In recent years, there has been a shift in national attention on criminal justice reform as police brutality issues and the mass incarceration of black and Latinx people have increased. A critical component of criminal justice reform is understanding why the majority of people in American prisons are black and Latinx. Many researchers are examining the phenomenon of the school-to-prison pipeline as the starting line to how many black and Latino men are re-routed from completing an education to living a life in and out of prison. I will focus on two pieces of research by educators directed at providing a deeper understanding of the factors that send black and Latinx youth from schools and into the criminal justice system.

The first article written by Daniel Rubin, a professor of secondary English and Latinx literature, investigates the importance of engaging Latinx students in the classroom as a way to break the school-to-prison pipeline. Rubin highlights the importance of this engagement when he says, “Research has shown that with increased student engagement, there are less student distractions and negative behaviors; this in turn leads to increased academic performance and achievement” (Rubin, 2014, p. 223). Rubin suggests that Latinx students are not engaged in the classroom as a result of the Eurocentric white male literary canon and ideologies held at the forefront of American education. This in turn excludes Latinx students from feeling as though their culture, experiences, and voices are seen as relevant and valuable to the curriculum. In addition, Rubin explains that often times for Latinx students the language and culture they engage with at home is incongruent to the one at school. Therefore, Rubin strongly emphasizes that it is essential for teachers, specifically high school ELA teachers, to include a diverse array of literature in their curriculum that will engage Latinx students (and other youth impacted by the school-to-prison pipeline) and hopefully by developing a positive relationship with school, students will be less likely to behave negatively, get in trouble, and increase their chances of getting involved with the criminal justice system due to being arrested in school or being suspended and becoming delinquent. Rubin further elaborates on how teachers can engage students by practicing philosopher Paulo Freire’s idea of critical consciousness. Critical consciousness is a process in which people analyze the world, exploring all of its contradictions, as a way to become aware of their situation and develop the agency to advocate for social change (Rubin, 2014). So, by introducing students to literature that strays away from Eurocentric ideas and guiding conversations that provoke students to think about their identity (e.g. race), teachers have a huge responsibility and role in creating students that can excel in school and society at large.

The second article furthered Rubin’s sentiment of teachers using their power to empower students as a way to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. Throughout the course of a year, a teacher examined the role of gang affiliation in the classroom and how that related to student contact with the criminal justice system. Gass and Laughter (2015) state that “the school-to-prison pipeline has been closely related to gang affiliation” (Gass & Laughter, 2015, p. 3). When the war on drugs began in the 1980s as a way to decrease the perceived increased use and selling of drugs in minority communities, many youth (particularly youth of color) were portrayed as gang-affiliated violent youth that needed to be taken off the street. This included cracking down on gang activity in schools thus increasing the amount of police officers in schools that immediately arrested students for offenses that could have been settled by school administration and out of the criminal justice system (Gass & Laughter, 2015). In teaching and interviewing a set of students, some of whom were gang affiliated, the teacher found that students who leaned towards supporting gangs felt they offered a sense of security and a set of role models when they did not have any other type of adult support system. Therefore, this research suggests that teachers have the responsibility to be a role model for students as well as provide them with dialogue that enables them to feel like they have control over their life and can succeed.

Both of these educators propose teacher-student relationship as key to dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline. Teachers may not have the manpower to change policy, however they have the power to help on an individual level since they deal with students on an individual basis. In order to do this though, teachers must be willing to understand the struggles of their students even if they do not identify with where their students come from. The teacher studying gang-affiliation took the time to understand the importance of gangs in her students’ lives to then work to provide what the gangs provide but in schools so the students would be less likely to end up in prison. The professor explaining how Latinxs are specifically disadvantaged by the school-to-prison pipeline offers valuable directions for how teachers can use literature that speaks to their students’ identity to keep them engaged in the classroom and excited to academically and socially excel.

Links to Articles
Engaging Latino/a Students in the Secondary English Classroom: A Step Toward Breaking the School-to-Prison Pipeline, Daniel Ian Rubin
“Can I Make a Difference?” Gang Affiliation, The School to Prison Pipeline, and Implications for Teachers, Kayla M. Gass & Judson C. Laughter