Cradle to College Pipeline - Des Moines, Iowa to College...Cradle to College Pipeline ... culture of punishment rather than prevention and early intervention ... Availability and connectivity

How we go from the Schoolto Prison Pipeline to the Cradle to College Pipeline

Jonathan R. Douglas, PhD

▪Breakdown of Cradle to Prison Pipeline▪ School to Prison Pipeline

▪Breakdown of Cradle to Prison Pipeline▪ School to Prison Pipeline

▪Best practices in reducing the effects of pipeline

▪Breakdown of Cradle to Prison Pipeline▪ School to Prison Pipeline

▪Best practices in reducing the effects of pipeline

▪Moving from a deficit to strengths based approach

▪Breakdown of Cradle to Prison Pipeline▪ School to Prison Pipeline

▪Best practices in reducing the effects of pipeline

▪Moving from a deficit to strengths based approach

▪Steps for Cradle to College

▪Best practices in increasing effects of this pipeline

▪ Equality - treating everyone the same ▪ aims to promote fairness, but it can only work if

everyone starts from the same place and needs the same help

▪ Equity - giving everyone what they need to be successful

▪ Implicit Bias – judgment and/or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes that often operate at a level below conscious awareness

▪ There is not a single reason behind this, it has been generations in the making within a young nation with a short term memory

▪ The intersection and culmination of poverty, racial disparities and a culture of punishment rather than prevention and early intervention working in tandem to drive intergenerational transmission and pushing individuals and families down the pipeline.

▪ The entry points to the cradle to prison pipeline are many and every further step into its realm magnifies its impact upon the life of a youth.

▪ School-based and out of school suspension

▪Concentrated poverty

▪Expulsion

▪Alternative education program placement

▪Court Charging

▪ 3,480 - Number of total days of out of school suspension K-12 was ▪ African Americans – 1,377▪ Special Education – 1,337

▪ 26.6% of students in out of school suspension were African American Males▪ They comprise only 9.4% of total enrollment

▪ Percentage of students that have 0-1 office referrals is 83% when calculated within all race-ethnicities▪ African Americans – 67.8%▪ Special Education students – 66.3%

▪69% of male students reach the FAST Assessment Benchmark in Kindergarten▪ 65% for AA and 57% for Latino males

▪By 1st grade this gap widens to 11% for AA and 12% for Latino

▪By 9th grade the gap between all male students and those of color is 61%▪ 41% for AA and 47% for Latino males

▪ In Iowa among all children, 15 percent or 109,000 live in poverty.▪ For Latino children, 3 in 10 (30.5 percent or 13,988) are poor.

▪ For Black children, 4 in 9 (44.5 percent or 10,683) are poor.

▪22% of children live in homes where their parents do not have secure employment

▪20 teen births per 1,000

▪$34,025: annual cost to house an inmate

▪Meanwhile, the state annually spends $10,313 to educate each K-12 student

▪How do those numbers compare to you?

▪ Reduce detention and incarceration by increasing preventive supports and services children need:

▪ Access to quality early childhood development and education services

▪ Prohibiting suspensions and expulsion across early childhood settings

▪ Comprehensive health and mental health coverage

▪ Improving teacher preparation and education with an eye toward cultural responsiveness and racial equity

▪ Engaging and educating parents, especially first time parents

▪ Using child development specialists alongside consistent doctor appointments to work with parents in assuring that milestones are met

▪ Expanding preschool to EVERYONE

▪ Taking down barriers and keeping supports strong

▪ Continue and increase work with non profits and community initiatives

▪ Starting the higher education conversation early

▪ Promote and increase the mentoring opportunities and availabilities

▪ School is about both academic and social knowledge and growth

▪ Promoting the importance and benefits of community service and school involvement

▪ Business involvement

▪ Thinking ahead for a career is not something that should start as an adult

▪ Properly preparing our students for college is more than simply graduating

▪ Teaching life skills (i.e. adulting)

▪ How to find campus services

▪ Adjustment to living away from home

▪ Maintaining school-life balance

▪ Establishing relationships

▪ Working with staff and faculty to increase retention and graduation rates

▪ Business relationships with higher education institutes

▪ According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation Iowa rates:

▪ # 4 in Economic Well Being

▪ # 3 in Health

▪ # 5 in Family and Community

▪ Yet, where we were previously one of the strongest we are now # 11 in education

▪ Do not accept complacency

▪Ten years of data on incarceration and crime trends show that higher youth incarcerated did not decrease crime

▪The most effective programs at reducing recidivism rates and promoting positive life outcomes for youth are administered in the community, outside of the criminal or juvenile justice systems.

▪Research shows that the brain does not fully develop to look like an adult brain until the individuals reaches their early 20s

▪ This is ever updating in our technological world and we can use this

▪ Availability and connectivity to higher education

▪ Trade schools, apprenticeships, comm. college and 4 year colleges

▪ Promoting meaningful family engagement strategies

▪ Investigate parent’s attitudes and expectations regarding educational attainment▪ Make sure they know their opinions matter

▪ Increase funding and expand access to in-school behavioral and emotional support services, including early childhood mental health consultation, or ECMHC

▪ Increasing funding for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, or MIECHV

▪ Require co-parenting classes after divorce

▪ It may seem small but can have big impacts

▪ Increase Restorative Justice programming

▪ Giving children and families a second chance

▪ K-16 funding

▪ State return to funding levels according to economic and inflationary standards

▪We cannot allow fear to drive our decisions for the youth and future of our community, state and country.

▪Those who would give up Liberty, to purchase a temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. ▪Ben Franklin, 1755