We are pleased to announce our newest resource is now available!
Check It Out: Dignity in Schools Campaign Pushout Assessment Checklist and Campaign Development Guide
A companion tool to our Model Code on Education and Dignity and our Youth Participatory Action Research Project
Featuring:
- The full workbook with all instructions and checklists in English and Spanish
- The worksheet you can use to keep track of your progress in English and Spanish
- Checklists for gathering data from a group of youth, parents or community members
- Checklist 1 – Assessing What Risk Factor for Pushout are Present (printable versions in English and Spanish), also available as a google form template you can make a copy of to add in another information specific to your community and gather your own data (in English and Spanish)
- Checklist 2 – What Solutions That Prevent Young People From Being Pushed Into the Justice System Are Present (printable versions in English and Spanish)
- A Chart Summarizing the Process (In English and Spanish)
- Our DSC Campaign Planning Tool (in English and Spanish)
From 2021-2023 Dignity in Schools Campaign conducted a Youth Participatory Action Research Project to document the experiences of current high school students. Youth from across the country shared what they saw as the factors that made it more likely that students would be pushed out of school and into the criminal justice system or otherwise denied their opportunity to reach their full potential. We released a video of interviews with these young people, and gathered their recommendations for what kinds of practices make it more likely that a student would be able to stay on a track in school. We documented their thoughts on what factors present in their schools can lead them to the kinds of careers and opportunities they want out of life, rather than sending them on a pipeline to prison.
This checklist tool is based on those interviews and recommendations of the students. You can use it to assess your school (or school district) on whether or not it has each of the risk factors for school pushout and determine what if any positive infrastructure and practices exist that can be built upon. Once you know exactly what needs to change, the tool will show you how to use the Dignity in Schools Campaign Model Code on Education and Dignity to select model policies that will help address the issues you are facing. You can then use the facilitation and campaign tools to go from what may be a long list of things you want to change, to a focused list of demands with the specific policies you want to see in place. This tool is also meant to be adaptable to where you are in your campaign or advocacy work, so if you already have a good sense of what the problems are, you can go directly to step two or three to move into the solutions and campaign planning phase. The timeline is adaptable as well, so an individual could go through the whole process relatively quickly, or a group could move through the steps in-depth over several months.
This tool can take you from knowing that there is a problem in your school but not knowing what the right next steps should be, all the way to a defined list of campaign priorities that your group or organization can organize your community to demand and win.
