“I Just Want to Learn”

Girls of Color and the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Massachusetts

A report from Massachusetts Appleseed, July 2022

“I always get comments like ‘Why do you look mad?’, ‘Why so serious?’ But like, you don’t know me and you never will so don’t assume anything about me. Just because I look the way I look doesn’t mean I’m aggressive.”

Anne, 9th grade student in the Chelsea school district

This community-led research study explores how racialized and gendered stereotyping, disconnection with teachers and curriculum, and a void of mental health supports create unique barriers and hostile school environments where girls of color are targeted for unjust discipline. Discriminatory and punitive school discipline removes girls of color from their learning environments, disrupts their academic and personal growth, and denies them the same opportunities to achieve their ambitions and build healthy, successful futures as their peers. This disparate treatment perpetuates systemic racial inequities, deepens the institutional trauma experienced by communities of color, and causes long-term harm in the lives of girls of color – in addition to losing valuable class time, girls feel pressure to take up less space and silence themselves.

Through legislative solutions that dismantle harmful policies and create a culture shift away from punitive discipline, increased investment in practices that prioritize student well-being and inclusion, and centering student voices, we can eradicate the racial and gender-based disparities fueling the school-to-prison pipeline and ensure girls of color are seen, safe, understood, and able to thrive in their classrooms.

Our thanks to research advisors from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Kassie Infante and Rebecca Horowitz-Willis, and Massachusetts Appleseed interns Molly April, Zeia Fawaz, Alexandra Goodley-Espinosa, Maya McCann, and Catherine Michaels. Thank you as well to pro bono partners Edgeworth Analytics and Law Office 09 at Northeastern University School of Law. Enormous and special thanks to the members of our Community Advisory Board who gave their time, talents, and expertise to make this report what it is: Falynne Correia, Samantha Grady, Nusy Hassan, Rania Henriquez, Caiana Luse, Chelsea Marrero, Cleopatra Mavhunga, Adrienne Ramcharan, Hema Sarang-Sieminski, Ivanna Solano, Moriah Wiggins, and Jalissa Brown, Thora Henry, and Qai Hinds, who are members of the high school Class of 2024 and Class of 2023. To the young women and girls whose experiences inform this report: we are endlessly grateful for your courage and generosity in sharing your stories, your truths, and your powerful ideas about how to change school environments for the better.

Community Advisory Board

The School Discipline Data Dashboard was created as a companion tool for our I Just Wanna Learn report in 2022. This interactive dashboard displays data from the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) from 2017-2022. Given the challenges in accessing the data necessary to update the dashboard, we are only able to display what is currently shown.

Report Highlights

Significant mental health concerns that students experience is often connected to pressure they feel to succeed academically – pressure which is further pronounced for first-generation students.
Anti-Black curriculum and failure to rigorously engage with Black history, particularly that which focuses on Black women, can often be alienating.
Girls of color continually face stereotyping related to their race/ethnicity or at the intersection of their gender and race/ethnicity – often being immediately assumed loud or rude – and can sometimes feel uncomfortable in their learning environments as a result.
Girls of color interviewed described sometimes feeling disconnected from teachers, often relying on non-teaching faculty like counselors, social workers, or coaches for support.
Factors contributing to this disconnect include: Lack of teacher diversity; lack of empathy, respect, and/or understanding between students and teachers or a perceived lack thereof; teachers’ perceived lack of confidentiality; and in rare instances intentionally disparate treatment or explicitly offensive and racist behavior towards students. Many teachers are also understaffed, burnt out, and in need of additional training, resources, and support.
Exclusionary discipline happens early: almost 65% of girls of color interviewed were first pushed out of the classroom in 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade while roughly 35% of students interviewed experienced their first suspension or expulsion in 7th or 8th grade.
Students observed inequitable application of dress codes leading to discipline, particularly for girls of color with different body types.
Experiences of girls interviewed suggest that many girls of color are getting in trouble for reactive behavior, such as responding to inappropriate behavior from another student, rather than for inciting disruptive incidents directly.
Girls frequently were not given opportunities to explain their side of the story before they were disciplined, something they desperately wanted to do.
The impact of experiencing exclusionary discipline at a young age is long-lasting, with many still feeling the effects of their first removal from their classroom years later.
Students perceived school staff as continuing to hold a negative opinion of them after they returned from their suspension or expulsion, thinking of them as “disruptive,” “abusive,” or “violent.” Many girls felt the need to take up less space, quiet themselves, and withdraw from their outgoing personalities for fear of being disciplined again.
In addition to taking individual action to stand up against the discrimination they experience in schools, the girls interviewed shared many ideas for larger systemic ways to reform discipline in schools that ensures students are held accountable for their actions in a meaningful and equitable way without harming their education.
Recommendations for the Massachusetts Legislature include: banning the suspension and expulsion of students for dress code violations; banning the suspension and expulsion of young students; enacting comprehensive discipline reform legislation, creating a system to encourage and retain diverse teachers in Massachusetts; reforming and/or limiting the use of school resources officers (SROs) and school police; and establishing a taskforce/commission or designating funding to further explore the relationship between girls of colors’ experiences of abuse, sexual assault, and sexual harassment in relation to school discipline and juvenile justice system involvement.
Recommendations for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education include: establishing a culture shift away from punitive and exclusionary discipline and instead towards alternatives that keep students in the classroom; diversifying the Massachusetts curriculum to reflect the history and experiences of non-white histories and cultures; requiring and providing more rigorous training for teachers and all educational staff on anti-racist practices, cultural competency, and trauma-informed learning; and placing a greater investment in recruitment and retention of a diverse teaching force.
Recommendations for school committees and superintendents include: supporting the mental health of students by hiring more social workers and school counselors and by allowing students multiple mental health days throughout the year and daytime breaks while in school; investing funding into the training and implementation of restorative justice or similar alternatives; implementing systems where students can provide anonymous feedback and/or report on inappropriate behavior from teachers and faculty; creating pathways for student support outside of school and mandatory reporting requirements; and encouraging students and parents to attend school committee meetings, and conducting listening sessions with parents and students at least annually.
Recommendations for teachers and administrators include: allowing students the opportunity to explain their side of the story before subjecting them to discipline; instituting periodic check-ins between teachers and students; encouraging the creation of affinity groups, especially in schools where certain identities are in the minority; and collaborating with students – and in particular girls of color – on student voice opportunities such as forums, meetings, etc.
Recommendations for students and parents include: exploring know-your-rights resources and opportunities on school discipline (see recommendations section of the full report for suggested resources); continuing to speak up when students experience discrimination in school by setting up meetings with school and district leadership, using petitions, etc; and leveraging the data within the full report and the Interactive Dashboard to set up meetings with local school leadership to discuss how they plan to address school and district disparities.