Fear of a School-to-Deportation Pipeline: How Teachers, Administrators, and Immigrant Students Respond to the Threat of Standardized Tests and Deportation

• Published in: Urban education (Beverly Hills, Calif.) Vol. 58; no. 8; pp. 1715 - 1744
• Main Authors: Maloney, Patricia, Austin, Duke W., Verma, SaunJuhi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2023; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Administrator Attitudes; Administrator Behavior; Administrators; Crime; Criminal justice; Deportation; High School Students; High School Teachers; High Stakes Tests; Immigrant students; Immigrants; Schools; Standardized Tests; Student Attitudes; Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Behavior; Teachers; Tolerance; Urban Schools; Zero Tolerance Policy; Texas (Houston); California (San Francisco); New York (New York); high school; immigration; incarceration; social; subjects; adolescent; programs; urban education; hispanic students
• ISSN: 0042-0859; 1552-8340
• DOI: 10.1177/00420859211026403

Existing studies evaluate zero tolerance policies and the school-to-prison pipeline. Additional research identifies the role of criminal justice systems in deporting immigrants. Our work bridges these two literatures by discussing how immigrant students navigate the criminal justice system within schools. Using interviews with immigrant students, teachers, and administrators, we address the question: How is the school-to-deportation pipeline maneuvered by stakeholders? Our study identifies how school authority figures react to and even use the fear of the pipeline to (1) either protect students from becoming criminalized or (2) exclude students from standardized exam participation so as to maintain funding sources.