Black and White Female Disproportional Discipline K–12

Abstract

The school-to-prison pipeline represents an educational environment that allows public schools to push many at-risk children out of school and into the juvenile justice or the adult criminal justice system. Consequently, this study explores the disproportionate rates of discipline when comparing Black and White female students in the national public-school system. Specifically, this research explored discipline outcomes for Black and White female students in kindergarten through 12th grade in five of the best academically performing states in the United States compared with five of the worse academically ranked states in the United States. Using the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) of 2013–2014 data, the exploration found Black female students were disproportionately suspended compared with White female students in both the high and low academically performing states. Similarly, Black female students experienced disproportionality rates (overrepresented) compared with White female students for school-related arrests. Overall, the disproportionality rates for Black female students suspended and arrested compared with White female students were higher in the academically higher ranked states.