Why are some students subjected to harsher discipline than others? How can we fix this problem?

This post is an excerpt from Kavitha Mediratta and M. Karega Rausch’s introduction to Inequality in School Discipline, a new book that fills a critical void by providing the most current and authoritative information on what is known about disciplinary disparities.

Our country recently witnessed the profound and life-altering consequences students face when engaging punitive disciplinary systems.  Sitting quietly at her desk at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina, Shakara—a Black female teenager—was grabbed, thrown on the ground and then dragged across the classroom and arrested by a White male school resource officer for failing to comply with instructions to put away her cell phone (Jarvie, 2015; Savali, 2015).  The incident, which was captured on video, left Shakara facing misdemeanor charges for “disturbing schools,” a charge that carries a $1,000 maximum fine and up to 90 days in jail,  as well as a broken arm and injuries to her face, neck, ribs, back, and left shoulder.

While Shakara’s case sparked national outrage, including an investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice, it is one of many examples of the excessive and racialized overuse of punitive discipline common in schools.  Data from the U.S. Department of Education show that Black students, who comprise 16% of overall student enrollment in U.S. public schools, make up more than a quarter of students referred to law enforcement from schools and 31% of those arrested for school-related incidents.

Nationally, 3.45 million students were suspended from school during the 2011-12 school year; among those students, Black students were three times more likely to be suspended and expelled than their White peers.  Students with disabilities also face increased risk of exclusionary discipline; in 2012 they were twice as likely to be suspended as those without disabilities and represented a quarter of students arrested and referred to law enforcement, although they represented only 13% of the nation’s student population.

Data like these have been the subject of increasing concern to policymakers, civil rights advocates, parents, students, and scholars.  Reflecting this growing national awareness, one news report on Shakara’s case observed:

“The aggressive discipline [in Spring Valley] is just one example of the school-to-prison pipeline phenomenon, in which Black children are more likely to be criminalized for their behavior than their White peers.”

Professional associations such as the American Psychological Association have issued reports on the ineffectiveness of and risks associated with disciplinary exclusion, particularly for Black students.  Prominent school districts, such as the Los Angeles Unified School District, San Francisco Unified School District, and the New York City Department of Education, and states such as Colorado, Maryland, and California have revised their codes of conduct to focus on preventive alternatives to suspension and expulsion and curb the inequitable use of exclusionary discipline.

At the federal level, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education led a national initiative on school discipline that resulted in federal civil rights guidance aimed at reducing the use of, and disparities in, suspension and expulsion, as well as expanded data collection and monitoring of disciplinary exclusion nationally.  Federal agencies are also providing new funding for school climate interventions, research on best practices, and judicially led multi-stakeholder coalitions to reform policy and practice.

Yet, despite this growing sense of the need for a change and initial steps in some places to address the issue, the field lacks comprehensive analysis of why disciplinary exclusion and disparities have become so prevalent, and what can be done to reverse this trend.

Why are some students subjected to harsher discipline than others, and why are suspensions, expulsions, and arrests so widely used? What should we do to change these patterns in schools?

Inequality in School Discipline is intended to answer those questions by providing the most up-to-date and authoritative information on what has been learned from research, data, and practical experience about disciplinary disparities, and the latest findings regarding disparity-reducing approaches.  We argue that there is a need to examine the roles of bias and inequality in educational and societal opportunities in the creation of disciplinary disparities in schools.  In a context of increasing stakes for educational achievement, the work of disparity reduction could not be more important.  Moreover, in light of growing evidence of disparate treatment on the basis of race by law enforcement authorities, we must explore how school-based authorities perceive and respond to youth behavior contribute to large and continuing disparities in school punishments.

Learn More

• Explore the table of contents below
• Learn more | buy the book

Get Involved

• Discipline Disparities Collaborative
• Dignity in Schools
• Advancement Project

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The Discipline Disparities Collaborative is an Atlantic grantee.