What causes high rates of suspensions, especially for students of color? Growing evidence points to racial bias. For instance, laboratory experiments find that teachers are more likely to knit together a series of misbehaviors as a pattern, to view a student who misbehaves as a troublemaker, and to punish them more severely, if the student is Black as compared with White.
Okonofua, J. A., Goyer, J. P., Lindsay, C. A., Haugabrook, J., & Walton, G. M. (2022). A Scalable Empathic-Mindset Intervention Reduces Group Disparities in School Suspensions. Sciences Advances, 8 (12), 1-10.
Despite the endemic nature of anti-blackness in society, educators have a duty to work toward disrupting anti-blackness in schools. Three strategies have been identified for educational practitioners to carve out possibilities for Black students to thrive in spite of anti-blackness. 1. Radical care through caseloads, 2. Professional development centering Black students' experiences, and 3. Black third spaces.
Williams, K., Mcadoo, G., & Howard, T.C. "Schools Must Do More to Support Black Students." Edsource, (2022).
There is a compelling need to reform California’s K-12 system and for additional investment in disadvantaged and minority students that lag far behind, to address these challenges and to reduce systemic inequities. This brief summarizes an economic analysis of three specific – and related – issues facing California’s public school system: students’ failure to complete high school, chronic absenteeism, and disciplinary infractions.
Belfied, C. Rodgriguez, V., Bowden, A.B., Oas, J. (2023). The Economic Benefits of Equity Across California Schools. California MTSS Research Consortium, UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. Accessed September 8, 2023. https://transformschools.ucla.edu/research/the-economic-benefits-of-equity-across-california-schools/
School suspension and expulsion are important forms of punishment that disproportionately affect Black students, with long-term consequences for educational attainment and other indicators of wellbeing. Prior research identifies three mechanisms that help account for racial disparities in suspension and expulsion: between-school sorting, differences in student behaviors, and differences in the treatment and support of students with similar behaviors. The authors extend this literature by (1) comparing the contributions of these three mechanisms in a single study, (2) assessing behavior and school composition when children enter kindergarten and before most are exposed to school discipline, and (3) using both teacher and parent reports of student behaviors.
J. Owens, S. S. McLanahan, Unpacking the Drivers of Racial Disparities in School Suspension and Expulsion. Soc. Forces 98, 1548–1577 (2020).
