University of Memphis
School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy
H
ighlights
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Prepared for: Memphis City Schools
Prepared by: Wayne J. Pitts, Ph.D.
• In July 2007, Memphis City Schools (MCS) received grant funding through the Dispropor-tionate Minority Contact (DMC) Pilot Project to implement the School House Adjustment Pro-gram Enterprise (SHAPE).
• The purpose of SHAPE is to reduce the number of minority students referred to Juvenile Court for minor offenses.
• Many incidents involving juve-niles do not require the police to transport and in fact, most can be settled with a juvenile summons.
• A total of 416 students partici-pated in the SHAPE program in the 2009-10 school year.
• During this school year, the number of SHAPE schools in-creased from 18 to 22.
• The leading referring offense was simple assault, accounting for over half of all referrals (53.2%).
• In total, transports to Juvenile Detention have dropped 39.6% in two years and much of this decrease can be directly attrib-uted to the SHAPE initiative.
• The SHAPE project has helped to bring about some important policy and procedural changes.
December 2010
In July 2007, Memphis City Schools (MCS) received grant funding through the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Pilot Project administered by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth to implement the School House Adjustment Program Enterprise (SHAPE). The program is a collabora-tive effort between MCS, the Memphis Police Department (MPD), the Shelby County Mayor’s Office, the Memphis City Mayor’s Office, the Public De-fender’s Office, and the Shelby County Juvenile Court. The program was offi-cially launched at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year in one middle school and seventeen high schools dis-tributed throughout the city of Memphis. These specific schools were selected for inclusion after determining these schools had the highest number of students trans-ported to Juvenile Court for SHAPE eligible offenses during the 2006-07 and 2007-08 school years. SHAPE eligible offenses included criminal trespassing, gambling, disorderly conduct and simple assault with no serious injury. These seventeen high schools and one middle school accounted for 966 students in 2006-07 and 988 students in 2007-08 who were transported to Juvenile Court for SHAPE offenses. Approximately one-tenth of all juveniles booked into Shelby County Juvenile Court in 2006 were transported for minor charges and were likely eligible for SHAPE diver-sion.
A student is eligible for SHAPE if they commit an offense on school
prop-School House Adjustment Program
Enterprise: 2009-2010 Evaluation Report
erty and face potential charges of simple assault with no serious injuries, disorderly conduct, gam-bling or criminal trespass. Simple assault charges involving school personnel are not considered SHAPE eligible. A student must have no felony adjudications, convictions or pending charges; have no violent misdemeanor adjudications, convictions, or pending charges; have no other misdemeanor charges within the past twelve months; and be will-ing to voluntarily participate in the program (with parental per-mission). After being accepted into SHAPE, the student meets with the site coordinator at his or her school to fill out an agreement form and an intake form. The Pending Document Form is com-pleted and retained at the school. After the initial intake paperwork is complete, the student begins attending afterschool classes with the Behavioral Specialist and must complete twelve sessions of the “Too Good for Drugs and Violence After-School Activities” curriculum, a recognized best practices model developed by the Mendez Foundation (see
www.mendezfoundation.org). Each session lasts two hours.
Every school has a dedicated Behavioral Specialist funded by the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth. Most Site
What is the SHAPE Project?
This project is supported by Grant# 626000360 awarded by the State of Tennessee, Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth. Points of view in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the State of Tennessee, or Tennessee Commis-sion on Children and Youth.
SHAPE Schools
2009-2010
• Chickasaw Middle • Cordova High • Craigmont High • Fairley High • Frayser High • Hamilton High • Hamilton Middle• Hickory Ridge Middle
• Hillcrest High • Kingsbury High • Kirby High • Manassas High • Melrose High • Mitchell High • Northside High • Oakhaven High • Raleigh-Egypt High • Raleigh-Egypt Middle • Sherwood Middle • Trezevant High • Whitehaven High • Wooddale High
Coordinators are trained behavioral specialists. Once a student commits a SHAPE eligible offense, police officers from the Memphis Police Department complete a Pending Document Form. The Pending Document Form serves to document the incident without filing an official juvenile summons. The goal is to divert these juveniles from ever ap-pearing on any paperwork in the juve-nile court system. The Shelby County Task Force on Disproportionate Minor-ity Contact has strongly asserted that keeping juveniles “off paper” is a high priority. Each month, the Site Coordi-nator tracks the students’ excused and unexcused absences, any incidences of misbehavior while at school, suspen-sions, expulsuspen-sions, and grade perform-ance in each class. If a student fails to complete the twelve sessions of the Mendez curriculum or is otherwise non -compliant with the conditions of the program, the Pending Document Form can be upgraded to a juvenile summons and filed with the court. A Pending Document Form remains active for six months following an incident. If the student completes the program, the Pending Document Form is destroyed and no record of any involvement is
Officers of the Memphis Police De-partment have significant discretion as to whether to transport a juvenile sus-pected of delinquency to juvenile court or not. Many incidents do not require a suspect to be transported and in fact, most can be settled with a juvenile summons. A summons is essentially an order to appear in court. By issuing a summons, the officer can reduce the amount of time spent processing a case since the officer is not required to trans-port the juvenile charged with delin-quency. Similarly, the Shelby County Juvenile Detention Center can conserve limited resources since the juvenile does not have to be processed and ad-mitted into detention. Perhaps most importantly, a juvenile charged with a minor offense is not introduced into the detention setting unnecessarily. In the
recent past, only about 40 percent of juvenile suspects were issued a summons—the others were taken to temporary detention.
In March 2010, the SHAPE pro-ject coordinator worked with Mem-phis City Schools to develop a training video for MPD officers designed to raise awareness of the SHAPE program and emphasize the benefits of the issuing of a summons rather than transporting juvenile suspects to juvenile court. Strongly endorsed by the Memphis Police Department and Shelby County Juvenile Court, the re-newed emphasis on summons processes reduced the number of juveniles transported between March and June from 47.0% to 41.7% , an overall reduction of 11.3%. SHAPE initiatives con-tinue to affect juvenile justice system policies and procedures in Memphis and Shelby County.
MPD Transport Discretion
Participating SHAPE Schools A total of 416 students were re-ferred to the SHAPE program in the 2009-10 school year. During this school year, the number of SHAPE schools increased. The additional schools were added in an on-going effort to reduce dis-proportionate minority contact with juvenile court. The original eight-een schools were included after analysis revealed these school had the highest number of transports to juvenile court for SHAPE charges. Because of the successes during the first year of the pilot program, many school administrators and community members sought op-portunities to be included in the initiative. Five additional schools were funded in the 2009-10 school year bringing the total to five mid-dle schools and seventeen high schools.
SHAPE participation was high-est among Kirby High, Hickory Ridge Middle, Cordova High, Kingsbury High and Raleigh-Egypt
4 34 21 10 19 21 1 45 17 32 59 19 20 17 21 2 31 9 13 1 9 11 # SHAPE Participants
Methodology
Data Collection
Twenty-two schools (seventeen high schools and five middle school) participated in SHAPE during the 2009-2010 school year. Behavioral Specialists were assigned to each school and charged with monitoring the students enrolled in SHAPE; im-plementing the curriculum and docu-menting the academic and behavioral progress of each of the participants. Behavioral Specialists also obtained the data needed for evaluation through the use of quantitative and qualitative structured interviews conducted on site at the participating schools throughout the school year. The inter-view protocols included: referral forms, intake forms, monthly tracking forms, and exit forms for each student enrolled in the program. These forms were designed by the evaluator and approved by Memphis City Schools officials.
Extreme emphasis was placed on preserving student confidentiality and all methods discussed here were con-ducted in accordance with the written protocols approved by the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects at the University of Memphis. Site coordinators were in-structed to utilize a three digit code assigned to each school. This three-digit number corresponds with the three-digit identification number as-signed the students upon receipt of
their information. This was done in order to protect the students identities. In addition to the indi-vidual school code, an evaluation ID code comprised of the stu-dent’s initials, year of birth, and last four digits of the social secu-rity number were utilized to mask confidential data. No addresses, personal identifying information, or other contact information was stored or received by the evalua-tion team.
The data were transferred to the University of Memphis evaluation team in three ways: (1) a site visit to the SHAPE schools in which interview protocols were copied by the Behavioral Specialist and given to a member of the evalua-tion team; (2) the requested infor-mation was sent to the project facilitator and picked up by a member of the evaluation team; (3) the information was sent to the University of Memphis, Depart-ment of Criminology and Crimi-nal Justice via fax or mail. As data were received from the site
Data Analysis
The sample used for this study includes 142 students who partici-pated in SHAPE during the 2009-2010 school year. Detailed intake information was collected on these 142 students. Other SHAPE par-ticipants either did not complete the intake interview or did not for-ward the completed forms to the evaluation team. Records for each student were entered into the evaluation database upon recep-tion. After all of the students re-cords were entered into the data-base, analyses were done on the demographics of the sample, stu-dent’s grades before, during and after the program, as well as the behavioral conduct of the students while in the program. All of these analyses were done using the sta-tistical package, SPSS 17.0™.
Findings
Demographic Summary
There were 416 students admit-ted into the SHAPE program dur-ing the 2009-2010 school year. The gender distribution was nearly even with 212 males (51.0%) and 204 females (49.0%). Minority youth comprised a wide majority of all participants with 407 out of 416 being either African American (95.4) or Hispanic (3.1%).
Stu-coordinators, each form was en-tered into a password protected Microsoft Access™ 2007 database.
In addition to the data obtained by the individual MCS Behavioral Specialists, data regarding students’ grades and behavioral infractions for the 2009-2010 school year was obtained from the MCS Office of Evaluation, Research, and Assessment by the evaluation team. This information was also entered into the SHAPE database.
High Schools. One-quarter of SHAPE participants came from Kirby High and Hickory Ridge Middle Schools, both located in the Ridgeway Station Police Precinct. Chickasaw Middle, Oakhaven, Hamilton, and Trezevant High Schools had the lowest number of participants. Special care should be given when interpreting the levels of participation as high participation could reflect either a high number of delinquent events identified or diligent pursuit of SHAPE eligible students on
dents ranged between 12 and 19 years old with a mean age for all participants of` 16 years old. About the Parents
Perhaps contrary to common perceptions, many of the SHAPE participants reported living with both their biological parents (28.7%) or with a biological parent and a stepparent (13.2%). Single parent households make up 41.1% of the living arrangements for
Minor Serious
Cell phone Assault against student w/minor injuries
Class cutting B&E- burglary/theft $500+
Excessive excused/unexcused tardiness Under the influence of drugs/no possession Miscellaneous run/hall/throw/pen Abusive language towards school personnel Uniform/dress code violation Sexual harassment – gender base
Continue/engage – level 1 Threat against student (non-serious) False accusations against a student Threaten to explode/burn/damage
Gambling Aggravated assault on teacher or staff
Insolent/insubordinate Aggravated battery on teacher or staff
Leave campus without permission Assault teacher or staff
Shove/stud/ball/no injury Drugs – possession/use/distribute illegal Rx Obscene/offensive material, behavior, language Fight- serious injuries/weapons/gang Possession/use of match, light, firework Gang related – middle/high school
Profanity towards student Other major incident with potential serious injury Unauthorized material/post or display Threats against school personnel
Continue/engage- level 2 Threats against student (serious)
Fight- minor injuries/non-gang Weapons
Trespass and loitering
Electronic device: pager, beeper
Bullying or harassment
Continue/engage – level 3
Disruptive behavior w/prior unsuccessful intervention SHAPE students with the vast
majority being female-headed households. The average size of SHAPE students’ households is just over four people.
Most of the SHAPE parents have graduated from high school or have their GED. Less than three percent of parents have less than a high school education.
Based on the information col-lected at intake, many parents are working. Over half of all mothers are working full-time (58.2%) or part-time (11.2%). Fathers are less apt to be employed with 44.1% reported as employed full-time and 11.8% working part-time.
In general, the housing situation for most SHAPE participants was fairly stable with 84.3% staying in the same residence all school year. The other 15.7% had moved an average of 1.2 times since the beginning of the school year.
These findings closely mirror 2008-2009 school year findings.
Referring Offenses
Attitudes about Education
Table 1. Incident definitions
The SHAPE eligible offenses in-clude: simple assault (with no serious injury), disorderly conduct, gambling and criminal trespassing. During the 2009-2010 school year, the leading referring offense was simple assault, accounting for over half of all refer-rals (53.2%). Disorderly conduct was the next most prevalent charge (30.7%) followed by criminal tres-passing (15.9%). Gambling will be added as an additional referring of-fense in the 2010-2011 school year. These data show a significant in-crease in the number of simple as-sault referrals and decreases in
disor-The attitudes about education are similar to the previous study. SHAPE students want to graduate and go on to college and most be-lieve they will be able to achieve this goal. Furthermore, students are more likely to believe their grades are about the same or better than their peers. Based on a look at over-all grade performance, this finding is reinforced. SHAPE participation has little or no effect on academic performance or grades. This should not be taken to mean that SHAPE does not impact grades. If these same students had been transported to juvenile court for SHAPE eligible offenses, it is reasonable to expect that their grades would have been negatively affected. Certainly there would have been no positive effect. derly conduct and criminal trespass-ing charges compared to the previ-ous school year.
Behavior before SHAPE
Parenting Rules
Does your family have rules about:
When you do homework?
Yes: 54.1%
Dating? Yes:
54.8%
Drinking
alcohol?
Yes:
85.1%
Using
drugs?
Yes:
85.1%
Fighting?
Yes:
72.4%
Skipping
school?
Yes:
87.4%
Who your friends are?
Yes: 46.6%
Church
attendance?
Yes:
55.2%
Prior Delinquency Factors
Box 1: Family Rules
Violence Exposure
The vast majority of SHAPE par-ticipants served during the 2009-2010 school year had previously had behavioral problems at school. In fact, 93.7% reported they had been previously suspended, and the over-all average number of suspensions was 2.0 times. Nearly two-thirds (60.8%) reported they had been sus-pended during the prior school year. As might be expected, far fewer reported prior expulsions (17.2%) but still, an expulsion indicated pre-vious involvement in serious behav-ior incidents.
The current evaluation uses much the same research methods as the 2008-2009 evaluation study and many of the finding are similar. The previous report explored what stu-dents perceived to be important to their parents. In essence, this line of questioning sought to measure whether students were aware of any boundaries, rules, or other expecta-tions about this child’s behavior. Box 1 shows their perception of the existence of family rules.
Curfew times were also consid-ered. Only 18.3% reported that they did not have any school night cur-few time. Among the others, curcur-few times ranged from 5PM to as late as 1:30AM. The other curfew times on school times fell between: 5PM and 9PM (58.6%); 9:01PM to 10PM
(21.6%); 10:01PM to 11PM (12.9%); and after 11PM (5.2%). Weekend curfew times were much more lenient with nearly one-third reporting no curfew times (29.6%). Of those with weekend curfew time, 46.0% were after 11PM.
Most SHAPE participants per-ceive that their parents know who they hang out with (82.4%); where they are after school (89.8%); and where they are on the weekends (85.8%).On a scale from 1 to 10 where one is, “they don’t know anything” and 10 is, “they know a lot”, SHAPE students perceive their parents are pretty well-informed. The average for “what I do after school” is 8.3. The other questions included “what I do on the weekends” (7.7); “where I go at night” (8.7); and “about how I spend my time” (7.2).
While the general public may perceive that youths are getting into trouble because of uninvolved parents, these data show that par-ents may be more involved than many think. Students do report awareness of their parents tions. Of course, having expecta-tions and being able to balance the effects of peers and to enforce pa-rental expectations are very differ-ent.
One of the prerequisites of the SHAPE project is that the child not have any prior felony
adjudica-tions, convicadjudica-tions, or pending charges and that they have no vio-lent misdemeanor adjudications, convictions, or ending charges. Still, 22.4% of the participants of the SHAPE program did report a prior arrest (about half in the past year) for an illegal or delinquent offense. Almost half of SHAPE participants have a friend who has been arrested (48.1%).
In the year preceding their intake into SHAPE, 13.4% had runaway from home for at least one night and 7.4% had stolen something.
The first evaluation found that SHAPE participants have significant exposure to violence at home, in their neighborhoods and at school. Nearly three-fourths of SHAPE par-ticipants say they have been in a fight them-selves in the past year. Some report they have carried a knife or a
razor to defend themselves in the past year (12.0%). Of those who say they have carried a knife or ra-zor, most report carrying in their neighborhood or at home. A small but worrisome number say they have carried a gun in the past year (5.3%). Again, most carry weapons in their neighborhoods and at home rather than at school.
Their concerns about personal safety are borne out in their experi-ences with 16.9% saying they have actually witnessed someone being cut, stabbed or shot. Nearly one out of ten students report that someone has threatened them with a knife or gun in the last year (9.0%). One out of four had a friend or family mem-ber shot or stabbed during the 12 months prior to their intake. In short, exposure to violence in this population is especially prevalent.
Gang participation is low amongst SHAPE participants with less than five percent of students reporting some sort of gang involvement. However, 34.6% say they hang out with gang members, most commonly while at home.
Gangs and Gang Involvement
Substance Use
The dynamics of substance are also explored during the intake procedure. Relatively few of the students in-volved in SHAPE report smoking cigarettes in the past year (4.7%). Alcohol use is far more common with 18.3% saying they had used alcohol in the past twelve months. Again, the mean age of SHAPE participants is 16. A few participants (2.0%) say they have had five or more drinks on a single occasion during the last year. About two-fifths say they have socialized with others who were drunk on alcohol or high on drugs in the past year (40.3%). Marijuana use is not uncommon as 14.1% of stu-dents say they have used marijuana in the past year. However, students perceive that far more of their friends are using marijuana. One-third be-lieved their friends were using mari-juana. No students reported any co-caine use, but again, they believed their friends were using other drugs (13.9%).
What percent of your friends skip school?
Almost none (less than 10%)
64.0%
About
25%
24.0%
About
half
(50%)
4.8%
About
75%
3.2%
Almost all (more than 90%)
3.2%
Box 2: Perceptions of Skipping SchoolOutcome Study Results
The SHAPE project has now been fully implemented for two years and some important outcome measures do exist to show the impact of the pro-ject. These outcomes are discussed individually in the following sec-tions.
Transports to Juvenile Court
Perhaps the most obvious outcome measure of the SHAPE initiative is manifested in the overall reduction in the number of transports to the Shelby County Juvenile Detention Facility. Compared to the 2007-2008
school year, transports to Juvenile Detention dropped from 2,494 to 1,830, a 26.6% decrease in one year. Transports in 2009-2010 dropped to 1,507, another 17.7% decrease dur-ing that year. In total, transports to Juvenile Detention have dropped 39.6% in two years and much of this decrease can be directly attributed to the SHAPE initiative.
System Change
Although more challenging to measure objectively, the SHAPE project has helped to bring about some important policy and proce-dural changes. Some of these changes have been formal written changes and others have been more informal. For example, the SHAPE project has produced a video which provides an overview of the SHAPE referral process. The message of the video is clear—transports to juve-nile court are costly and they affect minority populations in Shelby County disproportionately. More-over, community safety is not com-promised as a result of the SHAPE program. The eligible SHAPE charges are minor and efforts are being taken to ensure that students are being held accountable. There is an approved best practices
curricu-Transports to Juvenile Court between
the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 school
years have dropped by 39.6% and much
of this decrease can be directly
attrib-uted to the SHAPE initiative.
lum in place. The Juvenile Sum-mons can and will be filed for stu-dents who fail to comply with the program. The SHAPE alternative is not a “get-out-of-jail-free card”. The video encourages police offi-cers to actively pursue option other than detention. And, while SHAPE is a school-based program, there is at least anecdotal evidence that the flexibility of the juvenile summons resulting in an increase in their use.
These shifts in policies and pro-cedures are not only affecting the police practices. School adminis-trators are beginning to see the benefits of SHAPE and recognition of the principles of steps to reduce disproportionate minority contact resonate in the community.
The Juvenile Court is similarly questioning historical practices as increasing competition for limited resources continues to be a grow-ing concern. Detention administra-tors are promoting the use of Juve-nile Summonses and the detention population overall has declined as administrators are diligently work-ing to reduce unwarranted deten-tions and overall lengths of stay.
Curriculum Completion
In 2009-10, the SHAPE program has selected a curriculum based on work compiled by the Mendez Foundation, an innovative leader in prevention education and a recog-nized best practices model. A total of 416 students participated in the SHAPE program during the 2009-2010 school year. Of these, 254 or 61.1% graduated from the program while 19.0% were discharged from the program because of a new arrest or additional charges. A number of students (13.5%) dropped out of the SHAPE program voluntarily before completion. The remaining 6.5% either transferred to a non-SHAPE school or were on an administrative hold and had not yet begun the cur-riculum. Those students who were dismissed or refused to participate were given a Juvenile Summons to appear in Juvenile Court to have their case adjudicated.
School Performance Measures
The evaluation team tracks grades, attendance, and behavioral incident reports on SHAPE partici-pants. In the previous evaluation report, no significant relationships were found. Grades do not improve as a result of SHAPE participation, but they do not decline either. At-tendance is similarly not affected. Reports of misbehavior at school also remain statistically stable. In short, SHAPE does not seem to
af-Conclusions and Recommendations
• The SHAPE program continues to have impressive results, especially in regards to reducing the number of transports of minority youth to the Shelby County Juvenile Court. These reductions will eventually level out and it will be important to continue with due diligence.
• Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the SHAPE initiative has been the increased attention the program has placed on the decision to detain all juveniles. Important policy and procedural shifts have been realized within Memphis City Schools, the Memphis Police Department, and the Shelby County Juvenile Court. These policy and procedural shifts must become formalized.
• This evaluation does not include a meaningful assessment of the Mendez Foundation curriculum and it should. Is the curriculum being implemented according to best practices? What is the effect of the cur-riculum itself? This is due in part to Memphis City Schools implement-ing a new approach to behavior issues. Restorative Justice will focus on respect, truthfulness, dependability, self-control, self-discipline, accep-tance, responsibility, and accountability which can be achieved through the circle process. Memphis City Schools will reintroduce the Mendez Foundation curriculum and continue with Restorative Justice for the 2011-2012 school year.
• Make staff training mandatory. This training will ensure that individuals are committed to the mission and direction of the program.
• Data collection for the SHAPE project is not done consistently and there are differences between schools. The Intake Form is not always done and neither are the monthly Tracking Forms. The evaluation will be incomplete as long as these are not done. Memphis City Schools is ad-dressing data collection by using interns from the University of Mem-phis Department of Criminal Justice to assist and follow up with site coordinators on a weekly basis to ensure accuracy and compliance re-garding all necessary forms needed to produce a through evaluation for the 2011-2012 school year.
• Create a data collection protocol. There should only be one method in which the evaluation team collects/receives data. There should also be one method in which Behavioral Specialists obtain data (i.e. filling out paperwork themselves as opposed to having the student or student’s parent fill it out).
• SHAPE administrators must determine effective strategies for continu-ing SHAPE initiatives beyond the current Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth funding cycle. Pursue
oppor-tunities to expand the program into all middle and high schools in Memphis City Schools.
• Continue to develop the basic framework of the SHAPE initiative and help to initiate similar pro-grams for DMC initiatives in Blount, Davidson, Hamilton, Knox, Montgomery, and Sevier Coun-ties.
In 2009-10, the SHAPE
program has selected a
curriculum based on
work compiled by the
Mendez Foundation, an
innovative leader in
prevention education
and a recognized best
practices model.
fect grades, attendance, or behavior. While reasonable to consider, as out-come measures, these factors may be outside of what the SHAPE initiative intended to do originally.
