Tag: Black Boys in Crisis Series

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

For good or ill, education in the United States is at the whim of the governing party. A new president can usher in sweeping changes that can influence the educational system for a decade or more, as we saw with George W. Bush and No Child Left Behind. For this reason, it is imperative that a reliable, nonpartisan US Department of Education composed of a broad spectrum of educational professionals be in place at the highest level. This will ensure that, through any transition, basic standards and protections will remain in place.

For the black boy in America, simply implementing basic standards and protections will not be enough. We also need to work toward a fairer policing and justice system. The first step should be to remove money from the justice and police systems. These organizations should never operate on a for-profit basis. What that does is provide incentives to police officers and judges to find and convict criminals. All prisons and detention centers in the land should be managed and overseen by the government.

All police departments in the nation should receive long and powerful training on racism awareness, with periodic retraining. Whistleblowers in police departments should receive strong protections. Furthermore, all police officers on duty should be forced to wear body cameras, with serious repercussions should those fail or be turned off. These measures have been demonstrated to lower the rate of violence, particularly toward people of color.

This series has been, in some part, a litany of woes. We have looked at dire statistics on poverty and the graduation rates of black boys. We have looked at the injustices they face on the streets and in the classroom. We have looked at the rates at which they are incarcerated and the rates at which they are held back in school.

All of these things are true. I have seen firsthand how African-American boys are treated in this country, and I know the despair that can set in. I have seen black boys internalize the hatred and release it in destructive ways. I have seen black boys fail. In the worst cases, they ended up on the streets, in prison or, like my friend Isaac, dead.

However, there is hope.

First, the United States has recently seen some African-American male public figures who provide excellent role models for young black boys. These include Ta-Nehisi Coates, whose Between the World and Me won the National Book Award; astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson; Paul Beatty, the first American winner of the prestigious Booker Prize; activist senator Cory Booker; and, of course, the first black president, Barack Obama. For a young black boy, simply the knowledge that it is possible to get into the highest political offices and academic institutions in the land is tremendously liberating.

Second, there is a growing call for change. The emphasis on standardized assessments is being reevaluated as parents and teachers alike are reacting against the testing culture. The Black Lives Matter movement is having an effect: more police departments are undergoing racism-awareness training, and the larger population is becoming aware of the racism endemic to our society and how it affects young African Americans. There is a growing awareness of the financial inequality in our country, and a call for measures to level the playing field.

Finally, despite their grim history and the obstacles in their way, black boys in this country have performed above trend for many decades. They started from a much lower place than other groups, but are on track to achieve equality. If the trend continues, and if the government and social forces work in their favor, they should be able to climb to parity by the middle or end of this century, thus reversing nearly four centuries of profound injustice. Note, though, that this will not happen unless they are given the necessary supports.

That’s where we come in. All Americans have a part to play in helping African-American boys succeed. If you live in this country, you are part of a community. Let’s work together to ensure that the crisis among black boys becomes history and that the future is one of promise, hope, and parity.

 

 

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

When it comes to solving the black boy crisis, schools and educators are the first lines of defense. Why? Because children spend a significant amount of time in our country’s schools. Also, teachers have more influence than they realize. There are a myriad of issues surrounding the black boy crisis that schools can help mitigate. In this article, we will discuss these opportunities, one by one.

One simple issue that teachers can address is teacher–parent communication. Every teacher needs to ensure that this channel is open. It is important to note that, especially in poor communities, not all parents may have email capabilities. If they do, they may not check their emails all that often. Those parents may be best reached by phone or by letter. You may, in fact, choose to send the same information in multiple ways: by phone message, email message, and a note sent home with the child.

Make every effort possible to meet with the parents of each child. If they don’t show up at a scheduled meeting, try again. And again. It is easy to become frustrated and then noncommittal, placing the blame on the parents. Remember, however, that the boy whose parents don’t have the wherewithal to make it to a meeting is often the child who most needs the attention.

In a similar vein, communication about early-intervention services is crucial. Far too often, the child who most needs the early intervention is the one whose parents are not in a position to hear about it. It is absolutely imperative that children who are floundering be given the tools they need to survive in the classroom. Early intervention can assist with that, but if the parents don’t know about the services, the children won’t be able to take advantage of them.

This is an area where communication between all parties is necessary, but the teacher plays a key role. The teacher is often the first to spot that a child needs intervention. He or she should be aware of the next steps and should take charge of the communication without delay. Every school should have a solid plan in place, with clear, specific action steps to take should a child be flagged for intervention.

Especially in lower socioeconomic neighborhoods, disruptive behavior can be a problem in schools. As we earlier in the series, these problems are increasingly being dealt with by calling in law enforcement or by harsh discipline. For a black boy, this response all too often leads, eventually, to prison.

However, there is an alternative. Schools across the nation are turning to restorative justice, with enormous success. Restorative justice places the focus on solutions that benefit all parties involved in the conflict. It steers away from punishment and tries to help the offender to understand how he hurt the victim, encouraging him to make the victim whole again. The result is a much lower rate of repeat offense and a transformed sense of social relations. Restorative justice should become the de facto method of dealing with disruptive behavior in schools across the nation.

Multiage classrooms, as we learned earlier in the series, can be especially beneficial for the black boy. The rigid strictures of the prevailing system, which tries to churn out high-performing students like cookies on a conveyer belt, are loosened in multiage classrooms. Students who are struggling in a subject area can get the help they need while remaining in contact with their peers. This means that the shaming and bullying that often go with retention are no longer a factor.

Similarly, the problems of leaving a child behind that go with social promotion are negated. Transforming school systems to multiage classrooms can take a lot of work, at all levels of the school hierarchy. Furthermore, some parents may protest against the new system, feeling it cheapens their child’s education. However, if the kinks can be worked out, multiage classrooms—especially for younger children—can work wonders.

Along with multiage classrooms, integrated tracking should be standard in schools across the nation. As the Finnish model demonstrates, integrated tracking benefits all students, keeping them together while allowing those who need an extra boost to receive it.

Another transformation that can take a lot of work but has a dramatic impact is a shift to incorporating Howard Gardner’s notion of multiple intelligences. This recognition that individual students have gifts that should be nurtured, and the greater focus on the arts and physical education, can be tremendously liberating for black boys. Though it may seem counterintuitive, students at schools that embrace Gardner’s principles tend to do better on the standard assessments. This suggests that a holistic education, which provides students with a passion for learning, produces better results than spoon-feeding student’s information they can use on a standardized test.

As a corollary to the above, our nation’s schools need to move to a focus on acquiring critical-thinking skills, rather than simply learning facts. Our country requires young people who can use their talents to innovate; who have the ability to research a topic, digest the information, and use it to create something new or enhance their lives. Emphasizing critical thinking rather than teaching to the test will, of course, require changes at government or state level; however, it can also be enacted at the school level.

Finally, teachers should receive the training and support they need to teach young African-American boys. Particularly in the lower grades, teachers are overwhelmingly white and female. In fact, black male teachers comprise less than one percent of the teaching force. This means that most black boys are being taught by teachers who are not intimately familiar with the issues they are going through. Training in racism awareness should be mandatory in schools across the country.

Teachers should also be provided with mentors for the first two years of their service. Ideally, these mentors would have experience and training in working with African-American boys and would be able to pass on advice and provide new teachers with the tools to deal with difficult situations.

Can you think of any additional ways that schools and teachers can help end the black boy crisis?

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

When they are functioning optimally, communities can be extremely powerful forces in nurturing children. They provide safe, friendly spaces, where a child feels welcomed and loved; where he can play without fear and stretch his wings without hindrance. Far too often, communities, where black boys live, are dangerous, uninviting places. A child growing up in a place where gunshots are common, and there is no green space where he can run around will close in on himself or join the violence.

Community centers can be a wonderful way to counteract those grim spaces. Centers that provide safe, secure afterschool programs can help keep unruly children off the streets. They provide places for kids to play sports or skateboard without fear. They can give them incentives to do their homework. Some programs even provide children with the nourishment they are not receiving at home. Time and again in this book, we saw that strong, regimented programs are helpful for children who have a chaotic home life. Community centers can help provide those programs: they can offer stability and structure and safety. A key function of community centers can be to simply offer a gathering place where important people can come together.

Among those influential people should be mentors. I know from personal experience that simply encountering a strong, successful black man, like the doctor who came to my elementary school class, can have a life-changing effect on a black boy. If you are a successful black man in your community, please consider signing up to be a mentor. Simply typing “mentoring” together with your town or community in a search engine should bring up a list of organizations. Your local public school may also be able to connect you with a child. I can assure you that you won’t be the only one changed by this experience. Mentoring is rewarding for both the mentor and the mentee.

Finally, if you are a wealthy businessperson, or simply have a little extra and want to help out, consider donating to a community center or mentorship program. No amount is too small, and the benefits are profound.

Can you think of any additional ways that individual communities can help end the black boy crisis?

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

The family is where it all begins. The importance of a strong, supportive family environment cannot be overemphasized in the education of the black boy. I have seen this firsthand, both when I attended elementary school and when I taught it. If a student was unruly, rude to teachers, unkempt, or slacking off, I often discovered that he came from a family that had been broken in some way. Perhaps he was a child of a single parent who was struggling to survive, or his parents were involved in criminal activity or were drug abusers. Perhaps he was sleeping on the couch in a cockroach-infested apartment or was in the care of his grandparents.

There is little that educators can do to change a difficult family situation; however, it is important to recognize that, in the African-American community, the woes very often have a historical basis. After all, African Americans only became full citizens half a century ago, after nearly four centuries of persecution. Those chains are still being sundered; those wounds are still being healed.

What can families do to increase the chances that a black boy will flourish in school? First, focus on nurture. Remember that your actions to a child are tools you are giving that child. If you slap him and shout at him, those are tools he will use in the playing field. If you speak calmly to him and get him to think about the consequences of his deeds, he will be able to carry those tools into the classroom.

Even if you don’t have the money to provide your son with the latest cell phone or fancy shoes, you can provide him with something much more important: structure, a safe place, and a harmonious home life. Ensure that your son gets to bed on time each night and is up on time each morning. Ensure that he eats three healthy meals a day. Ensure that there is no violence in the home.

Second, it’s important to ensure screen time is limited. Far too many families rely on television, and now the Internet and digital games, to keep children occupied. Young children should spend a maximum of an hour a day on screens. That includes time spent on cell phones or gaming. The rest of the time should be filled with outdoor play; creative indoor play, such as drawing, building with blocks, and making up stories; and reading.

This last item is crucial. As we saw in an earlier article in this series, children whose parents read to them tend to do better than those whose parents do not. Start early. Even though you think the child is too young to understand, those small ears are picking up and storing away every word. Just leafing through the pages of a picture book for a few minutes a day can instill a love of reading that can last a lifetime.

There is a tremendous gap in the number of books poor families have compared to rich ones. This cannot be explained away by poverty. Make it a habit to go to your local thrift stores or garage sales or public library. In those places, you can often find children’s books for under a dollar. Take your child along, and have him choose books that intrigue him. Every child should have a shelf of books appropriate to his age level and interests.

Finally, ensure that the role models you emulate and celebrate and talk about around the dinner table are ones you want your son to aspire to. Are those role models womanizing athletes who beat their girlfriends? Are they hypocritical, money-grubbing preachers? Or are they astronomers, poets, and Nobel Prize laureates? Think about kind of person you want your son to become, and ensure he is exposed to people of that ilk.

Can you think of any additional ways that families can help end the black boy crisis?

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

The story of Kalief Browder caught the attention of the nation. In January 2016, then President Obama used his story as an opener for an article in the Washington Post entitled “Why We Must Rethink Solitary Confinement,” in which he said, “The United States is a nation of second chances, but the experience of solitary confinement too often undercuts that second chance. Those who do make it out often have trouble holding down jobs, reuniting with family and becoming productive members of society.”

Following Browder’s death, Obama commissioned a Justice Department review into the practice of solitary confinement, and adopted a number of their recommendations, including: “banning solitary confinement for juveniles and as a response to low-level infractions, expanding treatment for the mentally ill and increasing the amount of time inmates in solitary can spend outside of their cells.”

Obama’s directive should be lauded, but much more needs to be done to tackle the incarceration of black boys. First, financial incentives should be removed from the law enforcement and justice system. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it remains a deeply troubling aspect of the American way of doing justice. As an example, in 2009, two Pennsylvania judges, Mark A. Ciavarella, Jr., and Michael T. Conahan were indicted in the so-called “kids for cash” scandal. The judges had taken more than two and a half million dollars in kickbacks from a private Pennsylvanian juvenile care facility.

Because the facility was for-profit, they stood to gain financially if they received higher numbers of young defenders. Judge Conahan had initially secured the contracts for the private facilities, in tandem with shutting down the state-run facility. Judge Ciavarella was involved in actually sentencing the juveniles. He was known to deliver unusually harsh sentences, sending youth to detention for issues as trivial as trespassing in unused building and mocking a school employee on Myspace. He sent kids to detention at a vastly higher rate than other areas in the state.

Though judges Conahan and Ciavarella, as well as the operators of the detention centers, were indicted, the root of the problem is, of course, the privatization of the judicial system. Private, for-profit prisons make money based on the number of inmates they have. If inmates are a commodity, it is natural that the system will be abused.

A parallel issue is the for-profit nature of the law-enforcement system. For example, in New York City, police officers are given quotas of the number of arrests and summonses they must make per month. As they are often sent to solidly African-American neighborhoods, this amounts to racism. When some minority cops protested, they were “routinely denied overtime and vacation, demoted to menial posts and ultimately threatened with being fired for not making quotas.” Until this financial incentive to arrest black boys is removed, it will become tough to lower the rate at which they are incarcerated. These are issues that will have to be tackled at the highest political levels.

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

It’s important to understand that the problematic behavior students demonstrate in school is rooted in what is happening in their lives outside the school walls. Therefore, reactions should not be to push children back out into that environment and expect them to fend for themselves. If you do, you are punishing the child for something that they have no control and exacerbating their problems. So what should schools do instead?

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.

One organization that is implementing a restorative justice approach is the Community Organizing and Family Issues Peace Center on the north side of Chicago. The program is designed for older youth and is run from the public Wells Community Academy High School. The initiative taps parent facilitators who help students work through conflict resolution tactics. Students can ask to join the group or are referred by teachers based on behavior or at-risk status. This program is used instead of immediate suspensions or removal by law enforcement. An analysis of the program by Roosevelt University found that the students who participated in the program saw more success academically and attendance-wise.

By working directly with students and teaching them how to work through conflict – and not simply removing them from it – restorative justice approaches teach life skills that are imperative to long-term peaceful members of society. Schools should work with community groups to enact programs like the Peace Center to keep students in classrooms but with better coping skills.

What do you think? Is restorative justice capable of ending the black boy crisis?

 

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.                             

Educators can certainly strive to reduce suspension and expulsion rates with better intervention and strategy. But what about the students who choose to walk away from their educations when they drop out of high school?

In his essay “A Broken Windows Approach to Education Reform,” Forbes writer James Marshall Crotty makes a direct connection between dropout and crime rates. He argues that if educators simply take a highly organized approach to keeping kids in school, it will make a difference in the crime statistics of the future. He says: “Most importantly, instead of merely insisting on Common Core Standards of excellence, we must provide serious stakes for non-compliance. And not just docking teacher and administrative pay. The real change needs to happen on the student and parent level.”

Crotty cites the effectiveness of states that refuse to extend driving privileges to high school dropouts or that don’t allow athletic activities for students who fail a class. When higher stakes are associated with academic success, students will have more to lose if they walk away from their education. And the higher the education level of a student, the lower the risk of criminal activity, statistically speaking.

I have personally witnessed what happens to the typical black boy who drops out of high school with no plan. Since they don’t have a high school diploma, the types of jobs that they are qualified for are very limited. If they do manage to land a job, more than likely they will be making minimum wage. This means that the chances of them being able to support and take care of themselves financially are slim to none. If they are smart, they end going back to school. If they are lucky, they thrive in spite of the obstacles that they face. Unfortunately, a huge percentage of them turn to a life of crime.

If you engage in criminal activities, chances are you will be caught and end up paying fines and serving time. Once you get out, your chances of landing suitable work are slim to none. Since you cannot support yourself legally, you end going back to a life of crime. This begins a vicious cycle of recidivism and criminality.

Students who are at risk of dropping out of high school or turning to crime need more than a good report card. They need alternative suggestions on living a life that rises above their current circumstances. For a black boy to truly have a shot at an honest life, he has to believe in the value of an education and its impact on good citizenship. That belief system has to come from direct conversations about making smart choices with trusted adults and peers. If we know how much less a high school dropout makes than peers with a diploma, and peers with a college education, then we should tell all high school students that number.

It’s not enough to imply that dropping out of high school is a bad idea; students should have all the facts. For students who struggle socially or behaviorally in high school, schools should intervene with non-traditional options like online courses. This is also true for students who feel the pressure to start earning a living early. The technology is already in place for all students, regardless of discipline issues or life circumstances, to earn a high school diploma.

A college degree is nice too, of course, but the true key to ending the school-to-prison pipeline for black boys is keeping them in classrooms instead of removing them, and getting them across the stage to receive their high school diplomas. It will take an organized ideology shift and political will, but it’s possible, even in the next generation of black male students.

Educators should approach students from disadvantaged backgrounds with more understanding and less preconceived notions. Behavior is a choice but students who have never seen the right way to act modeled for them, or who are looking for that extra bit of attention in classrooms, bad behavior is an educational disadvantage. Instead of less time in classrooms, black boys, and especially those with very minor behavioral issues, should have more participation in the learning experience, not less.

We have to solve the dropout crisis among black boys. Look at the alternative. There is just too much at stake.

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

If removal and zero-tolerance policies don’t help black male students in the long term, what is the best way to discipline students when they do misbehave? In this article, we will discuss two of the most effective ways.

Early Intervention

The best answer is found long before the moment when discipline is necessary. Prevention and intervention tactics need a place in all teaching pedagogy, and those tactics must adjust for demographics–and individual students. Schools need to offer robust programs for at-risk students that include mentoring from older students, after-school tutoring, and customized learning. If all of this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is.

Technology is making the customized-learning portion much easier, though, and allows teachers to analyze student performance in a streamlined way long before problems arise. And as simple as it sounds, teachers must approach behavior problems with students in the same way they approach academic problems—with an analytical eye that looks for the best solution that will benefit everyone. Notice that I didn’t say the easiest or best for all the other students in class; inclusiveness is often a difficult process. I said the best solution for everyone: teacher, peers, and individual students. The benefits to keeping a child in class, or at least in school, far outweigh emotionally kicking a child out of class or recommending suspension.

In-School Mediation

Zero tolerance should have no place in the American educational system. After all, isn’t it an American right to remain innocent until proven guilty? When children are immediately kicked out of schools and funneled into the criminal justice system, for minor infractions, we are essentially telling them that their reasons don’t matter. Keeping kids on school grounds and handling disciplinary matters in-house is preferable to removing them. School is where all American children belong—not the prison system.

There are also some local school districts working to reverse the tide of zero tolerance through in-school mediation programs. The Los Angeles Unified School District is probably the best example of this in action. The district has implemented a stronger counseling referral program that keeps students inside school walls to work through infractions such as petty theft and vandalism, rather than sending them through the juvenile justice system. Even the state of Texas, once known for its incredibly harsh zero tolerance policies, has softened in recent years, passing a bill that encourages school administrators to really weigh the options before referring kids to discipline outside the school walls.

These “common sense” approaches to student behavior problems are usually accompanied with training that addresses the root of the issue and attempts to resolve the conflict before any disciplinary measures are taken. The five core elements of common sense approaches to in-school resolutions include relationships, respect, repair, responsibility, and reintegration.

These initiatives are less about handing down punishment and more about empowering students to find solutions to what may be holding them back or causing them to act out. In this way, a more collaborative approach to resolution happens – holding students accountable while depending on teachers to go to these common sense approaches first. At Aurora West High School in the greater Denver area, suspensions dropped 70 percent in the three years following a switch from zero tolerance to common sense disciplinary approaches—and expulsions dropped to zero.

As the teaching profession evolves to be more tolerant of different learning styles, educators should also be trained in different approaches to behavior problems. Zero tolerance is a blanket policy that is simply too rigid too work for an entire student body. To really put disciplinary policies in place that actually work for all students, teachers, and administrators must shift to a system that favors conflict resolution while eliminating the need for outside interference.

Instead of a zero-tolerance stance, more schools should encourage in-school mediation. Allow students to be themselves in an environment that facilitates getting to the root of problems, instead of handing out disciplinary action.

Can you think of any additional ways for educators to discipline black boys when they misbehave or prevent misbehavior from occurring in the first place?

 

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

If you’re reading this series, you are likely in the socioeconomic elite. You’ve probably completed at least high school, and probably have a degree or two under your belt. Why you might ask, should the school-to-prison pipeline matter to you? Surely taking less-desirable elements out of the community has advantages . . .

Outside of caring about the quality of life for other individuals, which is something that is not really teachable, the school-to-prison pipeline matters in more tangible ways. Though it has just 5 percent of the world’s population, the US has nearly a quarter of its prisoners. And, as we saw, African-American men are unequally represented in that number. The average annual cost per prisoner across the US is $31,286, though the figure is significantly higher in certain states (for example, the cost per prisoner in New York is over $60,000). The total annual cost of incarceration in the US? Thirty-nine billion dollars. Now, those are measurable costs.

What isn’t measurable is the indirect impact those incarcerations have on the economy regarding those prisoners not contributing to the workforce. Sure, we may pay the salary of prison employees or the CEOs of large prison privatization corporations, but we are missing out on the positive impact these prisoners could have on our economy.

This is an American problem. It hurts everyone. If we want more high school graduates, less crime, and a more robust economy, we have to stop punishing black boys with school removals or discipline effects that don’t match the offense.

In this series, appropriately titled “Black Boys in Crisis,” I highlight the problems facing black boys in education today, as well as provide clear steps that will lead us out of the crisis.

Looking beyond the disciplinary ramifications of the school-to-prison pipeline, minority students have other disadvantages when it comes to reaching the high school graduation stage (remember, high school dropouts are more likely to end up incarcerated, even if they never encounter behavioral problems in K-12 settings).

Consider this: Black students tend to have fewer teachers who are certified in their degree areas. A US Department of Education report found that in public high schools with at least 50 percent black students, only 75 percent of math teachers were certified, compared to 92 percent in predominantly white schools. In English, the numbers were 59 and 68 percent, respectively, and in science, they were 57 percent and 73 percent.

Numbers like these are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the disadvantages that take place in schools where children of color are the majority. When those children are boys, the outlook is even more dismal. Note that a substantial part of teacher training is dealing with the classroom and discipline issues. Teachers who do not have adequate training in their subject area are almost certain to lack the skills to implement effective disciplinary measures.

I taught elementary school for some years, and I can tell you that if you look in the face of any kindergarten student, you’ll find innocence, unquenchable curiosity, and potential. However, more so than the grades that follow, kindergarten is a mixed bag of developmental, social, and academic levels. Some kids arrive with a few years of childcare and preschool under their belts, while others have never had a book read to them. The students who enter the kindergarten classroom are already products of their limited life experiences, but their public-school classrooms are intended to be equalizers. In a perfect world, what has happened outside the classroom should not be a factor in the learning environment, and all students should have the same clean slate.

The current state of our public K-12 education system does not live up to that promise of equality, though. Students from low socioeconomic backgrounds often attend schools with fewer resources and less-qualified teachers. When their behavior is out of line with what is accepted as normal, they are removed from the classrooms and placed back into homes that are even less conducive to the learning process than their under-resourced schools. In theory, all students should have the same educational access, starting in kindergarten, but many minority students are already behind their peers from day one. As a result, these students fall behind their more advantaged peers and, without intervention, they struggle to keep up.