Suspensions Hurt Children By Lowering Academic Achievement Gap Between African American Students And Their Peers Essay

(a) This study examines out-of-school suspensions in the 9th grade and their effect on high school and post-secondary outcomes. This analyses also examines demographic disparities in school suspensions, their relationship to poverty and their contribution to high school graduation and post-secondary attainment gaps.

The public schools system acts as an early introduction into the criminal justice system not only through the enactment of out of school suspensions that contributes to the high dropout rates amongst inner-city children but also as an early labeling and socialization tactic through the need to have security officers and metal detectors. Through the suspension process teachers, adults and students alike associate the reasoning and purpose of the suspension to criminal behavior placing words such as offender, crime, and self-defense when incidents pertaining to black men occur, they uphold the rules of the school regardless of the reasoning behind the call for administrative assistance within instances of delinquency or emotional and behavioral challenges, and neglect to fix the problem of grouping all students specifically minorities as one (Gibson

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

Out of school suspensions (OSS) are often enforced with the assumption that students receiving the suspension are less likely to repeat the problem behavior in the future. However, this has been proven to be false. Suspending a student for engaging in a certain behavior does not in fact serve as a deterrent from the behavior but as a deterrent from attending school instead. In actuality, receiving just a single suspension can increase the probability of a student experiencing academic failure, school dropout, and involvement in the juvenile justice system. Knowing this, some educators still believe that for many students, suspension can serve as an effective lesson. One of the greatest concerns that educators and administrators face is the matter of classroom management. It is part of their job to ensure a safe, productive and supportive classroom allowing students to learn and grow to their greatest potential. Though there are several strategies gauged towards managing a classroom, the most severe offences often lead to either in or out of school suspension. Some of the largest concerns faced with out of school suspensions is that they are often ineptly applied, used unfairly against students of color and seemingly ineffective at producing better behavior. Also known as exclusionary discipline, the majority of offenses that led to OSS have not been centered around violence but instead emphasised issues of classroom insubordination and defiance. In some rather extreme cases

Black students account nationally for 34% of all suspensions (Mazama). Black students in America are faced with a struggle as they begin to go into school systems. Some students will go into an urban school system and will be surrounded by many minorities and others will attend rural school areas in the south. African American students who live in the south experience a great amount of racism from their peers, their peers parents, teachers, and other school officials. The issue occurs when students of a majority race don't know how to communicate or peacefully get along with students of a minority race. This can be an act of calling a student out of their name or acting violently towards them. Students should not have to worry about whether they are safe at school all because of something they can’t help. Racism needs to be taken out of schools all across the the world. They way we do this is to educate students about black history and how their actions may trigger a student of color.

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.

School data suggests that the decision to suspend or excel a student depends on several factors including prior history of the student, particulars of the situation, and the teacher’s ability to manager classroom behavior (Skiba, 2003). However observations of classroom behavior show that the majority of students removed from urban classrooms were not primarily due to dangerous or major infractions of disciplinary policies and usually they weren’t even the worst offenders.

The second aspect is an examination of the suspension practices on different demographic sub groups (Townsend, 2000; Skiba, Arredondo, Gray, & Rausch, 2016; Yusuf, Irvine, & Bell, 2016). This had led to the belief and practice that the students and their families alone were affected by the impact of out of school suspensions. Conversely the attitudes and perspectives of the personal impact of involvement in the discipline process and specifically on the suspension aspect of school discipline on administrators (Hannigan, & Hannigan, 2016).

The Ontario school system’s obsession with punishing what it considers to be deviance has resulted in punishments that are often too severe and ultimately ineffective. During the 2014-2015 school year, 85,557 suspensions were issued in Ontario schools. The 2015-2016 school year saw 85,931 suspensions, and increase of nearly 400 suspensions. These statistics make it clear that the punishments administered by the Ontario school system are ineffective. Punishment in Ontario schools mirrors that of fascist regimes through its often inappropriate severity in the name of maintaining

In the Microsystem we discussed that many of the direct connections between the student and the teacher appear to be cold and strict. The stress of the No Child Left Behind Act caused teachers to force their students to pass standardized testing. Also, zero tolerance policies were causing teachers to use more of an authoritarian approach in classroom management. If they were not cooperative or well mannered at all times, they were punished. Enforcers of these policies and laws never took into consideration other emotional, biological or environmental factors that may be impacting the students negative behavior. Punishments were sometimes cruel and unnecessary: detention, and in/out of school

As studies are beginning to surface, we are learning that more Black girls are suspended than White girls and Black boys. Often, Black girls are recipients of harsher consequences than their White counterparts for behaviors that do not warrant extreme punishment. In the wake of school tragedies, emergence of the “Zero Tolerance,” policy surfaced, refusal to accept antisocial behavior by strict application of the law. While the policy was established to increase security in schools, the approach was twofold. |First, technology was introduced from surveillance cameras to metal detectors and all doors were locked down. Second, punishments for disobedience in schools became predetermined and strict, resulting in stiff penalties for minor offenses. Researchers since have called for the implementation of multiple supports to teach students how to resolve interpersonal and intrapersonal conflict, thus reducing school violence and promoting positive behavior, negating the need for such stringent

As a major source of referrals to the juvenile justice system, eliminating the use of zero tolerance policies by public school administrators is a critical step in ameliorating detrimental effects on minority adolescents and in efforts to close the school-to-prison pipeline. Currently, research suggests zero tolerance policies are ineffective at increasing school safety and that suspending or expelling students puts them at higher risk for dropping out of school and committing delinquent acts [citation-Black]. Nonetheless, minor disciplinary problems should not involve law enforcement.

The following discussion of practice and policy related issues found within the article puritan to a “qualitative” study “conducted in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota metropolitan area from September 2009 to May 2012” (Gibson & Haight, 2013, p.264). The main objective of the study was to evaluate the “culturally nuanced” definitions and perceptions on out-of-school suspensions; In hopes of discovering new ways in which “schools and families can work together to decrease racial disparities in out-of-school suspensions” (Gibson & Haight, 2013, p. 263). Thirty participants were interviewed within their own homes through “in-depth, individual, and audiotaped interviews.” (Gibson & Haight, 2013, p. 263). In reviewing the study interviews, a few practice-related issues were discussed, concerning educators lack of understanding of cultural diversity among their students, as well as school personnel 's failure to fully listen to each individual 's concerns when addressing discipline issues.

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

Classroom management and classroom discipline share a correlation with one another yet; they are uniquely different issues and should remain a separate focus of the teacher. (Cantor, 2006) Behavior and misbehavior also share a connection but represent different degrees of infraction. (Charles, 2008) This essay focuses on the differences and similarities of these topics and their relation to the classroom.