national Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC)

NESRI is a member of the Dignity in Schools Campaign (DSC) a coalition of advocates, educators, organizers, and lawyers from across the country united to reframe the debate around school discipline from one that aims to punish and exclude children from school, to a human rights perspective that respects the child’s right to an education, and advocates for child-centered, dignified reform to keep children in school.  Our aim is to expose systemic problems in our nation’s school systems and provide solutions to end pushout and improve responses to school discipline. 

New WEBSITE!
NESRI is proud to announce the launch of the Campaign’s new website to challenge pushout in U.S. schools! This new website was created to share information on the problem of pushout and to promote human rights based alternatives to a culture of zero-tolerance, punishment and removal in our schools. 

Tele-Conference Call Series
The DSC campaign organizes quarterly tele-conference calls for advocates educators, activists and lawyers from around the country to engage in discussion and debate about pushout and discipline policies and to develop strategies for working together.

• Information on our most recent conference call :
  February 20, 2008 – Charter Schools and Pushout: Reflections on the Transformation of Public Education in Post-Katrina New Orleans
• Recordings and notes of past conference calls are available. 

Promoting Positive Behavior Intervention and Support
NESRI and the DSC have recently formed a Working Group to promote Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) as one of several successful models for positive school discipline.  PBIS aims to prevent conflict and behavior problems, along with student suspensions and other extreme punishment, by making sure students understand what is expected of them and helping students meet those expectations. This approach provides assistance for students with chronic behavior problems and seeks to involve families and the community.  The DSC is currently developing educational materials for advocates about PBIS, and researching federal and state-level legislative proposals for PBIS. Links about PBIS

Research Project
NESRI worked with the DSC to create www.dignityinschools.org - a website to share information about the pushout problem and build alliances for combating pushout among advocates, educators, activists and lawyers across the country.

“Pushouts” are children who have been removed (or have removed themselves) from a regular school setting as a result of a school policy that discourages them from remaining in classrooms and on track to receive a regular diploma.  Examples of such school policies include zero tolerance and other exclusionary discipline policies which push students out (ie. repeated and excessive suspension and expulsion; referrals to the juvenile justice system); as well as unwelcoming school environments and lack of relevant and engaging curricula that serve to disengage students from learning and discourage them from attending school.

We are working on three projects to gather information for the website:

• Research on Pushout – we are compiling summaries of research studies, news articles and advocacy reports to better understand how and why students are being pushed out of school and to explore the link between discipline and pushout.
• Research on Effective Alternatives – we are compiling summaries of data-based studies and guides on effective school and district models that prevent pushout and take positive approaches to discipline, and developing analysis for how the frameworks of human rights and restorative justice can inform positive alternatives for schools.
• Research on Legal and Advocacy Strategies – we are gathering information at the local level from advocates, organizers, educators and lawyers about effective policy, legislative and organizing strategies for how to combat pushout.

To contribute to this research project or participate in the tele-conference series contact Liz Sullivan.