Educational outcomes can be bleak for the 60,000 youth confined to juvenile justice facilities in the United States each year. The Annie E. Casey Foundation reports that only 25 percent of juvenile offenders make a year of academic progress per year of confinement, and only one in 10 will earn a high school diploma. But, as “Learning From the Inside” shows, “a collection of innovative educators around the country is actively working to raise the bar for teaching and learning on the inside.” This toolkit draws on their best practices and offers other educators who work in confinement settings—and educators who don’t—an opportunity to reflect on their practice and adopt new strategies.
Essential Questions
- What best practices help mitigate the educational challenges of youth in confined settings?
- What can educators who work in more traditional settings learn from innovative educators teaching “from inside”?
Procedure
After reading “Learning From the Inside,” think about how the recommendations from educators at Maya Angelou Academy, Oregon Youth Authority and the Missouri Model might apply to your students.
1. Identify students’ needs.
From the list below, highlight all of the issues that apply to your students.
My students:
- vary in age, abilities and/or credit levels
- have special needs that are not being met or that have been misdiagnosed or undiagnosed
- have varying and often short lengths of stay in class
- have experience with trauma and abuse
- are involved with or exposed to crime and drugs
- lack academic success in traditional settings
- other _________________________
2. Work towards solutions.
Choose an initiative or promising practice from the list below, and read the accompanying resource(s).
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
Anti-bias Framework: A road map for anti-bias education at every grade. The framework offers a set of anchor standards and age-appropriate learning outcomes divided into four domains—identity, diversity, justice and action.
Critical Practices for Anti-bias Education: This guide offers practical strategies for creating a space where academic and social emotional goals are accomplished side by side. It also provides valuable advice for implementing culturally responsive pedagogy and describes how teachers can bring anti-bias values to life.
Perspectives for a Diverse America: A literacy-based, anti-bias, social justice curriculum that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Language Arts and Literacy. And that’s not all—it’s entirely free.
Keep Things Going
Ding! Start Your Class off Right!: Transitions in and out of class can pose some challenging moments. But you can use bell ringers to jump-start student learning and take the chaos out of the beginning of class.
Unlink the Hose with Brain Breaks: Help your students maximize their brain power by adding brain breaks to your bag of tricks.
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS)
The Buildings Blocks of Positive Behavior: This article delves into how PBIS offers a school-wide approach to improving student behavior.
Positive Behaviors: A professional development activity in which educators “meet” a teacher named Melodi Patterson who teaches students are labeled “ED”—those designated as emotionally or behaviorally disturbed—and also learn how she uses PBIS in her instruction.
Social Emotional Learning
20 Face to Face Advisories: Bridging Cultural Gaps in Grades 5-9: When properly facilitated, advisory period can be a time for the authentic relationship- and community-building that students need to feel safe and supported in their schools. These student-facing activities help build social emotional skills during advisory period.
Excerpt: The Social Neuroscience of Education: An excerpt from Louis Cozolino’s The Social Neuroscience of Education that captures the science behind social emotional learning.
Social Emotional Learning Should Be Seamless: Social emotional learning can boost academic performance and reduce instances of bullying. Here’s an explanation for why social emotional learning should be part of every lesson plan.
Online Learning
404 Error: Teacher Not Found: A feature story in Teaching Tolerance magazine that documents how online schools and courses may benefit some students, but others are falling prey to non-rigorous credit recovery courses that boost graduation rates but ultimately mask achievement deficits.
Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings: This nonprofit organization helps alternative schools implement transformational, student-focused practices. You can also find information on a blended learning initiative called Unjammed for juvenile justice agencies interested in using technology inside secure care facilities.
Restructuring Curricula into Month-Long Units
Building Effective Learning Environments in California’s Continuation High Schools: An issue brief from John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities on 23 of California’s high-performing continuation high schools.
Small Classroom Groups
Case Study of a Teacher—Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment: Four short videos (each three minutes or less) from the Teaching Channel that explain the ins and outs of collaborative learning.
Transitional Support
From Incarceration to School: Six tips for helping juvenile offenders make a successful transition to mainstream schools.
3. Go deeper.
Drawing from the resources you consulted, what next steps would you like to take to support your students? The list of questions below can help you brainstorm ideas.
- Do similar programs or practices already exist in your school or district? (Note: If such a program or practice already exists, the remaining questions should address modifications and improvements.)
- What type of administrative support do you need to get started?
- What resources do you need? Include facilities, equipment, personnel and training.
- How long would it take to put your program in place or adopt a new practice? Create a timeline.
- What additional information do you need, and where could you find it?
- When and how would you measure the success of the program or practice?
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