Associations between Community-level Racial Biases, Office Discipline Referrals, and Out-of-School Suspensions

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which disparities in Black and White students’ risks of receiving Office Discipline Referrals (ODRs), and out-of-school suspensions (OSSs) were related to differences in implicit and explicit racial biases assessed at the community level. The sample consisted of discipline records for 1,354,010 students enrolled in 2,100 U.S. schools in 183 communities distributed across the U.S. Analyses estimated and compared the contributions of average implicit and explicit racial biases in schools’ localities to school-level disproportionality in ODRs, OSSs, and OSSs controlling for disproportionality in ODRs. Results showed that community-level racial biases were related to racial disparities in ODRs and OSSs in schools, with some important differences by type of discipline decision.