‘We Have to Educate Every Single Student, Not Just the Ones That Look like Us': Support Service Providers' Beliefs about the Root Causes of, and Solutions to, the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Youth of Color

Background and Purpose: Scholars and policymakers are paying increasing attention to the negative impacts of exclusionary school discipline practices and related racial disparities on young people’s life trajectories. Within the past two decades, researchers have documented the school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) phenomena and how schools’ reliance on exclusionary discipline practices have increased the number of students funneled into the pipeline every year, particularly students of color. A growing body of literature now suggests that exposure to punitive discipline increases students’ likelihood for negative outcomes such as grade retention, dropout, and juvenile justice involvement. Moreover, high suspension rates have been linked to student perceptions of a negative school climate and lower school safety.

This study adds to the extant research on the STPP by exploring educators’ beliefs about the root causes of, and solutions to, racially disparate outcomes in exclusionary discipline practices. Identifying how these issues are discussed amongst school administrators may offer insight into the types of adult-oriented interventions needed to ensure our most vulnerable students have access to evidence-based interventions. This exploratory study investigated how central office administrators and school-based service providers, including school social workers, conceptualize the causal mechanisms that constrain and enable the “school to prison pipeline” in a large urban district.

Methods: 33 schools (from a population of 180) were purposively selected for the study sample based on their suspension rates. From these schools, student support staff as well as district partners (n=36) participated in focus groups guided by semi-structured protocols. Focus groups were transcribed verbatim and coded using Dedoose qualitative software. Analysis used both inductive and deductive techniques, with preliminary codes gleaned from a literature review and iterative code development driven by participant responses. Codes were assessed for inter-rater reliability across two researchers using Cohen’s Kappa (k > .80).  

Results: Most participants emphasized structural and systemic causes of the STPP, such as institutional racism and poverty. A smaller group of school-based providers questioned the focus of reform efforts on alternatives-to-suspension for youth of color and placed primary blame on students for their school’s suspension rates. Likewise, to minimize the STPP, most participants highlighted the importance of racial awareness, relationship building, and non-punitive practices in response to misbehavior. Many acknowledged the need for an individualized approach to discipline that considers extrinsic factors impacting behavior.

Conclusion and Implications: For the most part, educators’ perspectives were well aligned with the focus of the extant literature on the STPP. Given strong evidence that racial disparities cannot be explained by differential behavior, most scholarship in this area emphasizes the need to change school-level practices that promote a positive school climate, such as relationship building and restorative practices. However, the persistence of exclusionary and punitive attitudes among a subset of the sample suggests there is a need for differentiated professional development that addresses competing frameworks for understanding the root causes of, and solutions to, the STPP.