The Community Rights Campaign enthusiastically welcomes the release of the Advancement Project's new report, Test, Punish and Push Out: How "Zero Tolerance" and High Stakes Testing Funnel Youth into the School to Prison Pipeline. We highly encourage our members and supporters to read this important document that outlines the current educational policies that contribute to the push-out and criminalization of our Black and Latino youth throughout the United States.  

Introduction written by the Advancement Project:

Advancement Project is pleased to announce the release of a new report: Test, Punish, and Push Out: How "Zero Tolerance" and High Stakes Testing Funnel Youth into the School to Prison Pipeline. The report looks at how punitive discipline and testing policies and practices have combined to turn many schools into hostile and alienating environments that drive youth out of school and toward the juvenile and criminal justice systems. The report explores:

• The common origins and ideological roots of zero tolerance and high-stakes testing;

• The current state of zero-tolerance school discipline across the country, including local, state, and national data;

• How high-stakes testing affects students, educators, and schools;

• How zero tolerance and high-stakes testing have become intertwined and even mutually reinforcing, combining to push huge numbers of students out of school; and

• Successful grassroots efforts to eliminate harmful discipline and testing practices.

We hope that the data (from over 25 states) and research included in the report will be helpful with your efforts to address these issues in your communities. And we hope that we will be able to work with many of you over the coming months (and years) to roll back the test-and-punish movement at the local, state, and federal levels, particularly through the reauthorization of ESEA/NCLB.

Introduction:

How can it be that the richest country in the world graduates fewer than 7 out of every 10 high school students? How is it that barely half of all Black, Latino, and Native American students in the United States graduate from high school?

How can New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston graduate fewer than half of all their students; Philadelphia and Cleveland graduate less than 40% of their students; and Detroit fail to even graduate 3 out of every 10 students? These figures are shameful, and should shock the conscience of every American. Indeed, answering these questions may be the single most important challenge our public education system faces. Fortunately, the "dropout crisis" has suddenly become a hot topic, as
many policymakers are realizing that the current situation is both unacceptable and unsustainable. President Obama even cited the dropout rate as one of the three most pressing issues facing our country in his first address to Congress. Yet, while it is certainly encouraging that policymakers are finally paying attention to this issue, too often, they are looking for answers in the wrongplaces. 

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