Kicked Out and Then a Dropout

Kicked Out and Then a Dropout
New National Report Shows that Unnecessarily Harsh Discipline Policies Are being Applied Unfairly and Disproportionately to Minority Students,Dragging Down Academic Achievement

Panel to Include:
Daniel Losen, (the report’s author) Civil Rights Project at UCLA
Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA)
Jonathan Brice, School Support Network Officer, Baltimore City Schools
Hon. Steven Teske, Juvenile Court Judge, Clayton County, GA
Prof. Kevin Welner, U. of Colo., National Education Policy Center

(Washington, DC) – Daniel Losen, a lawyer and teacher, formerly of Harvard University and one of the nation’s top experts on school discipline, will release a national study, Discipline Policies, Successful Schools and Racial Justice, at a National Press Club Newsmaker press conference, 10 a.m., Oct. 5, 2011, in the Lisagor Room, at the National Press Building, 529 14th St., N.W., Washington, DC.

The report documents a trend across the United States in which minority students are routinely receiving major penalties, including school suspensions, for minor school offenses. The report also shows how criminalizing kids is having a detrimental effect on student learning. Meanwhile, the federal government is doing little to collect data in any uniform way on the large number of students kicked out of school.

Joining Losen on the panel will be Rep. Bobby Scott, who will talk about actions the federal government should take to insure that discipline is applied fairly; Georgia juvenile court judge, the Honorable Steven Teske, who will offer recommendations; and Jonathan Brice, the administrator chiefly responsible for student discipline in the Baltimore City Schools, who will speak about alternative approaches to zero tolerance policies. In addition, Dr. Kevin Welner will discuss how the National Education Policy Center has been studying diversity and academic achievement and the role discipline plays.

Contact:

Jamie Horwitz, NPC Newsmakers Committee/Host
202/549-4921, [email protected]