This study shows that there is indeed a relationship between the resources available within a school - good teachers, level of empathy of the administration, income demographics of the students, etc. - and behavioral outcomes such as good study habits, respectful behavior in class, and high levels of achievement among the students.

The conclusions reached are striking in their alarm at what the New York City Department of Education are allowing, ignoring, and/or supporting within the schools:

"Previous research has found that student behavior, including disruptive activity and truancy, are often reactions to ineffective schooling and to feelings of frustration and failure...Thus, some school systems have engaged students by offering new technologies and expanded course offerings...The trends in New York City indicate a different approach - one that emphasizes the stick over the carrot.

The major points that we take away from our analysis are that:

1. Student behavior and administrative responses to student behavior are closely linked to schools' learning
environments.

2. Resources associated with positive student behavior are distributed inequitably along race and poverty
lines.

3. Low-income students and non-white students are disproportionately subjected to administrative actions
that inhibit learning, including suspensions and special education referrals.

4. The New York City DOE lacks either the mechanisms or administrative diection for tracking the impact
of educational resources and ensuring their equitable distribution.

5. Available data indicate that the New York City DOE could choose discipline policies that would help
keep more of its students in mainstream classes and thus provide more aggregate academic
opportunity to public school children.

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The mission of the National Center for Schools and Communities is to:

Provide analytical capacity and other strategic resources to strengthen grassroots efforts for school reform.
Enhance the quality of school-based youth development programming serving public school students.
Represent equity concerns in local and national discussions of education policy.
Advance the inclusion of parent, student, and allied voices in policymaking and other decisions affecting the schools in their communities.

The National Center for Schools and Communities (NCSC) supports and reinforces grassroots organizing to win better public schools in low-income communities and communities of color. Driven by a conviction that quality public school education is a fundamental right, we provide policy analysis, research, advocacy, and technical assistance to community-based and parent-led efforts in our home city of New York and across the nation. Our work helps committed activists mobilize their neighbors, capture the attention of the news media, define the public debate, and, ultimately, reclaim their role as stakeholders in their children's education.

In a nation with 15,000 school districts, the struggle for education justice illustrates the notion that all politics are local. We develop customized analytical tools specific to different cities, write and edit reports, and consult with staff and leadership of local groups about how to present the facts of their children's education most effectively. Our policy and advocacy work focuses on highlighting the relationship of the outcomes of public schools, such as test scores, graduation and dropout rates, suspensions, expulsions, and attendance to the distribution of essential educational inputs such as teacher qualifications, experience levels, and enrichment programming. Our evaluation services contribute to the ongoing improvement of school based youth development programming serving thousands of public school students.