Prison Students Illustrate the Shortcomings of Public Schools

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hotel Tuerkei vergleichen of 11:48PM February 22, 2010

Good to see that focus is moving away from the top schools and students and toward special students in need of unique (yet mandatory) education services.

M. Walls of MA 3:37PM January 27, 2010

I'm glad that an article has finally been written highlighting the disconnect between education reform, and education reform within juvenile detention facilities. All too often, those groups that push hard for reforming our schools are the same individuals who sit back and do nothing about educational systems within detention facilities. In D.C., it feels as though there is growing consensus over the need to reform the public school system. However, the topic of educational facilities at YSC or New Beginnings is rarely discussed in the mainstream arena. The result ends up being two groups of kids: those we are willing to work with and educate, and those we've labeled as being beyond our efforts.

Shaimaa H. of DC 12:21PM January 11, 2010

Cami Anderson is a hero doing essential work. Thank you for bringing attention to her efforts.

Kate Gardoqui of ME 10:30PM January 09, 2010

Thanks for writing it.

Margo Schlanger of DC 9:26AM January 09, 2010

I am glad to see these kids and the schools that do (and not educate them) receive national attention. Too often education reform ignores these students/schools, because the numbers are small. The costs to the education system, juvenile and adult prison system and community at large is not at all small. As the article points out, young people move in and out of jail and in and out of public schools. Education and juvenile justice reform need to come together as well.
When students are incarcerated, the likelihood of life behind bars or not will turn on their level of education. Since the stakes are so high, the quality of education needs to be high. And attention must be paid to the schools they attend when they go home. The most powerful education commentary I heard was when a student said the school he attended while he was incarcerated was "the best school I've ever been too!"
Some people argue that even when they receive support these kids don't do better. Chances are young people will always exercise bad judgement. But as adults, we can't keep creating systems that fail kids and blame/ignore/punish/condemn them when they fall and can't get up.
Kudos to the work in District 97. I look forward to more articles on the issues and people/places working on solutions.

Lucretia Murphy of DC 11:26AM January 08, 2010

This article makes a very important contribution to our understanding of the ways in which New York State is failing its youth. Other such failings are documented in the recently-issued report of a special New York State commission on the state's juvenile justice system (see http://www.vera.org/paterson-task-force-juvenile-justice-report).

Randy Hertz of NY 11:03AM January 08, 2010

Thank you for taking the time to visit the school up at Rikers and for getting this topic the exposure it needs. Right now there is a pretty big disconnect between the education reform community and the juvenile justice reform community. We need to address this gap and get the two groups together.
I am the principal of a school in a youth correctional facility. On average, at entry our students are just over 16 years old, have 3 high school credits, and read at the high-elementary school level. Clearly plenty has gone wrong in their past educational lives--some their own doing, much the doing of the public education and social service support systems--to have them end up in such a dire place academically.
And clearly the work going into making our public schools better needs to be robust enough to help us help this target group of students, before they get to us, and then once they are in our care. But it's not clear this is in the works, except in a few spots around the country.
Thanks for raising this issue.

David Domenici of DC 9:55AM January 08, 2010