We, the undersigned, find the recent report that "zero-tolerance" policies are having on our youth, and the disproportionately negative impact on minority students alarming.
As the following quoted paragraphs show,
(truthout, 15 January 2010) the results of focusing on test scores has been the weeding out of otherwise promising students who simply do not fit this unnecessarily restrictive mold.
"Federal Policy, ESEA Reauthorization, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline, a collaborative study by research, education, civil rights, and juvenile justice organizations, linked the policies of No Child Left Behind and the 'accountability' movement to the pipeline. According to George Wood, executive director of the Forum for Education and Democracy:
"By focusing accountability almost exclusively on test scores and attaching high stakes to them, NCLB has given schools a perverse incentive to allow or even encourage students to leave."
Says Truthout: "We cannot build safe, creative, nurturing schools and criminalize our children at the same time."
WE AGREE!
We ask that you work with organizations like Rethinking Schools to end policies that focus on criminalization of children and seek those that follow creative and positive alternatives.
We request this for the sake of our youth, our country, and our future, and we thank you for your attention to this request.
