Our Work

The Advancement Project

Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Pipeline

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MEE was hired by the civil rights advocacy group, The Advancement Project, to conduct qualitative, focus group research over a two-month period with African-American and Caucasian parents and African-American, Latino and Caucasian teachers for the Advancement Project’s Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Project. Fourteen (14) focus groups were conducted in Philadelphia, PA, Jefferson County, CO, Jackson, MS, Houston, TX, and Miami, FL.

The overall purpose of the research was to identify messages and strategies that can be used to motivate parents and teachers to advocate for changes in school disciplinary policies. The findings from this research were used to inform The Advancement Project and its community partners as they prepared a strategic communications plan to launch local advocacy campaigns designed to bolster existing efforts related to the Ending the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Project.

Below is a MEE-produced video that showcases the school discipline data gathered from MEE research with the Advancement Project and MEE’s Inner-City Truth 3 survey, highlighting how zero tolerance policies impact urban youth of color.