Advancing QuantCrit to Rethink the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Latinx and Black Youth

Abstract

Latinx and Black youth are pushed out of school at a higher than average rate of 7.7% and 5.5%, respectively, compared to 4.1% of White youth. By “pushed out” we are referring to students who are labeled as “drop outs.” This language shift is important, as, “dropout” implies a choice made by students to leave school while “pushout” accounts for the various forces that lead to students leaving school. One factor that contributes to this alarming statistic is that harsh school punishment disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minority students in urban settings, rather than making school more accessible for them. Using data from the California Department of Justice and the Civil Rights Data Collection repository, we provide a descriptive analysis of the school-toprison pipeline in Southern California. This description is based on two innovative critical race methodologies: QuantCrit (quantitative) and Counterstorytelling (qualitative). These methodologies illuminate the experiences of thirty-nine former high school students who were pushed out of high school through the activity of counter-storytelling, these former high school students speak and remember how racism, sexism, and classism manifested in their schooling experiences. This study shows how to use QuantCrit and counter-storytelling in criminal justice education.