Fairness of Disciplinary Actions in Schools

(a) With the growing amount of literature uncovering the racial disparities in school disciplinary practices, this study wanted to delve further and explore factors that contribute to the racial disparities of school suspensions specifically concerning Black students, and examined elementary age children and elementary teachers to perhaps determine a genesis of this discrepancy. The student’s overall level of behavior problems, characteristics of the classroom (i.e., overall level of disruption), and the teacher’s ethnicity were considered as potential factors that may contribute to the overrepresentation of Black students.

Racial disparities in school discipline have garnered recent attention in national reports issued by the U.S. Department of Education and Justice (U.S. Department of Education, 2014; Gregory, Hafen, Ruzek, Mikami, Allen, & Pianta, 2016). Suspension rates Black students are two to three times higher than those from other racial and ethnic groups. Various research has documented that Black students remain overrepresented in school discipline sanctions after accounting for their achievement, socioeconomic status, and teacher- and self-reported behavior (Gregory et al, 2016). There is a difference as to the reasons why White students are sent to the office versus Black students. Black students are sent to the office for subjective reasons such as “disrespect” and “perceived threat”, while White students are more than likely to be referred for more objective reasons including, smoking, vandalism, and leaving school without permission. (Gregory, et al, 2016). African Americans and especially African American boys, are more likely to be disciplined and often receive more out-of-school suspensions and expulsions than white students (Todd Rudd, 2014). Suspending students is taking away time from them being in the classroom. Students who receive suspensions, lose instructional time, fall behind on course work, become discouraged, and ultimately drop out…recent research has shown each suspension a student receives can decrease their odds for high graduation by any

Systematic racism within education Institutions, such as the lack of adequate funding as well as subtle discrimination, continues to be the root of the problem that plagues this nation. Even though segregation was abolished in 1964, the lingering effects that remain are significant and cannot be passively mended. Although it is tempting to think that this prejudice is caused by a select few and not the many, it is clear that this problem holds more depth. Recent studies conducted by the National Education Studies (NEA) have proven that even in school’s African American students are often times targeted and punished at a significantly higher rate when compared to their white peers. The study states “Black students make up almost 40 percent of all school expulsions [in the] nation, and more than two thirds of students referred to police from schools are either black or Hispanic” (Blacks: Education Issues). This study conducted by the Department of Education, cabinet-level department of the United States

While the Civil Rights Movement is considered a success, there is still racism in the United States today, in which blacks are still viewed as overly aggressive and overtly dangerous compared to whites. The racism we are familiar with today is called “institutional racism” and is not only shown in workplaces, but in schools and courtrooms. Institutional racism is defined as a pattern of social institutions who give negative treatment to a group of people based on race. To elaborate on institutional racism, starting with pre-school, black children make up only 18 percent of the pre-school population, but make up almost half of out of school suspensions. In K-12 black children are three times as likely to be suspended than white children. Now moving to the court system, black children make up nearly 60 percent of children in prison and are more likely to be sentenced as adults than white children. These statistics show that black’s, even black children, are more likely to be viewed as dangerous and subject to worse sentences.

Over the past decade disciplinary issues in the schools have increased. Children are no longer showing respect to those in authority. This problem has caused students to not only decrease in their academic achievement but also decrease in their real world social development. African Americans are amongst one ethnicity group to experience bias. In the context of school discipline, race and gender stereotypes particularly function to criminalize African American youth and to reinforce cultural beliefs about perceived inherent behavioral deficiencies and African American cultural norms in need of “social correction” (George, 2014). African Americans are placed in the stereotypical norm of having discipline problems in the schools. Especially African American girls. In a 2014 national data report, African American girls accounted for 12% of all suspensions (George, 2014). With that being said, African American girls are suspended at least “six times the rate of white girls and more than any other group of girls and several groups of boys.” (George, 2014) This is a huge problem in our schools that needs to be addressed.

Zero tolerance policies are the catalyst for the School-to-Prison pipeline. The problem with zero tolerance policies rely on several different factors. Even though, the vision for zero tolerance policies is clear in the sense that safety is a main priority, A ten year study of zero tolerance policies conducted by the American Psychological Association concluded that the use of these overly harsh policies "did not improve school safety." Since these policies are not increasing school safety it is a clear indicator that change in disciplinary methods is necessary. Additionally, these overly harsh policies create racial disparities mainly focused on minorities. The reason for these racial disparities particularly arise from implicit bias. Unfortunately, student of color and minorities are disportionately represented in suspensions, expulsions, and arrests. Exclusionary discipline principles disproportionately lead the youth, particularly minorities, from classrooms to court and prisons. Racial disparities within school’s disciplinary actions is clear when looking at discipline rates. The Civil Rights Data Collection, gathered by the US Department of Education, graphed suspension rates and disparities in a national test sample during 2012. Figure 1 portrays the ratio of white students that constitute for a little more than half of students enrolled in school while black and hispanic students constitute for less than

Schools that are low performing have the highest rates of suspension and expulsion and the lowest graduation rates. According to Mississippi Today, “the dropout rate for students fell slightly to 11.8 percent in 2016, the lowest in five years.” If I were to eliminate funding as a barrier, zero tolerance policies would still exist- especially in public school systems in the South, amidst people of color. Zero tolerance policies are obstacles put in place for small infractions performed by students, which can lead to disciplinary actions such as: corporal punishment, detention, and suspension. These small infractions may be in the form of getting up without permission, excessive talking, etc. Schools should offer more alternative measures, which counsel students on their misbehavior and give the student an opportunity to amend his or her actions. These methods fall under a restorative justice model. Community organizations, like Nollie Jenkins Family Center, have proposed alternatives such as peer mediation and conflict resolution to help keep youth in a learning environment, off the streets, and away from a life of crime. A case study performed by Philadelphia Police School Diversion Program, discovered that after counseling students for infraction their number of juvenile arrests and suspension “dropped by 54%.” This could potentially be a catalyst in bending the moral arc in the direction of justice,

Analyzing teens from minority backgrounds within the juvenile justice system will also be necessary to understand why/how they were removed from their educational institutions. This is that research by Hsia, Bridges, and McHale reports, “Minority youth comprise over 60 percent of children detained by juvenile justice systems across the United States, (as cited in Nicholson-Crotty, Birchmeier, and Valentine, 2009, p. 1003). Exploring and understanding the experiences minority students have with suspensions, expulsions, and the juvenile justice system will help create an advocacy plan that provides better intervention for misbehaviors, rather than removing them from their educational

“The racial disparities within the two systems are so similar and so glaring that it becomes impossible not to connect them.” The causes of why they are so deeply connected lie within the educational system. “It is difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for the school-to-prison pipeline; however, the reasons are many, but the solutions are not as plentiful” (Travis). The best practices to implement into the educational system is to allow room for change and to not label students based on past experiences and history. Students cannot be expected to change if there is no opportunity or support for change. Another practice is to completely assess the individual as a whole before deciding a suitable administrative punishment. Teachers should not be quick to judge a person by their actions, but by the reason behind their actions. After pinpointing the source of their behavior, can the education officials truly begin rehabilitating student, but enables them to realize their mistake of their disciplinary actions. The education system needs to create a balance between a system which will provide discipline and reasonable punishment for each offense. Students should not be expelled for disruptive behavior and there should be equal punishment to every student when applicable. Be able to provide the much needed support to students instead of sending them home, to the police, or to juvenile detention centers. The statistics only worsen as minorities transition into adulthood and the educational system should decrease the number of minorities going through the school-to-prison pipeline and increase the number of graduates among minority students. “One and three African Americans and one and six Latinos males will be incarcerated in their lifetime”

This research was to get a glance of racial inequality taken place in the country's education system. The research analyst has found that black students and others minorities such as; Native Americans and Latinos students have fewer opportunities to be in advanced science and math courses. The nations Education Department have noticed the excessive numbers of expectation and suspension African Americans have. The education department has come to an analysis students in kindergarten classes around the age of four years face racial inequality in school from administrators( Hsieh, S.2014) .During the 2011- 2015 school year, the department have noticed black students were expelled at a rate of three times more than white students, black girls have a higher suspension rate than all other girls and most boys, about one in four African American boys, with learning disabilities received home suspensions to contract to that one in five girls of African American decent with a disability receives home suspensions and as schools with a high demand population of black students did not offer algebra or chemistry( Hsieh, S.2014). About 40% black students who are accounted of enrolling into schools with gifted programs offered, but in statics only 26 percent of them are represented in the program( Hsieh,

In this article, racial profiling within the school system is addressed. The article talks about how African-American children receives harsher punishments than white children, even if it’s the same offense. The article also discussed a study that was done by Yale researchers. The study consisted of teachers watching a video of children and spotting signs of problematic behavior. There was a computer program that tracked the eyes of the teachers, and showed the teachers focused longer on the black boy when looking for trouble.

This report is, by no means, intended to be a comprehensive study but an indication of one part of a problem. Understanding the dimension and quality of African American overrepresentation is a first step toward resolving the problem. So, to better understand the problem and its roots, more research should be conducted which more critically explores a greater range of possible causes and subsequent outcomes and which utilizes individual student records as the primary unit of analysis. Researchers should examine more closely the decisions made by the school personnel referring the students for corporal punishment, in different districts, because it appears that race may be as much a factor in the classroom as it is in the administrator’s

It stated that student who were African American and Latino in particular, consequences were much more severe for violations than white students. If an African American student or a Latino student were to go to school and violate the school rules, they could land in prison. “A recent report done by the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights indicated that the school administrators expelled, and law enforcement arrested, African American students in staggeringly disproportionate numbers compared to white students and other students of color” (Porter, 2015). In the number of students that are expelled from public schools, forty percent are African American. Of students that are arrested or referred to law enforcement while in school, seventy percent are African American or Latino. Children appeared before a judge for minor crimes, for example, mocking an assistant principal on a social media page, trespassing in a vacant building, and stealing DVD’s from Wal-Mart. I wonder how many of these children were African Americans and how many were white? Basing my judgement of stereotypes and data in the article, I would bet that a majority of these children are African American or Latino. It seems as if a white child did one of these acts, the punishment would be much less severe for the sole reason of the color of their

Different studies show that instead of focusing on third and fourth grade reading levels, it shows more to do with race rather than reading levels. 40 percent of African Americans are expelled in United State schools. 70 percent of African Americans and Latinos are either arrested or referred to law enforcement. 3.5 or 4 times the amount of U.S African American students are suspended from school, most from either fighting or drugs. There is twice the number of African Americans and Latinos are likely not to graduate as well as Caucasians. Out of all the male in state and federal prisoners, only 68 percent of them do not have high school diplomas. In order to keep this from happening, the government developed a method called, “Zero tolerance policy.” This policy encourages kids with low grades and test scores to do better without mentally and physically disciplining them by giving them extra work or suspending them because of their bad behavior. Although, that may be schools strong suit, not all school follow by that ruling. Though they had good intensions with the zero tolerance policy, schools need to take drastic measures to make it known for students and parents

While many think that preschool, at least, is the only racism free zone, black children make-up eighteen percent of the members but constitute fifty percent of suspensions. When all class years are considered, black students get suspended three times more than white students, even when the violations remain the same. Black children represent sixteen percent of students but are twenty-seven percent of the students that get referred to law enforcement, and once they enter the criminal justice system, they are eighteen times more likely than white juveniles to be sentenced as adults. The education system is still filled with racial