Abstract
What transpires when we trace the path from an individual in a prison cell to a Kindergartenstudent in a classroom? This three-paper dissertation analyzes the school-to-prison pipeline not as a malfunctioning system in need of repair, but as an industrial educational framework operating as intended—perpetuating intended exclusion, exacerbating developmental and environmental harm, and directing Black and Brown youth towards carceral pathways through iterative institutional design.
Paper One presents the Trauma-Developmental Tree Model (TDTM), an innovative theoretical framework that integrates scholarship on Social Determinants of Health, research on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Critical Race Theory, Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, and the Blackfoot Tipi Framework, an indigenous knowledge system predating Maslow's hierarchy. The TDTM illustrates the recursive developmental harm that occurs across four stages, from
birth to system involvement, demonstrating how the injuries of one stage serve as the foundational conditions for the subsequent stage. The model's primary concept is recursion: the mechanism by which developmental outcomes at one stage revert to influence the environmentalconditions of the subsequent stage, embodying the cumulative nature of harm that linear pipeline models fail to represent.
Paper Two offers a qualitative case study of Playing for Keeps, a two-year participatory action research initiative wherein 47 system-involved youth developed serious games reflecting their experiences within adversarial institutions. Through workshops with the iThrive Games Foundation and the Transition Hope Program, the youth and young adult participants created two games that won international awards for their games: The Run Around and Selling Dreams. The
games won gold and silver medals at the International Serious Game Competition in 2021 and 2022. The analysis identified five themes: narrative reclamation, game mechanics as a critique of systems, adaptability intelligence in practice, redefinition of expertise, and technology as a tool for liberation. The study ntroduces the researchers' Adaptability Intelligence (AQ) framework, which sees young people involved in systems as "educated experts" because of their ability to
endure tough institutions show a type of intelligence that can't be taught in professional training.
It also includes the Ridley Theory of Change, which views young people's ability to make decisions as essential knowledge rather than merely a means of participation.
Paper Three converts the TDTM’s diagnostic framework and the Playing for Keeps results into policy recommendations across seven areas at the federal, state, and district levels. The analysis argues that incremental reforms are ineffective because they target branches while neglecting their roots and operate within a framework that is misaligned with their objectives. This paper proposes a Social Determinants of Health framework for K-12 education, reimagining schools as
centers of healing rather than as processing facilities for a carceral state. Recommendations include restructuring ESSA accountability metrics, implementing weighted student fundingformulas, and creating youth participatory governance structures. These papers together offer a detailed look at how the American education system contributes to the school-to-prison pipeline through repeated patterns, the unique insights of the most affected young people for breaking this cycle, and the major policy changes—rather than just small fixes—that are needed. The dissertation asserts that varying architectural designs yield distinct
outcomes and that each child currently within the system represents a potential for intervention and for systems that promote healing rather than harm.
Keywords: school-to-prison pipeline, Trauma-Developmental Tree Model, recursivedevelopmental harm, Social Determinants of Health, participatory action research, serious games, Adaptability Intelligence, youth participatory governance, educational equity, juvenile justice reform, Critical Race Theory, Blackfoot Tipi Framework, mass incarceration, intergenerational trauma transmission, digital literacy.