Urban education in America has faced and overcome many different challenges. However, there are challenges today that must be acknowledged and addressed. One of these said challenges is the school-to-prison pipeline. This terms refers to the disproportionate number of low income, minority students from urban schools who end up in jail. This problem is not coincidental. Factors such as zero tolerance policies, when exclusionary punishments are enacted on many kinds of misbehavior, and high-stakes testing, which can determine students’ tracks, that exist in many public schools have resulted in this inequality.¹ This website documents the community and grassroots organizing that is currently occurring in response to these policies and the school-to-prison pipeline. It also takes note of activists and activism groups who are using the Internet and social media effectively as a forum for addressing these issues and for generating opposition to them. In an effort to provide more evidence for the necessity of these activists and organizations, I have researched more scholarly articles in the hopes that they would provide a clear background of this problem and possible responses to it. While grassroots organizations can often be immensely powerful, especially in the way that they know their own community, educational experts ought to have their place in showing us what must be done and why. By providing informative articles for students, teachers, parents, and community members, experts can be a valuable resource to this movement.  The school-to-prison pipeline is an immediate issue that must be dealt with today. By using the resources available to us, we can overcome this challenge and make urban education a more equal and safe area for the American youth to develop and grow up.

This video by an activism group, the Advancement Project, highlights the need for the dismantling of the school-to-prison-pipeline.  It discusses both its immediate and long term effects.

²

Img:⁴