Lending a Voice to the Voiceless

Abstract

This chapter addresses the issues faced by marginalized students in P-12 public schools in the United States, with a specific focus on the defined correlation between the educational experience of minority students and the extremely disproportionate amount of incarceration among those same student groups. The author's purpose is to shine a light on this issue while further defining aspects of our educational system that may be playing a role in this inequitable outcome. The contents include a qualitative analysis on teacher diversity and training, standardized testing, and the environmental influences of American public school programming and design. Citations include work from professionals in the field, such as Neuroendocrinologist Robert Morris, Marie E. Ferrey, Author of Looking at the Crisis in Hispanic Education, and Dr. Monahan, Professor of Communication at UNC at Chapel Hill.