Middle schoolers who attend schools with high suspension rates are substantially more likely to be arrested and jailed as adults, according to research published in Education Next magazine.

To conduct their research, authors Andrew Bacher-Hicks, Stephen B. Billings, and David J. Deming took advantage of a natural experiment that arose in 2002 when school boundaries were redrawn in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina. For instance, half of all students from McClintock Middle School, with a suspension rate of 19 percent, were reassigned to South Charlotte Middle School, with a suspension rate of 7 percent.

The researchers analyzed the 26,246 students who experienced the boundary change and followed their experiences from 1998–99 through 2010–11 by looking at their discipline records, educational attainment and county records on arrests and incarcerations.

“Our findings show that early censure of school misbehavior causes increases in adult crime — that there is, in fact, a school-to-prison pipeline,” the authors write. “Further, we find that the negative impacts from strict disciplinary environments are largest for minorities and males, suggesting that suspension policies expand preexisting gaps in educational attainment and incarceration.”

The researchers found that being assigned to a “strict” school increases the number of days students are suspended and their probability of being incarcerated as adults. These effects are largest for Black and Hispanic students, and especially for Black and Hispanic males.

They also found suspensions are driven by leadership decisions. When a principal who has been strict in prior years switches to a new school, suspensions in the new school increase.

Read the article at https://www.educationnext.org/proving-school-to-prison-pipeline-stricter-middle-schools-raise-risk-of-adult-arrests/.

LAUSD will require all students age 12 and older to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, unless they have a medical or other exemption.

The district announced the policy Sept. 9 as part of its efforts to provide the safest possible environment in which to learn and work, according to a district news release.

“The science is clear — vaccinations are an essential part of protection against COVID-19,” Interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly said, in the release. “The COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective and requiring eligible students to be vaccinated is the strongest way to protect our school community.”

New research indicates that the K-12 workforce is more stressed, burnt out and anxious compared to other state and local employees.

According to MissionSquare Research Institute (formerly the Center for State and Local Government Excellence at ICMA-RC), more than one-third (37 percent) of the K-12 workforce says that the pandemic has them considering a job change. K-12 employees are also concerned about the impact of the pandemic on students — from falling behind in their education to experiencing problems with access to the internet and technology. This segment is also feeling the financial pain of the pandemic more acutely than others.

The results are based on a national survey of more than 1,200 state and local government employees.