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Children who attend schools with high suspension rates are significantly more likely to be arrested and jailed as adults - especially Black and Hispanic boys - according to new research that shines a spotlight on the school-to-prison pipeline.

Data have long shown that Black and Hispanic students experience suspension and expulsion at much higher rates than white students, and that as adults, they're also disproportionately represented in the county's prison system. And while research shows a correlation between high levels of education and low levels of criminal activity, there exists little evidence on the role that individual schools can play in their students' future.

Researchers from Boston University, the University of Colorado Boulder and Harvard University sought to find whether a causal link exists between students who experience strict school discipline and being arrested or incarcerated as an adult, and whether attending a stricter school influences criminal activity in adulthood.

"Our findings show that early censure of school misbehavior causes increases in adult crime - that there is, in fact, a school-to-prison pipeline," the researchers wrote in an article published Tuesday in Education Next. "Any effort to maintain safe and orderly school climates must take into account the clear and negative consequences of exclusionary discipline practices for young students, and especially young students of color, which last well into adulthood."

Specifically, students assigned to stricter middle schools are 3.2 percentage points more likely to have been arrested, 2.5 percentage points more likely to have been incarcerated as adults. They were also 1.7 percentage points more likely to drop out of high school and 2.4 percentage points less likely to attend a four-year college.

The impacts are significantly more predictive for Black and Hispanic boys who attended strict middle schools.

Editorial Cartoons on Education

The researchers also found that principals, who often oversee the suspension and expulsion of students, were the "major driver" in the frequency and severity of school discipline, and in tracking the movement of principals from one school to another, they found that a principal who doled out high numbers or suspensions and expulsions in one school would do the same at the next.

The findings come as Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and department officials seek public comments on new regulations related to school discipline and the disproportionate rate at which students of color are suspended and expelled.

Under former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the department rescinded a slate of Obama-era civil rights regulations aimed at preventing schools from disproportionately disciplining Black and Hispanic students and students with disabilities.

DeVos argued that the guidance did a disservice to schools, creating disruptive classrooms where teachers felt unsafe because they were pressured by school administrators not to report students. Notably, the decision to revoke the guidance followed a report of recommendations from the White House school safety commission, formed in the wake of a 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

At the time, Democrats ripped DeVos for flouting long-standing civil rights concerns about the alarming rate at which Black and Hispanic boys and girls are disciplined compared to white students, a phenomenon that begins as early as kindergarten.

Now, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights under the Biden administration is poised to reinstate much of the Obama-era guidance, including putting schools on notice for disproportionate rates and severity of school discipline, school discipline data collection, an emphasis on social and emotional learning and support and training for teachers and other school staff.

"Misbehaving peers can have strong negative impacts on other students in the classroom, and all students need a safe, predictable, and peaceful environment to thrive," the research concludes. "But our findings show that the school-to-prison pipeline is real and poses substantial risks for students in strict school environments."

What's less clear, however, is where the Biden administration stands on the use of police officers or school resource officers in schools, and whether the Education Department is prepared to weigh in on the topic in any significant way.

The new findings released Tuesday did not address the issue of school resource officers, but the researchers argue that their findings pose a critical question for policymakers, educators and school leaders.

"For whom are our schools safe?" they ask. "As the nation continues to grapple with questions about racial equity and police reform, the contributing causal role that school-discipline practices play in raising the risk of criminality in adulthood cannot be ignored."

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New research found that early strict discipline causes an increase in adult crime.

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Family visitation in prison is a little less stressful with books and games

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Reading books together makes visiting a parent in prison a little less scary.

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According to the literacy fast facts from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), literacy is defined as "using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential."

"One measure of literacy is the percentage of adults who perform at four achievement levels: Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. In each type of literacy, 13 percent of adults were at or above Proficient (indicating they possess the skills necessary to perform complex and challenging literacy activities) in 2003. Twenty-two percent of adults were Below Basic (indicating they possess no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills) in quantitative literacy, compared with 14 percent in prose literacy and 12 percent in document literacy."

Literacy statistics worldwide

Literacy statistics and juvenile court

85 percent of all juveniles who interface with the juvenile court system are functionally illiterate.

More than 60 percent of all prison inmates are functionally illiterate.

Penal institution records show that inmates have a 16% chance of returning to prison if they receive literacy help, as opposed to 70% who receive no help. This equates to taxpayer costs of $25,000 per year per inmate and nearly double that amount for juvenile offenders.

Illiteracy and crime are closely related. The Department of Justice states, "The link between academic failure and delinquency, violence, and crime is welded to reading failure." Over 70% of inmates in America's prisons cannot read above a fourth grade level.

Many of the USA ills are directly related to illiteracy. Just a few statistics:

Literacy is learned. Illiteracy is passed along by parents who cannot read or write.

One child in four grows up not knowing how to read.

43% of adults at Level 1 literacy skills live in poverty compared to only 4% of those at Level 5

3 out of 4 food stamp recipients perform in the lowest 2 literacy levels

90% of welfare recipients are high school dropouts

16 to 19 year old girls at the poverty level and below, with below average skills, are 6 times more likely to have out-of-wedlock children than their reading counterparts.

Low literary costs $73 million per year in terms of direct health care costs. A recent study by Pfizer put the cost much higher.

Teaching reading skills is one of the best ways to save an aging brain

"Carlson is running a study called the Experience Corps Trial, in which older men and women volunteer to teach reading skills to kindergarten through third graders in Baltimore city schools. Using brain-imaging studies, Carlson and her colleagues have shown that after just a few months, people who volunteer show beneficial changes in their brains similar to those that other research teams have seen with exercise."
Experts reveal best ways to save an aging brain

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According to the literacy fast facts from the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), literacy is defined as "using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential." "One measure of literacy is the percentage of adults who perform at four achievement levels: Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient.

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St. Petersburg, Fla. mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford said recently that among the top issues facing her city is the need for improving graduation rates.

Ford offered a disturbing statistic to back up her point.

"We know that our private prison systems are calculating how many new beds (they will need) based on the third grade, number of third graders, and that's just wrong," said Ford, a former City Council member who is running for mayor for the third time. "And I think waiting until kids are ready for kindergarten to begin to intervene is too late."

PolitiFact Florida plans on keeping an eye on St. Petersburg's mayoral candidates ahead of this November's election and thought Ford's claim merited more scrutiny.

In this case, Ford mangled an oft-repeated, inaccurate talking point about prisons using third grade reading scores to predict future bed needs. It has been wrongly cited by Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, and opinion columnists for the Post and New York Times and debunked by FactCheck.org and the Washington Post.

Ford went one step further by focusing on private prison operators and the number of third graders, not academic performance.

Her claim is "nonsense," said Peter Leone, a University of Maryland education professor who specializes in behavioral disorders and school discipline. Leone was the director of the National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice, which during its operation from 1999 to 2006 produced a report touting that "at least one state" uses third-grade reading scores to project future prison bed needs. Leone told us the statement was made by a colleague "before he got the facts."

"It is an urban legend that politicians like to trot out to claim that either the schools are failing or that we are not tough enough on crime," he said.

We ran Ford's words by two of the largest private prison operators in the country, Corrections Corporation of America, a Tennessee company that manages five prison facilities in Florida, and Management and Training Corporation, which manages one prison in Florida.

Spokesmen for both companies denied Ford's claim. Private prisons respond to inmate projections from the state government, so it would not make sense for them to do their own forecasting.

"This is truly the urban myth that will not die," said CCA spokesman Steve Owen.

Ford directed us to the spring 2012 newsletter of the Nevada Department of Corrections. The newsletter does not speak to her exact point, but it does mention children who do not read on grade level are more likely to dropout, use drugs or end up in prison.

So many nonreaders wind up in jail that officials have found they can use the rate of illiteracy to help calculate future prison needs. Indiana's former governor has stated that determining the number of new prisons to build is based, in part, on the number of second graders not reading at second-grade level. In California they plan how many jail cells they will build in the future by how many children are not reading on grade level by third grade.

But neither Indiana nor California does what Nevada claims it does, officials at those states told us. Neither does Nevada.

Mike Schmoker, an independent education consultant, made a similar claim in a 1999 Education Week article. He told us he could not verify the claim and does not make it any longer. Mike Tikkanen of Invisible Children, whose website and book use the statistic, said "no state today admits to it, nor have I been able to find those references."

In Florida, the Office of Economic and Demographic Research estimates future inmate populations through a variety of factors, including historical trends using the state crime rate and the number of arrests and convictions. "Educational attainment is not one of them," said EDR director Amy Baker.

Our ruling

In making the case for focusing more on education, St. Petersburg mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford said, "We know that our private prison systems are calculating how many new beds (they will need) based on the third grade, number of third graders, and that's just wrong."

That's a spin-off of an urban legend.

Some of the largest private prison operators in the country say they get their estimates from the states. And the states tell us that what a third-grader does isn't a factor.

It's certainly not happening in Florida, which is the only place St. Petersburg's mayor might have some level of control.

This claim needs to be locked up. We rate it Pants on Fire!

Audio of St. Petersburg mayoral forum, June 27, 2013

PolitiFact Oregon, " Cannon gets the connection between reading and crime right," Feb. 13, 2012

The Oregonian, " Prisons don't use reading scores to predict future inmate populations," March 23, 2010

Washington Post, " Bogus Claim in Va. About Jails, Schools Shows How Easily Fact, Fancy Can Blur," June 4, 2009

FactCheck.org, " Virginia Myths and More," June 4, 2009

Interview with Amy Baker, Florida's chief economist, July 10, 2013

Interview with Steve Owen, Corrections Corporation of America, July 10, 2013

Interview with Amy Lanum, Indiana Department of Correction spokeswoman, July 15, 2013

Interview with Bill Sessa, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman, July 15, 2013

Interview with Alameda, Calif,. Sheriff Greg Ahern, July 15, 2013

Interview with Tom Mailey, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision spokesman, July 15, 2013

Nevada Department of Corrections newsletter, spring 2012

Interview with Issa Arnita, Management and Training Corp. spokesman, July 15, 2013

National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice. " Prevention: Home, Community, and School Connections," accessed July 15, 2013

Interview with Peter Leone, University of Maryland education professor, July 15, 2013

Text with Kathleen Ford, St. Petersburg mayoral candidate, July 11, 2013

Interview with Kathleen Ford, July 16, 2013

Education Week, " The quiet revolution in achievement," Nov. 3, 1999

Email interview with Mike Schmoker, education author, July 16, 2013

Interview with Mike Tikkanen, Invisible Children president, July 16, 2013

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PolitiFact - Kathleen Ford says private prisons use third-grade data to plan for prison beds

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St. Petersburg, Fla. mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford said recently that among the top issues facing her city is the need for improving graduation rates. Ford offered a disturbing statistic to back up her point.