Past, Present, and Future: Making and Unmaking the School-Prison Nexus

As part of a collaboration between SD Notebook and the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), this post is reproduced from the most recent issue of PRRAC’s “Poverty & Race” journal, which focuses on the relationship between school finance and segregation. And, it’s great. I highly recommend reading the articles themselves and/or tuning into…

“Safety and Security” in Boston Schools: A History of Police and Repression, Part 3

When I started this series, it was before police shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back, before they tossed water to a white supremacist who had just murdered two protesters. That was only one week ago, but it already feels like forever-ago or, more accurately, feels like a version of this has been happening…

“Safety and Security” in Boston Schools: A History of Police and Repression, Part 2

In part 1, posted last week, Matt Kautz looked at the origins of school policing in Boston: as students peacefully protested conditions in the city’s segregated schools, their dissent was criminalized. That post details efforts by the Boston School Committee, led by Louise Day Hicks, to frame student protest as dangerous, leading to police presence…

“Safety and Security” in Boston Schools: A History of Police and Repression, Part 1

In the discussion about policing following George Floyd’s murder, we’ve learned (or been reminded) that contemporary policing has its roots in the slave patrols of the early 1800’s. It turns out there’s a sort of analogy with schools: instead of maintaining safety, school policing likewise began as an effort to criminalize people of color who…

SD Research Summary: Racial disparities in school discipline

I’m excited to feature a new collaborating author on the SD Notebook – Jeremy Anderson is a Ph.D. candidate at Penn State and a colleague on the voluntary integration research team led by Erica Frankenberg. Racial disparity in school discipline is a national problem that is especially troubling when it comes to exclusionary school discipline…

Still Separate, Still Unequal: Racial justice art events this summer

Shortly after starting my job at the Center for Education and Civil Rights, I learned about a unique art exhibit that was set to be installed at Penn State as part of a national tour. The exhibit is called “Still Separate – Still Unequal,” co-curated with Larry Ossei-Mensah, and it is the second part of…

SD Research Roundup: Focus on school discipline, part 1

There have been major stories recently regarding school diversity (among other things!), including the Trump Administration’s reversal of Obama-era guidance on Affirmative Action. By design in the Trump era, just about every day brings a deluge of stories that are often as consequential as they are morally shocking. And, in that constant wave of big…