Brief Biography
Marlyn Tillman has been a public education advocate for many years. After moving to Georgia and seeing how her oldest son was targeted in school, Tillman took action and co-founded Gwinnett SToPP, a parent led community-centered advocacy group focused on reversing the School to Prison Pipeline (STPP) trend. The coalition seeks to build and strengthen relationships within the community in two constructive ways. The first way is to increase public awareness of the injustice that all children face within the educational system as it relates to the pipeline and the judicial process. Secondly, by promoting policy changes through data accountability and fact-based incident reporting which serve to support and strengthen the dismantling of the school to prison pipeline in Gwinnett County. Tillman is a member of the steering committee of the national Dignity in Schools Campaign, the Gwinnett County Human Relations Commission, Gwinnett County Public Schools GEMS curriculum review committee and is the former STPP Project Director for the ACLU of Georgia.
Pamela Perkins Carn is the coordinator for the Interfaith Children’s Movement (ICM), a statewide grassroots, child advocacy movement dedicated to improving the well-being of children in Georgia. ICM was founded in 2001 in response to the adverse conditions affecting children in our state, including high rates of juvenile justice involvement, educational failure and child sex trafficking. ICM provides education, advocacy, mobilization, networking and information resourcing on children’s issues and seeks to establish a statewide network of interfaith communities that will:
- become educated about the issues and policies affecting children;
- become active in advocacy and policy-making processes;
- establish environments of nurture, education and protection for children; and
- promote the common good for all children.
As coordinator for the Interfaith Children’s Movement, Pamela leads ICM’s Every Child A Learner (ECAL) initiative which embraces the right of every child in Georgia to receive the highest quality public education because “there’s no such thing as a child who can’t learn.”
Its purpose is four-fold:
- To raise awareness and address systemic equity issues within our public school system;
- To engage students, parents, school administrations, faith communities, child-serving agencies, civic organizations and the community-at-large in creating safe, positive learning environments within our local public schools;
- To improve the opportunity for high student achievement and on-time graduation by identifying and reforming public school policies and practices that contribute to the school to prison pipeline; and
- To engage community-based agencies in implementing programs that support life-long learning for children most affected by the school to prison pipeline.
Written Work: Securing the Education Pipeline for Georgia’s Children through Community-Empowered Local School Councils (2015) - A collaborative, published work of the Georgia Coalition Working to End the School to Prison Pipeline
Highest Degree of Presenter(s)
Bachelor of Arts
Presentation Abstract
In 2005, Dr. Walter S. Gilliam surveyed a sample of 4,000 state-funded preschools, looking at expulsions.
Dr. Gilliam’s research revealed that four-year-olds were expelled at a rate of about 1.5 times greater than three-year-olds. Boys were expelled at a rate of more than 4.5 times that of girls. African-Americans were about twice as likely to be expelled as Latino and white children, and more than five times as likely to be expelled as Asian-American children. (Dr. Walter S. Gilliam, Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy, Yale University, 2005)
During the 2013-2014 school year, more than 14,000 children in pre-kindergarten through third grade were given out-of-school suspension (OSS) in Georgia’s public schools. This presentation will explore how the use of the punitive practices of suspension and expulsion as primary forms of “discipline” arrest the learning and social development processes of our youngest students and perpetuate a cycle commonly referred to as “the school to prison pipeline.” The information shared will highlight alternatives, such as PBIS, restorative practices and cultural proficiency as more suited to generating positive school climates and better student achievement. This discussion will demonstrate how these alternatives are leading to better relationships between the classroom setting and the home setting through national and state efforts that promote parent and family engagement and restorative public policies.
Recommended Citation
Perkins Carn, Pamela and Tillman, Marlyn, "Securing the Education Pipeline: Arrested Learning - When We Suspend and Expel Our Youngest from School" (2015). Georgia Association for Positive Behavior Support Conference. 16.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gapbs/2015/2015/16
Securing the Education Pipeline: Arrested Learning - When We Suspend and Expel Our Youngest from School
In 2005, Dr. Walter S. Gilliam surveyed a sample of 4,000 state-funded preschools, looking at expulsions.
Dr. Gilliam’s research revealed that four-year-olds were expelled at a rate of about 1.5 times greater than three-year-olds. Boys were expelled at a rate of more than 4.5 times that of girls. African-Americans were about twice as likely to be expelled as Latino and white children, and more than five times as likely to be expelled as Asian-American children. (Dr. Walter S. Gilliam, Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy, Yale University, 2005)
During the 2013-2014 school year, more than 14,000 children in pre-kindergarten through third grade were given out-of-school suspension (OSS) in Georgia’s public schools. This presentation will explore how the use of the punitive practices of suspension and expulsion as primary forms of “discipline” arrest the learning and social development processes of our youngest students and perpetuate a cycle commonly referred to as “the school to prison pipeline.” The information shared will highlight alternatives, such as PBIS, restorative practices and cultural proficiency as more suited to generating positive school climates and better student achievement. This discussion will demonstrate how these alternatives are leading to better relationships between the classroom setting and the home setting through national and state efforts that promote parent and family engagement and restorative public policies.
