consensus framework to address the overuse and misuse of harsh school discipline. Millions of students are removed from their

by jocelyn / 13min 

Illinois Requires Public Reporting of School Discipline Data

Posted on: Tuesday June 3rd, 2014

Thanks to the organizing work of Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, the Illinois legislature has passed a new law requiring public reporting of school discipline data. SB2793 is a huge victory and a step toward ending the discriminatory use of suspensions and expulsions. 

Students of color and students with disabilities are far more likely to be barred from the classroom, often for minor, nonviolent misbehaviors. In the 2009-2011 school year, one out of every six black students were suspended at least once, compared to one in twenty white students. For black students with disabilities, the suspension rate jumps to one in four. 

Once a student is suspended, it increases the likelihood that they become disengaged from school and drop out, which in turn can increase the chances of them getting involved in the juvenile justice system. This discriminatory "school-to-prison pipeline" is a critical factor in the achievement gap facing students of color across the nation. 

The new Illinois law is the first of its kind in the nation. It requires public reporting of suspension and expulsion data, broken down by race and ethnicity, gender, age, grade level, limited English proficiency, incident type, and discipline duration. Additionally, the districts that fall in the highest 20 percent of discipline rates will have to create an improvement plan to address the overuse and disparate use of school discipline. 

To learn more about the new law, read this editorial from the Chicago Sun Times.

Building a Beloved Community

A new report by the Open Society Foundations and the Foundation Center is a must-read for anyone who cares about the rectifying the disparities in our society that impact young men and boys of color. A new report by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and the Foundation Center is a must-read for anyone who cares about the rectifying the disparities in our society that impact boys and y

by jocelyn / 44min 

Understanding the Common Core: Resources from AR Ally | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity

Understanding the Common Core: Resources from AR Ally | National Opportunity to Learn Campaign | Education Reform for Equity and Opportunity: Understanding the Common Core: Resources from AR AllyPosted on: Friday May 23rd, 2014The Common Core State Standards have been adopted by 44 states and the District of Columbia. To say they're contentious is to put it mildly. For various reasons, a nationwid

by mike simpson / 21h