Policy & Reform

Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” His thoughts are shared by many elected officials who believe education is the key to reducing the United States prison population.  Over the past thirty years, significant research has been conducted to assess if attending college courses during incarceration reduces recidivism.  

Over 2.2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and almost 95 percent of inmates will be released back into communities. However, 41 percent of all United States prisoners have less than a high school diploma. A study conducted in 2016 by RAND  revealed when education classes of any level were offered within correctional facilities, there was a 43 percent reduction of individuals returning to prison after their release. Acclimation into society is difficult when inmates are released without an education and expected to enter the current job market. The research discovered offering classes allows inmates to work toward, or obtain, two or four-year degrees. The higher education classes present an opportunity for individuals to gain employment once released from prison. It is proven that employment after release reduces repeat offenses.

Many advocates for providing higher education in prisons not only point to a lower rate of recidivism, but also to the likelihood of a safer community. For example, within correctional facilities where higher education classes are offered, inmates who are enrolled in an education program are less likely to engage in altercations and drug trafficking. This creates a safer environment for guards and inmates. Also, once prisoners are released, they re-enter society with a higher sense of purpose and are equipped with skills to contribute positively. The results are communities with less crime, and an economy boosted by a capable workforce.

A significant concern for correctional facilities is the cost of providing higher education classes for prisoners. At one time, inmates could receive a Pell Grant to pay for classes, but in 1994, Congress repealed this funding. Once states saw the federal government withdraw the Pell Grant from prisoners, they were quick to drop their state funding as well. Taxpayers often complained about criminals receiving tax dollars to further their education. In recent years, this argument has been counteracted with the fact that providing educational opportunities to inmates actually lowers costs for taxpayers. Research shows for every dollar spent on higher education classes in prisons, it reduces the taxpayers’ burden approximately five dollars since it lowers recidivism rates.

Providing higher education courses within prison walls results in a positive effect on inmates and communities. Access to classes which contribute toward a two or four-year degree directly correlates to less tendency to commit future crimes. However, the debate continues about funding college classes in prisons, although it is has been shown that educating prisoners is more cost effective than simply housing them. Benjamin Franklin’s words continue to be proven true; “an investment in education provides great returns.”

In all phases of K-12 education: elementary school, middle school, and high school, it has become the norm to group students together based on their perceived academic aptitude. This is what is known as “educational tracking.” It began in the 1920s. With most schools, there was a temporary break from this in the 1960s and early 1970s, because they believed that minorities were being wrongly classified in the public-school system.

How students are classified

Classifying students into specific groups is done in various ways. Children are tested regularly in the classrooms and through standardized tests and IQ tests, starting as early as Kindergarten. These tests are used to determine if the student should blend placed in the general classroom or if they should partake in something considered to be more at their speed, such as special needs classes, college prep, vocational, and honors courses.

In some schools, the classification of students is based on teacher recommendations and a student’s motivation. However, if the student and teacher do not get along, the child can be judged unfairly.

In schools today, they have what is called “leveling systems.” This was developed to help students who struggle to receive additional instruction to help them catch up with their peers. For example, while some students will take algebra in 9^th grade, others will have to take pre-algebra first. A student who is considered advanced enough to go straight to algebra may find themselves in class with older students.

The real dangers of educational tracking

Though there is still the open question of whether students are being placed in the correct groups. Many believe that minority children and those from low economic classes are unjustly discriminated against and placed in lower groups based on anything but their education level. This was proven by the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. They posted the results of three studies that looked into the groups that students were placed in.

What the teachers in the study did not realize is that all of the children had the same grades. They were learning and testing at the exact same level. They were told that some of the children, including minorities, came from a lower socioeconomic background.

In the end, the teachers did as the researchers theorized, the minorities and those seen as a part of the lower class were grouped together and considered to be operating at a lower level academically, and their Caucasian or middle-class peers were grouped together and considered to be operating at a higher level academically. All three of those studies showed the same results. This has proven that educational tracking can produce the wrong results out of bias.

The American education system is not as good as some think, and it certainly is not as bad. Honestly, the truth is somewhere in the middle. We do a lot of things well, and on others, we miss the mark. Trust me, I have been researching and writing about education policy and reform since 2005, so I know the landscape better than most.

To get back on track and attain the dream of creating a system where every child has access to a quality education, we need to work on our weaknesses and be proud of successes. To piggyback off of the later, American educators and policymakers have created a lot of practices and strategies that are having a positive impact, partly because of their potential to create a more equitable system and boost student performance. In this piece, we will talk about 5 educational practices and procedures that should be more widespread.

Mindfulness. Is a set of strategies that have been used for several millennia to help people be “present” and in the moment, instead of focusing on distractions and stressors. Mindfulness is accomplished by calming the mind and becoming more aware of your emotions, cognitions, and body. Staying “present” helps you to increase your focus, improve your socio-emotional intelligence, and enhance your physical health. Studies have shown that incorporating mindfulness techniques and strategies in the classroom provides several teaching and learning benefits. Students and teachers are calm, at peace, and become in full control of their mind, body, and soul, which allows them to have more success in the classroom.

Restorative justice. A restorative justice approach that rehabilitates offenders through reconciliation with victims and the community at large can go a long way towards keeping kids in class and out of the criminal justice system. This does not have to happen exclusively in classrooms all the time though. Community outreach programs that embrace youth and teach them peace-making resolution strategies can improve the overall outcome for these students. It is important to note that many of these community outreach programs have had a positive impact on their participants and helped them to break the cycle of poverty, violence, and recidivism that has plagued their families for generations.

Universal Preschool. A movement in the U.S. that wants to make preschool available to all children, regardless of their ability level or their families level of income. It received a lot of attention during the Obama years, but the universal preschool train has lost a lot of its steam since he left office. Currently, millions of low-income students have access to a quality preschool education via HeadStart, but the program is far from perfect. Because their parent’s income is over the threshold needed to qualify for HeadStart, millions of children miss out on the power and promise of a quality early childhood education. Universal preschool would change that.

Credit Recovery. Allows students to retake classes online that they have failed in person, helping them remain on track for graduation. Online credit recovery was introduced about a decade ago, and it has since become a booming business. It’s clear that credit recovery is good for graduation rates, but is it good for college and career readiness? Is it good for students? Here’s some hopeful news: competency-based credit recovery programs, in which students must show mastery of a topic to advance, are beneficial. These programs, based on mastery rather than completion, demonstrate a positive direction for online credit recovery.

Unit Recovery. Closely related to the concept of credit recovery, unit recovery allows students to retake only the units or skills that they need to advance. For instance, a student who has demonstrated mastery of 6 out of 10 concepts in an English class doesn’t need to retake the entire course—he can focus on the four concepts that weren’t mastered in person.

What did I miss?

At the end of each year, K-8 students are either retained or promoted (many socially promoted) to the next grade. If a 5^th-grade student fails math but is an A student in Reading, Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science, they are made to repeat the 5^th-grade all over again and retake all of these subjects. In some instances, that same 5^th-grade student could fail half of their classes and still be socially promoted to the next grade by the principal, for fear of overpopulating the incoming 5^th-grade class.

Why on earth, do we continue to use a pass-fail approach that is punitive in nature, and does nothing but punish our children? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. We need to institute a multi-grade, multi-age educational system that allows students to move between grade levels when they are ready, not restricting grade-level transitions to the fall of each year.

For instance, in theory, the student that was retained in the 5^th grade because he failed math would not be required to repeat the same grade. They could be educated in a multi-grade, multi-age classroom, and be instructed on a 5^th-grade level for math, and a 6^th-grade level for the rest of their school subjects. I know that this sounds complicated, and I won’t lie to you, it requires the teacher to do a ton of work. However, with planning, and the right supports, all of this is mitigated, and things operated quite smoothly.

I don’t want to go into any more details, but I am working on a book project on this very subject. I will let you know when it publishes.

Tiffany Haddish, the breakout comedic star of 2018, often uses the pain and abuse that she endured as a result of being in and out of the foster care system as material for her comedy routines. She found a way to use comedy as a form of therapy, and her willingness to be open and authentic has gained her a legion of devoted fans. However, for the estimated 518,00 American children in foster care, life after aging out of the system is not a fairy tale.

For a multitude of reasons, foster care children have been removed from the homes of their birth parents or legal guardians and placed under state care. The best-case scenario involves these children being returned to their birth families or placed up for adoption. The worst-case scenario sees these children placed in long-term foster care.

Unfortunately, foster care children are more likely than the general public to become homeless, incarcerated, or dependent on state services. Many foster care children experience a horrific transition from foster care into the real world, kicked out once they become of legal age and expected to figure the rest out. Many of them have poor educational backgrounds, and when juxtaposed with their peers, they have lower standardized test scores and higher absenteeism, tardiness, truancy, and dropout rates.

Ask yourself, if you spent your formative years in the foster care system and were expected to transition to the real world without life skills, a place to stay, or any support or guidance, how would you fare? Many of us wouldn’t last one week on our own, and probably would end up in a homeless shelter or incarcerated.

What should be the government’s response?

Government agencies and lawmakers should revamp the foster care system to provide top-notch services, educational opportunities, and support to foster care children while they are in the system. We must understand that the most important thing that they need is better learning outcomes, which will help them make a smoother transition once they are in the real world.

However, policymakers need to be aware of and mitigate the issues that foster care children commonly experience in the education and child welfare systems. These problems include a lack of stability, consistently low expectations, lack of adult advocacy, poor life-skills training, lack of educator responsiveness to their special education needs, and cultural insensitivities. We need to fully understand these issues to develop reforms that improve educational opportunities for children in foster care.

I am also of the opinion that former foster care children should receive full-scholarships to the college of their choice. These children have been through so much, the least that we could do is help them get a head start on life by paying for college. They must work hard to gain admission and show adequate progress, but as long as they do that, we should foot the bill.

Also, they should receive a stipend that allows them to pay for housing, clothing, food, and other essentials while they are attending college. Sure, this could be expensive, but you know what else is expensive; incarcerating prisoners and funding the welfare system. I would rather empower former foster care children to transcend their situation and become productive members of society, as opposed to becoming prisoners or individual’s dependent on the welfare system.

Conclusion

Foster care children are given a tough lot in life. They are more likely to experience poor life outcomes than the general population. Adults who were placed in foster care as children are more likely than the rest of the population to be homeless, unemployed, and dependent on welfare. They are also more likely to be incarcerated, to abuse drugs and alcohol, and to suffer from physical or mental health issues. 

None of this is their fault, and we owe to them to help them grow up to be successful, well-adjusted adults. Policymakers and education advocates should be working feverishly to improve education opportunities for foster care children by expanding their education options. This will ensure that foster care children across the U.S. receive a high-quality education that prepares them for a successful transition into adulthood.

America needs to get a handle on its school funding conundrum. To describe our issues with school funding as a conundrum seems a bit far-fetched, but is it really? Let me explain. In American the education reform arena, some pundits cite school funding as a threat to education equity and on a deeper level, the nation itself. They opine about the huge differences in funding that we see in high-poverty schools as opposed to middle class or affluent schools.

In short, they would like to see the school funding formulas that fund schools in a more equitable way. Meaning, they want all schools to receive the same amount of per school funding. And on the face of it, I don’t think that it is a bad idea, but it is not a panacea. Why, because fully funding all schools at an equal rate does not provide a solution to human error and fiscal mismanagement.

Let me give you an example. I once worked in a high poverty school district that was eventually taken over by the state of Mississippi, because of financial mismanagement. Albeit five years after I left. The thing that hurt students the most was not the amount of funding that the school district received, but what administrators did with it. I won’t provide conjecture as to why the school district basically went bankrupt but let’s just say some administrators were asleep at the wheel and some had their hand in the cookie jar.

Here is another example. I once worked at an elementary school in an urban school district where the administrators were honest, but asleep at the wheel. For instance, because this school had a high concentration of Title 1 students (low-income students), it was designated as a Title 1 school, and as a result, received Title 1 funding. Before I get to the meat of this example, I feel it is necessary for me to explain what Title 1 is.

Title 1 is the largest federally funded educational program. Essentially, it provides supplemental funds to school districts who have the largest concentrations of poverty. These funds are meant to close the school funding gap and help these schools meet their educational goals. The federal government uses the number of students who receive free or reduced lunch to determine how much money each school will be allocated. Title 1 funds can be used to improve curriculum, instructional activities, counseling, parental engagement, or to hire teachers and other staff members.

So back to my example. Unaware of all the things that Title one could be used for, or simply overwhelmed by the school year, my principal spent the bulk of her funds on instructional and curriculum materials. Sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? Well, the problem is, teachers already had more materials than they could use in 3 lifetimes. As a result, these materials were housed in several storage closets in the auditorium and were never user. How do I know this?

As a special education teacher, my job was that of a floater, which meant that most of my day was spent visiting and supporting students that were mainstreamed into regular education classrooms. One day, my principal asked if I would help the janitors with some boxes of instructional materials that had just arrived. I did, and we moved the shipment into closets that where located in the auditorium. I was aghast to find two huge closets, filled with boxes of instructional materials that had never been opened. There had to be over $50,000 in instructional materials.

I never mentioned this to anyone in the building, but I frequently tell the story to colleagues. This money could have been put to good use, in a school that had students that lived in utter poverty. All in all, this was one of the best principals that I have ever seen, but she couldn’t see the fault in her stars.

I told you these stories to make a point; no amount of school funding will close the achievement gap, without people who know how to allocate resources correctly. In the end, the resources will not be deployed in a way that helps the most vulnerable students. There are countries whose per-pupil expenditure is 1/10 of ours, and yet their school systems are considered to be in the top five globally, and we can’t even crack the top ten.

As far as how we can crack this conundrum, I have my thoughts, but that will have to wait until another day.

Let me make my position clear. Transwomen and members of any other group in the LGBTQ community deserve to learn and thrive in K-12 and higher education. Let me explain what I mean by “transwoman.” A transwoman is a woman who was assigned the gender of a male at birth but identifies as female. Before I begin this advocacy piece, let me say that I do so from a space of semi-awareness. I am only discussing what I have read, seen or experienced, but my knowledge base is limited. I don’t personally know any transwomen, so this article does not authentically represent their voice.

All kids and adults should have a right to pursue an education, regardless of their gender or sexual identity. So forcing transwomen to use restrooms that don’t match their gender identity can be seen by the transwomen community as another barrier to educational attainment. And forcing them to use a separate restroom from the other students in the school or university just makes things worse. Schools should be protecting students from bullying, not creating policies that enable or promote it. If students can’t use restroom safely, among other things, then successful matriculation becomes that much harder.

What I know about Transwomen and LGBTQ bullying and abuse in education

I get it. I grew up in rural Mississippi, so I understand but don’t agree with the resistance that evangelical Christians and the community, in general, can have towards the LGBTQ community. The religious and the unreligious alike see it as a sin that is forbidden by the Bible, Koran, etc. The resistance is so harsh that an ex-offender coming home after doing a 30-year prison sentence for murder is more easily accepted than a transwoman.

Where I am from if a man or woman even associates themselves with a member of the LGBTQ community they can be ostracized by association. In the K-12 schools that I attended, some teachers encouraged and allowed the ostracization and bullying of K-12 LBGTQ students. I even remember one teacher telling us to stay away from a male student because he was “gay” and had “AIDS.” You can only imagine how terrified this made us. I won’t mention the grade, but it was in upper elementary school.

I know I digress a bit, but I wanted to make you understand what transwomen and members of the LGBTQ community go through. This was in the late ’80s, but some things never change. Laws and policies have curtailed some of this type of abuse, but it still exists.

Message to educators

My message to K-12 teachers, college professors, and education administrators is that you must ensure that every child has safe access to restrooms and can safely participate in your school or universities education program. Regardless of how you feel personally, it is your job to protect all students, regardless of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. If you can’t, you might need to find another profession.

I am especially ashamed of teachers of color who discriminate against transwomen and members of the LGBTQ community. How dare you make hard for these students to attend school and receive a quality education? How hypocritical can you be?

Think about how your ancestors were forced to attend segregated schools because white citizens didn’t want their children to attend school with them. Think about all of the abuse and suffering that they endured. Think about how they were murdered and “lynched,” just because they wanted to receive an education. Suffering is suffering, and bullying is bullying.

Getting an education is a thorny path for transwomen and the rest of the LGBTQ community, but it shouldn’t be. When we make the journey difficult for transwomen, we betray our humanity and fail to learn from our history. And as we all know, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

I was born in 1978, so throughout my life, I witnessed Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama run on a political platform that placed democratizing education at the forefront. Other politicians seemed to follow suit, and at the end of the day, it looked like our nations K-12 system was headed in the right direction.

Fast forward to 2019, and it looks like support for our K-12 schools has reached an all-time low. Why is this happening? Why have politicians abandoned their go to campaign trope?

This is quite a quandary, as the U.S. K-12 school system has made tremendous gains over the last decade, and we have gotten remarkedly better at helping “at risk” students “beat the odds” so to speak.  The education reform movements of the past are to thank for that, with each iteration helping to improve the next one.

However, in spite of it all, in 2019 politicians are staying as far away from education as they can. It is as if education was a kid with lice. When they remotely show interest in education, they concentrate their efforts on early childhood education or higher education. It’s as though the K-12 system is no longer a political “cash cow” that just keeps giving.

Politicians in 2019 are more interested in immigration, terrorism or the latest scandal emanating from the White House. This started back in 2016, during the presidential election. Political commentators were genuinely surprised to see political platforms and agendas that conveniently left out the field of education.

Education experts that were usually called upon by NBC, CNN, etc., to discuss K-12 education policy during the election cycle, where silenced. This continued during the 2018 midterm elections, but no one in K-12 made a big fuss about it. There were teachers across the U.S. that ran for office and won, but still, the core issues of education policy did not make it to the forefront.

So why were politicians silent on education issues? Because there was nothing to gain from it politically. The hot button issues of immigration, terrorism, etc., dominated the news and political cycle. To retain their seats, or win their seats, politicians led with the issues that their advisors, campaign directors, and political analysts felt would give them the greatest probability of being victorious.

I have a major problem with this. Our kids are not political pawns that can be used as a photo opportunity to gain political currency. We need to start “calling politicians on the carpet” for this type of behavior. It starts at the top.

We must start with the POTUS (President of the United States), and then move on to governors, U.S. congressmen, and senators, etc. Then and only then will politicians understand that we mean business, and those that ignore the needs of the U.S. K-12 system will find themselves voted out of office and replaced by someone who cares about our children’s futures.

If we don’t, we will cultivate a generation of future politicians who follow in their immediate predecessors’ footprints. We need to reach back into our political past and remember how essential education was to political campaigns. It was the Soviet launch of Sputnik 1 that ushered us out our first “golden age” of intellectual slumber and forced our politicians to get about serious education.

In 2019, maybe the fact that China plans to be the world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030 will be enough to make politicians rise to the occasion. I predict that this will usher in a new age of education reform, as U.S. politicians will scramble to make sense of it all. We have a long way to go when it comes to artificial intelligence in K-12. China is already introducing AI to kindergarten students, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

How are politicians responding to this? They aren’t; as very few of them are aware of this new threat to our democracy. This is what happens when politicians treat K-12 education like the kid with lice, that no one wants to play with.

I woke up this morning thinking about my K-12 classmates and the students that I taught during my K-12 and higher education career. More specifically, I thought about the students that were failed by the system. This led me to reflect on a single question: Can schools be guilty of educational malpractice? Keep reading to find out.

To begin, the students that I speak of came to school every day ready to learn but were written off their teachers and administrators because of learning and behavioral disabilities. It’s ironic that the students who need the most support and attention, often end up receiving the least of it. How does this happen?

This happens when teachers spend their time working with the students who are operating on grade level in an attempt to bolster their standardized test scores. If students receive good test scores, their principal will be pleased, and they get to keep their job. In some instances, if their students score well on standardized tests, these teachers receive a merit-based pay, which is a bonus that is given to teachers for reaching certain professional milestones.

Who cares if the students who needed the most help, can coast along, receiving inflated grades to hide the fact that they are not learning? This only becomes apparent when standardized test results are released, and we find out these students are operating at a basic level.

Even that can be explained away, by telling parents and stakeholders that some students just aren’t good test takers, but they are learning, as evidenced by their excellent class grades. Real educators know that large discrepancies between two assessments, that are supposed to measure the same academic skills is a red flag.

Unfortunately, no one pays attention, and since the abolishment of NCLB (No Child Left Behind), there is no way to hold schools accountable for teaching all students. Not that I was a fan of NCLB, but I feel like ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) “threw out the baby with the bathwater.” Several provisions in NCLB made it impossible for schools to ignore certain segments of its student population.

For instance, schools had to improve show AYP (adequate yearly progress), to be considered successful. This means that the academic proficiency of the entire student population and its subgroups must show growth from year to year. The level of student growth that schools needed to show was always known way before the school year began. If they didn’t meet their targets or goals, there were stiff consequences, including school funding cuts. Unfortunately, many of these targets and goals were unattainable in the first place, but they could have been reconfigured, not abolished. Well, that’s enough of my NCLB rant.

Can schools be guilty of educational malpractice? Yes, they can be, especially if their guiding light is not the belief that all students have the right to a quality education, and teachers that will help them reach their academic potential. If principals and teachers fail to educate students properly, then yes, they are indeed guilty of educational malpractice.